Wellstone Action!

posted by Erik

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

The rallying cry of the labor movement is "an injury to one is an injury to all."  The bible teaches us that "I am my brother's keeper." Benjamin Franklin implored his wavering fellow delegates to sign the Declaration of Independence saying "we must hang together or most assuredly we will all hang separately." And Paul Wellstone used to always say "we all do better when we all do better."

This progressive story of community, collective rights and responsibilities is starkly different from the conservative story of competition, winners and losers, and individual choice and risk. 

We hear this conservative story nightly on FOX news, right wing talk radio, and most recently in the halls of power in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and other states around the country.  This conservative story says "you're on your own, good luck. You're alone - make it work."

Wellstone Action teaches that our stories matter.

The conservative story tries to convince us that free markets, deregulation, limited government, no unions, no taxes, and turning a blind eye and deaf ear to those unemployed or less fortunate (or blaming them for bad life choices) will solve all of our problems.

This conservative story says that the most fortunate - the wealthiest individuals and corporations - deserve what they have taken from the rest of us, and that it is okay that their wealth is derived from the greatest redistribution of wealth in the history of the world, because that is what competition and free markets are all about.   

This conservative story pits one group of workers against another.  It demonizes immigrants, Muslims, and any opinion that challenges free market fundamentalism.  It says if I have been hurt, you should hurt as well.   

So when Governor Scott Walker from Wisconsin refuses to accept public worker concessions until they also give up their collective voice and rights - or when Kerri Miller from Minnesota Public Radio asks this morning "why should public sector workers enjoy rights and protections that other workers do not?" - we hear the same conservative story, a story that drives our politics and community life to the lowest dominator.

At Wellstone Action we believe in and train out of a progressive story that says all workers deserve a right to join together for collective voice - whether private sector workers or public sector workers, whether through a union, a co-op, or an association. 

This right is the law of our land, enshrined in the National Labor Relations Act, passed in 1935.  This law protects the collective right of most private sector workers to engage in "concerted activity" - the right to act collectively as a group to negotiate in good faith and secure decent wages, benefits and working conditions without fear of reprisal.  This is not a "union right," but the right of all  workers to create or join a union.

Over the past 50 years, many states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana have extended this collective right to public sector workers, as well.  And now radical conservative governors and legislatures in many states are trying to strip this fundamental right away.

At Wellstone Action we believe in a progressive story that says we all have collective responsibility for one another and must share the burden in times of distress and challenge.  

Budgets should not be balanced on the backs of workers, the middle class, or those who are most vulnerable when the most fortunate contribute little or nothing. 

The wealthiest corporations are sitting on over two trillion dollars in cash reserves, are earning record breaking profits, and are still not hiring American workers.  Last week, Forbes magazine showed that many of the largest US corporations paid little or no tax in 2009.  General Electric made $10.3 billion in pre-tax income and paid no taxes.  Exxon Mobil recorded a record $45.2 billion yet paid the IRS no federal taxes.  The wealthiest Americans - those uber-millionaires - pay less a percentage of their income in taxes than the teachers, firefighters, janitors or school bus and snow plow drivers under attack in Wisconsin.  We believe those who are blessed with the most need to share in the burden as well.

We believe in a progressive story that respects the dignity of all people and says that all children matter. 

We should be able to love who we want, freely worship the God of our faith, and be able to pursue the American Dream regardless of where we come from without being told that if you are gay or Muslim or an immigrant you do not matter and should have your rights taken away. 

Wellstone Action trains thousands of progressive activists to build power, win elections, and govern from this progressive perspective. 

And now more than ever we need to tell the age old story that each of us matters, to live by the golden rule to do to others what we would want done to us, and to remind the world that indeed "we all do better when we all do better."

Photos on Flickr by aperture_lag and Nickolas Nikolic.