This Saturday, higher ed unionists from around AFT-Wisconsin came together for a joint action as part of our 2008 political program. Member-activists from the TAA joined with our brothers and sisters from AFT-Wisconsin higher ed locals for a political action around this year's elections. They included union members from the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association, United Faculty & Academic Staff, and The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals (the latter two being the unions for faculty and academic staff at UW-Madison and other UW-system campuses, respectively). But the TAA definitely led the pack.
As many of you know, we have two major political opportunities this year. One, which I'm sure most are familiar with, is the chance to bring change to our country by electing Barack Obama as our next president. The TAA membership voted to endorse Senator Obama way back in January and we'll be continuing, along with our brothers and sisters in the labor movement, to work to ensure that Barack Obama wins the crucial labor vote by the margin he needs to win Wisconsin's electoral votes.
The other major political opportunity in front of us in 2008 is to build a pro-labor, pro-education, pro-UW majority in the state legislature. The state legislature has a huge impact on us as graduate students, grad student workers, and members of the UW community. Right now, there is a narrow margin between us and our progressive majority. Six of the top-tier races are right here in our own backyard, so we can have a huge impact by mobilizing the labor vote for key candidates that we support.
This Saturday's action was a combination of our work on both of these fronts.
The event centered around higher ed unionists working to elect one of our own. Kim Hixson is a progressive State Assembly Representative in a dog-fight of a re-election campaign (one of our six priority races). He is also a UW-system professor on leave from UW-Whitewater AND a member of our union. His local, TAUWP is made up of UW-system faculty and academic staff that right now do not have collective bargaining rights. So one fight on which Kim has been a leader has been in working towards guaranteeing faculty & academic staff the same rights we have, the basic human right of organizing into a union. Kim has also been an incredibly strong and credible voice for better support of the UW-system as the crown jewel of our state. He has stood in solidarity with us in working to ensure better funding of Wisconsin's state universities.
So on Saturday, we went and spoke with fellow union members in Whitewater, Edgerton, and Milton about re-electing Kim Hixson against radical anti-education privatizer Debi Towns, the person Kim beat in 2006 by 38 votes in a highly-contested recount. The support for Kim was strong - union members realize that we need a strong university system as an economic driver in our state; and the principle of solidarity stood strong - union members want another one of their own from the House of Labor in the state legislature.
The other aim of our work on Saturday was in building support amongst union households for Barack Obama. Many have thought that this election is in the bag for Barack Obama, especially right here in Wisconsin. However, the facts on the ground are different. This is a hotly-contested race where we will need to work hard, along with the hard work of the Obama campaign proper, to win Wisconsin's critical electoral votes for Barack Obama.
The men and women of organized labor, traditionally a Democratic stronghold, are a swing voting bloc this year for a number of reasons. But make no mistake about it - when we in the TAA endorsed Senator Obama, it was because we knew he is the pro-worker, pro-labor candidate in this election. John McCain is just wrong for union members, wrong for Wisconsin, and wrong for this country. From getting our economy back on track to re-establishing America's moral leadership around the world, Barack Obama is the right choice.
So we knocked on the doors of fellow union members to encourage their support of Barack Obama. Not surprisingly, in this area that has been badly damaged by the failed economic policies of the Bush Administration, there was strong support for Barack Obama.
But we need to keep it up. These elections won't win themselves, and there's too much at stake to sit at home and watch. WE will win these elections, be it the presidential race or the fight for the state legislature. WE must be active and involved. That's what our political program is all about - organizing our members as activists to deliver the electoral victories we need to bring about change and to build the political power to enact a progressive agenda here in Wisconsin and throughout this country.
So this Saturday was an opening salvo of sorts (even though we've been engaged in multiple major actions prior to this one)...our announcement that the TAA will fight like hell to win in 2008. But soon, we'll have more actions, from working to win a primary for a progressive Democrat to building more support among fellow AFT members for Barack Obama, to organizing in our top-tier Assembly races. And much, much more.
Stay tuned here and elsewhere for updates...and keep your calendars open for September 16th at 5:30 PM. Along with our brothers and sisters of UFAS, we'll host a political kickoff event with a host of great speakers and opportunities for you to get involved.
In the meantime, we'd love to have you involved. So if you'd like to step up and help us win in 2008, just get in touch with us today!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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