A Few Rays of Possible Sunshine, Greece & Ferguson, in a Darkening Sky

A few rays of sunshine were evident last week. It became apparent that eurozone finance ministers led by Jeroen Dijsselbloem were not completely successful in vanquishing the Syriza-led Greek government. Greece's finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, continues to insist he has not caved in on Syriza's campaign pledges to roll back troika-dictated austerity. Tomorrow, technical talks begin between Greece and the troika (James Kanter and Niki Kitsantonis, "Greece’s Tense Talks With Its Creditors Escalate to the Next Phase"). The troika says no money will be released until Greece makes good on implementing structural adjustment. Greece needs to makes payments on or refinance €6 billion this month. It is make or break time. Varoufakis got himself into some trouble when he suggested a referendum might be a possible way out of the impasse with the troika:

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Saturday, Mr. Varoufakis said Greece could call elections or a referendum in the event that its proposed overhauls are rejected by international creditors. As the Greek news media feverishly speculated over the weekend about a possible referendum on the country’s membership in the eurozone, the government accused the newspaper of distorting the minister’s comments, saying he had not suggested Greece would hold a referendum on the euro but on the country’s economic program and fiscal policy. 

Panos Kammenos, Mr. Tsipras’s junior coalition partner and the defense minister, also suggested on Saturday that a referendum could be an option. 

Antonis Samaras, the former prime minister, on Sunday rejected a potential referendum as a “very bad development,” saying it would allow the government to shirk its responsibilities. The criticism continued on Monday with central members of Mr. Samaras’s conservative party describing Mr. Varoufakis as “dangerous” because of both the referendum idea and his proposal to employ Greeks and tourists as undercover agents to bolster a tax evasion crackdown. 

Some officials of the Syriza-led government also expressed reservations about a referendum, which the prominent legislator Alexis Mitropoulos described as “naïve and thoughtless.” 

At his news conference late on Monday, Mr. Varoufakis denounced the way his comments had been presented in Corriere della Serra as part of a “process of misinformation.” Mr. Varoufakis said any reference that he made to a referendum had been entirely “hypothetical” because he was referring to the improbable circumstance that European lenders rejected all of Greece’s proposed reforms. 

Opinion polls consistently indicate that most Greeks want the country to remain in the eurozone, but a majority continue to back the government’s tough stance against creditors.

Varoufakis likely floated the idea of a referendum to Corriere della Sera in the hopes of creating a little leverage in the upcoming negotiations with the troika. But when he backtracked it made him look unprepared and vacillating.

The outcome Jeroen Dijsselbloem wants to see is Syriza implementing all the austerity diktats -- pension cuts, privatization, tearing up labor agreements -- as the troika dribbles out the cash in small allotments. This Varoufakis will not do. I am still confident of this. So some sort of rupture is coming, hopefully, by the end of this week. The troika is certain it can break Syriza. I think a referendum is a fine idea.

The second ray of sunshine visible last week was the Department of Justice report on the Ferguson Police Department in the wake of the Mike Brown shooting last summer. The DOJ lays out how Jim Crow works nowadays. "Driving while black" is a chief income source that suburban municipalities like Ferguson rely on to balance their books.

The first scalp of that report was raised yesterday (Eli Yokley and John Eligon, "Missouri Court Assigns a State Judge to Handle Ferguson Cases") when it was announced by the Missouri Supreme Court that the Missouri Court of Appeals would take over Ferguson's municipal court and "current municipal judge, Ronald J. Brockmeyer, who was repeatedly cited in the Justice Department report for abusive practices, announced his resignation after holding the position for more than a decade."

The problem is that what happened to Ferguson needs to happen in municipalities throughout the United States, and there is no indication that this is in the offing.

In fact, there is every indication that we are at the "creative destruction" tipping point in the United States. In by far the best story I read this morning -- the best, but easily the most depressing -- is Monica Davey's "Unions Suffer Latest Defeat in Midwest With Signing of Wisconsin Measure."

In describing Scott Walker's "shot heard 'round the world" declaration for a 2016 White House run, the Wisconsin governor presiding over the creation of a new right-to-work law in his state, Davey lines out the the present political history of the United States, the death of its unions, and the projected path forward for American-style neoliberalism -- full on cannibalization.

Key to Davey's synopsis of present political history is the GOP landslide of 2010 (At that time a national party that just two years earlier was thoroughly disgraced and in free fall successfully recreated itself by lurching hard to the right with its Tea Party re-branding, the core of which is white supremacy):

Central to the new momentum behind the laws were sweeping Republican victories in state elections in 2010, when the party got full control — in the chambers and the governor’s office — of states that included Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. Republicans made more gains in 2014, now controlling 68 of the 98 chambers around the country and the most state legislative seats since 1920. But it was the victories in 2010 that set off a new flood of right-to-work legislation in the Midwest, which had rarely seen it.

Soon after taking office, Mr. Walker pressed for a bill that cut collective bargaining for most public sector workers and removed requirements that they pay fees if they chose not to join unions that represented them. Republicans elsewhere followed suit, but not all of those measures flew through. Ohio, where Republicans had taken sole control of state government, passed a measure limiting collective bargaining, but it was rejected months later in a statewide ballot measure. 

Then, for right-to-work advocates, there came an even more memorable turning point: In November 2012, voters in Indiana (where a law was repealed in the 1960s) re-elected Republican legislative majorities even after labor leaders pledged to defeat them for passing a right-to-work law earlier in the year. On the same election night, voters in Michigan rejected a labor-backed ballot measure to enshrine collective bargaining rights in the State Constitution. 

“The combination sent a clear message to elected officials in the region: You can end forced dues by passing right-to-work, and voters will reward you for it,” said Patrick Semmens, a spokesman for the National Right to Work Committee, who keeps a copy of The Indianapolis Star outside his office from the day after the law passed there.

A month after the 2012 election, the Republican-held Legislature in Michigan, a cradle of the American labor movement, passed a right-to-work measure, which was promptly signed by Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican who had said the matter was not on his agenda. 

Lee Saunders, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, called it “a concerted effort by the folks who have a lot of wealth and power to get more wealth and power.” 

“They’ve had these plans a long time, and now they’ve come to fruition,” he said.

Now the path forward is quite clear: Right to work anywhere and everywhere. If you don't control the state legislature or the governor's office, pass it at the county level:

Battles over union fees are also emerging in other states. Republican legislators in Missouri and New Mexico are weighing similar measures. In Kentucky, where a split Legislature and a Democratic governor pose obstacles to a statewide bill, leaders in more than a dozen counties have approved or are weighing measures, officials there said on Saturday, and efforts in six other counties are awaiting final approval.

And in Illinois, a long-held Democratic territory with Democratic supermajorities in the legislature, the new Republican governor, Bruce Rauner, announced an executive order barring state workers who opt out of unions from being forced to pay fees based on a constitutional argument, offering a new model for states where split partisan politics have slowed right-to-work policies. 

Federal law already permits workers not to join unions. But these laws go further, permitting workers to not pay fees to them. Unions argue that the fees are fair for nonunion members who still benefit from the contracts they negotiate, and that without a requirement, their membership, financial support and very existence are threatened.

And where is the leadership of the international unions? Holed up in executive suites in Washington D.C. living well-remunerated lives of great privilege. Where is the plan to fight back? Don't hold your breath. There isn't one.

Gary Chaison Announces the Death of Union Political Power

Judged by the amount of post-election coverage in the Gray Lady today -- day #2 following the GOP blowout of the Dems -- I think it is dawning on liberals that the 2014 midterms are a turning point.

For some shallow handwringing from a Deep State liberal, there is Nicholas Kristof's "America's Broken Politics." The Gray Lady actually features a helpful unsigned editorial, "In Red and Blue States, Good Ideas Prevail: From Marijuana to Gun Control, Liberal Initiatives Passed," which provides a rundown of progressive ballot measures that passed on Election Day.

The elephant in the room isn't the GOP mascot. The elephant in the room is the failure of Democratic Party and organized labor to represent the interests of working people. Gary Chaison, a labor academic who is frequently quoted by the mainstream media, sums it all up in a letter that appears in today's paper.

To the Editor: 

Re “Walker Wins Re-election, and Keeps Hope for 2016” (news article, Nov. 5):
Can there be a more glaring sign of the loss of union political power than the election success of Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin? Here is a man who thumbed his nose at the unions in 2012, when he led his Republican state legislature to pass a law that greatly curtailed the activities of Wisconsin’s public worker unions. Mr. Walker survived a recall election and has just won a second term, which might lead to his running for president in 2016. 

In the future, when someone asks, “When did the unions finally lose their political clout?,” the answer will be: “In the 2014 midterm elections, when the unions’ nemesis, Scott Walker, won re-election.”

GARY CHAISON
Worcester, Mass., Nov. 5, 2014 

The writer is a professor of industrial relations at Clark University.

What needs to be done -- clearly -- is a move to a new electoral vehicle. Dump the party of Jackson. After two hundreds years it is time for it to collapse; it is too infested with bankers and stockjobbers and warpigs. Unions should lead the way, but they won't. That is why change is going to have to come from the environmental crowd and socialists. It looks like Obama might soon sign off on Keystone XL. Once he does that there will be a golden opportunity for a large bloc of progressive voters to vacate the Democratic Party. It is something that Bill McKibben should consider in addition to organizing marchers and sit-ins -- a new national political party that can field credible candidates.

U.S. Election Day: Democrats Headed for Defeat, Hopefully Some GOP Governors Too

Election Day dawns in the United States. "Beacon of democracy" according to the press release but "Great Satan" to parts of the planet, there are some interesting trends of which to take note today in the land of Lucifer.

The conventional wisdom as blared by loudspeaker in the media monopoly is that today the GOP will roll. I think the conventional wisdom is on the money this time around. The death knell for the Democrats began sounding last year. At first, at the end of the summer 2013, Obama dodged a bullet when he aborted his bombing run on Damascus by clutching at the Russian-sponsored proposal to have Syria get rid of its chemical weapons. Peace Prize winner Obama's move to initiate a war seriously undermined his credibility among the progressive, anti-war wing of his party, which is the informed, activist wing you need come election time.

Then there was the golden opportunity of tarring Republicans for their government shutdown in October 2013 squandered by the disastrous premiere of Obamacare. It has basically been all downhill since last fall --  from ISIS to Ebola to anemic job growth.

For a rundown on the election check out "What to Watch For as G.O.P. Expects Big Night at Polls" by Jonathan Martin and Nate Cohn.

Colorado is a designated bellwether:

Republicans are closely watching Colorado, where Senator Mark Udall and Gov. John W. Hickenlooper, both Democrats, are in danger of losing. Mr. Obama won the state twice, and with a younger, increasingly progressive population, Colorado has been trending Democratic. If Representative Cory Gardner can defeat Mr. Udall, who made his campaign almost exclusively about abortion rights and contraception, it will demonstrate that Republicans still have strength in a state that could be essential to regaining the presidency.

Colorado passed gun control legislation post-Sandy Hook and legalized cannabis in a 2012 vote, both under Gov. Hickenlooper. For the Republicans to take him out, as well as a Udall, a name synonymous with liberal Democratic politics in the U.S., would be a significant victory.

On the other hand, The GOP is walking the wire with its union-busting governors in the industrial heartland:

The polls also show up-in-the-air races in Michigan and Wisconsin, where the Republican incumbents, Rick Snyder and Scott Walker, appear to hold nominal leads. 

If the Republicans lose one or two of these races, it will complicate what might otherwise be an impressive performance for them in governors’ contests nationwide. Republican governors in competitive states have no business losing in what should be a good year for the party.

The wounded Dems are relying, once again, on the Obama coalition -- blacks, women, Latinos, students -- to hold on:

Every vote counts, of course, but some constituencies — especially those that made up Mr. Obama’s victories — will play a crucial role in shaping the outcomes on Tuesday. 

Democrats will need to counter a strong Republican advantage with men by winning women by nearly as much. That might require an even larger gender gap in some states than the 18-point one in the 2012 presidential election. Democrats will also need a much stronger turnout among nonwhite voters than they received in 2010. Black turnout in Georgia and North Carolina will be especially important: Follow whether the black share of the electorate approaches or exceeds 2012, when blacks represented 23 percent of North Carolina voters and 30 percent in Georgia.

I don't see students, women and Latinos strongly motivated to turnout this polling season; blacks on the other hand might very well show up in numbers greatly exceeding the last midterm. The reason? All the Republican-sponsored restrictive voting laws requiring photo identification and doing away with same-day registration are clearly aimed at diminishing the black vote.

Read Erik Eckholm's excellent synopsis of the GOP's voter suppression efforts, "Election Tests New Rules on Voting":

New rules to limit same-day registration or require photo identification will be in effect in some states, even as their constitutionality is argued in the courts. Most of the changes were adopted by Republican legislatures in the name of electoral integrity, even though evidence of voter fraud was negligible. They are opposed by Democrats who say tighter rules are aimed at discouraging minorities, poor people and college students from voting. All those groups tend to prefer Democrats.

“A significant number of changes are going into effect that will make it harder for millions of Americans to participate,” said Wendy R. Weiser, director of the democracy program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. “In close races, the impact might be larger than the margin of victory.” 

But Republicans say such concerns are overblown. 

“We believe these claims are made for partisan purposes to rile up the Democrat Party base,” said Michael B. Thielen, executive director of the Republican National Lawyers Association in Washington. 

Numerous reports of voters facing obstacles have emerged from early voting in Texas and Georgia, among other states. But quantifying the impact of the altered rules is challenging, especially in a midterm election expected to have low turnout. In states like North Carolina, liberal groups hope that public anger over curbed voting opportunities will provoke a backlash that motivates Democratic voters, offsetting possible losses.

Another tactic Dems use to juice turnout is by placing minimum-wage increases on the ballot. Labor reporter Steven Greenhouse weighs in this morning with the informative "Little Opposition Seen in Some Votes to Raise State Minimum Wages":

In Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, binding referendums would raise the state minimum wage above the $7.25 an hour mandated by the federal government. 

These measures are so overwhelmingly popular in some states, notably Alaska and Arkansas, that the opposition has hardly put up a fight.

“These groups have noticed that minimum-wage increases can easily pass — they have seen this in the past few years,” said John G. Matsusaka, executive director of the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California. “They can’t get it through the legislatures in these red states, so they do it this way.”

Some Republicans say that the main reason for these initiatives is to mobilize low-income voters to help re-elect embattled Democrats, like Senators Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Begich of Alaska. But supporters deny this, saying they are pushing to raise the minimum because so many workers are struggling and because the minimum wage has trailed inflation. 

The measures in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota would set the minimum wage lower than the $10.10 an hour that President Obama has asked Congress to pass, to no avail. The ballot initiatives in Arkansas and South Dakota call for a minimum of $8.50 an hour, while Nebraska’s would go to $9 and Alaska’s to $9.75.

***

Seattle has adopted a measure that will raise its minimum wage to $15 in several stages, while San Franciscans will vote on Tuesday whether to approve a $15 minimum wage. Residents in nearby Oakland will vote on a $12.25 wage.

In a surprising twist, hardly any business groups in San Francisco are opposing the $15 proposal, which is expected to pass easily.

Seattle, where I reside, has one interesting race. Jess Spear, a young climate scientist running as a socialist who was Kshama Sawant's campaign manager (Sawant's victory in 2013 paved the way for increased minimum-wage measures nationally), is taking on Speaker of the House Frank Chopp, an entrenched corporate-friendly Democrat, in the 43rd Legislative District. Spear won't win. But she has run a good campaign, and she has hit Chopp hard and repeatedly, forcing the moribund machine pol to actually defend himself and campaign this time, touting his accomplishments for the district. It is what democracy is supposed to look like and sound like and be like. Going forward, we need more vibrant, youth-oriented third party campaigns.