Wisconsin ‘Truth Tour’ kicks off

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO’s “Truth Tour,” which kicked off July 16 at the Teamster’s Hall in Green Bay, is traveling throughout the state until at least Aug. 2. The tour will make stops in Baraboo, Hudson, Kenosha, La Crosse, Milwaukee, Oshkosh and Rhinelander. The tour’s goal is to be a forum for poor and working people to meet and work together, give testimony on how Wall Street’s attacks are affecting them, and discuss fightback strategies, including mobilizing for recall campaigns.

“What we have seen in Madison is disastrous,” said Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Wisconsin State Professional Fire Fighters. “We have seen child labor laws weakened, voter suppression bills enacted, earned income tax credits increased on the poor, cuts to BadgerCare and Medicare. This is no longer Wisconsin. This is the United Corporations of America.”

On July 12 the six Democratic candidates endorsed by the Wisconsin AFL-CIO won recall primaries; they will now run in the general election Aug. 9. Those engaging in the recall campaigns are enraged by the union-busting bill that went into effect June 29 as well as the draconian 2011-2013 state budget.

“It is clear that [Gov.] Scott Walker and GOP legislators are putting big corporations and wealthy campaign donors above what is best for me, my family and the people of Wisconsin,” said Jason Albertz at the Truth Tour kick-off. Albertz, a paraprofessional educator from Green Bay, works with special education students at Webster Elementary School.

Besides the recall campaigns, the people of Wisconsin are engaging in numerous acts of resistance, including confronting Gov. Walker and his allies wherever they go in the state.

Quotes are from the Wisconsin AFL-CIO blog: http://wisaflcio.typepad.com. For more information and to get involved in the struggle, visit www.defendwisconsin.org, www.wisaflcio.org, www.vdlf.org, and www.wibailoutpeople.org.