Archives: February 2011
CPI: We are Wisconsin
By Susan Duerksen | February 23, 2011 |
It’s about power, not the budget. Threats to democracy in the Midwest
The attack on public employees spreading through the Midwest threatens middle-class working people across the nation. Big-money and corporate interests are out to destroy collective bargaining to solidify their control of political and economic life in this country.
The rash of proposals targeting public employee unions (in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and a dozen more states) isn’t about budgeting – it’s about political power – as Nobel laureate Paul Krugman explains and Indiana’s governor admitted yesterday.
The teachers’ and other public workers’ unions of Wisconsin already agreed to Gov. Scott Walker’s demands to cut their benefits. He insists on ending their right to negotiate at all. Read More
Walmart vs. San Diego City Council: A Call for Initiative Reform
By Corrine Wilson | Published in VoiceofSanDiego.org | February 1, 2011 |
The real problem behind the current Walmart vs. San Diego City Council story is that of a subversion of democracy by a ballot initiative process that badly needs reform. The process is no longer a “citizens’ initiative” but rather a process by which corporations with deep pockets can pay to collect signatures with little or no regard for quality or accuracy of information given to the voters.
The current Walmart case highlights the way in which those with enormous cash reserves can overpower our own elected government. City council members elected by the citizens of San Diego voted last month to pass regulations requiring a review of community impacts before approving big-box superstores. The Walmart corporation opposed that policy. By paying professional signature collectors, it quickly filled petitions for a ballot measure on repealing the regulations. Read More
