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Yesterday, Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected the effort to revoke basic worker rights, delivering a stunning rebuke to conservative Governor John Kasich. That spark was lit in Madison, Wisconsin last winter when workers took over the state capitol and launched unprecedented recall elections that sobered right-wing Governor Scott Walker and the Republican state legislature. The Occupy Wall Street movement turned the spark into a conflagration, transforming the political horizon.

Now, a range of progressive groups, led by Progressive Majority, are calling on citizen activists to Run for America, announcing a plan to recruit 2012 progressive candidates in 2012 to run for public office at every level — from school board to state legislatures to Congress.

Two years ago, the Tea Party turned protest into political power, fielding right-wing challengers to office holders of both parties. Public dismay with the failed economy enabled Republicans to capture the House of Representatives, and state houses and legislatures across the country. They captured 675 state legislative seats, the largest sweep since 1938. Shock doctrine conservatives then used the crisis to cut taxes on corporations while savaging public services. They moved to roll back worker rights to weaken unions, their most organized opposition. Realizing they represented a minority position, they passed a range of laws seeking to constrict voting rights, requiring photo IDs, limiting early voting, etc., Then they went after women’s rights, environmental protections, and the poor while doing most of what the business lobby asked of them.

Now from Madison to Wall Street and across the country, the new populist uprising is challenging the failed conservative ideas and corporate interests that have dominated our politics to devastating effect. The question now is whether that uprising will generate progressive challengers to conservative office holders in both parties. That will take not just inspiration but organization as well.

To supply that, Progressive Majority has joined with Moveon.org, US Action, the Center for Community Change, Rebuild the Dream, the New Organizing Institute and other partners in the emerging American Dream Movement to set the goal of recruiting and supporting 2012 candidates in 2012. (more…)

Despite favorable public opinion polls, Ohio unionists are taking nothing for granted and are ramping up their campaign to repeal Right Wing Gov. John Kasich’s anti-worker anti-union law, as a Nov. 8 referendum on it nears.

Workers are pounding the pavements showing the everyday impact of Kasich’s measure, SB5, which he pushed through the GOP-run Ohio legislature earlier this year.

They’re also advertising. In one spot, a woman says Fire Fighters saved her 2-year-old granddaughter’s life, yet Kasich’s law would take away the Fire Fighters’ right to collectively bargain for equipment and staffing to make such rescues possible. But the unionists are not really relying on an air war to win. Their troops are on the ground.

“Last weekend we had over 2,000 volunteers” on the streets, says Ohio AFL-CIO spokesman Jason Perlman. Unions expected to field even more on Halloween weekend and 10,000 in get-out-the-vote drives in the final weekend before the election.

“What’s really been great is that every union has come aboard – AFL-CIO, Change To Win, you name it,” even though Kasich’s law would end collective bargaining rights only for Ohio’s 400,000 state and local government workers, Perlman adds. (more…)

Governors like Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Chris Christie of New Jersey have justified their attacks on public workers and their unions as necessary to balance state budgets. Indeed, they and copy-cat officials, mainly Republican but frequently Democratic, and a hallelujah chorus of pundits have insinuated that a bloated, overpaid state and local government workforce caused the record string of deficits over the past four years.

It’s a good story, conveniently reinforcing right-wing hostility to government. But there’s one little problem. It’s dead wrong. The facts simply don’t support it. That shortcoming may not stop the right-wing crusade, but it’s important for anyone concerned about state and local government to know.

And they can find the research neatly, graphically summarized in “The Wrong Target: Public Sector Unions and State Budget Deficits,” by Sylvia Allegretto, Ken Jacobs and Laurel Lucia of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics and the Labor Center, both at the University of California, Berkeley.

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During the recent People’s Road Trip across Ohio, workers of all stripes from all parts of the state sounded off about how Issue 2 is unsafe, unfair, and hurts all our communities.

OFT President Sue Taylor on the importance of voting NO on SB 5 Issue 2 on November 8.

SB 5 = Issue 2. Vote no on November 8.

Gov. John Kasich’s S.B. 5 and Republican lawmakers must be feeling the heat. Recently, 1.3 million Ohioans signed petitions to put on the November ballot the repeal of a law (S.B. 5) that eliminates  the collective bargaining rights of more than 350,000 public employees. Today, Kasich & Co. pleaded for a so-called “compromise” in order to keep the repeal measure of the ballot out of the voters’ hands.

At a press conference this afternoon, Melissa Fazekas, spokeswoman for We Are Ohio, the coalition leading the repeal drive, said:

We’re glad that Gov. Kasich and the other politicians who passed S.B. 5 are finally admitting this is a flawed bill. Just like the bill was flawed, this approach to a compromise is flawed as well.

Our message is clear. These same politicians who passed this law could repeal it and not thwart the will of the people. They should either repeal the entire bill or support our efforts and encourage a no vote on Issue 2 [the repeal].

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With so many extremist governors in office today, it’s hard to determine who is The Worst Governor Ever. Cast your vote at worstgovernorever.com.
It’s time America came to this vital decision together. Who is The Worst Governor Ever? www.worstgovernorever.com

An Urgent Action Call – Ohio Voters Must Be Heard

This November voters will decide the fate of SB 5, but Gov. John Kasich and his political allies are doing everything they can to stack the deck in their favor by attacking Ohio voting rights. Last week, Ohio Republicans passed HB 194 – a voter suppression bill that cuts down on early voting and makes it harder for Ohio voters to cast their ballots. Not satisfied with making it more difficult to vote , extreme senators are now saying they will take up HB 159 – a voter ID bill that would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Ohioans – as soon as next week. Previously they’d said it would not receive a vote until fall.

Call your senator at 1-888-218-5931 and tell him or her you oppose HB 159 because it will disenfranchise nearly 900,000 Ohioans.

If HB 159 is enacted, Ohio will have one of the most restrictive voting laws in the country. HB 159 targets students, seniors, people of color and low-income voters who have been hit hardest by the recession, have some of the highest unemployment rates and need more than ever for elected officials to focus on creating good jobs. We can’t let this happen. (more…)

A semi-truck stuffed with petitions delivered nearly 1.3 million signatures to the Ohio Secretary of State on June 29 in order to put union busting SB 5 up for a citizen’s veto. Thousands of Ohioans marched through the streets of the capitol in the People’s Parade to deliver the signatures, which were over five times the number needed to get the bill on the ballot for a public referendum.

A parody of the University of Wisconsin fight song inspired by the resistance of the public workers and their allies to Governor Scott Walker’s attack on their standard of living and collective bargaining rights. (more…)