Anti-union Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has won his recall election, in what would appear to be a real blow for the wider US labour movement. The lack of an effective response from what passes for the American left these days is really disheartening and anyone counting on the Democrats to roll back the assault on workers' rights is kidding themselves - that party really is totally hollowed out these days. The two-party system is probably the worst thing to happen to the American working class. Even more depressing is the fact that two-thirds of Walker's recall campaign money came from outside Wisconsin.
Gov. Scott Walker's Big Money Backers Include 13 Out-Of-State BillionairesQuote:
If Scott Walker wins Tuesday’s recall election, he’ll have 14 of America’s richest people to thank.
Wisconsin’s Governor has out-raised opponent Tom Barrett, the Mayor of Milwaukee, by almost 8 to one: $30.5 million to Barrett’s $3.9 million. Of that huge haul, $1.68 million — or, almost half Barrett’s total — came from 14 members of the Forbes billionaires list, all but one of whom live outside Wisconsin.
Walker’s most generous donor does in fact reside in the state. Billionaire Diane Hendricks of roofing giant ABC Supply donated a total of $510,000 to Walker’s campaign — the biggest check for a governor’s race in Wisconsin history .
Hendricks’ contribution came under scrutiny last month when a documentary filmmaker released a clip of Walker telling her he’d be employing a “divide and conquer” strategy against unions. Walker is, of course, fighting for his seat precisely because of his now infamous bill stripping public sector unions of collective bargaining rights.
In the video, Hendricks — the state’s richest woman, worth $2.8 billion — asks if Walker can turn Wisconsin into a “completely red state”, and “work on these unions”. Walker responds: “Oh yeah,” then adds: “The first step is, we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, use divide and conquer.”
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