Reflections on the Recent Indiana Workers' Upsurge

It’s over with now, but for two exciting, event-filled months, mid-February to mid-April, 2011, Indiana workers and the Democratic legislators of the General Assembly stood up to the Republicans who wanted to make Indiana a “right-to-work” state, gut teachers’ collective bargaining powers, and generally make life even more miserable for those who actually work for a living, instead of clipping coupons or entering politics from previously being a corporate CEO. For the first time in the 40 years I’ve lived in Indiana this time around, I felt proud to be a Hoosier. Not a small feat, because usually I find my life so frustrating in the State of Indiana I want to leave and retreat to the State of Intoxication! After all, life and culture in Indiana is shaped very much by the fact that the Hoosier state is at the confluence of three other states—the State of Smugness, the State of Complacency, and the State of Mediocrity, and is the place where not all of Indiana’s pigs are found on CAFOs. They abound aplenty, especially the two-legged variety; and they’re joined by flocks of Indiana two-legged sheep as well.

But this time in Indiana, I felt that I was actually in the presence of the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Wonders of the World—an Indiana AFL-CIO with guts, an Indiana Democratic Party with guts, and even more amazingly, both of them showing guts at the same time, and cooperating in their open, public display of guts! For once, both Hoosiers of political prominence, and the Hoosier rank-and-file, stood up to the arrogant Republican majority in the State House and Governor’s mansion, and brought their ambitions to a grinding, screeching halt. When the Democratic members of the House of Representatives and the Senate walked out on the Indiana General Assembly and relocated for an indefinite sojourn in Illinois, they deprived the legislative session of a quorum; which meant the Republican majority was at an impasse, legally barred from ramming their anti-worker legislation down the Democratic minority’s, and the Hoosier public’s, throats. Immovable Democrats holed up in extradition-free Illinois, and vociferous protestors every day in front of the State House, actively organized by the state AFL-CIO unions, defied the Republicans both by their absence and by their presence, and made it known, “You’re just not going to do this!”

So the Republicans had to shelve “right-to-work,” had to shelve gutting teachers’ bargaining rights, had to deal with the Democrats whose power in absentia enabled them to call at least some of the shots. Both inside and outside the State House thousands of workers from all over the state converged in a massive display of ordinary people’s determination and fight-back spirit. Both together caused the Republicans to be unable to do anything but sputter, at least for a while, their major legislative goals unattainable; and perhaps even this whiff of defeat will still linger in the air not just in 2011, but in 2012 as well, at the polls and in the halls of the General Assembly. As in Wisconsin and Ohio, the Republicans had overreached, and had garnered for themselves not easy legislative pushovers, but massive, angry protest that took them aback—for at least the time being. For Indiana stood proudly in solidarity with the same kinds of protests in Wisconsin and Ohio, and if that still didn’t make the streets of downtown Indianapolis resemble the streets of Tunis or Tahrir Square in Cairo, at least the potential to become so is now there, when it wasn’t there before. After all, people remember again what they once did, when they recall the victories they had before, when they milled into the streets and defied power, when the occasion for such rises again. As it surely will. Republicans are too much like Bourbons, never remembering and never forgetting. But if the Hoosier people had been forgetting Republican trepidations for too long too many times before, they’re liable to remember the next time around. And a next time will come around—while Republicans will always be Republicans, so will the people once mobilized and energized, having shown to themselves and to others the strength of their numbers and determination.

A good reason for me to have savored that intoxication that came, not from substance abuse in the State of Intoxication, but by the heady sobriety of realizing the enormity of what had happened. And still savor it, even now.

To be sure, it wasn’t all victories. Even as the worker protests surged, a bill undermining unemployment benefits and eligibility for them, which takes effect July 1, did get through under stealth. While union teachers still kept their bargaining rights, more charter schools were authorized. Planned Parenthood was defunded, and Medicaid recipients are not allowed to utilize Planned Parenthood clinics. All the above gleefully signed into law by Republican Governor Mitch Daniels, former Office of Management and Budget head under George W. Bush; former CEO of Indianapolis Power and Light, where he used his power to privatize it, to his personal enrichment, at the cost of destroying workers’ pensions; and also, former CEO of Eli Lilly and Co., the major drug manufacturer and Indiana political powerhouse, where he earned $27 million in salary the year before running for Governor in 2004.

Also, in the last days of the General Assembly, after the Democrats had come back and walked out again in protest, the Republican minority rammed through a bill making further legislative walkouts illegal. Hopefully, this law will be challenged in the courts, and future Democratic legislators will show the same guts and determination again, as they did in 2011. But I don’t count on it. All of us who’ve watched Indiana politics before know how the Democrats have always talked a good fight, but always caved in before. Which is what made the Democrats this time so amazing. But, unfortunately, Democratic caving-in has a well-established tradition, not only in Indiana, but elsewhere; and so notably at the national level, with the Obama White House showing the lead these past few years, and with Democratic Congresspersons and Senators, with few exceptions, closing ranks and following suit. And Indiana Democrats have never been known for being particularly “liberal,” but have timidly adapted time in and time out to Indiana’s notorious conservatism. After all, this is the state that produced leading Senate Blue Dog Evan Bayh, and which ran another notable Blue Dog, Brad Ellsworth, for Senate in 2010. And no Indiana Democrats who can be considered as part of the "liberal camp” has ever distinguished him/herself as a Dennis Kucinich or a Bernie Sanders.

But at least one of the Republican victories given above turned into defeat. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has declared Indiana’s plan to defund Planned Parenthood illegal, and could pressure the state to drop it altogether by withholding funds. As it stands right now, lawyers are scrambling to find some way to salvage it; I join many other Hoosiers in hoping they fail, and that HHS stands behind its position.

I wasn’t able to participate in these events as much as I wanted to, despite having the time available due to layoff. For the State House, locus of all the activity, is in the heart of downtown Indianapolis, heart of much-touted upscale urban development; so that “ever new, ever more exciting”—ever more upscale and prohibitively expensive—“downtown Indianapolis” (to paraphrase one of the city’s trendy slogans) made affording parking far too expensive, and public transportation in Indianapolis is so lousy it really wasn’t an option from where I lived. But I was able to attend one State House rally on a late February Saturday, when downtown metered parking is free, and was glad to mill with the enthusiastic crowd, and see many of my friends and acquaintances there too, all just as eager and excited as I was.

Interestingly enough, I didn’t see but one of my former socialist “comrades,” whose personal treachery and do-nothingness I’ve recounted in two other blog entries here on “Politically Incorrect Leftist,” “Dregs” and “’Dregs’ Aftermath1.” And this was a big rally, specially organized and advertised! But the one fellow socialist I did see was quite friendly and glad to see me, as were the other local “progressives” I encountered, with whom I’m frequently on the outs with. But we of the left here in Indianapolis are all very small fish in a very big Red State sea, and under such conditions, sectarianism, cliquishness and purely personal umbrage become a part of life—especially in a social milieu already given to xenophobia and cliquishness to begin with. So-called Hoosier Hospitality is a mask used to gull tourists and out-of-state visitors to get them to part with their money. So says my cynical but realistic self, having lived in Indy now for over 30 years, and in Indiana for 40.

I’m a non-union worker, not by choice, and a temp at that— a group of workers precluded from organizing by a George W. Bush-era NLRB decision. But I am very much a supporter of unions and union rights, even if I feel I must stand in dismay at this atrophied giant still in stupor most of the time. That’s another thing that amazed me by the protests—an AFL-CIO actually energized and fighting back for workers, even if (as was the case) only defensively, pushed to the wall with nowhere else to go by Republican arrogance. But as one of those 88.1% of the workforce not represented by a union (for only 11.9% of all U.S. workers are unionized, and fewer than 7% in the private sector), my support has to be tempered by frustration and chagrin. It still rankles me to recall the 2009 Central Indiana Job with Justice (JwJ) meeting where I was reprimanded by the head of AFSCME District 62, “You temps make more than my union workers.” Yeah. At $10/hour with no benefits, uncertain work, and having had to stomach pay cuts to keep my temp job—which requires a college degree! But I was there with my homemade sign, “I’m Non-Union & I Support You. But Will You Support Me?” To me, a good sentiment, and a very good question. And I’m sure I’m not the only non-union worker to feel this way.

The AFL-CIO protests attracted union celebrities to address the throngs. Actor Danny Glover, President of the Screen Actors Guild, addressed a rally, as did Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Their presence was an important, very much public, demonstration of solidarity, and connected Indiana’s struggles with those elsewhere, uniting workers in struggle in Indiana with workers in struggle elsewhere, especially in Wisconsin and Ohio; most important in a state known for its overwhelming hidebound parochialism. Further, Weingarten’s public support for Indiana teachers is an important political gesture in a state where “education reform” battles are high on the agenda, and where privatization, charter schools and undermining public education are espoused by many, with much support. Unfortunately, AFT’s hawkish positions on wars in the Middle East and Central Asia, coupled with its uncritical support for Israel, are a damper on attempts to unite labor forces with antiwar forces. And while JwJ is active several places in the state, its typical labor-movement evasion of antiwar protest, and social justice issues not involving labor directly, is another hindrance. As for the Indiana AFL-CIO generally, it is still beset in many circles with a “Scoop” Jackson “guns and butter” mentality (after Henry “Scoop” Jackson, former Democratic Senator from the State of Washington—nicknamed the “Senator from Boeing” for his hawkish military stance and friendliness toward military contractors); and before the upsurge, devoted much of its time to organizing chauvinistic “Buy American” campaigns.

African American presence was notable, although most of the upsurge participants were white, same as in Wisconsin and Ohio. But it was good to see fellow white Hoosiers rallying for justice rather than going to Tea Party demonstrations.

As is fairly well-known nationally, two lawyers employed by Indiana government agencies were fired for ugly remarks on the protestors in Wisconsin, where the upsurge protests were greatest. One of them, an Assistant Attorney General even, called for using “deadly force” against protestors there, while the other urged Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to fabricate an incident that could then be used to break up the protests. The Republicans in Indiana at one point cut off power lines at the State House, so that protestors could not use microphones. True examples indeed of class warfare by the rich and powerful against the working class, which is something Karl Marx never needed to invent. It’s always been there, even when hidden and insidious; but the workers’ upsurge in Indiana and elsewhere brought it out into the open, and what a bringing out! Makes one want to paraphrase Che Guevara: “Create, two, there, many Wisconsins, Ohios and Indianas! Create two, three, many Tunisias and Egypts! Workers of the world, unite!” Yes, indeed.