Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Endgame for Wisconsin Protests ? (Hopefully Not)

Unless the Wisconsin protesters have the ability to escalate their actions, namely with larger strikes that bring pain to businesses, or the physical occupation of the Capital with the establishment of a shadow government, they seem to have exhausted the narrow bounds by which expression is allowed in a bourgeois democracy. They have 'let their voices' be heard, and now are being told to 'go back to work'. With the idea being that elected representatives will take their grievances to account. Which of course they won't.

In retrospect, the walk out by Wisconsin Dems was a clever strategy to de-escalate the crisis. Allow tensions to simmer down rather than risk a social eruption had the bill passed too quickly and without warning. The Dems fulfilled their role in the system, to corral social protest.

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