Give 'Em Hell, Dennis!
Begin Transcript [not mine, by the way!]:
[applause]
Strong! Strong! Be strong! Be strong!
Thank you. Thank you, Matt, Tammy, Ed, Jim Hightower.
You've got a lot of great people who have come to Wisconsin to support you, and I'm very glad to have the opportunity to join them.
This -- this is a moment in American history where we're called upon to respond with everything that we are, with all that's in our heart and soul, so that we can reclaim the essence of economic justice before somehow it is lost on the corporate scaffold!
We have to fight back!
We fight back for our democracy!
We fight back for our constitution!
We fight back for freedom of speech, for the right to assemble, for the right to the freedom of association!
We fight back for due process!
We fight back, and we fight back HERE IN WISCONSIN!
All over America, people are experiencing this ferment that is coming from the events in Wisconsin and the events in my own state, where in the past week a bill has moved along that would strip the right of collective bargaining for Ohio's public workers, that would ... [boos] ... that would put them in harm's way should they decide to strike, because then replacement workers would come in and then would set the stage for privatization. And after all, isn't that what this is all about?
[Crowd: Yeah!]
Corporations want to steal what they feel is theirs to begin with. They don't believe in such a thing as government of the people. What they believe in is government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations! THAT MIGHT WORK ON WALL STREET, BUT IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK IN WISCONSIN! AND IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK IN OHIO! AND IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK IN MICHIGAN!
[cheers]
WE WILL DEMONSTRATE TO WALL STREET!
WE WILL DEMONSTRATE TO THE CORPORATIONS THAT WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO PUSH BACK, THAT WE WILL STAND UP, THAT WE WILL SPEAK OUT, THAT WE WILL MARCH, THAT WE WILL FIGHT, THAT WE WILL PICKET, WE WILL SIT DOWN, WE WILL FIGHT BACK, WE WILL FIGHT BACK! WE WILL FIGHT BACK!!
[cheers]
[pan to crowd cheering, clapping, very enthusiastic]
[Man in crowd yells, "DENNIS, RUN FOR PRESIDENT!"]
We are here not for ourselves. We are here on behalf of all those who serve, whose work is dignity, who've committed themselves to public service. We are here for them, to say that they, and all workers everywhere, have a right to join a union, have a right to collective bargaining, have a right to strike, have a right to decent wages and benefits, have a right to a secure retirement, a right to a safe workplace, a right to be able to participate in the political process, and A RIGHT TO RECLAIM THEIR GOVERNMENT!
[cheers]
What we have here today in Wisconsin is the beginning of a new Civil Rights Movement. Because historically -- we have to understand that historically, the rights of workers have come apace of the Civil Rights Movement, which resulted in breaking slavery, because working people understood that unless they fought slavery and joined with the abolitionists, that their ability to be able to make a living was going to be compromised. So what we have now here is the 21st century version of a Civil Rights Movement, where we understand that an economic democracy is a precondition of a political democracy!
[cheers]
And so, and so, let this be called the Madison Declaration for Economic Democracy; and that is, everyone has a right to a job, everyone has a right to an education, everyone has a right to health care, everyone has a right to retirement security, everyone has a right to housing, and everyone has a right to peace!
[cheers]
This attack on our workers, this attack in Washington on working people that results in wealth being accelerated to the top, that results in tax cuts going to the rich, that results in energy policy turned over to the oil companies, that results in defense policy turned over to the arms manufacturers, that results in endless war, that results in a National Security State, it's all a part of the same thing, and it's up to us to FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK, FIGHT BACK!
[pounds podium with hand]
[crowd continues with fight back, fight back! chant and applause]
FIGHT BACK!
The objectives of corporations are different than those of government. They would like us to believe that the corporate ethic is what government should be about, but we know that corporations are here for one thing and one thing only, and that is profit.
[boos]
Government, government belongs not to the private sector but to the public sector, and our responsibility in government is to provide, provide service. The private sector would like to convert the assets of the public sector for their own use. That's why in your own legislation, in the bill, you can see that there was an attempt -- there's an attempt in the bill to try to privatize your electric services. You can see that.
[boos]
I know about this. I fought and beat a privatization of a municipal electrical plant in Cleveland many years ago. I understand about privatization. I understand that what these corporations want is they want total control over our government.
[favorable shout from crowd]
Keep the light on!
They want total control of our government.
In Michigan, we learned that the state legislature there is passing legislation that will enable a fiscal manager to come in and literally abolish city governments and school districts! Now why are they doing this?
[boos]
Think about it. They'll do this so that the city governments and the school districts can be run for banks and for Wall Street. They're gonna make sure that Wall Street will get its pound of flesh; that Wall Street will be able to handle, through these managers, they can break union contracts, they can reduce the city government to mush; city councils and mayors don't mean anything; school boards don't mean anything. WE ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR DEMOCRACY HERE! WE ARE FIGHTING FOR IT, AND WE WILL NOT FAIL TO RECOVER IT!
[cheers]
And we will recover it by establishing a program of economic reform which will wrap its arm around all of the movements in our states to try to regain control of state government, because you cannot succeed unless from the national level there is the movement that some of the young people talked about earlier, that puts into place programs that can create jobs for all, that can create education for all, that can create health care for all, that can protect retirement security, and that can create peace.
Right now, we are told in Washington that when we want various social programs, we're being told, "Well, we can't afford it." But when they ask, when they ask, when they ask for trillions of dollars for war, no one said, "Oh! We can't afford it." What they say is, "Just pay. Borrow money from China and Japan, and just keep the war going."
PART OF OUR PROGRAM FOR ECONOMIC REFORM IS THAT WE END THE WARS IN IRAQ. WE END THE WARS IN AFGHANISTAN. WE STOP THIS NATIONAL SECURITY STATE. WE BRING OUR TROOPS HOME FROM AROUND THE WORLD. WE STOP THE PENTAGON CONTROL OF OUR GOVERNMENT. WE BREAK THEIR HOLD BY BREAKING THEIR BUDGET!
[cheers]
NO MORE WARS! NO MORE WARS!
[points to crowd, who continue chant and clapping, "No more wars"]
NO MORE WARS!
There are those who believe that war is inevitable, because they make money from those wars, so their profits become inevitable. But we have to establish a new standard, which is what a Department of Peace is all about: that we have the capacity to create peace; that we are not just victims of the world we see. We become victims of the way we see the world when we buy into the psychology of war, which is a false psychology, which is not something that we should accept as the way the world should be.
WE HAVE A RIGHT TO ACCEPT A WORLD FREE OF WAR! WE HAVE A RIGHT TO ACCEPT A WORLD WHERE THERE IS PLENTY! WE HAVE A RIGHT TO CREATE A WORLD THAT HAS PLENTY!
I want to...
[pauses, favorable cries from crowd]
I also want to say that when we talk about -- if we are going to create a context where state governments can survive for the people, then there has to be accountability. Now you're showing in Wisconsin, you're determined there's going to be accountability for these state officials who are not responding and who are doing the bidding of corporations.
I want to add this: There is another thing our country needs to do. We need to have accountability and insist on accountability for those who took us into war based on lies.
[cheers]
I want to -- I want to say this in Wisconsin, because it needs to be said somewhere, but it's time that those who took us into war based on lies, they ought to be prosecuted once and for all!
LET'S RECLAIM OUR NATION!
LET'S RECLAIM OUR DIGNITY!
LET'S RECLAIM OUR MORALITY!
[cheers]
We are constantly told we don't have any money. Joseph Stiglitz pointed out that the war in Iraq would cost at least three trillion. We're at the half-trillion-dollar mark with Afghanistan, but we will have a vote this week, and the vote will be to end the war in Afghanistan. It will be Thursday, House Concurrent Resolution 28. I'm proud to sponsor that. We're going to get another vote on Afghanistan.
But let me tell you this: One of the great myths, one of the great myths of our time is that we are told, "Well, you know, we just don't have the money for these programs." We have money for war; we established that. But I want to offer this for your consideration, because it's actually the path out, not just for Wisconsin, but for all the states who are struggling with some legitimate budget problems, and we have to look at it this way:
We have to start to examine this debt-based economic system which puts us into believing that the only way we can have money is to have debt. How did we come to believe this? We came to believe this because you have the Federal Reserve that was established in 1913; they privatized the money system. Okay?
We have the fractional-reserve system, where banks create money out of nothing, and then they pyramid the debts and stick the tax payers when they go bust!
We have -- we have a government that says, "Gee, we don't have the money to fix our roads, our bridges, our water systems and sewer systems."
I want you to think about this now. This is a time, in this debate, when transformation is in the air, when evolution is in the air. This is a time for us, in this debate, to start to look at the monetary system itself and to ask ourselves whether it isn't time to put the Fed back under the control of the government, to end the fractional reserve of banking, and to say, "Let government spend money and invest into circulation to rebuild America! To put millions of people back to work to rebuild our roads, our bridges, our water systems, our sewer systems!"
MONEY FOR JOBS! MONEY FOR EDUCATION! MONEY FOR HEALTH CARE FOR ALL! WE DON'T HAVE TO BE BEGGING! WE DON'T HAVE TO BE IMPOVERISHED! WE DON'T HAVE TO BE STUCK WITH WAR FOREVER! WE CAN RECLAIM OUR GOVERNMENT! WE WILL RECLAIM IT HERE IN WISCONSIN! AND WE WILL RECLAIM IT NATIONALLY, BECAUSE OF WISCONSIN!
THANK YOU!
End Transcript.
Another Kick-Ass Speech By A Wisconsin Farmer, Tony Schultz
Partial Transcript:
.. and we are gonna take this state back!
And yet there are those who tell us that this isn't a farmer's issue. And these people have petty resentment that is amplified by right-wing radio until they think that a fireman's pension is the problem.
And then there are groups that represent this evil. The Dairy Business Association was here on Wednesday for Ag Day in the Capitol saying, "Hooray for Walker's budget." Well, I want you to know that those aren't farmers. They're agribusiness corporations with a few factory farmers in front. And I want Wisconsin and the world to know that this is the real Ag Day at the Capitol.
This issue, it's a farmer's issue because our rural schools are getting decimated by this budget, and they are the centers of our small towns and rural communities. In my hometown of Athens, 14 of 44 teachers got pink slips, will be laid off, because of this budget. It's bad for our children's education; it's bad for the stability of our town; it's bad for the very future of our school district. And we say NO.
This issue is a farmer's issue because Scott Walker wants to hack Badger Care. Eleven thousand family-farm members depend on Badger Care because of the exclusivity of for-profit health insurance companies and because of the pathetic and volatile price we receive for milk and other commodities that don't meet the cost of our production. We depend on this, and we support Badger Care.
This is a farmer's issue because we have been battling…corporate power for more than a century. This budget could not be a clearer manifestation of corporate power. And we say NO.
This is a farmer's issue because public workers are our friends and our neighbors and our family members, and we stand in solidarity with them.
We're all in this together. We go up together or we go down together.
And the way I see it is we got two choices: I can have my unions busted and stand alone and be pitted against my neighbor in a desperate and unequal economy; or WE can come together to say, "This is what our families need. This is what our communities need. This is what a just wage is. This is what democracy looks like!"
It's a farmer's issue because we understand that an injury to one is an injury to all.
SOLIDARITY!
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