Labor rights, women's rights, and civil liberties are three of the most vital issues we as students and citizens need to monitor and organize around on personal and political levels.
Labor
The wage disclosure campaign, the Teaching Assistants' Association's struggle for a fair contract, and the balancing of the state budget are unique facets of a larger economic struggle affecting the university and state workers. On the positive side, this year ,UW-Madison has become a national leader in the campaign for wage disclosure, the latest front in the fight against sweatshops.
The TAA's 10-month-long struggle for a fair contract and last week's walk-out has galvanized the university community. The TAA and its members have shown incredible organization and patience both around the bargaining table and on the picket line. But the hardest struggle is still ahead because the TAA has given up a crucial leverage point in bargaining by choosing not to pursue a grade strike. Therefore, we must all work twice as hard to ensure that TAs retain their health care.
The struggle of the TAA is unique because TAs are both students and state workers. Their struggle is representative because the budget is yet again being balanced on the backs of students and the lowest-paid workers through pay freezes and hikes in healthcare premiums and tuition. Meanwhile, big campaign contributors have continued to see tax breaks. If this trend continues unchallenged, we will only see a continuing shrinkage of the middle class and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor.
Women's rights
On a national level the right wing has begun taking legal steps to limit a woman's right to choose; on a local level we have seen continuing violence against women, and in Iraq we have seen the voices of women again silenced. Yet on all levels people are standing up for what's important to them. On April 25 more than a million women and men took part in the March for Women's Lives in D.C., demanding economic, sexual and healthcare rights. On campus many different groups took part in Sexual Assault Awareness month to bring sexual violence to the campus agenda.
Ultimately, what is key to realize is when we talk about women's rights, we must really talk about gender rights. It is vital that men not only support women but begin to analyze why violence against women perpetuated by men is occurring at epidemic rates in our society.
Civil liberties
The attack on civil liberties is coming in many forms, some obvious and some not. The Patriot Act and the new Department of Homeland Security must be constantly kept under public scrutiny. Increasing police power must be met with public vigilance. Local police departments have already seen increases in specific aspects of their budget, including weapons. In February, the Milwaukee Police Department began using tasers, guns that send volts of electricity through those hit, and there are already several cases of abuse pending. Increasing violence against targeted communities in the inner city does not make us safer from terrorists.
Struggles for gender and economic justice are being waged on a variety of levels and their outcomes will intimately affect all of our lives.
