On the storm in Wisconsin.

And not a blizzard! The news from Wisconsin has been incredible. In brief -- control of both houses of the state legislature has passed to Republicans, along with the new Republican governor Scott Walker. He is determined to crush the public-sector unions, and he has proposed a budget that will not only require public sector workers to pay substantially more in contributions to pensions and health insurance, but will also eliminate most of the unions' collective bargaining rights, and make Wisconsin a "right-to-work" state -- i.e., public sector workers will be able to choose whether or not to join the union, and nonmembers won't be obliged to pay union dues.

And here is what has happened so far: Thousands of people, including several of my friends, have marched on the Capitol, in the bitter Wisconsin winter, to protest. They filled the capitol building to the gills, and have brought sleeping bags and stayed overnight to speak for two minutes each. The governor intends to announce his budget at some agricultural feed warehouse in Fitchburg, rather than in the Capitol as is traditional. (Seriously?!) He pushed through his budget in an astonishing hurry, and scheduled a vote today. However, all of the Democratic state senators have left the state (!!), leaving the senate without a three-fifths quorum. Walker ordered state agencies to track them down and bring them in, but they refused, and now that the senators are out of state, these agencies lack jurisdiction anyway.

Incredible! Some of the most vigorous protesting that has been seen in a long time, this side of the Middle East.

Something interesting I've learned, mostly from watching my friends' Facebook pages, is how ideologically important these issues are to many of my friends. I tend to be a little bit queasy about public-sector unions for various reasons. I have seen them overreach, and the people who would like to make Wisconsin "right-to-work" have some good arguments on their side. But overall I support the TAA's efforts, and I would support them even if their opponents were being reasonable. (Which now, they certainly are not.)

If I were in Madison now, I would have probably marched on the Capitol to make sure that UW remained a good university, capable of attracting excellent professors and grad students as it has in the past. But I see that many of my friends care passionately about the union, and the collective bargaining process, itself. As one of my friends said:

Okay, I'm sorry, but I'm tired of people claiming that Gov. Walker's bill is a good proposal is clearly missing out on why the protests are happening. TRY and understand that we are not here protesting because we're unwilling to pay into our pensions and pay more for our health insurance. We are protesting because his bill strips us of our collective bargaining rights. Should this bill passes, we would not be able to bargain for anything BUT wages, and even then it would be capped to the rate of inflation. Anything above that has to be put to a voter referendum. It's incredibly frustrating that people can't seem to understand that it's not that we are unwilling to "cinch our belts" in this economy. Should this bill passes, not only will we be paying more but we will be unable to bargain back anything that we've lost. EVEN when the economy gets better.

Rather astonishing, and anyone who is paying any kind of attention ought to be moved. My friends have little stake in this, from a purely selfish point of view. After all, they're going to graduate soon. They are fighting for collective bargaining because they believe in it.

When I was a grad student at Wisconsin, I didn't understand why people felt so passionately about the TAA. Honestly, I still don't. But my friends have made it clear that they do care passionately, and that they will not be ignored. That alone ought to make Scott Walker and everyone else stop for at least a moment, and respect what my friends and so many others are doing.