Politics

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Violates Reagan's Legacy

By Anne Landman

In his attack on workers' right to bargain collectively, Scott Walker is diametrically opposing the legacy of former President Ronald Reagan -- the same conservative figure Walker idolized in his prank phone call with a blogger posing as "David Koch." 

In 1982, the Polish government outlawed Solidarity, a national labor union to which the overwhelming majority of Polish workers and farmers belonged. The Polish government tried to substitute a new, powerless labor union that Reagan openly called "a sham." Reagan responded to the events in Poland with harsh steps. On October 9, 1982, he gave an speech to Americans condemning the events in that country. Reagan suspended Poland's most-favored-nation trade status, condemned the Polish military for "trampling on the hopes and aspirations of Polish workers," called repression of the union an "outrage," and pressured the regime to participate in "the arduous but real process of dialogue and reconciliation" with Solidarity. Reagan told Americans that the Polish government's repression of that country's labor union was "a matter of profound concern to all the American people and to the free world."

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Full post as published by PR Watch on February 23, 2011 (boomark / email).