Liberal activists outraged by union-busting law in Wisconsin

Filmmaker and left-wing activist Michael Moore is irate after the Wisconsin State Senate voted to remove the collective bargaining rights of public unions.

Appearing on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, a visibly angered Moore urged anyone who lives near Madison, the state capitol, to march into the city and occupy the state legislature offices to protest.

“This is war,” he said. ”This is a class war that’s been leveled against the working people of this country.

And some point people are going have to stand up and say – nonviolently – this is enough. We’re not taking it anymore.”

Moore warned that similar anti-union legislation is likely in his home state of Michigan.

They think they can get away with this, he said.

Moore connected the current union turmoil to President Ronald Reagan’s decision more than thirty years ago to fire air traffic controllers.

“We should’ve stopped him then,” he said.

Moore called for a nationwide walk-out by students in response to Wisconsin’s law.

This has to continue day after day after day and these governors are going to have to step down, Moore stated.

They’re going to be recalled, they’re going to be impeached; they’ve broken the law. There’s no way they can get away with this.”

Moore, who gave a speech in Madison earlier this week to encourage the unions, also said “the rich who have committed these crimes, the people who work on Wall Street and the banks, and the people will demand your ass is in jail,” while showing a pair of handcuffs.

Similarly, longtime liberal activist Jesse Jackson, appearing on FOX News, said “these people [protesters] are fighting for the most basic democratic rights.”

Jackson further warned: So they're going to escalate the protests -- you will either have collective bargaining through a vehicle called collective bargaining or you're going to have it through the streets.

People here are going to fight back because they think their cause is moral and they have nowhere else to go.

Jackson envisions more protests, calling Wisconsin “ground zero for workers rights to bargain and… to deal with issues with economic justice.”

He also compared the current struggle to the civil rights movement for voting rights in the 1960s.

“I submit to you the rich is getting much richer, the poor are getting much poorer and the middle class is sinking,” he declared. These are uissues that must be dealt with at the highest levels of our government.