Indiana :



On Monday, thousands of steelworkers, autoworkers and other labor activists surrounded the Indiana state capitol to protest a bill before the legislature to dramatically weaken the clout of private-sector unions.

In Ohio, union officials are expecting 5,000 or more protesters Tuesday at the state house, where a legislative panel is considering a Republican-backed bill that would restrict collective-bargaining rights for about 400,000 public employees. Republican Gov. John Kasich supports the bill, a spokesman said.

Yesterday, I posted this dairy giving the dates and times for protests nationwide.

In New York, we will hold our second rally in support of Wisconsin workers at 5 p.m. in front of FOX News (48th and 6th Avenue). Details are here .

While the focus on the fight for the middle-class is taking place in the state capitols, here is the other piece of the puzzle:



Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s fiscal-fourth-quarter earnings rose 27% as the retailer capitalized on strength in its international business. The Bentonville, Ark., company also projected current-year earnings of $4.35 to $4.50 a share and first-quarter earnings of 91 cents to 96 cents. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters have been expecting $4.43 and 96 cents, respectively. For the period ended Jan. 31, Wal-Mart posted a profit of $6.06 billion, or $1.70 a share, up from $4.76 billion, or $1.25 a share, a year earlier. Adjusted for items such as a tax benefit, earnings were $1.34. Revenue increased 2.4% to $116.36 billion. Analysts were expecting $117.72 billion.

The juxtaposition cannot be clearer. On the one hand, we have the people who make this country work--the teachers, the firemen and all the public sector workers--and who represent an important part of a long struggle to create a decent standard of living in America.

And, on the other hand, we have the the shining example of corporate greed and of the destruction of the American Dream. Wal-Mart makes its billions on a strategy of exploiting poverty . It pays low wages and its low prices cater to the increasingly destitute class of millions of people who cannot afford to shop anywhere but Wal-Mart because Wal-Mart wages--or, more broadly, the strategy to lower wages as much as possible--is the economic strategy of corporate America, and of those elected leaders who want to destroy what public workers have fought for.

The people with their hands on the economic levers want us to believe that embracing Wal-Mart is a false choice between "The Soviet Union" and "the free market" .

So, that is why YOU must go to the streets. It's the choice between the American Dream and the Wal-Mart strategy.