Throughout the Middle East the people of several countries have risen up and give to the street to demand the rights they have been denied. In Wisconsin the marches have also began. They may soon follow in New Jersey, Ohio and New York, as conservative governors seek to end unions forever.

Ending unions ends the free choice of workers to unite to protect their rights. In Wisconsin it ends all collective bargaining, refuses to allow unions to require dues payments from members, and insists unions be re-certified by their members annually. It effectively ends all unions.

These governors are not seeking cost savings, they are using cost savings to break unions, whose members for the most part do not vote for Republican candidates. These are of course the same governors who more often argue for smaller, less intrusive government. Make no mistake, they only mean less intrusive to their interests…they have every intention of aborting the freedom to associate for those who they oppose.

It seems that Republicans have elevated their attack upon the middle class in America with this coordinated attack upon unions. Unions, they claim, are too well paid and have too many benefits.

Really?

In the last two decades wages for the American middle class have fallen and insurance costs have risen while benefits have fallen. This general erosion of the middle class continues unabated, yet these extreme governors seek to “save America” by breaking living wages and good benefits.

But isn’t the better solution that more Americans deserve a living wage and good benefits, not less?

How would any American benefit from government saying who can associate with others and what they can do to protect their rights in their associations?

When did less freedom ever make America better?

These are the same people who oppose auto workers wages and bonuses and insurance benefits…because they oppose Americans anywhere making a living wage, unless they are bankers making millions and billions producing…nothing.

Republicans supported bonuses paid to fake insurer AIG, in the millions of dollars for losing trillions of dollars. These were bonuses paid for losses not profits, but perfectly fine for most Republicans.

But workers making good wages and having good benefits? That is simply wrong if you are a governor in Ohio, Wisconsin, New York or New Jersey.

Could these governors have gone to the unions and sought concessions in wages and benefits? Of course, and unions have made such concessions in tough times throughout our labor history. But that is not even considered now, because the point of this exercise is to end unions in America because they do not vote Republican.

You may have objections to some union activities, most everyone does. And there is little doubt American unionism needs some change for the 21st century.

But unions help create the American middle class, and unions help train American skilled workers, and certify acquired skills in many professions.

And unions provide at least a small balance against international corporations determined to reduce U.S. wages to impoverished levels in competition with underdeveloped nations. Unions offer some small protection against big government even as that government seeks to destroy their value.

In Wisconsin it seems as though the Republicans will succeed this week in destroying the unions. But it will not be an end, it will only be a beginning to a fight that will be won, sooner or later, by real Americans who work hard for a living and simply demand to have their rights protected.

They will march in the streets in Egypt, in Libya and in Wisconsin … until their freedoms are recognized.

Jim Crawford is retired educator and political enthusiast living here in the Tri-State.