On Saturday, April 2, a "We Are One" rally was jointly organized by the B.C. Federation of Labour and the Washington and Oregon arms of the AFL-CIO and its labour councils. Held on the U.S. side of the international Peace Arch border crossing, at our count more than two thousand rallied in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin. 

Trust the Vancouver Sun to whitewash corporate shenanigans.

Case in point, the annual meeting of the Bank of Montreal in Vancouver on March 22.

The bank has become a major target of public hostility in Wisconsin, where last December it bought the Marshall and Ilsley Bank for $4.1 billion.

While BMO shareholders listened to CEO Bill Downe present his rosy forecasts for profits from this acquisition, public and private sector workers and their supporters protested in front of the M&I branch in Madison, Wisconsin, ground zero in the corporate attack on public sector unions.

It turns out that the bank and its top executives led the list of contributors to Republican Governor Scott Walker's campaign fund in 2010.

Thanks to Mark Brooks, researcher and campaigner with the Utility Workers Union of America, and one of the hundreds who occupied the Madison Capitol, for insight and assistance with this posting.  

American trade unionists and their student allies are putting up a hell of a fight to stop union busting, and there is a lot we can learn from the experience.

The formula is straightforward. First, stand on principle. Second, mobilize in large numbers and be in the streets. Third, engage in peaceful, but direct actions that focus and dramatize the goals of the movement. Finally, communicate -- and encourage everyone to communicate.