This is a  cross-post  from The Huffington Post by Stan Sorscher, labor representative for the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace/IFPTE Local 2001 ( SPEEA /IFPTE).

The other day, I had lunch with an economist I respect and admire. I asked him, what would it take for China to become a modern democracy and build a strong middle class?

OK. I didn't  ask  him that. I  told  him that China would need strong institutions of civil society and a deeper sense of a social contract to become a stable modern democracy with a dynamic middle class.

This is a crosspost from Common Dreams by Michelle Chen, a contributing editor at In These Times and other publications. The following is an excerpt from a longer essay, "What Labor Looks Like: From Wisconsin to Cairo, Youth Hold a Mirror to History of Workers' Struggles," written for the new book, Labor Rising: The Past and Future of Working People in America (The New Press), edited by Daniel Katz and Richard A. Greenwald.

Every revolution needs two essential ingredients: Young people, who are willing to dream, and poor people, who have nothing to lose. Yet the social forces that make movements strong also incline them toward self-destruction. Hence, over the past few decades, uneasy intergenerational alliances have melted away as impatient young radicals bridle against the old guard of incumbent left movements. At the same time, when it comes to organizing, without patronizing, poor folks, activists continually struggle just to find the right language to talk about systemic poverty in a sanitized political arena that has largely been wrung dry of real class consciousness.

Adele Stan, a journalist and lifelong member of the labor movement, reports on a timely forum on inequality and jobs at Georgetown University today .

In Washington, D.C., as in dozens of other U.S. cities, the 99 percent movement is inescapable, even in the politest of venues, as demonstrated today at a forum titled “Jobs, Inequality and the Role of  Government,” sponsored at the Georgetown Law School. The movement’s  chant, “We are the 99 percent,” is meant to draw the distinction between the average American and the top 1 percent who possess 42 percent of the nation’s  wealth.

Proving once again that state Senate Republicans don’t believe in democracy, Wisconsin Sen. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald  yesterday said the votes of state Senate Democrats won’t count.

What happened last night in the Wisconsin State Legislature is not democracy. It was backdoor deal-making, twisted partisan politics not worthy of America, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, vowing that:

this assault on workers’ freedom will not stand.

Wow. Let’s hear it for the Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA). Today the organization slammed Senate Republicans after they ordered the detention of 14 Democratic senators staying in Illinois “with or without force.” Here’s the statement by these defenders of civil liberties and democracy:

“Politics aside, encouraging the forcible detention of duly elected lawmakers because they won’t allow you to dictate with a free hand is an unreasonable abuse of police power,” said WPPA Executive Director Jim Palmer. “Due to the fact that Wisconsin officers lack any jurisdiction across state lines, does Sen. Fitzgerald intend to establish a ‘lawmaker border patrol?’ The thought of using law enforcement officers to exercise force in order to achieve a political objective is insanely wrong and Wisconsin sorely needs reasonable solutions and not potentially dangerous political theatrics.”

This is a ground report from Wiscsonsin by Harvey J. Kaye, crossposted from New Deal 2.0 . Kaye is the Rosenberg Professor of Democracy and Justice Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and the author of Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. A member of the National Writers Union/UAW, he is currently writing The Four Freedoms and the Promise of America. Follow him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/HarveyJKaye .

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on working families are not about shoring up state finances, economist Paul Krugman correctly points out today .