The heavy-handed tactics of Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin has awakened the US labor movement, and a wider class consciousness, as much as any event in the past 30 years. Two new polls out in the past 24 hours not only confirm this, they reveal a coalition remarkably similar to the coalition occupying the Capitol in Madison for the last two weeks.

The Pew Research Center’s topline stats show Wisconsinites favoring the public employee unions over Governor Walker by 42-31. But dig deeper. Among the 18-29 set, a vanishing small number of which belong to unions, the number expands to 46-13. Among nonwhites, it expands to 51-19. Among those who make less than $75,000 a year, it’s roughly 48-25 (I had to add a couple numbers together there). The future of the country is strongly on the side of workers in this struggle, forming the backbone of a new progressive alliance, a youth-labor alliance of color.

The New York Times/CBS national poll is even more pronounced. Collective bargaining rights are favored 60-33. 56% oppose cutting worker pay or benefits to fix budget deficits. By a nearly 2-1 margin, people