SEATTLE TIMES CALLS RECALL RACE FOR SOCIALIST: Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has turned back an effort to recall her from office after a 10-day vote count. Supporters of Sawant — Seattle’s only socialist council member and the first in the city’s history to face a recall — narrowly outdid those in favor of a recall, claiming 50.4% of the vote.… Read more ...
Above image: Sawant declares victory in front of Tax Amazon banner November 2019
By Howie Hawkins
Kshama Sawant has served on the Seattle City Council for six years as its first socialist elected in nearly a century. She has taken on big business interests and worked on behalf of working people and the poor.… Read more ...
Former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, who received 43,018 votes as the Justice Party presidential nominee in 2012, spoke with MintPress News about the need for alternative party presidential candidates in 2016.
Though Anderson said he will not run himself, he said, “We need a good strong challenge, not with the expectation necessarily that somebody’s going to win the election, but that they’re going to help change the course of the debate.”… Read more ...
Techdirt reports that Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant of Socialist Alternative is calling for municipal broadband for the city. Sawant writes, “Seattle would be the largest city in the country to implement municipal broadband. We should expect Comcast and CenturyLink to go to every length to keep their unchallenged duopoly in Seattle.… Read more ...
From the Socialist Alternative website:
The Next Steps In Queer Liberation
This month, the Supreme Court will rule on whether marriage rights should be given to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI) people across the country. The fact the Court is hearing this case reflects a welcome shift in social attitudes brought about by decades of struggle and significant marriage equality victories in state after state.… Read more ...
March 15, 2015
By Chris Hedges
SEATTLE—Kshama Sawant, the socialist on the City Council, is up for re-election this year. Since joining the council in January of 2014 she has helped push through a gradual raising of the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Seattle. She has expanded funding for social services and blocked, along with housing advocates, an attempt by the Seattle Housing Authority to allow a rent increase of up to 400 percent.… Read more ...
(The following was originally posted on socialist Seattle Council Member Kshama Sawant’s blog.)
Here are some common questions about Kshama Sawant and Nick Licata’s proposal to fund Metro transit with a progressive tax on businesses. For more information, check out this opinion column by Kshama and Nick in the Puget Sound Business Journal, and see below on how you can support this proposal.… Read more ...
(The following was posted on socialist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant’s blog.)
In the face of increasing controversy and public outrage, Mayor Murray hasdecided not to give Jorge Carrasco a raise ‘at this time.’ This striking reversal is the outcome of strong public pressure on the City’s political establishment and a sign of the disgust working people feel about executive excess.… Read more ...
(The following was posted on socialist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant’s blog.)
On June 30th, four City Councilmembers claimed that they were defending the democratic process by refusing to allow public financing of elections to be considered by the City Council. This refusal has been a blow to many grassroots activists, and serves as another example of how the establishment stifles measures taken to strengthen public participation in governance.… Read more ...
(The following was originally posted on Seattle City Councilor Kshama Sawant’s blog.)
On June 30, the Council voted on a resolution which revised investment policies in several ways, most notably to encourage fossil fuel divestment (PDF). I supported the resolution. Here are my remarks:
I wanted to thank Councilmember Licata for advancing this resolution, and also to all of the activists in this city, including students at UW who have been working on this.… Read more ...
(The following was originally published by Kshama Sawant on her blog.)
My comments will not be brief, because I want to express the opinions of the working people of this city.
I appreciate all the work that has gone into this police chief search. I appreciate Councilmembers Harrell and Burgess, all the members of the Committee, all the members of the Community Police Commission, and all of the Mayor’s staff who I know have put in tremendous work.… Read more ...
(The following was originally published on The Socialist.)
Capitalism has created a world in which just 85 people have as much wealth as the poorest half of humanity. While the rich get richer we are made to pay for a crisis of their system.
The bosses and their politicians heap austerity upon our heads.… Read more ...
