Dear friend,
As we face the primary election in Washington state, we are confronted with a long list of capitalism’s crises, that the ballot box can barely touch. ICE kidnappings and murders, soaring inflation, unjust wars and genocide. It’s grim!
But resistance is the watch word of the day. From the Minneapolis rebellion against the invasion of ICE mercenaries to striking hotel workers during the FIFA games, more and more working people are standing up against repression. On the August ballot you will be able to express your support for the working class.
Vote for Kshama Sawant for U.S. House of Representatives, 9th Congressional District
Kshama Sawant is running against the incumbent Democrat, Adam Smith, in the 9th Congressional District, which includes south and central Seattle as well as parts of Bellevue, Renton, Tukwila, Kent, Des Moines and Federal Way. Smith is a war hawk Democrat who co-chairs the House Armed Services Committee and is a long-time supporter of Israel.
Sawant is running as a revolutionary socialist. Her platform includes ending genocide and occupation in Gaza, universal healthcare, taxing the rich, rent control, stopping deportations, shutting down detention centers, raising the minimum wage, creating union jobs, addressing climate change, nationalizing big energy, and more.
While it is great that Kshama is running as an open socialist and calls for workers to break with the parties of the bosses — the Democrats and Republicans — our support for Kshama comes with increasing reservations.
Since her time in Seattle city hall as a member of Socialist Alternative, Sawant has often taken sole credit for movement successes without sharing the credit with others who contributed to victories like the fight for a $15 minimum wage, low income housing campaigns and taxing the rich. She wasn’t the first to call for these things and she won’t be the last. To call all victories entirely your own is sectarian and harms the movements rather than building them.
Sawant and her organizations crossed class lines when they supported Bernie Sanders running as a Democrat for president and then later endorsing Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who is not an anti-capitalist. She also backed Carmen Best as chief of the Seattle Police Department while a council member. She understands the role of the police is to defend the capitalist state even when the chief is a Black woman. Caving in to pressure from the powerful to further one’s career or position is opportunist.
Increasingly, Sawant is ultra-focused on election campaigns as the way to build the mass working-class organization she calls for, thereby presenting the illusion that elections can solve workers problems under the capitalist system.
What builds workers’ power is a good fight and what the times call for is teaming up with rank-and-file workers in a democratic united front. United fronts can build successful campaigns to defend the right to strike, free speech, and the right to protest; plus put an end to ICE, stop police violence, and more. In a united front, multiple organizations work together with one aim but respect each other’s differences. We hope Sawant will turn to this model of organizing going forward.
Vote for socialist Kshama Sawant but hold her accountable when her actions don’t benefit the working class.
Vote No on Seattle Prop. 1 — Library levy renewal
The August ballot includes yet another renewal of the library property tax levy. Here’s what this levy proposes to do:
- Cost the owner of a median valued home $193 a year for the next 7 years, which is three times higher than when the levy was first put on the ballot in 2012
- Double how much it expects to raise over the last levy
- Provide funds for library operations, seismic retrofits of buildings, technology upgrades and remodels.
Tugging at residents’ heart strings, most city officials, non-profits and many unions support this levy. If passed, it also means that 33% of the Seattle Public Library budget will be reliant on this tax measure rather than money coming from the General Fund as it used to.
Libraries are wonderful, important and necessary, but this unrelenting regressive taxation creates more poverty, with higher rents, pricing more people out of Seattle, especially in people of color communities. The city council and mayor should let us vote on the police budget, on how much money they spend on consultants, and on how many tax credits wealthy housing developers get. They also must tax the uber rich. That’s how we can fully fund libraries and social services. Vote NO on Prop. 1.
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If you would like to discuss these issues, or any others, please write to SeattleFSP@socialism.com, text 206-496-9655 or call 206-722-2453. We are happy to keep the conversation going!
Sincerely,
Doreen McGrath
Organizer
