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kshama sawant
Seattle Becomes First US City to Ban Caste Discrimination With Kshama Sawant Ordinance
The Socialist Alternative Seattle Councilmember stressed that "caste discrimination doesn't only take place in other countries" and said she hopes the new law will become a "beacon" for other cities to follow.
Feb 22, 2023
The Seattle City Council voted Tuesday for the first U.S. ban on caste-based discrimination, a move the measure's socialist sponsor hopes will inspire similar legislation nationwide.
The council voted 6-1 in favor of an ordinance by District 3 Councilmember Kshama Sawant of the Socialist Alternative party that adds caste as a protected class to a long list that includes age, race, religion, gender identity, national origin, immigration status, disability, and military status.
Caste discrimination will now be banned in fields including employment, housing, and public accommodation. People experiencing caste-based discrimination will also be able to file official complaints.
Not only is it the first such law in the U.S., it's the first in the world outside South Asia.
"This bill is not technically complicated, it's a very simple question: Should discrimination based on caste be allowed to continue in Seattle?" Sawant said in a packed City Hall before Tuesday's vote.
Sawant, who is Indian-American, called the measure "profound and historic" and expressed hope that it will serve as a "beacon" for other cities to follow.
"If... you marched in the Black Lives Matter movement or you desire to live in a society free of racism, racial discrimination, sexism, or misogyny, then you should be paying attention," she told CNN before the vote. "Because while caste oppression or discrimination does not affect all Americans, the way it manifests itself is no different than other types of oppression under capitalism."
Emotions and tensions ran high in City Hall before, during, and after the vote. Yogesh Mane, who grew up Dalit—the lowest caste—in India, wept as he heard the council's decision.
"I'm emotional because this is the first time such an ordinance has been passed anywhere in the world outside of South Asia," he told the Associated Press. "It's a historic moment."
The caste system, which has existed in South Asia for millennia, divides Hindus into groups including Brahmins (priests and teachers); Kshatriyas (rulers and warriors); Vaishyas (farmers, merchants, and traders); Shudras (laborers); and Dalits (street and latrine cleaners).
Although India's constitution, whose drafting was led by the Dalit scholar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, officially banned caste-based discrimination, those on the lower rungs—especially the Dalits—continue to suffer endemic discrimination and frequent violence. Such bigotry has been inflamed by the rise of Hindu nationalism in recent decades, and during the tenure of right-wing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Advocates of the ordinance in Washington state's largest city stressed that caste-based bigotry is by no means limited to South Asia.
"Caste discrimination doesn't only take place in other countries," Sawant—who grew up in a middle-class Brahmin family in Mumbai—said in a statement announcing the introduction of her bill. "It is faced by South Asian-American and other immigrant working people in their workplaces, including in the tech sector, in Seattle and in cities around the country."
"We know that caste discrimination has been growing in the United States across many industries, including technology, construction, restaurants, and the service industry, and in domestic work," she added. "Caste discrimination is increasingly a grave contributor to workplace discrimination and bias—data from Equality Labs show that 1 in 4 caste-oppressed people faced physical and verbal assault, 1 in 3 faced education discrimination, and 2 in 3 faced workplace discrimination."
Sawant continued:
Just as racism is not the result of an "inevitable" racial friction between white and Black people, caste oppression has also been maintained by the class structure of capitalist society in South Asia and now in the United States.
Beyond winning reforms such as this one, working people in our city, nationally, and internationally need to unite and build mass movements to fight for a socialist society. Because as long as an exploitative and rapacious system like capitalism exists, oppression will be endemic. The only way to end caste, racial, gender, and other oppressions is for the working class to fight for a different kind of world.
Caste-based discrimination is at the center of a case making its way through a California state court in which a former engineer at Cisco Systems says he was excluded from meetings and passed up for promotions because he is Dalit.
One Seattle-area tech worker, who gave only the name Maya for fear of retaliation, told The Seattle Times that she has been the target of workplace caste discrimination because she is Dalit. Maya said her manager rebuffed an offer to volunteer for a work project, telling her, "You better not touch the project because you're ill-fated."
"It might not sound like something major, but for us, it completely resonates with the caste and untouchability because not touching is what all of the dominant-caste people have made rules around for so long," Maya explained. "That's why we are called untouchables. We're not supposed to touch anything or anyone."
"Caste is an evil that has been practiced for more than 3,000 years now," she added. "We carry the genetic trauma of caste for such a long time already. But if we don't have caste protections, then this is going to affect even the next generations."
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'Our Movement Is Only Growing': Workers at Over 50 Starbucks Seeking Unions
Employees of at least 16 Starbucks locations across the nation filed unionization papers on Monday alone.
Jan 31, 2022
What began last month with a promising trickle has turned into a torrent as workers in at least 16 Starbucks stores on Monday moved to unionize.
Starbucks Workers United--which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)--announced Monday that workers at 16 of the coffee chain's locations filed for union elections with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
In a letter to Starbucks president and CEO Kevin Johnson, organizers at the 16th location to file union papers on Monday--the Garden Home Marketplace Starbucks in Portland, Oregon--said that they "have decided to unionize because it is time that our voices are heard, respected, and considered appropriately."
"Our movement is only growing," Starbucks Workers United tweeted. "Partners around the country are standing up for what's right and we couldn't be more inspired!"
According to More Perfect Union, workers at more than 50 Starbucks stores in 19 states have now moved to unionize following the successful unionization of employees at two Buffalo, New York-area stores.
AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler has accused Starbucks of engaging in anti-union tactics in a bid to thwart workers' unionization drive. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) last month decried the company's union-busting efforts, while calling Starbucks workers an "inspiration."
Speaking at a rally in support of the Starbucks workers last week, Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant (Socialist Alternative-District 3)--who is donating $10,000 from her Solidarity Fund to the employees' organizing effort--said that "it is extremely critical that we build on the success of Buffalo for a nationwide almighty battle to unionize and follow that up with a class-struggle-based approach to winning contracts."
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Big Business Defeated as Socialist Kshama Sawant's Victory Certified in Seattle
"We have defeated Big Business and the right wing in their attempt to use... trumped-up charges against me personally in order to push back against the success of working-class movements in Seattle."
Dec 17, 2021
Progressive cheers went up far and wide Friday after Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant officially defeated a right-wing recall effort, which the Socialist Alternative lawmaker called "part of the nationwide backlash" by billionaires and Big Business targeting lawmakers and others fighting for social justice and working people.
"The ruling class in the United States is afraid of these kinds of movements and so we should not be surprised by the reaction."
Elections officials in King County, Washington certified the anti-recall effort, with a final tally of 20,656 ballots against recalling Sawant and 20,346 in favor--a victory margin of 310 votes.
"We have won three elections and now we have defeated this recall," Sawant said during a Thursday interview for Jordan Chariton's Status Coup News podcast. "We have defeated Big Business and the right wing in their attempt to use... trumped-up charges against me personally in order to push back against the success of working-class movements in Seattle."
Turnout was around 53%, an unusually high figure for a special election that nearly matched the 55% level of last year's general election. Sawant supporters utilized an array of get-out-the-vote tactics, including pop-up tents where ballots were printed, to reach voters.
Sawant, the longest-tenured Seattle council member and the first ever to face a recall, was accused of "misfeasance, malfeasance, and violation of the oath of office."
Her supporters, however, argued that Sawant's successful record of fighting for working-class people and against billionaires and Big Business made her a target of "a cabal of tech corporations, real estate interests, and business lobbyists."
Sawant was instrumental in making Seattle the first major U.S. city to enact a $15 hourly minimum wage. She also helped spearhead the successful push for the so-called "Amazon tax" on large corporations and the fight for robust tenant protections including free legal aid for people facing eviction and a Renters' Bill of Rights.
"The ruling class in the United States is afraid of these kinds of movements," Sawant told Chariton, "and so we should not be surprised by the reaction, and the recall against us was at least part of that reaction."
The socialist councilmember also said that "it's no coincidence" that two of the three reasons given for the recall "were related to my participation in and solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement."
"The recall against my office is part of the nationwide backlash... against this incredible movement that happened last year with 26 million American people, especially young people, marching in the streets in multi-racial working-class solidarity against police repression, against racism, and against oppression," she said.
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With Razor-Thin Recall Lead, Socialist Seattle Council Member Sawant Declares 'Apparent Victory'
"Terrible news all around for the capitalist bums."
Dec 10, 2021
Socialist Alternative Seattle, Washington District 3 City Council member Kshama Sawant declared "apparent victory" Friday morning after taking a razor-thin lead in her bid to defeat a billionaire-backed recall effort.
"We did not back down in fighting for workers."
The election swung Sawant's way Thursday as she received more than two-thirds of the votes counted that day and as the number of outstanding ballots in the high turnout election continued to dwindle. According to the latest tally by King County election officials, the yes on the recall side had 49.71% to the no side's 50.29%.
"It appears we have defeated the combined efforts of Big Business, the right wing, the corporate media, the court, and the political establishment who sought to remove our socialist council office by any means necessary," Sawant told a crowd of cheering supporters and journalists Friday morning.
"We won because we did not back down... instead we went on the offensive," she said. "We did not back down in fighting for workers."
The Kshama Solidarity Campaign said after Thursday's daily election update that Sawant had a 232-vote lead. She had been steadily chipping away at the "yes" campaign's lead, receiving 62% of nearly 7,000 ballots cast on Wednesday and 68% of Thursday's votes.
MyNorthwest reports:
According to King County Elections, a total of 41,364 ballots were turned in by District 3 voters, 40,629 of which have been counted as of Thursday evening. That number could be also subject to change as ballots postmarked by the Tuesday deadline trickle in by mail. Of the estimated 735 uncounted ballots, at least 591 need to have a signature challenge resolved. That's down from 656 signature challenges leading into Thursday, with KCE resolving an average of between 20 to 60 a day.
Sawant began Friday's press conference by congratulating Buffalo, New York-area Starbucks workers for their successful unionization effort.
"It is a sign of things to come," she said. "Former Starbucks CEO and Seattle District 3 resident Howard Schulz had a very bad day yesterday; between Starbucks workers beginning to take off their chains and our apparent victory here in Seattle, it was terrible news all around for the capitalist bums."
"We now have before us a real opportunity to win rent control, but we need to go on the offensive next year to make this happen."
Sawant credited the grassroots get-out-the-vote effort of her staff and volunteers for the recall result, "and the political clarity of socialist ideas that guided every effort to win this historic victory for working folks."
Elections officials said turnout was around 53%, an extraordinary figure for a special election and nearly as high as the 55% level seen during last year's general election.
While Sawant enjoys broad working-class support for taking on Big Tech, real estate developers, and landlords--and for leading the push to make Seattle the first major U.S. city with a $15 hourly minimum wage--those same actions have made powerful enemies among billionaires and other right-wing figures who are among the recall's leading backers.
The "no" campaign is supported by numerous labor unions, racial justice activists, and leftist luminaries including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), linguist and dissident Noam Chomsky, labor leader Sara Nelson, and actress and activist Susan Sarandon.
Sawant said the next big battle is rent control.
"We now have before us a real opportunity to win rent control," she said at the press conference, "but we need to go on the offensive next year to make this happen."
This post has been updated with details from Kshama Sawant's Friday press conference.
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Nail-Biter in Seattle as Recall of Socialist Kshama Sawant Remains Too Close to Call
Preliminary returns showed effort to oust progressive city council member was supported by 53% of voters, but crucial late ballots might lean in her favor.
Dec 08, 2021
The outcome of the recall effort targeting socialist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant was still too close to call early Wednesday, as supporters pointed to her 2019 electoral win as a sign she may still have a chance to fend off the challenge.
"Big business and the right wing want to remove Kshama because she's such an effective fighter for working people."
District 3 council member Sawant, a member of the Socialist Alternative Party, faced the recall election Tuesday, and a final ballot count is expected by Friday.
As of late Tuesday, results showed 53% of District 3 voters backing the recall compared to roughly 47% opposed. Of the approximately 2,600 ballots left to count, according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer, Sawant needs more than 75% in her favor to avoid ouster.
The PI also noted that "progressive voters are known for voting later, which means the bulk of the remaining votes could be in Sawant's favor."
Author and social justice campaigner Jonathan Rosenblum expressed optimism about Sawant's chances as well.
"We're going to beat this right-wing recall," he wrote in a Twitter thread late Tuesday.
"Because late votes (which aren't in tonight's count) lean left, the recallers had to keep us under 44% tonight to win," he said. "They failed."
In the 2019 election to hold on to her District 3 seat, Sawant "had 45.61% on election night and ended up with 51.83%," tweeted Rosenblum. "Tonight, we started with 46.90%, and will only improve from here."
The recall campaign, as Common Dreams reported this week, is backed by Republican donors and real estate developers.
According to the Kshama Solidarity Campaign, the recall effort is bankrolled by "right-wing billionaire donors" and is underway because Sawant "has used her eight years in office to win historic victories like the $15 minimum wage, the Amazon Tax to fund housing, and landmark renters protections that infuriate the real estate lobby."
Recall supporters accuse Sawant of using city resources to support a ballot initiative, flouting state pandemic rules by admitting people into City Hall when it was closed to the public, and violating confidentiality rules by leading a protest march to Mayor Jenny Durkan's private residence.
Sawant's team rejects those charges, saying in a statement to local KING5 that the accusations are "dishonest and the courts haven't found her guilty of anything."
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Kshama Sawant v. 'Real Estate Tycoons and Developers' on Final Day of Seattle Recall Vote
"Big business and the right-wing want to remove Kshama," the statement continued, "because she's such an effective fighter for working people."
Sawant's current term is set to expire at the end of 2023. If the recall effort is successful, she would be removed December 17, the day elections results will be certified. A special election to fill the seat would take place in 2022.
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Kshama Sawant v. 'Real Estate Tycoons and Developers' on Final Day of Seattle Recall Vote
"Once again, the wealthy and special interests are making a power grab for Kshama Sawant's seat because she has the guts to stand up for working people," Sen. Bernie Sanders recently said in support of the socialist council member.
Dec 07, 2021
As Seattle residents face an 8:00 pm Tuesday deadline to cast their ballots in the recall election of District 3 Council member Kshama Sawant, supporters of the Socialist Alternative lawmaker made their final pitch to the Washington city's voters.
"Instead of spending money on the recall, businesses should focus on supporting economic recovery, our public health, addressing racial inequities, and creating a clean-fueled economy."
"Vote 'no' on the right-wing recall," the Kshama Solidarity Campaign said in a statement, calling accusations by proponents of recalling the third-term council member "dishonest."
"The courts haven't found her guilty of anything," the campaign continued. "Kshama, an immigrant woman of color, is being attacked for participating in peaceful Black Lives Matter protests. This recall is part of the racist right-wing backlash attempting to criminalize protest nationally. Big Business and the right wing want to remove Kshama because she's such an effective fighter for working people."
The recall ballot accuses Sawant, the longest-tenured Seattle council member, of "misfeasance, malfeasance, and violation of the oath of office." Specifically, it says she "used city resources to support a ballot initiative," ignored state pandemic rules "by admitting hundreds of people into City Hall" when it was closed to the public, and "led a protest march to Democratic Mayor Jenny Durkan's private residence."
Sawant's supporters, however, argue that it's her record of fighting for working-class people and against billionaires and Big Business that has made her a target of "a cabal of tech corporations, real estate interests, and business lobbyists."
"Once again, the wealthy and special interests are making a power grab for Kshama Sawant's seat because she has the guts to stand up for working people," U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said last week. "We need to unite together to stop this baseless recall."
Marxist economist Richard D. Wolff said earlier this week that "when the capitalists and their political servants see the appeal of socialist ideas and proposals, they try to destroy socialist leaders."
Accusing Sawant foes of "abusing the recall process to remove politicians who pose a mild threat to the bottom lines of real estate tycoons and developers will likely prevail," Rich Smith, associate editor of The Stranger, wrote Monday that "conservative media and right-wing activists are scraping the bottom of their barrels for more shit to throw at Sawant's campaign."
While the editorial board of The Seattle Times recently accused Sawant of "shrugging at City Hall norms" and "performative chicanery," her supporters point to her key role in making Seattle the first major U.S. city to enact a $15 hourly minimum wage, as well as in helping to lead the successful push for the so-called "Amazon tax" on large corporations and a slew of tenant protections including free legal aid for people facing eviction and the landmark Renters' Bill of Rights.
Goodman Real Estate CEO George Petrie is one of more than 100 financial backers of former President Donald Trump and hundreds of GOP donors to support the recall, as is Columbia Modern Living president Carl Haglund--described by a whistleblower as a "notorious slumlord." In 2016, Sawant successfully led the effort to pass the so-called "Carl Haglund Law" to boost tenant's rights.
Billionaire real estate developer Martin Selig, known locally as the "ICE landlord," and his apparent heir and daughter, Jordan Selig, are also among the recall's supporters. So is Egan Orion, whose unsuccessful 2019 run to unseat incumbent Sawant received nearly half a million dollars from an Amazon-backed PAC run by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. Orion provided the recall campaign with data on 2,500 of his donors and their employers.
Washington state Sen. Rebecca Saldana (D-37) said last week that "instead of spending money on the recall, businesses should focus on supporting economic recovery, our public health, addressing racial inequities, and creating a clean-fueled economy that recognizes the dire climate emergency."
Saldana added that "if Kshama were a man, she'd be treated differently."
Linguist and leftist dissident Noam Chomsky, who turned 93 years old on Tuesday, was an early opponent of the campaign against Sawant, calling it "a tribute to her achievements and the significance of the goals for which she works successfully--a serious threat to those with illegitimate power."
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Urging Biden to 'Put Human Lives Before Billionaire Profit,' Seattle City Council Backs Vaccine Patent Waiver
"This resolution demonstrates our movement's rejection of the status quo of profit-driven vaccine apartheid and vaccine nationalism, and our fight for vaccine internationalism."
Apr 27, 2021
The Seattle City Council late Monday passed a resolution calling on President Joe Biden to immediately end U.S. stonewalling of an international effort to suspend vaccine patents as Covid-19 cases surge worldwide, intensifying anger at rich nations as they hoard doses and undercut global inoculation campaigns.
"Profit-driven billionaires and big pharmaceutical companies, with the blessing of the Biden administration, are blocking many countries like Brazil, India, and South Africa from producing generic versions of the Covid-19 vaccine."
--Kshama Sawant, Seattle City Councilmember
Led by socialist Councilmember Kshama Sawant and passed by a 7-to-1 vote, the resolution (pdf) adds the Seattle City Council to a diverse list (pdf) of hundreds of civil society organizations, unions, and advocacy groups pushing Biden to support the patent waiver, which India and South Africa first introduced at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in October.
"I congratulate our movement on winning today's City Council resolution, urging the Biden administration to put human lives before billionaire profit, and remove the WTO patent restrictions to allow all billions of people to have access to the life-saving vaccine," Sawant said in a statement Monday. "This resolution demonstrates our movement's rejection of the status quo of profit-driven vaccine apartheid and vaccine nationalism, and our fight for vaccine internationalism, for a People's Vaccine!"
The resolution's passage comes as activists and U.S. lawmakers continue to pressure the Biden administration to change its position as the WTO prepares to consider the patent waiver proposal once again at a formal meeting next month. The pharmaceutical industry, meanwhile, is aggressively lobbying the Biden White House to maintain its opposition to the measure.
If approved, the temporary waiver would enable generic manufacturers to replicate vaccine formulas, a step proponents say is necessary to bring production into line with global needs.
"The rapid and widespread global dissemination of vaccinations is at the center of every strategy by public health professionals to stop the spread of the virus. Yet, the global situation is dire, with stunningly inequitable vaccination access," Sawant noted Monday. "On average, 1 in 4 people in high-income countries have received a coronavirus vaccine, compared with just 1 in more than 500 in low-income countries."
"Profit-driven billionaires and big pharmaceutical companies, with the blessing of the Biden administration, are blocking many countries like Brazil, India, and South Africa from producing generic versions of the Covid-19 vaccine," Sawant continued. "If we don't fight to change this, starting with the necessary first step of removing the WTO patent restrictions, public health experts say it will literally be years before people in the Global South get the vaccine."
On Monday, the Biden administration committed to sharing up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine with other countries once the shot passes federal safety reviews. The White House's announcement came amid reports that the U.S. could have as many as 300 million extra vaccine doses by the end of July as some developing nations struggle to obtain and administer a single dose.
"The U.S. government urgently should launch a program to make eight billion additional Covid vaccine doses within a year's time, share vaccine recipes with the world, and end the pandemic."
--Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen
While calling the Biden administration's pledge "a welcome and positive step," Peter Maybarduk of Public Citizen said in a statement that 60 million doses "amount to several drops in the bucket compared to global need."
"Low- and middle-income countries will need eight billion doses to achieve 80% herd immunity through vaccination. If the U.S. were to ship all 60 million doses to India today, it would be enough to vaccinate just 2% of India's population," Maybarduk said. "The U.S. government urgently should launch a program to make eight billion additional Covid vaccine doses within a year's time, share vaccine recipes with the world, and end the pandemic."
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Public Citizen's Lori Wallach issued a similar call in the pages of the Washington Post on Monday, writing that "any delay in ensuring the greatest availability of vaccines and therapeutics is morally wrong and foolish--both in terms of public health and the economy."
"Waiving intellectual property rights so developing countries could produce more vaccines would make a big difference in reaching global herd immunity," Stiglitz and Wallach argued. "Otherwise, the pandemic will rage largely unmitigated among a significant share of the world's population, resulting in increased deaths and a greater risk that a vaccine-resistant variant puts the world back on lockdown."
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'Historic Victory for Working People': Seattle City Council Passes Progressive Tax on Big Business to Fund Relief
"Working people and our movement have to unapologetically claim victory for what we've won, because we want to spread these victories to other cities."
Jul 07, 2020
The Tax Amazon movement claimed "a historic victory for working people" on Monday when Seattle's city council passed a new tax on big businesses to fund local economic relief.
The vote on the JumpStart Seattle plan, proposed last month by Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, was a veto-proof 7-2. The plan targets corporations with payrolls of $7 million or more and employees with salaries above $150,000, with the measure expected to generate at least $200 million a year. The tax rate corporations would pay ranges from 0.7% to 2.4%. The highest rate--which would affect Seattle-based Amazon--would hit businesses with payrolls of at least $1 billion with salaries of $500,000 per year.
Mosqueda has framed the progressive tax plan as "part of the medicine to address both" the public health crisis and economic crisis, referring to the cornavirus pandemic and resulting damage to the local economy. The revenue generated would fund homelessness prevention programs and rental assistance, immigrant and refugee supports, food security programs, and assistance for small businesses.
"Seattle residents have made it clear--now is not the time for government austerity or divisiveness," Mosqueda said in a statement following the vote.
"We are in the midst of a health and economic crisis that even a strong economy like Seattle may not be able to recover from quickly," said Mosqueda, pointing to the fact that "over a million people statewide... have filed for unemployment this year; countless businesses shuttered temporarily and some potentially forever; our immigrant and refugee families have been left out of federal aid, and our homeless neighbors continue to suffer in our streets in the midst of a global pandemic."
Mosqueda said the proposal would live up to its name because it would "jump start our recovery with a relief plan that centers workers, small businesses, and our most vulnerable community members."
In 2018, the city council passed a so-called "head tax" on large companies--including Amazon--to generate $47 million a year only to see the measure repealed weeks later following a well-funded opposition effort, of which Amazon was at the forefront. Councilmember Kshama Sawant at the time dubbed the repeal a "cowardly betrayal of the needs of the working people."
Following the new progressive tax proposal's passage Monday, Sawant thanked the movement that made it possible, giving props to "the thousands of working people, unions, socialists!" Sawant also expressed hope that Seattle's action could be a model for other cities to follow.
Councilmember Tammy Morales also said JumpStart could be a model, tweeting: "The Seattle City Council is boldly leading to create a more equitable way to finance public services. And we challenge elected officials at the state level to join us in choosing investment over austerity."
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) welcomed the vote as well. "In a city with so much wealth and yet one of the most regressive tax systems, progressive taxation is desperately needed," she tweeted.
"To the big businesses that oppose this: understand that the economic injustice disproportionately hurting Black and brown communities is systemic," Jayapal added. "If you truly believe #BlackLivesMatter, these are the kinds of structural changes that must be adopted to combat racism and inequality."
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'Stay in the Streets': Black Lives Matter Movement in Seattle Occupies Six Block 'Autonomous Zone' and Floods City Hall
"We cannot have a pacified movement."
Jun 10, 2020
Black Lives Matter demonstrators in Seattle flooded City Hall Tuesday night for an evening of speeches and protest as the movement took over a six block area in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and issued a list of demands to city government in an ongoing uprising that appears nowhere near over.
"We cannot have a pacified movement," activist Nikkita Oliver said Tuesday in a speech to the so-called "autonomous zone" likening the nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers last month to the Civil Rights Movement.
Protesters, led by council member Kshama Sawant, filled City Hall Tuesday night. Chanting "Black Lives Matter," demonstrators heard speeches and conversations between organizers.
In a speech to the crowd, Sawant emphasized that the movement must concentrate on its political power and how to win concessions from the city.
"Alongside inspiration, we need to be sober," said Sawant. "We are not going to win any of our demands and it's pointless making lists and lists of demands unless we have a way to win any of them. And winning those demands needs a clarity about who's on our side and who's not."
But Sawant's own ambitions came under fire from the next speaker, Moe'Neyah Dene Holland, who chided the council member for "using Black Lives Matter for your political campaigns," such as forcing Mayor Jenny Durkan to resign and levying a tax on Amazon.
"I want to do all of these things too," said Holland, "but can we please talk about Black Lives Matter for one second?"
In its list of demands, the "Free Capitol Hill" group calls for police abolition, racial parity in the city's economy, and changes to Seattle's health and education sectors.
"This is no simple request to end police brutality," the demand list reads.
"This document is to represent the black voices who spoke in victory at the top of 12th & Pine after 9 days of peaceful protest while under constant nightly attack from the Seattle Police Department," the document continues. "These are words from that night, June 8th, 2020."
The six block area is being staffed by movement volunteers who have insisted that demonstrators respect the infrastructure, including the abandoned East Precinct building.
"If you see someone doing some bullshit, say something about them doing some bullshit," a speaker at the zone told the crowd on Monday night. "My body is fucked up right now, and I'll be damned if that shit is wasted."
As the Seattle Times reported:
In a dramatic shift in tactics Monday afternoon, the Police Department boarded up and barricaded its East Precinct and then abandoned the surrounding streetscape to protesters. The night passed peacefully.
[...]
[Durkan spokeswoman Kelsey] Nyland described the decision to withdraw from the East Precinct area Monday night as "an important step in the city's efforts to lead with de-escalation and begin to rebuild community trust."
On Sunday, police fired tear gas into crowds of protesters. As Common Dreams reported, the attacks sparked outrage from city council members and protesters, coming two days after Mayor Durkan promised a 30-day ban on the chemical weapons.
Protesters and the ACLU have responded to the police attacks by suing the city and police department for the nightly use of "excessive force against protesters, legal observers, journalists, and medical personnel."
"We will not let these violent attacks on our constitutional rights go unchecked," said ACLU staff attorney Vera Eidelman on Tuesday. "Police cannot respond to protesters speaking out against police brutality with yet more brutality."
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Amazon's Major Money Dump in Seattle's City Council Election Seen as 'Dangerous and Ominous Development'
"It's supposed to be a democratic process and it's not a democratic process when Amazon can contribute that much to basically a small election."
Nov 05, 2019
An attempt by Amazon to fill the Seattle city council with members more supportive of the company than the current progressive slate was called a chilling development for city government by critics of the move after Tuesday's election.
Socialist councilor Kshama Sawant, one of the company's top targets, told The Guardian that her race had been uphill and that the power of a massive corporation like Amazon stacked against her campaign had been difficult to overcome.
"We have run a historic grassroots campaign, with working people, community members rejecting Amazon and billionaires' attempt to buy this election, and that doesn't mean we're going to win every battle against the billionaires," said Sawant. "What matters is the political clarity that the billionaires are not on our side and that this is going to be a struggle."
Seattle is still waiting for the final results in the race--Washington has a mail-in voting system that makes final counts unavailable for days after voting--but as of Wednesday, it looked likely that Sawant and fellow socialist Shaun Scott were headed for defeat against Amazon-backed candidates Egan Orion and Alex Pederson, respectively. Neither Scott nor Sawant had conceded at press time.
Amazon dumped cash into the race via a super PAC, according to Bloomberg:
Amazon, the biggest employer in Seattle, contributed $1.45 million to a business-backed political-action committee to help elect council members Amazon views as more favorable to its interests and those of the business community.
The group, called the Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy, backed six new candidates for seven open council seats. Three of them are trailing in early results. It also backed one incumbent, who is leading her race. Two positions were not up for election this year.
In a Medium post from November 1, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), whose district includes much of Seattle, said she was unsettled by the company's involvement in the election.
"I am extremely disturbed by the unprecedented amount of money that Amazon has dumped into Seattle City Council elections--not just a thumb, but a fistful of cash, on the scales of democracy," wrote Jayapal.
Justice Democrats communications director Waleed Shahid noted the insidious nature of that corporate influence in a city where campaign finance is set up to avoid such spending.
"Amazon's attempt to buy Seattle's city council even as the city has a public financing system is a dangerous and ominous development unfolding in one of the bluest parts of the country," Shahid tweeted.
Journalist Walker Bragman, on Twitter, called the results an example of a broken political system.
"What happened in Seattle is chilling," said Bragman. "Americans will either beat the ruling class at the ballot box or in the streets. This inequality is unsustainable."
Seattle voter Sarah Champernowne, a Sawant supporter, said that Amazon's involvement in the race was anti-democratic.
"It's supposed to be a democratic process and it's not a democratic process when Amazon can contribute that much to basically a small election," said Champernowne.
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