Kshama Sawant to Speak at Socialism 2017

Socialism 2017 is an unmissable weekend of rallies, discussions and debates, organised by the Socialist Party in November. We will be discussing all the most important issues of the day as well as marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution.

We are pleased to announce that Kshama Sawant has been confirmed as a speaker for the event. Kshama caused waves across the world when she was elected as a Socialist Alternative councillor in Seattle, USA. She has been a staunch fighter for working-class people and a leading campaigner against Trump. See www.socialistalternative.org for more information about her.

Please see www.socialism2017.net for tickets and more information about the event.

Dump Trump - No Ban, No Wall!

The huge anti-Trump rally in Bristol, 30th Jan.

Around 3000 of people poured onto College Green in Bristol on Monday night to protest Donald Trump's racist immigration policies. Organised at just two days notice the protest was a resounding 'no' to his border wall and Muslim ban and to Theresa May's 'hand in hand' relationship with him. Rivers of predominantly young people quickly turned the green to mud. Speakers included Labour mayor Marvin Rees (before he returned to the Council House to put forward £100m of cuts). Socialist Party members were swamped by the sheer number of people arriving and wanting to find out more about how to defeat Trump and everything he stands for, all the leaflets we had were taken. 

There is another anti-Trump demonstration:

Sat 4th Feb, 12.30pm, Fountains, Bristol City Centre

See below for Socialist Party comment on defeating Trump.

"We saw the real power of the 99% last night at many airports around the nation. We can build a movement to defeat Trump. Let's turn 1 May into a national day of protest against Trump. We need to shut down the highways, the airports, the workplaces, peacefully but defiantly".

These were the words of Kshama Sawant, a council member in Seattle for Socialist Alternative (US co-thinkers of the Socialist Party), when speaking to a massive demonstration at Sea-Tac airport.

Trump's vile racist ban on the rights of millions of people from seven Muslim-majority countries to travel to the US has been met with a mighty movement of US workers and young people. Demonstrations at the airports have been combined with strike action by taxi drivers.

The New York Taxi alliance organised a one-hour strike, declaring: "Our 19,000-member-strong union stands firmly opposed to Donald Trump's Muslim ban. As an organisation whose membership is largely Muslim, a workforce that is almost universally immigrant, and a working-class movement that is rooted in the defence of the oppressed, we say no to this inhumane and unconstitutional ban."

There is no 'honeymoon' for this president of the 1%. His appointment of a billionaires' cabinet has already exposed the cynical claims he made to anti-establishment credentials. This is despite the obvious discomfort felt by sections of the American elite about his 'maverick' character.

Already he is trying to push through a series of reactionary, pro-big business attacks. Among the most prominent are plans to deport millions of people, cancel funding for Planned Parenthood, and end state funded healthcare coverage for low-income families. Also in the pipeline are new limitations to workers' and trade union rights, escalating attacks on the environment and a bonanza of tax-cuts for corporate America.

Biggest protests ever

But if Trump thought he would have plain sailing he is already discovering otherwise. The demonstrations in the US on the day after his inauguration were the biggest in US history. Now we have the protests against the travel ban. These are the gathering forces that have the potential to stop Trump in his tracks.

And it is not just in the US that ordinary people are out on the streets. Worldwide we are taking to the streets. His presidency not only poses a threat to working class and oppressed communities in the States, but to people all over the world. That is why resistance to Trump must not be confined to America. An injury to one is an injury to all.

Socialists in the US were among the first to call action to oppose Trump's presidency. Within 24 hours of his election win, Socialist Alternative made a call which brought over 40,000 people onto the streets. It is in the tradition of the socialist movement that working class people stand together across borders. The US election showed that we cannot rely on capitalist politicians to hold back the rise of reactionary and bigoted figures and parties.

Even before his election, polls showed Trump to be the most hated presidential candidate in the whole of US electoral history. Only 26% of the eligible voting population endorsed him at the ballot box. It was not enthusiasm for Trump, but profound disillusionment with the political establishment, that allowed him to pull off this unlikely victory. Hillary Clinton - the candidate of Wall Street - decisively failed to offer voters a break from the rotten status quo.

Socialist alternative needed

The huge enthusiasm generated by Bernie Sanders - a self-proclaimed 'democratic socialist' - showed the enormous thirst that exists in the US for an alternative to big business politicians. That's why Socialist Alternative called for Bernie to continue his run for president when he failed to win the Democratic nomination.

Seattle councillor Kshama Sawant - who led a successful struggle for a $15 minimum wage - was among the most prominent figures to call on Sanders to resist the pressure to fall in line behind Clinton. Had Bernie done so, it could have transformed the landscape of US politics, completely undercutting Trump's support. What's more, it could have helped lay the foundations for the creation of a mass party of the 99%.

But despite this missed opportunity, there remains huge potential for new forces to be built. It is only by building a political alternative that the basis for Trumpism can be well and truly undermined.

The task of building a mass party for the 99% is not unique to the US. Here in Britain, the election of Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of Labour showed a deep desire for a break with the pro-capitalist politics that has dominated the mainstream parties for decades.

But while Corbyn has been twice elected as leader, the majority of the party's MPs, councillors and bureaucratic machinery remain wedded to the pro-austerity politics of the past. Unless there is a concerted fight to defeat the Blairites, this opportunity to transform Labour into a party that stands up for working class people risks being lost.

Trump Victory - We Need Mass Resistance and a Party of the 99%

Anti-Trump protest organised by Socialist Alternative, one of many across the US

Bristol Socialist Party Public Meeting

Trump - How could this happen and what comes next?

Tuesday 29th November, 7.30pm

YHA Bristol (Grain House), 14 Narrow Quay, BS1 4QA

Article below by Philip Locker and Tom Crean of Socialist Alternative, co-thinkers of the Socialist Party in the US. 

We Need Mass Resistance Against Trump and a Party of the 99%

People in the US and around the world awoke today to one of the most shocking political upsets in living memory with the election of Donald Trump as president. It was the culmination of an election cycle when ordinary Americans rose up against the political establishment and against the destructive effects of globalization and neo-liberalism. This was expressed both on the left, with the campaign of Bernie Sanders which galvanized millions for a “political revolution against the billionaire class,” and, in a distorted way, on the right with Trump’s campaign.

But Trump did not just run as the alleged defender of the “forgotten men and women” in working class communities. He also ran the most overtly bigoted and chauvinist campaign of a major party candidate in modern times. He created a space for white nationalists and open white supremacists to come out of their holes and try to reach disaffected white workers and youth. This is a very dangerous development.

However, we completely reject the notion – relentlessly pushed by liberal commentators, trying to deflect from the staggering failure of the Democratic Party – that the outcome demonstrates that the bulk of the white working class shares Trump’s racism and xenophobia. Clinton actually won the popular vote by a narrow margin. Trump only got 47.5% overall, with tens of millions of the poorest and most downtrodden Americans not voting.

Trump’s vote was first and foremost a vote against Clinton and the establishment; it was a vote for a “change agent” against a consummate representative of the corporate status quo. Many responded to his attacks on the “rigged system” and corporations who move jobs overseas.What was tragically missing was a clear choice on the left that could offer an alternative to the seduction of right populism.

Socialist Alternative stands with the millions of women who are disgusted by the election of an open misogynist and correctly see it as a step backward; with Latinos who fear that mass deportations of undocumented workers are about to ramp up to unprecedented levels; with Muslims and African Americans who fear that Trump’s hate speech will incite more violence and the growth of a far right force.

We immediately called protests in cities around the country to make it clear that working people and the oppressed must stand together and prepare to resist the attacks of the right. In the past 24 hours we have been inundated with requests for more information about our organization. We must start today to build a genuine political alternative for the 99% against both corporate dominated parties and the right so that in 2020 we will not go through this disaster again.

A Shock to the Ruling Class

It needs to be underlined that the outcome of this election was not just a shock to tens of millions of progressive workers, women, immigrants, people of color, and LGBTQ people but also – for quite different reasons – to the ruling elite of the United States.

The majority of the ruling class see Trump as temperamentally “unfit to govern.” It is certainly true that Trump’s bully boy approach of publicly humiliating opponents and reacting to every perceived slight with nasty twitter posts has more in common with “strongmen” dictators in “failed states.” Even George Bush was not as proudly ignorant of international affairs as Trump. The ruling class see a Trump presidency as potentially deeply damaging to the interests of US imperialism at a time when its global power is waning, particularly in the Middle East and Asia, challenged by Russia and especially by an increasingly assertive Chinese imperialism.

They strongly object to Trump’s vociferous rejection of free trade deals and the dominant capitalist economic doctrines of the past forty years. But the truth is that globalization is stalled. Its engine of trade has gone into partial reverse. The Trump vote has some parallels with the Brexit vote in Britain to leave the European Union earlier this year which also reflected a massive rejection of globalization and neo-liberalism by the British working class.

The ruling class also fear that Trump’s crude racism, xenophobia, and misogyny will provoke social upheaval in the US. In this they will certainly be proved right.

At a deeper level, perhaps the most shocking aspect of this outcome for the ruling elite – including the corporate executives and the political establishment and corporate media outlets who serve them – is that the way they have dominated politics in this country through the two party system is broken. In election cycle after election cycle, the primaries have been used to weed out candidates who are not acceptable to corporate interests. Then the electorate would be left with the choice of two “vetted” nominees. The corporate elite might strongly prefer one or the other but they could live with either. Ordinary people were then left with the choice of picking a “lesser evil” or voting for a third party candidate with no chance of winning.

All that changed in 2016. First Bernie Sanders raised $220 million dollars without taking a dime from corporate America and came very close to defeating Hillary in the rigged Democratic primary. Trump was also largely shunned by the Republican “donor class” and the last two Republican presidents and the most recent Republican nominee were very public in rejecting him.

Trump and the Clintons in happier times

The Chickens Have Come Home to Roost

It is still staggering that the outcome of the primaries left people with a choice between the two  most unpopular major party candidates of the modern era. Exit polling showed 61% of voters had an unfavorable view of Trump and 54% said the same about Clinton.

In the primaries, the Democratic National Committee did everything it could to stack the deck for the establishment’s chosen candidate, Hillary Clinton, against Sanders whom polls showed consistently doing much better against Trump. This speaks directly to the fact that a significant element of Trump’s eventual electorate was open to a genuine working class argument opposing the power of Wall Street and their free trade agenda while calling for a $15 minimum wage, free college, single payer healthcare and massive investment in green infrastructure. But the truth is that the Democratic leadership would rather lose than to be tied to a program that really spoke to the interests of working people and the poor.

Disgracefully most union leaders threw their support and millions of dollars behind Clinton in the primaries while an important section of trade unionists and several national unions backed Sanders. In this way, the labor leadership helped to prop up Wall Street’s candidate against a pro-working class challenge.

Clinton limped into the general election as a deeply damaged corporate candidate. What received the most attention in the media was the State Department email scandal. But the continuing Wikileaks revelations also confirmed in detail and underlined the picture that Sanders had painted in the primary: that Clinton was a servant of Wall Street who said one thing in private speeches to bankers who handed her millions and another in public.

Liberal apologists will seek to blame the white working class, Bernie supporters or even Jill Stein’s voters for the outcome. But as we have repeatedly pointed out the Democratic Party long ago abandoned even the pretense of defending working class interests. For decades they implemented or supported one neo-liberal measure after another: from “ending welfare as we know it,” expanding mass incarceration, pushing through NAFTA and repealing Glass Steagall under Bill Clinton to bailing out the banks while millions lost their homes under Obama.

After the 2008 and 2009 economic crash, the left gave Obama a pass. The Democrats controlled Congress and did little to help the working class in the worst crisis since the 1930s. This opened the door to the Tea Party to mobilize opposition to the bailout of Wall Street and anger at the politicians.

Under pressure from the 45% who supported Sanders in the primary, the Democrats adopted the most left platform at their convention in 40 years. But Clinton ran her campaign solidly focused on the message that Trump was an existential danger to the Republic and that “America was already great.” Hillary’s donors did not want her stressing issues like the minimum wage or ending college debt for fear of raising expectations among fired up working people. It could be argued that Hillary had no credibility as a progressive so what could she do? Well what she did was make Tim Kaine who supported TPP and bank deregulation her vice presidential candidate instead of someone like Elizabeth Warren. She refused to promise not to appoint a bunch of Goldman Sachs personnel to her administration. All of this was completely uninspiring to the millions of people hungry for real change.

It is therefore no surprise that Clinton was unable to enthuse greater voter turnout. Neither Trump nor Clinton got 50% of the vote. And while Clinton got a very slightly larger share of the popular vote than Trump, she got six million fewer votes than Obama in 2012 and fully ten million fewer than Obama in 2008. Meanwhile, Trump’s vote was actually a million votes lower than Romney’s!

As Jacobin pointed out: “Clinton won only 65 percent of Latino voters, compared to Obama’s 71 percent four years ago. She performed this poorly against a candidate who ran on a program of building a wall along America’s southern border, a candidate who kicked off his campaign by calling Mexicans rapists. Clinton won 34 percent of white women without college degrees. And she won just 54 percent of women overall, compared to Obama’s 55 percent in 2012. Clinton, of course, was running against a candidate who has gloated on film about grabbing women ‘by the pussy.’” Clinton also did not excite younger black voters, many of whom sat the election out. And she lost in white working class communities where Barack Obama won handily in both previous elections.

The Democratic establishment played a dangerous game in this election – and they lost. And it will be working people, communities of color, and women who bear the brunt of their failure.

Bernie Sanders

Sanders Should Have Been on the Ballot

In the past few years we have seen a profound political polarization in the US with the growth of support among young people for socialism and Black Lives Matter while there is a growth of open xenophobia and racism among a minority of the population. But the overall trend in American society has been to the left, expressed in support for marriage equality, a higher minimum wage and taxing the rich. This election does not change that underlying reality but it clearly puts the right in the driver seat with control of the presidency, both houses of Congress and the bulk of state legislatures.

A large section of the white working class and middle class did indeed use this election to underline their utter rejection of the Democratic Party and also the establishment of the Republicans. In a distorted way, tens of millions were looking for a way to oppose the corporate elite. We cannot close our eyes to the growth in support among a minority for far right ideas but it is revealing, for example, that exit polls showed that 70% said undocumented immigrants “should be offered legal status” against 25% who said they should be deported.

This is why it is absolutely tragic that Bernie Sanders was not on the ballot yesterday. We urged him to run as an independent as early as September 2014 when he first raised the idea of a presidential campaign. When he decided to run within the Democratic Party primary we disagreed with accepting this framework but continued to engage with his supporters in a discussion about how to achieve his program and the need for a new party.

Our warnings about the consequences of supporting Hillary have been tragically borne out. If Sanders had continued to run all the way to November, as we and many others urged, his presence would have radically changed the character of the race. He would have almost certainly forced his way into the presidential debates and we would right now be discussing the immediate question of forming a new party of the 99% based on the many millions of votes he would have received. This is a massive opportunity missed.

Socialist Alternative supported Jill Stein of the Green Party who received just over one million votes because she also put forward a platform that substantively spoke to the interests of working people. Stein’s campaign had many limitations but, despite them, her vote in a small way indicates the massive potential that exists for the development of a mass left alternative.

A Presidency of Chaos and Struggle

The election of Donald Trump is a disaster which will have many negative consequences. But it is also a phase in the ongoing process of political and social upheaval in the US. Capitalism and its institutions are discredited as perhaps never before, a process that continued right through the end of the general election with the FBI interjecting itself into the political process and Trump relentless talking about the “rigged” political system.

There will inevitably be widespread despair in sections of the left and a feeling that all attempts to move society forward are useless. It is absolutely essential to push back against this mood. Real change as Bernie Sanders correctly pointed out comes from the bottom up, from mass movements in the workplaces and the streets.

Trump’s victory represents the “whip of counter-revolution.” There will be chaos and provocations which will impel millions into defensive action. This is why those who have been radicalized in the past period must redouble their efforts to build a real mass movement for change, independent of corporate control. The social movements of recent years and especially BLM show the potential.

But it also essential to see that Trump will inevitably disappoint his supporters. “Building a wall” will not create millions of good jobs to replace those lost to automation and trade deals. And though he talks about investing in 21st century infrastructure, he is also committed to even further massive tax breaks for billionaires like himself. A mass movement against Trump will need to appeal directly to the white working class and explain how we can create a future where all young people can have a decent future rather than trying to recreate the “American dream” by deepening racial division. Such a future can only be achieved with socialist policies.

Dump Trump!

Hundreds attend Kshama Sawant victory rally

Victory rally in Seattle sets the tone for struggles ahead and more historic opportunities for the socialist left - From Socialistworld.net

Up to 300 people attended a victory rally in Seattle to celebrate the first socialist elected to Seattle’s City Council for decades. Kshama’s call to take Boeing -the biggest private employer of the region, which is threatening to move jobs out of the state - into public ownership was welcomed with a standing ovation. Sawant commented: “The machines are here, the workers are here. Let us take this entire productive activity into democratic public ownership and retool the machines to produce mass transit."

Photos of the rally below.

Click on this link to see a short video of the rally by a Seattle-based TV station.

Victory for socialist in Seattle! “Earth-shattering consequences” in the US and internationally

From: http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/6562

An interview with Kshama Sawant. Sarah Wrack, from The Socialist (weekly newspaper of the Socialist Party, England & Wales)
 The evening of 15 November will go down as marking an historic step in re-building a socialist movement in the US, the world’s leading capitalist nation. Kshama Sawant, candidate of Socialist Alternative (co-thinkers of the Socialist party in the US), was poised to win a seat on the Seattle City Council after her opponent conceded the race. This is the first time in many decades that a Socialist in the US won an election by defeating the Democrats, a party that pretends to be pro-labour. Further counts continued to show Kshama’s lead increasing in this city wide vote. As of November 18 Kshama stands on 93,168 votes. She spoke to Sarah Wrack about the campaign.
Why did you and Socialist Alternative decide to stand in this election?

We ran a campaign last year where I stood for the Washington State House of Representatives against House Speaker Frank Chopp – probably the most powerful legislator in the state.

The reason we thought about running an electoral campaign was our political analysis of the conditions coming out of the Occupy movement. The Occupy movement was very active and then towards the end of 2011 and the start of 2012 it started branching out into offshoots like the Occupy Homes campaign in Minnesota and so on but for the most part it was starting to wind down. The most prominent topic of conversation was the re-election of Barak Obama and that, for people who consider themselves progressive, the priority was to get Obama elected because it would be unthinkable to get Mitt Romney in the White House.

Of course Socialist Alternative is in agreement that the right wing should not be given that opportunity but we also point out that the Democrats are not an alternative to the Republicans and on the whole having two big business parties, or just two wings of the same big business party, has not worked for the working class of the United States.

In fact the Obama administration itself is a good example of how progressive Americans put their faith in the Democrats year after year and then have a string of betrayals to show for it. All the promises that were made on healthcare, on the holding of people at Guantanamo Bay, ending the occupation of Afghanistan and the drone attacks – all of these have been betrayed. In fact drone attacks have shot up, Obama has presided over the highest number of deportations of undocumented migrants. And as a teacher I can tell you that the assault on public education and on teachers’ unions has become sharper under Obama’s Department of Education.

And so the question for Socialist Alternative was how do we continue to engage people in a political discussion and clarify the need to break from the two big business parties and also to break from capitalism itself. It seemed like an effective strategy to do that would be to run our own campaign and show what a truly independent grassroots campaign looks like.

We ran both campaigns not taking any money from big business and running independent from the Democrats, not seeking the endorsements of the Democratic Party establishment.

Last year we got 29% of the vote which was also quite remarkable – over 20,000 people voted for us. And we fought for our right to say Socialist Alternative Party on the ballot and this year also we were openly running as a Socialist Alternative candidate.
How was the campaign organised?

The first people involved in the campaign were members of Socialist Alternative and our primary focus at the beginning was developing the campaign platform itself. That was thoroughly discussed and debated in the Socialist Alternative branches. We highlighted three points – one was for a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage which we had been calling for last year as well. This year, seeing as we were running a city-wide election, our demand was $15 an hour minimum wage city-wide. The second was affordable housing and rent control. And the third was a millionaire tax to fund mass transit and education.

Our campaign said make Seattle affordable for all because a primary issue we were highlighting is that Seattle is a very wealthy city but it’s deeply unequal and it’s unaffordable for the vast majority of people – especially the growing ranks of low wage workers.

It was clear from the very beginning that these points were really galvanising attention from the working class in Seattle and that helped us to grow our base of volunteers because people were really excited about the idea of an electoral campaign that’s so unlike the business-as-usual corporate politicians.

One thing that really excited people was that we pledged that if we were elected that we would only take the average worker’s wage. Seattle City Council members are paid $120,000 a year which is a very high salary and is second only to the City Council in Los Angeles. Most people didn’t know that and when we said we’d only be taking the average worker’s salary and giving the rest to build social justice movements, that really caught people’s attention.

So through the politics of the campaign we were able to attract a big base of volunteers. We had several people from Socialist Alternative working full time to organise the volunteers. We had a campaign office, we organised staff meetings every day to discuss the tasks – the staff meetings were organised in cooperation with the local Socialist Alternative leadership.

And so we were really able to pay attention to everything that was happening in the city and take advantage of any potential opportunity to talk about the campaign, to publicise the campaign, to get media opportunities - which was really necessary for us because we were running against a 16-year incumbent, entrenched and powerful Democrat. We were relentless and sharp in bringing out all the problems not only with his 16-year reign but also with the city government in general and how they are out of touch with the needs of working people. Through all that effort we were able to build a base of over 350 volunteers which was a source of energy for the campaign.

Another thing we did that really helped the campaign was in the last weekend before election day we organised 100 rallies. We had people with signs for the campaign standing at busy street intersections waving them, we did several banner drops on top of freeways where there’s a lot of traffic of people going to work every day, we had big banners that said ‘$15 minimum wage, Vote Sawant’.

That really helped us in getting people to vote. For the most part city politics is so out of touch with normal working class life that people don’t pay attention to it, it’s boring. They see the City Council members as mostly white, wealthier, upper class people who don’t really know what’s happening on the ground and don’t care. So for us the struggle was not only to influence people who usually vote but also to get people who don’t usually vote to vote for this campaign.

And we engaged in a dialogue with people - we’re Marxists, we don’t necessarily think that the electoral arena is the most favourable to build social movements. However, we can show an example of how that can be done but that requires you to be involved. So I think that was the biggest challenge which we did quite well.

But we cannot talk about our campaign in isolation. We also have to mention that it was happening at the same time that the fast food workers movement has been on the rise. Especially in Seattle they’ve been quite confident and we’ve been in solidarity with them. There was also the $15 an hour ballot initiated in Seatac, which is a neighbouring city to Seattle where the international airport is located. It was specifically for giving $15 an hour to airport workers. So all of that created a lot of momentum for the campaign.





How did people respond to the fact that you were openly a socialist?

For most people what stood out was the fact that we were fighting for $15 an hour.

And what really attracted people was how audacious we were and that’s the opposite of the advice that you usually get. There were a lot of people who liked our campaign and have experience in bourgeois politics who would tell us: “you have to tone yourself down, don’t criticise the administration so much”. I was often asked: “why do you always start any speech by saying ‘I’m a member of Socialist Alternative’?”

They wanted to dissociate me from Socialist Alternative because normal US electoral politics is centred around individuals and personalities not on collective organisations, collective effort. But we rejected that completely. Instead we were bold and unrelenting in presenting our politics and making clear that if you like this campaign, if you like that we’re fighters, then that has everything to do with the fact that we’re socialists.

A lot of people didn’t care so much about the label, they cared about the issues and the campaign. But there is a layer of people for whom it was really part of it. There were people who said, ‘well if that’s a socialist campaign and I agree with everything, then maybe I’m a socialist, maybe I need to talk to Socialist Alternative’. We have had people join Socialist Alternative or explore joining because they agreed with what we were saying and their confidence was raised by how boldly we were fighting for the campaign.
What are your plans now?

First of all today [17 November] we are having a big rally to bring everyone who worked on the campaign and who is excited about our victory to celebrate it but also provide a sense of the way forward – what is it that needs to happen from here?

We want to talk about not only our campaign and what we’ll do in City Council but also, what is the significance of this? What is the significance of a revolutionary socialist being elected to the City Council of a major city in the United States? That has real (in many ways earth-shattering) consequences for the left in general, especially in the US but also internationally because it should make the left sit up and think, well if this is possible then what more could be possible?

The reason we’re getting national and international media focus is not that we won a City Council seat – ordinarily nobody would care that somebody won a City Council seat. What’s striking is that an open socialist won the seat, that the campaign did not take any money from big business and did not rely on the Democratic Party apparatus to win. We need the left to draw on these lessons and realise that there is an opening to build movements and to build a viable anti-capitalist, anti-corporate working people’s alternative to the two big business parties.

In the City Council, our first priority is to push for the $15 an hour minimum wage. Specifically we will be drafting an ordinance to present to the City Council. But we also have no illusions that it’s going to be easy. Big business is going to resist tooth and nail because Seattle is a major city and if we get $15 here it will have a domino effect for other cities. So we need to continue building mass support for the demand.

One of the things we’re going to work towards is having a big rally - our target is to bring 10,000 people but we’ll see how it goes - at least bring thousands of people to a rally early next year in support of $15 an hour.

I’ve seen a lot of comments saying that there’s something unique about Seattle. Of course there are always things that are different from one situation to another but I think it’s important for the left everywhere to realise that given the crisis of capitalism, especially in Europe given the extent to which austerity politics has been carried out, there is absolutely no question that there are opportunities. And if it can happen in the belly of the beast there is no reason why it can’t be done elsewhere. But it’s not automatic which is why we need to consciously build our forces.

Initial Statement on Boston Marathon Tragedy from Socialist Alternative (CWI USA)

From: http://www.socialistalternative.org/news/article10.php?id=2096
The bombings today at the Boston Marathon are an absolute tragedy and a horror that shouldn't happen in Boston or anywhere else in the world. We are all checking in with loved ones in the Boston area. Socialist Alternative would like to express our grief, sympathy and solidarity with all the victims of this attack. 

It is too soon, as we publish this, to say who committed these acts. If this bombing was politically-motivated, then it is an absolute disgrace to be condemned no matter what the ideas of the attackers. These sorts of methods that target ordinary working people have absolutely nothing in common with the work of socialists striving to build a mass movement that can challenge the rule of the 1%, end the chaos of capitalism and change society.

Times of fear and uncertainty can unfortunately lead to scapegoating and attacks on our civil rights. We are against all attacks on immigrants, particularly Arab and Muslim people, as a result of this tragedy. Whatever the religious or ethnic background of the perpetrators of this attack, an entire religious or ethnic group should not be made guilty by association. We are also against any further attacks on our civil liberties which have already been limited by the Patriot Act and other policies. We must not let the government exploit this tragedy by restricting the freedoms and democratic rights that ordinary Americans fought and died for in the past.

US Elections: Socialist wins historic 27% against WA House Speaker

From Socialist Alternative (CWI USA) - http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/6028

Kshama Sawant, the Occupy-inspired Socialist Alternative (CWI supporters in the USA) candidate for Washington State House, scored 27% against Democratic incumbent Speaker Frank Chopp. With half the votes yet to be counted, Sawant is predicted to win over 20,000 votes - the highest vote for an openly Socialist candidate in Washington in decades, and Frank Chopp’s strongest challenge during his entire 18 years in office. This follows the historic lawsuit by Sawant that compelled the Washington Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and King County to print her party preference, Socialist Alternative, on the ballot.

“We achieved this election result as an openly Socialist campaign that was largely ignored by the corporate media, with no corporate donations, on a shoe string budget,” explained Sawant. "Occupy gave a voice to working people’s rage at Wall Street, and our campaign gave voice to mass anger at the corporate politicians. It shows the potential to build a powerful left electoral challenge to the two corporate parties.”

“This vote sends a clear message to Frank Chopp and the political establishment – we are coming after you. We are reaching out to other progressive forces to form a united left slate of independent working-class candidates to run a vigorous campaign for Mayor and every open City Council position in 2013,” Sawant stated. “Wall Street has two parties - working people need a party of our own.”

The Democrats who control the state government are likely to implement further budget cuts to social services next year while they allow corporations such as Boeing and Microsoft to get away without paying barely any taxes. Sawant, a professor of economics at Seattle Central Community College and union activist, commented: "Alongside left electoral challenges, public sector unions like mine need to prepare for strike action against cuts. Ordinary people need to be ready to occupy City Hall and the Olympia state capitol building against attacks on our living standards.”Election night saw mass celebrations erupt in the streets of Seattle after the passage of Referendum 74 upholding marriage rights for same-sex couples. Speaking from atop a make-shift sound truck, Sawant addressed a crowd of over 2,000 people: “If you think that the Democratic Party politicians did this for you, let me tell you it was us that won this! The fight for LGBT rights has just begun, we still need to fight poverty, homelessness, and workplace discrimination.”

USA: One year after the battle of Wisconsin

New booklet produced Socialist Alternative (CWI supporters in the US)

Before the Occupy movement challenged the ideas of the capitalist establishment in the US, contributing to the worldwide movement of the Enraged and Indignados, 2011 started with the uprising of the workers’ movement in Wisconsin: In February and March hundreds of thousands of workers and young people rose up against the attempt to strip public sector workers of their collective bargaining rights. Despite ending in defeat, it potentially marked the beginning of the end of a period of general setbacks for the US workers’ movement.

Socialist Alternative (CWI supporters in the US) published a balance sheet to outline the strength and challenges of this movement:

The Battle of Wisconsin - History and lessons from the working-class revolt of 2011, by George Martin Fell Brown

#OccupySeattle takes Important Steps Forward — Student Strikes and Call for “The Night of 500 Tents”

By Jordan Martinez - Socialist Alternative (CWI US)

http://socialistalternative.org/news/article22.php?id=1701


The #OccupySeattle movement took an important step forward on the 12th of October with student walkouts taking place around the city, including the University of Washington, Seattle Central Community College, Seattle University, Cornish College, as well as a number of high schools. Approximately 600 – 800 students joined the walkouts, called only one week earlier.

All around the country and the world students have faced tremendous attacks in the form of higher tuition and fees, ultimately for a lower quality of education. With chants like “Student Debt is Exploitation/Join Seattle's Occupation,” those concerns were connected today with the #Occupy movement that is beginning to span the globe.

Today marks one week since police last clamped down hard on #OccupySeattle - Wednesday, October 5th - dismantling tents, attacking protesters, and arresting 34 within minutes. The police seized the occupier’s tents, and then later “camping accessories.” Seattle Mayor McGinn has even extended a ban on umbrellas at Westlake park (the site of the Seattle occupation), unless one is standing up, after particularly inventive occupiers created crude structures. Imagine that - a ban on umbrellas in the heart of Seattle!

These developments have given rise to intense debate within the movement. Unfortunately, a section of the movement has retreated in the face of these attacks due to illusions that the Mayor, and even the police, are on our side.

Urgently and rapidly, rearming this movement with radical tactics and clear demands are needed - coupled with massive outreach. For this reason tonight’s General Assembly, with 200 people present, produced perhaps a turning point for the movement - the call for a “Night of 500 Tents”- a bold retaking of Westlake on Saturday October 15.

This call came out of the work of local Socialist Alternative organizers in linking up with other activists and correctly identifying the next steps for the movement- an analysis vindicated through the virtual consensus in support of indefinitely continuing to occupying Westlake and issue a call for a mass re-occupation of the park on Saturday with 500 tents.

Forward to the Night of 500 Tents!

Socialist Alternative (CWI US) - http://socialistalternative.org/news/article22.php?id=1701

Also follow events in New York - http://occupywallst.org/article/greetings-occupied-wall-street/

USA: Police crackdown fails to crush Wall Street Occupation - Report from a participant

By Jesse Lessinger, Socialist Alternative (CWI USA)
http://socialistalternative.org/news/article22.php?id=1693


On Saturday, September 24, the “Occupy Wall Street” struggle set out on a march. This was the eighth day that young people, workers and activists have been occupying a plaza in Manhattan's financial district two blocks away from Wall Street. It started as a routine march. The usual slogans were chanted: “Banks got bailed out! We got sold out!” “Whose streets? Our streets!” “Tell me what democracy looks like? This is what democracy looks like!”
It was spirited and energetic from the start. This ongoing occupation has drawn national and international attention, seen as attempt to stand up to corporate greed and challenge the domination of the big banks over our economy, our government and our lives. It's drawn inspiration from the mass youth occupations in Spain and Greece, as well as the revolutionary upheavals in Tunisia, Egypt and across North Africa and the Middle East.
Many are long-time activists that have been organizing for years. Others are completely new to organizing and protesting, participating for the first time in their lives in a social struggle. While many are inexperienced, they've shown a tremendous persistence and fighting spirit. They chant: “All day. All week. Occupy Wall Street!”
As we began to march north up Broadway, our numbers gradually grew and the march started to move into the streets, blocking traffic. With no predetermined march route or official city permit, the police struggled to keep up, trying in vain to direct and control the march and push it back to the sidewalks.

“Whose Streets? Our Streets!”
Unlike most demonstrations in New York City, we were not penned in like animals, forced to one side of the street, isolated and marginalized from the rest of the city. Bystanders watched and waved and some joined in. We marched through Washington Square Park, where more young people joined. Our numbers were well over 1,000 marching freely through the streets of Manhattan, our voices heard loud and clear.
Since moving to New York about four years ago now and attending countless demonstrations, protests, marches, actions and speak outs, I had never been on an action that was able to freely march through the streets. We covered about 2.5 miles, arriving eventually at Union Square. We were not suffocated by the pens or sidelined by a motorcade of police bikes. For the first time in a long time people in New York were able to practice their right to free assembly without infringement or restriction.
It was a tiny victory for the working people and youth of this city, a victory that the police and city government were eager to snuff out. This occupation, now lasting over a week, is not simply a nuisance. The ruling establishment is actually very afraid that this could spread and grow and threaten “order” in the city, an order where the rich get richer and the rest of us are left behind, where the super-elite, the “top 1%,” run society while “the 99%” have no voice. This is why Occupy Wall Street has raised the slogan “We are the 99%!” in an attempt to fight back and be heard.
After rallying very briefly at Union Square, the march turned around to head back “home” to the encampment at the newly renamed Liberty Plaza. The police had amassed a bigger force behind us and unfurled large orange nets. At first it seemed like they only intended to channel the march, split us up and disrupt the action. But we quickly learned these were giant fish nets cast widely to catch as many people as possible.

The Cops Get Violent
The police turned aggressive, violently pushing protesters, grabbing them, throwing people to the ground and arresting them. We ran but they kenneled in dozens at a time, pinning them between nets and buildings. I narrowly escaped a net and we chanted on the opposite side calling for the release of our brothers and sisters.
We were peaceful. They were violent. We were exercising our freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and they brutally violated these rights. A small group of young women, who were trapped in a net, standing perfectly peacefully, were suddenly pepper-sprayed for no reason. The video of this incident has gone viral, prompting international news coverage. Around 100 were arrested, including several bystanders who were not part of the protest, held in buses and jail cells for hours, and only released at 5 a.m. the next morning.
The police had one aim: intimidation. This outrageous behavior on their part was intended to strike fear into the youth and break our spirit. Police violence may indeed make some people more fearful of protesting, but it also inspires wider outrage and solidarity. Overwhelmingly the core of the movement has stayed strong and continued the occupation.
This exposes the completely hypocritical role of the police force and the state. They brutally suppress any attempt to peacefully speak out against corporate domination. Meanwhile, the real criminals and crooks on Wall Street walk freely, making billions off our backs, demanding we pay for their economic crisis while they are protected by an oppressive regime that uses the laws when convenient and force when they choose.
Most of us made it back to the plaza exhausted but excited, shaken but angry and determined. I found out back at the plaza that one of our comrades had been arrested. Later, he compiled this video of the march, including footage from his own arrest. We were all concerned for the welfare of our brothers and sisters who had been assaulted and taken away.

Expanding the Struggle But I also began to think about where this movement was headed. The movement has captured the imagination of hundreds of people and captured the attention of perhaps hundreds of thousands around the world. There is constant discussion and debate about how it can become bigger. Many of the new people excited by the energy and strong sense of community within the occupation ask: “Why are there not more people here?”
There is no simple answer, but one thing is for sure. There are thousands out there who are very sympathetic to this movement, many of whom would like to participate but may not be able to. They have work and families and can't afford to occupy Wall Street indefinitely. They are either not able or maybe not yet prepared to make big sacrifices, but they want to support this action. The question is not simply how can we get more people to the occupation but how can we get more people involved in the movement in general.
With the attention that Occupy Wall Street is receiving and the army of full-time activists, Liberty Plaza could become a hub for organizing a wider struggle. As a next step we could call another mass demonstration on Saturday with some basic demands like: Make Wall Street Pay for the Crisis; Tax the Super-Rich; Jobs Not Cuts; Education and Health Care, Not War and Bank Bailouts; Stop Police Brutality and Defend Our Democratic Rights. This way, thousands of people could participate and help grow the movement. Occupy Wall Street should publicly call upon all progressive organizations, especially the unions, with their thousands of members and resources, to participate and mobilize for mass demonstrations.
There is also talk of spreading occupations to other cities. Already in the works is an occupation of Washington, D.C., on Oct. 6 (www.october2011.org). Something is changing in this country. Working people and youth are becoming more politicized and radicalized. There is deep anger that is growing daily in U.S. society, and it is bubbling just below the surface. It cannot be contained forever. It will explode at a certain stage.
Occupy Wall Street reflects some of this anger and radicalization that is developing. From Wisconsin to New York City we're experiencing the aftershocks of social earthquakes now rocking the planet caused by the deep subterranean tensions of an enduring global economic crisis. The epicenters of these quakes have so far been seen across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and other parts of the globe. But it may not be too long before the tremors in the U.S. become full-blown social convulsions.

Socialist Alternative (CWI USA) debate with Democratic Party senator

NW Socialism Conference Debate from Calvin Priest on Vimeo.

Glenn Beck attacks the CWI

By Ramy Khalil, Socialist Alternative (CWI USA)


On the April 5th Glenn Beck program, “Getting Our Fiscal House In Order,” Glenn Beck does one of his typical rants, this time blaming unions and socialism for causing governmental budget deficits. He denounces the role that socialist parties are playing in rallying workers to fight for their rights around the world, including theSocialist Party (CWI in Ireland) as well as the “Socialist Party of the UK.” These parties are the Irish and British sections of theCommittee for a Workers’ International (CWI), which Socialist Alternative in the U.S. is in political solidarity with. 

After 5 minutes and 40 seconds into the show, a very brief video of a Socialist Alternative leader Philip Locker appears where Locker is leading chants on a bullhorn at a Wisconsin labor rally. At the 8:08 mark in the show, Beck attacks the article, “Greece – Capitalist Austerity Must Be Met with Workers’ Action” from the website of theSocialist Party (CWI Ireland). At the 8:33 mark, he attacks the article, “Socialists on the 26 March Demonstration” from the website of the Socialist Party of England and Wales. 

This attack on Socialist Alternative is the third right-wing attack on our work in Wisconsin that we know of. Links to the two others media attacks on Socialist Alternative are included at the end of this article. If right-wing big shots like Glenn Beck are viciously attacking the labor movement and socialists, specifically our organization, then we must be doing something right! 

On his April 5th show, Glenn Beck draws links between the increasing national strikes in Europe, the revolutions in the Middle East, and the growing labor protests in the U.S. "Workers of the world unite!" he declares sarcastically, expressing fear that these growing protests pose a global threat to the global capitalist system. 

This is one of the few times when Glenn Beck is actually right about something. The global capitalist system is indeed experiencing its deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression. Millions of working people have been thrown out of work, had their hours and benefits cut, and been evicted from their homes. Governments are massively slashing spending on public sector jobs and services, at a time when people need those jobs and services more than ever. 

In response to the recession and these unbearable “free-market” policies, popular uprisings have toppled and continuously challenged U.S.-backed dictators across the Arab world since December 2010. Britain experienced its largest workers' demonstration in decades on March 26, 2011, a massive outpouring of 700,000 to one million workers protesting in London. 

In Wisconsin, Republicans claimed they had to balance the state budget by stripping public employees of their right to a union, provoking the largest labor protests in state history. Tens of thousands of workers organized daily rallies, one of which reached 150,000 to 200,000 people! Teachers and students also organized walk-outs and shut schools down in protest. On April 4, the labor movement organized an historic national day of demonstrations in over 1,000 cities in defense of workers' rights, the day before Beck's April 5th show. 

In his April 5th show, Beck joined the resounding chorus of media outlets blaming government budget deficits on workers, unions, and socialists who are fighting for basic economic necessities for workers. The true blame, however, belongs to the anarchistic, profit-driven capitalist system and the system’s business and political leaders. 

The federal government's deficit is a result of the economic crisis precipitated by the reckless investments of bankers and private Wall Street firms who are forced by the market system to compete in a reckless, short-sighted fashion. The deficit is also a result of the $7 trillion in taxpayer bailouts and guarantees that the Republicans and Democrats handed out to the capitalists to minimize the damage of their financial disaster. 

Right-wingers like Glenn Beck claim that the bailouts and temporary government takeovers of the banks and auto companies were socialist measures. However, socialists completely reject this claim - as well as the claim that President Obama is a socialist. 

The bailouts came at the expense of working-class and middle-class taxpayers in order to save the "free-market" capitalist system, which had utterly failed and ushered in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Presidents Bush and Obama, Republicans and Democrats, handed out trillions of tax dollars, with very few strings attached, allowing the executives who wrecked the economy to continue lavishing themselves with extremely high salaries and bonuses. 

A socialist party that was genuinely committed to the needs of the majority of people - the working class - would have protected workers' jobs, housing, and the economy in a completely different way. Socialists would have placed the banks and auto companies under public ownership and democratic control so that the working-class majority of the population would benefit from the enormous profits of those companies and banks, rather than having to foot the bill for the bankers’ mistakes. (For further explanation of a genuine socialist approach to nationalizing banks, click here.) 

Government deficits are also the result of other capitalist policies, such as the U.S. government wasting trillions of dollars on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya, (click here for socialist analysis of Libya). Wisconsin’s $137 million deficit was much made worse when the Republican governor gave away $117 million in tax breaks to corporations in January shortly after they funded his election campaign. Yet now he tries to blame the deficit on unions of public employees – on hard working teachers, nurses, and engineers. The right wing’s hypocrisy knows no end. 

Unfortunately, President Obama and the Democratic Party failed to use the enormous popular support and historically high majorities in Congress when Obama was elected to mount a serious challenge against the Republican agenda, consistently compromising away what the majority of voters hoped for in 2008. The Democratic Party has exposed its true colors as a capitalist party which is funded and controlled by many of the same corporations as the Republican Party. 

With labor struggles on the rise, now is the time to break with both corporate-controlled parties and begin building an independent mass workers' party – a party that refuses campaign contributions from the corporate elite and consistently fights for the interests of workers, oppressed groups, and the environment. 

In the face of the right wing and the ruling elite’s inevitable attacks against workers, unions, and socialists, workers cannot back down. They simply can’t afford to. Workers have no choice but to defend the right to a union – one of the only organizations workers have to defend our right to a decent living standard. 

In the face of Beck’s April 5th call for government investigations into the activities of socialists - which is completely undemocratic, we in Socialist Alternative will not compromise our principles or conceal our socialist views. We will continue to patiently explain the undeniable logic that public ownership of banks and corporations and a democratically planned, worker-controlled economy is the only solution to the economic crises which are unavoidable under capitalism. 

Only by ending the anarchy of the profit-driven competition of the global market system, can we end poverty, economic crises, war, and environmental destruction. Click here to support or join our international struggle for public ownership and democratic control of the world’s major industries so we can build a movement to create a rational economic system based on human need instead of corporate greed. 

Wisconsin: Build for a One-Day Public Sector General Strike!

This is  from Socialist Alternative - website of CWI supporters in the USA - http://www.socialistalternative.org/
The following is text from a leaflet members of Socialist Alternative members are handing out at the mass demonstrations in Madison this weekend, urging a serious discussion on strategy and the need for an one-day public sector general strike. As similar struggles spread across the country, the burning question of what it will take to defeat the corporate agenda will come to the forefront. Drawing lessons from historical and recent international experience, and in dialogue with workers and youth in Wisconsin in recent days, this is our contribution to the discussion and proposals for urgent action. 



The Governor thought he could walk all over the working people of Wisconsin. Instead, Scott Walker ignited a movement that clearly has the potential power and momentum to bring his corporate-sponsored administration to its knees. The key question is how can we unite around a mass action strategy capable of seeing this struggle through to victory? 
Walker's plan to strip state workers of collective bargaining rights is nothing short of an attempt to break the union movement. Working people and our unions are not the cause of the economic crisis and fiscal woes of the state. The bankers, Wall Street speculators and corporate politicians are to blame. So we have to demand: Stop scapegoating unions! Make the super-rich pay for their own crisis! 
The attack is not just on unionized state workers. It is an attack on all working people and youth. If they can beat back the state workers, it’s open season on all workers’ jobs, wages, benefits, future pensions and on public services. 
This last week of action has made one thing clear: The working people and youth of this state are prepared for an all-out mobilization which stops at nothing. We have taken enormous inspiration from the heroic and determined struggle of the Egyptian people who would not give up until their voices were heard. 
But if a week of mass demonstrations, sick-outs and walkouts won’t stop Walker, the Republican legislature, and their big-business backers, what will? Preparations must begin for a mobilization which will stop business as usual across the state. A decisive first step is organizing a one-day public sector general strike, combined with mass student walkouts to shut down the schools. The teachers have already shown what is possible – now the entire public sector must be brought to a standstill! 
But time is short. If we don’t keep moving forward, we will fall back. And we can’t rely on the Democratic Party to maintain a principled stand unless they feel the fire of the movement spreading underneath them. After all, would the Senate Democrats have even taken their stand if the working people of Wisconsin hadn’t risen up in the first place? 
The unions should urgently issue a call for a one-day public sector general strike, and initiate a serious, all-out mobilization. 
Even if strike action is not legal for all state workers we must remember that the unions were built in the first place by struggles which defied anti-union laws. The right to strike must be defended and extended. If we're not prepared to take a stand now, when will we, especially once the power of unions has been stripped away? 
The stakes are extremely high. If this anti-union legislation passes it will embolden those seeking to attack unions elsewhere, but if it is defeated it will give confidence to workers across country to stand up. That is why a national call to mobilize the labor movement must be made to pour as much union resources as possible into this central battleground and to spread the struggle nationally by organizing major solidarity rallies and actions across the country. 
Wisconsin has become center stage in a sweeping attack on the public sector all across the country. Other state governments are also targeting wages, benefits, and collective bargaining rights. This is the naked agenda of big business and their corporate servants in office. The capitalist system is in deep crisis, and they want to solve it on our backs by steamrolling over all obstacles including unions. 
It is up to us to stop these attacks. Unfortunately, while some Democratic politicians say they support some of our demands, the Party remains a fickle ally. Why did they make the bipartisan agreement for tax cuts for super-wealthy? Why are teachers unions in the cross-hairs of Obama's Secretary of Education Arne Duncan? What happened to EFCA? Why haven't they stood up to the lies of the Tea Party and Right-wing Republicans? Despite their pro-worker rhetoric, the Democratic Party is largely funded by big business and has consistently sold out working people. 
It's time that we build a political alternative to the two parties of corporate America. Campaigns should be launched across the country to stop the budget cuts and defend jobs, services and workers’ rights. Out of these campaigns we could run our own independent candidates as the first step towards forming a new party that gives a real voice to workers and youth and fights for our interests. 
The time is now to begin the fight-back. The Egyptian workers have shown is it possible to stand up to injustice everywhere. If you agree with the ideas in this leaflet please contacts us to discuss joining Socialist Alternative and how to organize a united struggle to fight for our rights and our future. 

• Kill the bill! Bring down Walkers’ anti-union legislation
• Stop ALL budget cuts, layoffs, and attacks on workers
• Reverse Walker’s tax cuts for business to plug the deficit
• Tax the rich and corporations to fund a massive public sector jobs program at union wages and conditions