How the Socialist Alternative candidate Kshama Sawant won 96,000 votes in Seattle
Speakers from Socialist Alternative will tell us how councilor Kshama Sawant was popularly elected to the Seattle City Council in November 2013. This was the first time in a hundred years that a socialist had won a mass election in Seattle. We used this victory to promote the movement for the $15/hr minimum wage. Seattle’s April 2014 law established the highest minimum wage in the US at the time and legitimized $15 as a winnable demand. The fight for 15 and a union is gaining strength.
We believe that capitalism needs to be challenged on the street, in the workplace and at the ballot box, and that after a couple of decades of retreat, the ideas of marxism and socialism are once again being embraced by young people.