Socialist Alternative Flint

04/17/2021

04/01/2021

URGENT: The Washington State supreme court just gave the green light to the billionaire-backed, right-wing recall campaign against Kshama Sawant, Seattle’s socialist city councilmember. We need to go all out to defend Kshama and our movement! tinyurl.com/AllOut4Kshama

This ruling comes only three days after Kshama’s Right to Counsel bill passed, a major victory for Seattle’s housing movement. This bill gives every Seattle renter facing evictions the right to a lawyer, and is a perfect example of why Seattle’s corporate elite are determined to recall Kshama and push city hall to the right.

Big business and the right wing are furious about the impact of socialist politics and social movements in Seattle and how we have inspired working people around the country. They are now trying to use the courts and their deep pockets to overturn Councilmember Sawant’s 2019 re-election and the historic victories she has spearheaded: the Amazon Tax, the $15 minimum wage, landmark renters rights laws like the ban on winter evictions, and Black Lives Matter victories like the first-in-nation ban on using chemical weapons against protesters. In fact, the state supreme court that has now approved the right-wing recall against Kshama is the same court that blocked a grassroots recall against Amazon’s Mayor Jenny Durkan after she led a brutal crackdown on the Justice for George Floyd protests last summer. Since the movement’s height last summer, courts across the US have clamped down on the movement, targeting activists with trumped-up charges while letting killer cops walk free. Just as with the police under capitalism, we know that working people and oppressed communities cannot rely on the courts for justice.

It is no accident that this Recall Campaign against Councilmember Sawant explicitly cites her support for the Black Lives Matter movement and the Amazon Tax in the articles of recall, while also making numerous false claims that she broke the law. Unfortunately, thanks to the inherently undemocratic recall procedures in Washington State, Kshama never got the chance to defend herself against these false charges, and, shockingly, there was no legal requirement that the charges be proven true in order for the recall to be allowed to go on the ballot.

We cannot afford to sit by while one of the most effective leaders for working people in the nation is undemocratically and dishonestly driven from office by a right-wing, corporate-funded campaign.

We need all hands on deck to launch our fight back. Join us, along with progressive leaders and activists at 11am this Saturday April 3 for a socially-distanced rally at Cal Anderson to build the Kshama Solidarity Campaign and defend against this attack on all working people! tinyurl.com/AllOut4Kshama

02/27/2021

By Kshama Sawant, Seattle City Councilmember The reemergence of a socialist movement in the United States, and rapid growth of organizations like Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Socialist Alternative (SA), is of enormous historical importance. This is not only because Marxism is beginn

02/08/2021

There is no return to pre-Trump, pre-COVID normal, but that’s where Biden wants to take us. If there has ever been a time to fight for seismic change, it is now. But that change will not happen if we sit back and wait for Biden to deliver it. We need real leadership, and figures like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Jamaal Bowman, and all the other members of the Squad will need to be unwavering in their commitment to fight for what is needed, refusing to settle for what Biden and the Democratic establishment say is acceptable, and refusing to let them whittle away their promises in the name of bipartisanship. This will mean turning away from legislative maneuvering and instead bringing direct opposition to weak compromises into the streets, to their supporters, and to the movements that got them there in the first place.

This isn’t the first time that Joe Biden has entered the White House during an economic catastrophe. It’s not his first time being sworn in while millions of Americans faced unemployment, eviction, foreclosure, and hunger. But this time is worse. On top of the economic crisis is a terribly misha...

02/07/2021

Watch the Full Interview Here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/47100672Help Stop the Recall Effort Against Kshama Sawant: https://www.kshamasolidarity.org/Read...

02/06/2021

A safe re-opening strategy will require clarification of two elements: control and funding. Teachers must work with parents for a plan that is considered safe, not simply for teachers and students, but for the wider community. The kind of funding that is necessary to reopen schools when COVID numbers recede will require a complete re-thinking of education and a reboot of school infrastructure. School workers, parents, and students, together with health experts, should ultimately decide when and how schools reopen. It's unsafe for now, but we need to fight for a safe reopening.

The COVID pandemic has shaken up society from head to toe. Nothing has been left untouched as nearly 25 million Americans have been infected and over 400,000 have died. Soaring cases should rule out school reopenings, but America’s 40 million students need a plan for getting back in the classroom.