Kshama Sawant: Hillary Was Nowhere to Be Seen in the Fight for 15—I Should Know

[eridani]

http://www.thenation.com/article/hillary-was-nowhere-to-be-seen-in-the-fight-for-15-i-should-know/

But as an early participant in this movement, and as an elected official who centered the Fight for $15 in my 2013 election campaign for Seattle City Council, I was surprised to hear from Hillary Clinton that she had always supported $15. Even more surprising, she specifically said she supported the call for $15 here in Seattle, the first major city to pass it.

I can tell you, this came as a news flash to all the activists and fast-food workers who fought hard against Big Business to win $15 in Seattle.

When we started, our demand was ridiculed by Seattle’s political and media establishment. We were told to “tone it down,” not unlike Hillary’s recent advice to Bernie. For almost the entire 2013 election, no part of Seattle’s Democratic establishment supported $15 an hour. Local media asked mayoral and other city council candidates if they would support $15, and not a single one initially would! Some went out of their way to make opposing arguments, saying it would be a job killer, or that it was “presumptuous.”

At that point, if someone like Hillary Clinton had so much as tweeted in support of $15, it would have made our work a lot easier. But she did nothing of the kind.

Months later, when our grassroots campaign had succeeded in making $15 the defining issue in that year’s Seattle elections, corporate politicians began to come out of the woodwork, trying to hitch their election campaigns to the issue. By early the next year, every politician was getting on the $15 train, some cynically looking to make careers out of it. And while that wider platform of elected officials was a step toward our movement’s victory, it would be dangerous if the real story of how $15 was won wasn’t told.

[Zira]

1. I'm hoping some day Kshama Sawant runs for president.

[eridani]

2. Socialist Alternative is a pretty unusual third party in that they are serious about voter outreach

Sawant had 600+ volunteers doorbelling and phonebanking last year. Most third parties don't bother. But I would be very surprised if they get much traction outside of urban core areas and university towns. One of the city council members in Burien (SW King County) has socialist sympathies, but she really has no alternative but to run as a Democrat.