|
Socialist Kshama
Sawant spoke to one of Bernie Sander’s biggest rallies to date on Friday, the
evening before Washington State voters delivered a whopping 73% victory for
Sanders. An estimated 30,000 came to Seattle’s Safeco Field. Of course, in the
Seattle area especially, Sanders had something of a home field advantage,
competing with Clinton on the turf that has twice elected Socialist
Alternative’s Kshama Sawant to the Seattle City Council. Before Bernie took the
stage, Kshama spoke, calling for a “new party of the
99%.”
Kshama Sawant’s
speech at Safeco Field:
Seattle, are you ready
for a political revolution?
Are you ready to
welcome Bernie Sanders to the first major city that won a $15 minimum wage?
My
name is Kshama Sawant. I am Seattle's socialist City Councilmember. I was
elected without taking a dime in corporate cash, calling for $15/hour and
running as an independent against the corporate
establishment.
Our
grassroots campaign was centered around the $15/hour demand, something that the
political and media establishment sneered at. But we won.
Do
you know why we won? Because we organized! Because the workers of Seattle
organized.
Because:
When we fight, we win! [chanted several times]
Last
November I got re-elected despite half a million in corporate cash being thrown
against us. That's what Bernie's campaign is about: Fighting back and throwing
out the rulebook of corporate politics.
Sisters and
brothers, we must stand united against the bigotry misogyny, and Islamophobia of
billionaire Donald Trump.
But let's be
clear, Trump’s vile campaign doesn’t come from nowhere. It grows out of the
swamp of racism and sexism that corporate politics swims
in.
Let's say what we
stand for loud and clear: Black Lives Matter!
Sisters and
brothers, just 90 companies caused almost two thirds of global carbon emissions
that are burning up our planet. This is the product of the gigantic casino of
speculation created by those highway robbers on Wall Street. In this system, the
market is God and everything is sacrificed at the altar of
profit.
The future of our
planet demands that we democratically decide how to use the resources of these
giant corporations by taking them into democratic public ownership.
That is what
democratic socialism is - putting people and the planet over
profits!
We need a
President who fights for working people, for unions, and for immigrants. We do
NOT need a President who has taken millions from Wall Street
banks!
Because as Bernie
says, Congress does not regulate Wall Street controls Congress. Big corporations
fund and control these political parties. I agree with Bernie, we need to think
big and outside the box.
We need a new
party of the 99% and we need candidates everywhere fighting for what Bernie
calls for: $15/hour, Medicare for all, and free
education.
I want to feel
the Bern through November, how about you?
We need to build
a revolution that can really take our country out of the hands of billionaires
and into the hands of working people.
Solidarity.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment