The only socialist city councillor in the United States is torn.
On the one hand, Kshama Sawant has claimed an “historic victory” for a populist campaign that pressured Seattle’s mayor, politicians and business owners to embrace by far the highest across-the-board minimum wage in the US at $15 an hour.
On the other, the economics professor accuses the Democratic party establishment and corporate interests of colluding to compromise its implementation as the city council on Monday begins to hammer out the terms for setting pay at more than double the federal minimum wage. Sawant is gearing up to put the issue on the ballot in November’s election if the final legislation is not to her liking – a move Seattle’s mayor has warned could result in “class warfare” as it is likely to pit big business against increasingly vocal low-paid workers and to divide the trade unions.
The Socialist Alternative party’s sole elected representative hailed the looming debate on the legislation as evidence of a growing backlash across the country against the wealthy getting ever richer while working people endure decades of stagnant wages and deepening poverty.
“The fact that the city council of a major city in the US will discuss in the coming weeks raising the minimum wage to $15 is a testament to how working people can push back against the status quo of poverty, inequality and injustice,” she said.
One third of Seattle residents earn less than $15 an hour. A University of Washington study commissioned by the council said the increase would benefit 100,000 people working in the city and reduce poverty by more than one quarter. The pay of full-time workers on today’s minimum wage would increase by about $11,000 a year.
Sawant can claim a good share of the credit for forcing the agenda. Seattle fast-food workers got the movement off the ground early last year in joining nationwide strikes and protests that began in New York. But the Socialist Alternative candidate helped put the $15 demand at the fore of Seattle’s politics by making it the centrepiece of an election campaign she began as a rank outsider against a Democratic incumbent. Sawant won in November with more than 93,000 votes, socialist views, strong denunciations of capitalism and the occasional quoting of Karl Marx evidently no longer an immediate bar to election in the US.
On the other, the economics professor accuses the Democratic party establishment and corporate interests of colluding to compromise its implementation as the city council on Monday begins to hammer out the terms for setting pay at more than double the federal minimum wage. Sawant is gearing up to put the issue on the ballot in November’s election if the final legislation is not to her liking – a move Seattle’s mayor has warned could result in “class warfare” as it is likely to pit big business against increasingly vocal low-paid workers and to divide the trade unions.The Socialist Alternative party’s sole elected representative hailed the looming debate on the legislation as evidence of a growing backlash across the country against the wealthy getting ever richer while working people endure decades of stagnant wages and deepening poverty.
“The fact that the city council of a major city in the US will discuss in the coming weeks raising the minimum wage to $15 is a testament to how working people can push back against the status quo of poverty, inequality and injustice,” she said.
One third of Seattle residents earn less than $15 an hour. A University of Washington study commissioned by the council said the increase would benefit 100,000 people working in the city and reduce poverty by more than one quarter. The pay of full-time workers on today’s minimum wage would increase by about $11,000 a year.
Sawant can claim a good share of the credit for forcing the agenda. Seattle fast-food workers got the movement off the ground early last year in joining nationwide strikes and protests that began in New York. But the Socialist Alternative candidate helped put the $15 demand at the fore of Seattle’s politics by making it the centrepiece of an election campaign she began as a rank outsider against a Democratic incumbent. Sawant won in November with more than 93,000 votes, socialist views, strong denunciations of capitalism and the occasional quoting of Karl Marx evidently no longer an immediate bar to election in the US.
by Chris McGreal, Guardian | Read more:
Image: Elaine Thompson/AP
