![\"us-elect-feat\"](\"http:\/\/media.chinaworker.info\/2013\/11\/us-elect-feat.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHow did people respond to the fact that you were openly a socialist?<\/b><\/p>\n
For most people what stood out was the fact that we were fighting for $15 an hour.<\/p>\n
And what really attracted people was how audacious we were and that\u2019s the opposite of the advice that you usually get. There were a lot of people who liked our campaign and have experience in bourgeois politics who would tell us: \u201cyou have to tone yourself down, don\u2019t criticise the administration so much\u201d. I was often asked: \u201cwhy do you always start any speech by saying \u2018I\u2019m a member of Socialist Alternative\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
They wanted to dissociate me from Socialist Alternative because normal US electoral politics is centred around individuals and personalities not on collective organisations, collective effort. But we rejected that completely. Instead we were bold and unrelenting in presenting our politics and making clear that if you like this campaign, if you like that we\u2019re fighters, then that has everything to do with the fact that we\u2019re socialists.<\/p>\n
A lot of people didn\u2019t care so much about the label, they cared about the issues and the campaign. But there is a layer of people for whom it was really part of it. There were people who said, \u2018well if that\u2019s a socialist campaign and I agree with everything, then maybe I\u2019m a socialist, maybe I need to talk to Socialist Alternative\u2019. We have had people join Socialist Alternative or explore joining because they agreed with what we were saying and their confidence was raised by how boldly we were fighting for the campaign.<\/p>\n
What are your plans now?<\/b><\/p>\n
First of all today [17 November] we are having a big rally to bring everyone who worked on the campaign and who is excited about our victory to celebrate it but also provide a sense of the way forward \u2013 what is it that needs to happen from here?<\/p>\n
We want to talk about not only our campaign and what we\u2019ll do in City Council but also, what is the significance of this? What is the significance of a revolutionary socialist being elected to the City Council of a major city in the United States? That has real (in many ways earth-shattering) consequences for the left in general, especially in the US but also internationally because it should make the left sit up and think, well if this is possible then what more could be possible?<\/p>\n
The reason we\u2019re getting national and international media focus is not that we won a City Council seat \u2013 ordinarily nobody would care that somebody won a City Council seat. What\u2019s striking is that an open socialist won the seat, that the campaign did not take any money from big business and did not rely on the Democratic Party apparatus to win. We need the left to draw on these lessons and realise that there is an opening to build movements and to build a viable anti-capitalist, anti-corporate working people\u2019s alternative to the two big business parties.<\/p>\n
In the City Council, our first priority is to push for the $15 an hour minimum wage. Specifically we will be drafting an ordinance to present to the City Council. But we also have no illusions that it\u2019s going to be easy. Big business is going to resist tooth and nail because Seattle is a major city and if we get $15 here it will have a domino effect for other cities. So we need to continue building mass support for the demand.<\/p>\n
One of the things we\u2019re going to work towards is having a big rally – our target is to bring 10,000 people but we\u2019ll see how it goes – at least bring thousands of people to a rally early next year in support of $15 an hour.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen a lot of comments saying that there\u2019s something unique about Seattle. Of course there are always things that are different from one situation to another but I think it\u2019s important for the left everywhere to realise that given the crisis of capitalism, especially in Europe given the extent to which austerity politics has been carried out, there is absolutely no question that there are opportunities. And if it can happen in the belly of the beast there is no reason why it can\u2019t be done elsewhere. But it\u2019s not automatic which is why we need to consciously build our forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cEarth-shattering consequences\u201d in the US and internationally An interview with Kshama Sawant. Sarah Wrack, from The Socialist (weekly newspaper of the Socialist Party, England & Wales) The evening of 15 November will go down as marking an historic step in re-building a socialist movement in the US, the world\u2019s leading capitalist nation. Kshama Sawant, candidate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":5198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[148,124],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"\n