On April 25, 2019 the Washington Fair Trade Coalition sent the following letter to the Seattle City Council in support of the Resolution from my office demanding President Biden end the U.S. policy of opposing the international campaign to get the Word Trade Organization to waive the intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, so that […]

“It is a testament to the power of mass action with multiracial, working-class solidarity. All credit goes to the rank-and-file activists in the Black Lives Matter movement for this victory.”  Press release – April 20, 2021 SEATTLE – Councilmember Kshama Sawant (District 3, Central Seattle), chair of the Council’s Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee, sent […]

Dear Friends, This morning I want to share with you a heartwarming and inspiring story from nearly 7 years ago. It’s about how East African immigrant single-mom tenants of public housing got organized with their fellow tenants and defeated an attempt to increase their rents by 400 percent over six years!  Ironically, though, I was reminded of […]

Wednesday April 14, 2021 Dear Mayor Durkan, I was disappointed to see your response to the valid community concerns about your planned sweep of homeless people sheltering in Miller Park this Friday, April 16. Both the response from your office (below) and from the Human Services Department (HSD) under your direction, ignore the demands of […]

April 8, 2021 Dear Mayor Jenny Durkan and Seattle Human Services Department Interim Director Helen Howell, I am writing to ask what steps have been taken to make hotel rooms, tiny houses, and permanent supportive housing available to the community members currently sheltering in Miller Playfield, and to urge you to rapidly expand Seattle’s tiny […]

The Covid-19 pandemic has made the need to protect school children, their families and educators from the devastation of eviction, and the negative ripple effect throughout the entire community, all the more urgent. Below is a link to draft legislation “prohibiting evictions of children, their families, and educators during the school year” which I will […]