5/30/2020 – 6:00 pm Seattle doesn’t need a curfew, pepper spray, and tear gas. We need an end to racist police violence. We need economic and housing security, including immediate COVID relief, housing, and jobs through the Amazon Tax. We need an end to the inhumane homeless sweeps. We need the cancelation of rents, mortgages, […]
George Floyd said I can’t breathe, again and again, while his last breath of life was snatched away by the Minneapolis Police Department. This is murder. It is murder at the hands of the police and the racist state, and it is commonplace in capitalist America, where we have just seen the racist killings of […]
Sawant’s committee will meet next Thursday; ‘the central question is who pays for the COVID crisis – big business, or working people?’ SEATTLE – Councilmember Kshama Sawant (District 3, Central Seattle), chair of the Council’s Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee, issued the following statement today following a morning press conference, detailing steps she is taking […]
Yesterday, in response to Ben Lomond Tenants’ Collective’s serious proposal for how to protect neighbors financially impacted by Covid19, the Co-President of Cornell & Associates, Bart Flora, said to the Seattle Times, “I don’t see why they think we’re different than anyone else. We don’t have some magic pot of money.” What a shockingly insulting […]
Overview In the last two years, young people and other climate activists have built a movement around the world to end climate change. Across the country, community organizers are demanding a Green New Deal to begin to seriously address the climate crisis. Green New Deal programs would replace the fossil fuel burning infrastructure with clean […]
On April 3, the Washington State Supreme Court refused to review the 2017 ‘Tax the Rich’ legislation sponsored by my office and Councilmember Lisa Herbold. As a result, the lower court ruling stands. This ruling gives Seattle the authority to implement taxes on income, but only if it follows all Washington State restrictions on property taxes. […]
My letter to Budget Committee Chair Teresa Mosqueda. April 6, 2020 Dear Councilmember Mosqueda: I am writing to you, as chair of the Select Budget Committee, to find out when you plan to conduct the committee’s first hearing on the Tax Amazon package of legislation that is sponsored by my office and by Councilmember Tammy […]
Dear friends, neighbors, fellow activists, I hope you and your loved ones are doing well during this extremely difficult and frightening time. The world has been turned upside down, with untold loss of life expected, mainly because of the failures of healthcare and basic needs under global capitalism. Additionally, millions of working people in the […]
Below is a letter I sent to Washington State Governor Jay Inslee calling for a suspension of Rent, Mortgage, and Utility Payments through 2020 in response to the devastating impact facing workers and renters from the Covid-19 crisis. Please read the letter and sign the petition! Dear Governor Inslee, As vulnerable renters in Seattle and […]
This week, I voted against a City Council bill that takes money away from low-income affordable housing and puts those funds towards small business pandemic relief. As I said in my remarks during the meeting, working people, struggling small businesses – the majority marginalized in a system that prioritizes extreme wealth for a few – […]