CWI win Seattle council seat

[alanjjohnstone]

Socialist Alternative a CWI/SPEW companion party just won a seat in the Seattle city council on a campaign of the $15 minimum wage, millionaires tax and other various reforms. 

 

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/16-0

 

A sign of Seattle's revolutionary past revisiting the present? But the main point is that socialism is no longer a dirty word although it is being confused with reformiing capitalism.

[alanjjohnstone]

Interview with the new CWI councillor as she outlines her views and beliefs. http://www.salon.com/2013/11/18/capitalism_is_a_dirty_word_meet_the_nations_new_socialist_councilmember/ Q. Are there countries that you look to as good examples of socialism?A. There is no real full example … but there are elements of what we are talking about in our vision for a future society …In the United States, the creation of the welfare program in the first place. The creation of Social Security. All the advances that have been made in women’s rights and LGBT rights — a lot of this is well within the vision of what I would consider a really humane society in the future, and what I consider socialism … The gains that we have today are very consistent with our vision for a socialist society, and also they came about because a lot of these movements were headed by socialists. And there are elements of socialism or socialist society in many other countries as well. So if you look at Finland and the funding for public education, how strong the teachers’ unions are, the full funding for healthcare in Cuba, also education. These are all elements that we would want to see put in place in a future society. But at the end of the day, it’s not possible to have socialism in one country … If resources are organized globally along capitalist lines, it’s just not possible to provide that really high standard of living that some people have to everybody else …..you can’t stop at social democracy. You can’t stop at having reforms … We have to have a fundamental shift." …

[ALB]

There's another, revealing interview here:http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/6562

Quote:

This year, seeing as we were running a city-wide election, our demand was $15 an hour minimum wage city-wide. The second was affordable housing and rent control. And the third was a millionaire tax to fund mass transit and education.

and

Quote:

How did people respond to the fact that you were openly a socialist?For most people what stood out was the fact that we were fighting for $15 an hour.

I wonder what their reaction would have been if she had replied that although socialists are all in favour of higher wages as long as capitalism lasts they stand for the abolition of the wages system, i.e. of most people having to work for a private or state employer.Clearly then she wasn't elected as even a nominal socialist. In fact Militant's US section seems to have gone further in electoral opportunism than their counterparts over here in TUSC — "a millionaire tax to fund mass transit and education". Nice if you could get it, but it's highly unlikely given that if you tax profits too much you'll provoke an economic crisis.To suggest that this sort of public works programe could work under capitalism is to encourage reformist illusions (which of course the Trotskyists are very good at).  In any event subsidised housing, education and transport is not socialism.I grant that the result does show that people in some parts of the US are no longer afraid of the mere word socialism and that that can't be a bad thing.

[alanjjohnstone]

""people in some parts of the US are no longer afraid of the mere word socialism" I may be wrong but Seattle and Portland appear to certainly be more politically active than other cities…perhaps a part of their history…Seattle general strike 1919, the Seattle anti-globalisation riots in 1999, and Portland has an active IWW group , and isn't it also home of one of our stalwart members of the WSPUS

[Anonymous]

ALB wrote:

I grant that the result does show that people in some parts of the US are no longer afraid of the mere word socialism and that that can't be a bad thing.

Except that once again the word socialism has been reinforced in people's minds as a mere reform of capitalism rather than as a fundamental alternative to it.

[ALB]

gnome wrote:

Except that once again the word socialism has been reinforced in people's minds as a mere reform of capitalism rather than as a fundamental alternative to it.

Of course. But the mere fact that the word is no longer taboo means that we have an entry to say what it really is. Same with Occupy and "capitalism" and Russell Brand with "revolution". Other words we've traditionally used that are being re-introduced into mainstream circulation. As I sad, that can't be bad.I see they also ran an openly reformist campaign in Minneapolis which their candidate narrowly lost:http://www.tymoore.org/ http://www.theuptake.org/2013/10/13/socialist-alternative-minneapolis-ward-9-council-candidate-revives-citys-socialist-heritage/ Criticism of it here from a rival Trotskyist group and from a local blogger: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/11/05/moor-n05.html    http://betterproblems.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/socialism-in-minneapolis-thinking-about.html

[admice]

Any chance one gets to clarify meanings is great. Yes, 'Socialism,' whatever people think it means, was not successfully maligned here in the US, though they keep trying. It's gaining some chance at dialog.Oregon is one of the most left states (it has the highest population of atheists, btw) as well as Seattle being so. I lived near Portland for 15 years.

[Anonymous]

gnome wrote:

ALB wrote:

I grant that the result does show that people in some parts of the US are no longer afraid of the mere word socialism and that that can't be a bad thing.

Except that once again the word socialism has been reinforced in people's minds as a mere reform of capitalism rather than as a fundamental alternative to it.

 The word Socialism is less scary in Latin America than in the US,  which is almost like an obscene expression  due to the heavy influence of the capitalist ideology in the minds of the peoples, and the influence of the fanatics and reactionary religious leaders who are also an appendix of the capitalist classOne of the few merits of Hugo Chavez is having widely spread the word Socialism ( capitalist reforms )  through South and Central America and the Caribbean, and asking the workers to read the works Marx, Engels, and Trotsky,  conception  and reading that any  American leader will  not dare to pronounce or to suggest, it would be overthrown or killed immediately by the capitalist classTo find socialists or communist in the US, it  is like looking for chicken teeth or fish legs, they are difficult to be found. A political party for the working class has never existed despite of the existence of a large industrial proletarian class, and 99.9% of the workers have learned a totally distorted conception of what socialism is, and the politicians are in worst situationMost workers are tailgating the parties of the ruling class, there is not any political opposition within the same parties of the capitalist class, it is the dictatorship of one political party, therefore, to talk about electing socialists to any posts on the state, because of the label of the party, or the label that a social democrats is calling  himself or herself,  it is pure illusions

[alanjjohnstone]

Just confirmation by the new "socialist" that she was elected on her platform of reforms and not for her case for socialism.http://inthesetimes.org/article/15960/can_socialists_win_elections_in_the_u.s/ “People said, ‘Okay, maybe I’m not a socialist, but I support these demands, and I like that this person seems like a serious fighter for these demands,’ ” Sawant says  "…Socialists can win, as long as they patiently build organizational capabilities, raise adequate funds and win over key segments of the Democratic coalition…" 

[ALB]

It seems that they are evolving from being a self-appointed Leninist vanguard and changing into an ordinary reformist "vanguard" ("vote for me and I'll doing something for you") elected by non-socialist voters.

[alanjjohnstone]

Seems as they tried a big push in Minneapolis too.  http://libcom.org/blog/occupy-city-council-minneapolis-sewer-socialism-05122013

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