Capitalism has been a disaster for the working class.

Both capitalist parties — Democrat and Republican — have overseen war, genocide, climate catastrophe, and a spiraling cost-of-living crisis.

70 percent of Americans support a single-payer healthcare system, 60 percent support ending U.S. military aid to Israel, and 80 percent support rent control — this includes supermajorities of self-identified Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.

Why haven’t these things been done? Because neither party represents workers. They represent billionaires, corporate landlords, the health insurance industry, Big Pharma, the weapons manufacturers, Big Oil & Gas, and the capitalist system as a whole.

Millions of Americans know this. A record-breaking 45 percent of Americans identify as political independents, and 62 percent say we need a new party. 58 percent disapprove of the Republicans’ job in Congress, and 73 percent disapprove of the Democrats.

For ten years, Kshama Sawant served as the only independent socialist on the Seattle City Council — the first socialist elected in nearly 100 years. Kshama did not use her position to take a six-figure salary and settle into her political career, unlike many so-called “progressive” and “socialist” politicians. Instead she used her office to build movements of working people to win historic victories that Democrats tell us can't be won.

Kshama led movements that won the highest minimum wage in the nation: $21.30/hr, while the federal minimum wage has remained at an abysmal $7.25/hr for over two decades. She didn't make peace with big business and the Democratic Party — she went to war with it. She inspired working people to get organized and disrupt business as usual to win a $400 million/year Amazon Tax and a Renters' Bill of Rights.

Electing Kshama to Congress would be a massive breakthrough for the working class and the socialist movement everywhere. Her example in Congress would expose the rottenness of both corporate parties and their politicians. It would embolden working-class movements to fight for what we need, just as it did in Seattle, and it would be a giant step towards building a working-class party that can defeat the billionaires, the warmongers, and their system.