Movement for Kshama Launched
Editorial Board
March 14th was the official launch meeting of Movement for Kshama, held at Garfield Community Center. At least thirty-five people turned out, and several extra chairs had to be gotten out of storage.
Multiple socialist organizations attended. Labor Militant and Seattle Revolutionary Socialists attended officially. Members of Democratic Socialists of America, Socialist Alternative, and Revolutionary Communists of America were also present in a personal capacity.
Kshama Sawant’s independent campaign for U.S. Congress is a chance to unite socialists around a campaign that directly challenges the Democratic Party. Despite disagreement between various organizations, we agree on the need for a new mass workers’ party. The victory of Kshama’s campaign would be a massive step toward such a party.
The prevailing attitude in the room was that the left urgently needs to break from the Democratic Party, and at the same time it is too divided. There are a thousand small organizations on the left that refuse to collaborate and treat each other as competing small businesses.
As one person put it: “The reason the right is doing so well is because they’re able to unite many small organizations under a big tent despite their disagreements. We have to be able to do that too.”
This meeting was a step towards breaking the sectarian divisions on the left.
One important question raised was over the accountability of leadership. Far too many times we’ve seen those who call themselves socialists on the campaign trail turn into just another Democrat in office.
No one who runs in the Democratic Party has anything to offer the working class. Democrats are inherently unaccountable to workers, because they are forced to stay within the bounds of a capitalist party. That’s the importance of Kshama running as an independent socialist.
But workers also have to hold independent leaders accountable. The only way to do this is by building our own organizations, based on worker democracy and principled revolutionary leadership.
As a first step towards building this kind of organization, we are organizing neighborhood action groups, starting in the Central District. These action groups are fully democratic. We are using them not only to support Kshama’s campaign, but to build the fight against ICE. These groups need to last beyond the election, and take on campaigns for things like universal childcare and free healthcare for all.
Some debates broke out at the meeting, including over what demands we should put forward in regard to ICE and the police.
Seattle police officers have publicly stated their intention not to follow the law when it comes to non-collaboration with ICE. Labor Militant put forward the demand for community control of police, in the form of a board elected by the community with hiring & firing power and the ability to subpoena the police — which could fire any officer collaborating with ICE.
Members of the Seattle Revolutionary Socialists disagreed, arguing that a demand for community control would foster illusions that the police could be reformed. They argued that abolishing or defunding the police should be our main demand.
These sorts of debates will be ongoing, and when they need to be resolved it should be done on a democratic basis. Out of this discussion, there was nevertheless broad agreement on the importance of mobilizing to city hall as the next step to build the fight against ICE.
Join Movement for Kshama on April 11 at Garfield Community Center to be part of our next monthly meeting and help build a democratic, independent workers’ movement.