Where Is Katie Wilson?

Summer Miller

It’s been over two months since Renée Good was killed by an ICE agent on January 7. Her killing set off a national protest wave.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson took office in the middle of that anger, to great fanfare.

But in just two months, Wilson has left a trail of broken promises.

Wilson ran promising to shut down the surveillance cameras which ICE has accessed to help them track immigrants. Instead, she has left the camera network in place. Seattle’s RTCC pilot already has 62 CCTV cameras installed downtown, along Aurora Avenue, and in the Chinatown-International District. On March 19, Wilson announced that the city would move forward with installing 26 new Stadium District cameras tied to the World Cup. She also thanked SPD and RTCC staff for their “work and partnership.”

After mass anger over her broken promise, including a petition signed by over 1,300 former supporters, Wilson’s one concession was to turn off a single camera near a reproductive and gender-affirming care facility.

Wilson also promised to stop the sweeps of homeless encampments and fund a huge expansion of permanent affordable housing. But on January 14, Wilson issued a statement clarifying that she would still sweep encampments “when it’s the best option.”

Wilson and the Democrats are under pressure from downtown business, especially with the World Cup looming. Her administration is rushing to move hundreds of homeless people out of public view before the World Cup. 

Wilson also campaigned on holding the police accountable. In January, she almost did something by issuing an executive order requiring SPD officers to “investigate, verify, and document” ICE activity and stop ICE from using city property. 

But Mike Solan, then-president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, publicly rejected the order. He said, “The concept of pitting two armed law enforcement agencies against each other is ludicrous, and will not happen.” In other words, the head of the police union openly told Wilson “fuck you, we’re not following the law.” Wilson did nothing, leaving her executive order useless. 

In the biggest act of political whiplash, Wilson is now threatening cuts to public services. Wilson recently told a room full of business executives that government had to be an “effective steward” of resources and said her office “will be doing some significant reprioritization, otherwise known as cuts.” 

Wilson’s betrayals and broken promises were entirely predictable.

During her election, Wilson identified as a socialist, when it helped her appeal to working people who are sick of the Democratic Party.

At the same time, Wilson assured the pro-corporate Seattle Times that she was “not a super ideological person,” “not out here waving a socialist flag,” and made clear that she wanted to work within the Democratic Party, not break from it. 

Wilson also attacked former councilmember Kshama Sawant for trying to “tear down the system,” and explained how she would be a more acceptable kind of socialist: “You can’t run for mayor and say you want to tear down the system. You’re asking to run the system.” Wilson explicitly said that she would not be endorsing Kshama Sawant’s independent socialist campaign for Congress against genocidal Congressman Adam Smith. 

Wilson’s entire campaign was predicated on trying to convince big business that she wouldn’t be like Kshama Sawant — that she wouldn’t fight for the things that she campaigned on.

Again and again, working people are told to put their hopes in Democrats. Democrats like Wilson promise to “change” the Democratic Party. Then those Democrats fold at the slightest opposition from big business, the police, or the political establishment.

The Democratic Party is not going to do anything unless it is forced. That includes Katie Wilson and Alexis Mercedes-Rinck (the councilmember who plays the “progressive” in City Hall). 

There’s a reason that big business pressured Wilson to distance herself from Kshama Sawant. The capitalists are scared of independent socialist politics. Socialists and workers should unite to support Kshama’s independent socialist campaign for Congress. 

We need to elect independent socialists. We also need to build a socialist party in Seattle.

If we’re going to win any of our demands, we have to get serious about building power. Replacing one Democrat with another will not work. We have to threaten the power of the Democratic Party as a whole. That is the only thing that can force these Democrats to act.