So, touching up Socialist Alternative’s press release took up so much time, there was none left to recount the great victories this “fighting movement” won on the Seattle City Council over the past ten years? Because the only ‘accomplishment’ mentioned had consisted entirely of yelling personal insults at other Council Members.

If CM Sawant accomplished that little in her soon-to-be-decade on the Council, when she had (at least part of) the power of City Hall behind her, why should anyone believe she’ll accomplish anything now?

“… at the Amazon Spheres next month.”

Will Soci — sorry, Workers Strike Back — take care to ensure no actual, union-represented workers are allowed anywhere near there this time? Because last time, failure to do so resulted in a pretty unpleasant experience for CM Sawant.

@3: ‘… how to properly work for "the man" like the rest of us.’

Ah yes — the time-honored REAL method by which workers strike back! ;-)

@1 "Because the only ‘accomplishment’ mentioned had consisted entirely of yelling personal insults at other Council Members."

You are missing the key accomplishment here: "the $41,000 the campaign raised that afternoon." Sawant is not capable of fostering meaningful change, but she is pretty good at taking money from the very same workers she claims to protect.

Vodcast?

@5: “… being a loud pain in the ass…”

Most of the time, she didn’t even manage to do that much; she was simply absent. If she’d actually cared anything at all about District 3, then there might have been squabbles with other Council Members over budgets, but her total lack of concern for District 3 precluded her from emitting even that much noise.

If she’d actually cared anything about improving the lot of workers, then the District 3 office could have issued a constant stream of truly progressive legislation. (Imagine what, e.g. a Brianna Thomas might have accomplished.) But even there, CM Sawant simply let Mayor Durkan have all of the credit for free pre-K (a MAJOR benefit for working-class parents!) and free community college (a major benefit for young workers). Even in the dullest of years, her time in office would have been a squandered opportunity; given the huge changes in Seattle over the past decade, it became truly an epic waste.

Following CM Sawant’s loud lead, the Stranger tried to pretend opposition to Sawant originated from the huge numbers of right-wingers which District 3 risibly lacks. In reality, it’s full of lefty liberals who felt completely disappointed in the wasted opportunities, blithely hubristic malfeasances — and many cringe-worthy moments, none of which brought anything of value in exchange for those cringes.

So now, she’s going to do performative stunts full-time, whilst most of her long-neglected neighbors will simply be happy she’s just going away.

The main reason we don't have a strong socialist (or labor) party in this country is because of our electoral process. Bernie Sanders is officially an independent, calls himself a socialist, but he is basically a Democrat. He caucuses with the Democrats, and had the good sense to run for president as a Democrat. In contrast, Nader called himself a Green, ran on the Green ticket, and helped get George W. Bush elected. Nader has done some good for the country, but that was a dumb-fuck move. Sanders understands that politics requires compromise, and cooperation with people that agree with you on most issues. I'm not sure Sawant does, or is even interested.

Years ago, I remember being at Garfield, back when the Central Area was mostly black. It was probably May Day, as there was a socialist rally. Being a kid, I figured the folks in the neighborhood would embrace their cause. Nope. Pretty soon they were chased off the grounds, and out of the neighborhood. This confused me. I asked one of my teachers, and she said basically the socialists accomplish nothing, and are merely trying to use the black community as a nice backdrop. The people in the neighborhood -- who had accomplished a great deal -- basically called bullshit on them. They could point to real accomplishments made by working with various Democrats (including making an inner city high school -- fuck, THE inner city school -- about as good as any in the state). The socialists basically hadn't done shit, and weren't that interested in doing shit (unlike in other countries, where they have realistic political agendas, and form coalitions to get shit done). It wouldn't surprise me if this "movement" is basically that, but geared towards the unions. We'll see.

@6: I had assumed that money (if it exists) was merely a prop contributed by Socialist Alternative to make her inaugural show appear successful. But maybe you’re onto something: is she going full-out lefty Sarah Palin, dropping out of her regular paycheck gig in the hopes of fleecing the gullible amongst her supporters? (After all, anyone who still believes a socialist revolution is nigh can believe anything…) Because that would be SO COOL!

“Three, the working class must…alleviate the oppression of women, people of color and other marginalized groups.” No mention of how exactly women are oppressed in the 21st century West. In any event, isn’t the working class half male (Oppressors!) and two-thirds white (Oppressors!)?

“[Pseudo-leftist identity politics hustlers] rely on a divide-and-rule strategy in order for a tiny minority at the top to exploit...,” said [There, Fixed It For You]. “They need to divide us in every possible way and disorient us. We cannot let them.”

@6 this is the key point. The grift is real. Now that she is no longer in office she is also no longer held back by pesky election finance rules or ethics obligations. We all know she was funneling money back to herself via SA now she can do it openly. Viva la revolution!

"Hey, ChatGPT: write me 500 words on class warfare and the evils of capitalism for my rally today. Please keep it at the college sophomore-level that the suckers (oops, voters) keep falling for."

@10 oldwhiteguy It's worth remembering that a decent number of voters switched from Sanders to Trump. I take @9 Ross's point that Sanders isn't exactly a through-and-through socialist, but the victory of Trump wasn't really "the intellectual foundations of the Republican platform seem sensible and sufficient to solve the complicated issues that face us". It was more "fuck this shit, nobody is actually fixing any problems, none of the promises are kept. Everyone in power thinks this is a terrible idea so maybe it will work".

@17: You’re forgetting the part of Ol’ Abe’s rule about “some of the people, all of the time.” I grew up in New York, back when Trump was clearly a spoiled heir who wasted his unearned money trying to become a mediocre real estate developer. He only ever made money as the host of a TV game show, wherein he pretended to have been a successful deal-making CEO. That’s what some of the voters believed.

He also received the Christian talibangelical vote en masse, who obediently handed over their support to a high-living, divorced libertine from The Big City because he promised — and delivered — their getting to wank full-time over the back-alley-butchered bodies of teenage rape victims.