May 10, 2021

Special to BuzzFlash by Spenser Seddon

This week’s “Wings of Justice” award goes to Kshama Sawant, the esteemed Seattle City Councilmember and socialist political activist and organizer. Over the course of barely a decade, Sawant has established herself as a truly pathbreaking leader and effective agent for progressive change on both a local and global level. As such, she’s also (unsurprisingly) faced an onslaught of opposition and antipathy from almost all angles – which is now reaching new heights with a calculated effort by entrenched business interests to recall Sawant from her position as a duly elected city councilmember. Sawant deserves our support and respect, now more than ever, and so it’s our privilege to honor her today.

An economist and teacher by training and trade, Sawant’s involvement in the political realm initially grew out of joining the Socialist Alternative organization and subsequently working as a part of the Occupy Movement. Following a notable but unsuccessful run for the Washington State Legislature in 2012, Sawant parlayed that momentum into her historic run the next year for Seattle City Council, beating a four-term incumbent and becoming “the first socialist elected in a major US city in decades.” You might say it becomes easy to see why she eventually won – and keeps winning, having been twice reelected – as you see how she connects with the community. Sawant meets the moment, maintaining and carrying out a compelling, substantive platform meant to truly address people’s needs and the multiple intersecting crises at hand.

First and foremost, of course, there’s the “Fight for $15” – now a national touchstone and rallying cry – which in large part got its start with Sawant and the organized, collective efforts in Seattle to pass legislation for a $15/hour minimum wage (back in 2013, no less, when it had more purchasing power and real economic clout, as it were). Sawant’s advocacy and local victory with the issue of the “Fight for $15” helped to set the stage and drive what’s become a widespread popular movement, mobilizing and invigorating working people around the country.

Housing justice and homelessness have also been critical issues in Seattle for years. On that front, Councilmember Sawant has garnered meaningful legislative victories and crucial public resources in favor of expanded renters’ rights, development of new affordable housing, funds for renovation of existing housing, safeguarding people’s access to vital utilities, and an ongoing push for rent control policies. Following George Floyd’s murder last year and the typically brutal crackdown by police on the subsequent protests and demonstrations, Sawant helped to implement a local ban on the police use of chokeholds and chemical weapons – setting further precedent and national example. While the work always continues and the results are not entirely satisfying (as Sawant would surely say herself), these kinds of concrete steps and reforms have real impact, laying a foundation to continue to build on.

Perhaps most significant of all has been the tireless effort by Councilmember Sawant and fellow advocates to establish and implement a more progressive tax system in the region, meant to levy funding for crucial public infrastructure and services by assessing (modest) targeted taxes on profitable companies operating in the area. Sawant’s original “Head Tax” effort and most recent “Tax Amazon” campaign have earned her the persistent ire of big business interests in Seattle – an ire that’s now unrestrained, given her success in ultimately passing what became the “JumpStart Seattle” payroll tax.

Time and again, and in a fairly short span, Sawant has proven an effective and driving force for progressive advocacy and the public interest. It speaks volumes that Sawant’s socialist policies, platform, and rhetoric have become fairly commonplace in today’s national discourse and political dialogue. What we’re seeing right now with President Biden’s progressive turn and the implementation of landmark policy – on pandemic-related recovery, on jobs and the economy, on infrastructure, even on waiving patent rights for COVID vaccines – can trace the fact of its very possibility back, at least in part, to Sawant and related popular movements and leftist organizing.

We can say the same about the fact that “socialism” in the US is now no longer necessarily a “dirty word” or a political taboo. Sawant has contributed to a shift in America’s common sense in a constructive and progressive way, helping to make possible recent phenomena like Bernie Sanders’ viable presidential candidacy and the election of “the Squad” to Congress. For young people especially, Sawant has played a vital part in redefining (or, really, just accurately defining) in the popular mind what “socialism” is – encouraging us to think critically about what capitalism is and does, to ask ourselves what kind of world we want to make and live in. It’s an uphill battle, to be sure, but the fact that we can see change happening after more than four decades of “trickle down” center-right orthodoxy tells us that we really can make a better world. It is possible. Sawant has been instrumental in that, and continues to be so.

In the face now of a disingenuous campaign in Seattle by moneyed interests to recall Councilmember Sawant from her duly elected position, she needs and deserves our support more than ever. In recognition of Sawant’s invaluable work and influence – now and into the future – in support of our democracy and a more just, equitable economy and society for all, we’re deeply proud to award the BuzzFlash “Wings of Justice” to Councilmember Kshama Sawant!

Spenser Seddon is a writer, editor, and marketing & communications professional based in Seattle.

BuzzFlash is once again honoring upstanding & outstanding people with our Wings of Justice recognition! Read the full collection of recent honorees here, and peruse selections archived from our original website here.

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