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Kshama Sawant Seattle Re-Election Campaign. a Key Test for the Left (P SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE 150 Years Since the End of the Civil War - p. 6 IssueIssue #14 - -June June 2015 2015 @SocialistAlt www.SocialistAlternative.org /SocialistAlternativeUSA Price $2 Price $2 THE 99% NEED A POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE! Kshama Sawant Bernie Sanders Seattle Re-election Runs for Campaign. President. How A Key Test for the Should the Left Left (p. 3) Respond? A Debate (p.4) WHAT WE STAND FOR URGENT SOLIDARITY NEEDED! Fighting for the 99% J Immediate, unconditional legalization and Single Mom Fired for J No budget cuts to education and social equal rights for all undocumented immigrants. services! Full funding for all community needs. J Build a mass movement against police Organizing Strike for A major increase in taxes on the rich and big brutality and the institutional racism of the $15 and a Union business, not working people. The federal criminal justice system. Invest in rehabilitation, government should bail out states to prevent job training, and living-wage jobs, not prisons! Brink’s armored trucking terminated Dar- cuts and layoffs. Abolish the death penalty. letta Scruggs, a 15 Now activist and single J Create living-wage union jobs for all the J Fight sexual harassment, violence against women, and all forms of sexism. mother, for organizing a strike of 50 driv- unemployed through public works programs ers and messengers as part of the April 15 J to develop mass transit, renewable energy, Defend a woman’s right to choose whether National Day of Action for $15 and a union. infrastructure, health care, education, and and when to have children. For a publicly Brink’s can’t be allowed to threaten workers affordable housing. funded, single-payer health care system with with financial ruin for standing up for their J Raise the federal minimum wage to $15/hour, free reproductive services, including all forms rights on the job. adjusted annually for cost of living increases, of birth control and safe, accessible abortions. as a step toward a living wage for all. Comprehensive sex education. Paid maternity Darletta’s Story J Free, high quality public education for all from and paternity leave. Fully subsidized, high- quality child care. the old system. So when I told my cowork- pre-school through college. Cancel student I worked as a route coordinator at Brink’s ers about the April 15 national strike for J Equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and debt. Full funding for schools to dramatically on the West Side of Chicago since August $15 and a union, they were ready for action. transgender people, including same-sex lower teacher-student ratios. Stop the focus 2014. Despite being the single mother of Things got organized in just three days, and marriage. on high stakes testing and the drive to a three-year-old child, I was required to a big majority of the drivers and messengers work a minimum of 50 hours a week. I was privatize public education. Money for Jobs and Education, walked out on April 15! J Free, high quality health care for all. Replace often told not to leave the building for my I was targeted and fired, just one week the failed for-profit insurance companies with Not War lunch break. after our successful strike. Management a publicly funded single-payer system as a J End the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Brink’s pays most of its workers way under gave no official communication as to why I step toward fully socialized medicine. Bring all the troops home now! $15 an hour and has taken away our annual was fired, but they repeatedly intimidated raises, even though the company made $3.5 J A guaranteed decent pension for all. No cuts J Slash the military budget. No drones. Shut and threatened me for supporting the drive billion last year. Brink’s cut workers’ overtime to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid! down Guantanamo. for union recognition. Because I was a dis- pay last year, even though most workers work J J Repeal the Patriot Act, the NDAA, and all patcher, paid a salary instead of hourly pay, Stop home foreclosures and evictions. For up to 16-hour days, often with no breaks. other attacks on democratic rights. Brink’s labels me as “management” and says public ownership and democratic control of Then, earlier this year, they took away work- the major banks. I don’t have legal protection to fight for my Break with the Two Parties ers’ earned vacation time, implementing an rights or be represented by a union. But we’ve J A minimum guaranteed weekly income of accrue-as-you-go policy with no compensa- filed with the National Labor Relations Board, $600/week for the unemployed, disabled, of Big Business tion for time that workers had saved under legally challenging the company’s definition stay-at-home parents, the elderly, and others J For a mass workers’ party drawing together of management and their unjust decision to unable to work. workers, young people, and activists from fire me. J workplace, environmental, civil rights, and Let Brink’s know we Repeal all anti-union laws like Taft-Hartley. For Since the strike, a majority of Brink’s driv- democratic unions run by the rank-and-file to women’s campaigns to provide a fighting, political alternative to the corporate parties. have Darletta’s back! ers and messengers have signed union cards, fight for better pay, working conditions, and but management refuses to recognize the J Unions and social movement organizations Show your solidarity by: social services. Full-time union officials should union or negotiate. Instead, they are using should stop funding and supporting the be regularly elected and receive the average the leverage of the economic hardship they Democratic and Republican Parties and 1. Signing the petition at wage of those they represent. can inflict on employees through reduced instead organize independent left-wing, anti- www.coworker.org/petitions/solidarity- J No more layoffs! Take bankrupt and failing hours or termination. We must not allow corporate candidates and coalitions as a first appeal-single-mom-fired-for-orga- companies into public ownership and retool companies like Brink’s to just fire someone step toward building a workers’ party. nizing-strike-for-15-and-a-union them for socially necessary green production. for speaking up against unfair working condi- J Shorten the workweek with no loss in pay Socialism and Internationalism 2. Make a donation to Darletta’s tions or to intimidate workers into submis- and benefits; share out the work with the J Capitalism produces poverty, inequality, defense campaign today: www.gofundme. sion while they pocket millions. We must unemployed and create new jobs. environmental destruction, and war. We need com/darletta fight back! an international struggle against this system. Brink’s provides service for many banks Environmental Sustainability like Chase and Bank Of America, as well as J Repeal corporate “free trade” agreements, Flood Brink’s phone lines today! J Fight climate change. Organize mass protests large corporations like Walmart and McDon- which mean job losses and a race to the and civil disobedience to block the Keystone Demand they give Darletta her job ald’s, companies known for opposing workers’ bottom for workers and the environment. XL oil pipeline, coal export terminals, and back. rights. It is time that workers be paid ade- fracking. Massive public investment in J Solidarity with the struggles of workers and quately and big businesses be held account- Call Brinks Customer Service at renewable energy and efficiency technologies oppressed peoples internationally: An injury 773- able for worker exploitation and intimidation Ask to speak to the to rapidly replace fossil fuels. to one is an injury to all. 475-2600, Ext. 1. tactics. That’s why I got active with 15 Now. Branch Manager. If there is no answer, J J Take into public ownership the top 500 We need to fight, because MONEY IS NOT A major expansion of public transportation leave a message! to provide low-fare, high-speed, accessible corporations and banks that dominate MORE VALUABLE THAN HUMAN LIVES!!! J transit. the U.S. economy. Run them under the J Public ownership of the big energy companies. democratic management of elected All workers in polluting industries should be representatives of the workers and the guaranteed retraining and new living-wage broader public. Compensation to be paid on Subscribe to Socialist Alternative Today! jobs in socially useful green production. the basis of proven need to small investors, not millionaires. Equal Rights for All J A democratic socialist plan for the economy SocialistAlternative.org/shop/sa-newspaper-subscription/ J Fight discrimination based on race, nationality, based on the interests of the overwhelming gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, majority of people and the environment. age, and all other forms of prejudice. Equal For a socialist United States and a socialist Socialist Alternative comes out 10 times a year. Your $50 pay for equal work. world. J solidarity subscription supports our ongoing efforts to improve our publications and broaden the struggle for socialism. Socialist Alternative Editor Tom Crean • Editorial Board Ty Moore, Tony Wilsdon, Jess Spear, Joshua Koritz Two Pricing J $50 annual solidarity J $25 annual Options: subscription subscription • [email protected] • PO Box 150457, Brooklyn, NY 11215 Now with a paperless digital option! 2 SOCIALISTALTERNATIVE.ORG•JUNE2015 POLITICS Interview with Kshama Sawant’s Political Director Kshama Sawant Column Blazing a New Path Shell No! for the Left Twitter: @cmkshama Philip Locker is the political director of the Kshama Sawant re-election campaign and a national spokesperson for Socialist Alternative. Kshama is up for re-election and has an approval rating of 61%, the highest among all Seattle City Councilmembers.
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