I urge everyone to read Joel Connely’s comments about Kshama Sawant and to consider coming to the debate Monday Night.
CLICK THE IMAGE TO READ CONNELY’s ARTICLE. excerpts: “Every action we must take ,,,must be to destroy corporate power in all its manifestations, the time for compromise …is over” Chris Hedges (ED. friend of Sawant who became famous for fraudulently reporting that Saddam Hussein was harboring el Qaeda). The rally was a tour do force of demons, the “corporate politicians,” “right wing elite” and “big corporate money” and “the executives and the billionaires” Ruth Coppinger, a socialist member of the Irish Parliament, talked to “comrades” about such matters as the “anti-water charges” movement in her home country, and the declining influence of the Catholic Church in Ireland. ……. Sawant flays fellow City Council members, but claims credit for the Council’s actions. As a member of the Mayor’s wage task force, she was one of three members who abstained from its final recommendation. …. Hedges spoke of wiping out the Democrats and Republicans, and ended with the declaration: “I will fight fascists not because we will win. I will fight fascists because they are fascists.” (He did not identify any specific “fascists.”) …. Sawant claimed, “The leadership in this city is not coming from corporate politicians but from our movement.”
Sawant: “ represent the aspirations of tens of thousands of people.” ”The elite is interested in one thing and one thing only: They want this movement to stop.”
As a UW faculty member I have special concerns about Sawant. Her tactics, packing meetings and demagoguery, represent a very real challenge to the sort of free speech that this University needs. Dismissing her (at least locally) as another loud mouth demagogue is a mistake, especially because we … the UW … need to interact with the community in a much better way.
Here are some UW-centric questions I believe
should be posed to ALL the candidates!
1. How can the City work with the UW to develop a community that is affordable and friendly to young faculty and staff?
2. As Seattle moves slowly toward universal PreK, how can the City work to jumpstart the effort to have childcare AS A PART OF EMPLOYMENT at the UW?
3. Increasingly the UW, along with Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia, and other high tech firms, is changing our ethnic mix by importing outstanding people from India and China. These people add greatly to our cultural riches, along with less affluent immigrants from West Africa and Latin America. What can be done to see that this new part of Seattle prospers while not forcing out the existing communities?