Stuart
@olystuart
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Statement from Kshama Sawant, Socialist candidate for US Congress WA CD10:
"Solidarity with Philadelphia public-sector workers, unionized with AFSCME District Council 33 @afscme33, who went out on strike this morning!
This union represents 9,000 workers who are essential to keeping the city of Philadelphia running. They run the water, parks, and health departments. They perform jobs like 911 dispatch, trash pick up, school crossing guards, airport maintenance, and many other services for the city.
The members of District Council 33 are fighting for an eight percent raise yearly and for healthcare benefits for all employees. With the overall cost of living being out of control, including skyrocketing rents and inflation, this is the least these workers could be demanding.
Shamefully, Democratic Mayor Cherelle Parker has called for a city budget to increase the salaries for herself and her fellow cabinet members, most of whom already make well over 200,000, with Police Commissioner Kevin J. Bethel being paid $340,000. Meanwhile, the city workers make $46,000 a year on average and are struggling to get by.
Workers Strike Back and my campaign for the U.S. Congress strongly support the AFSMCE District Council 33 rank and file in building the strongest possible strike, including mass rallies and community pickets, to shut down the city and put massive pressure on Mayor Parker and the Democrat-dominated City Council to force them to concede to the union’s demands.
The Trump Administration and the U.S. Congress are trying to push through the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” this week. This horrendous anti-worker and anti-poor bill will give obscene tax cuts to the nation's wealthiest individuals and carry out brutal cuts to many programs working people need, including food stamps for poor people and healthcare coverage for over ten million Americans through cuts to Medicaid. Trump’s budget will give tens of billions of dollars to ICE and for deportations of immigrant community members. The Democratic Party is doing nothing to fight Trump’s cuts and is carrying out their own tax cuts in cities and states across the nation.
We urge working people and public-sector unions in the state of Pennsylvania and the city of Philadelphia to fight for increasing taxes on big business and the rich to fully fund the needs of our communities.
Alongside union members and working people here in Seattle, Washington, I used my City Council office to build mass movements and win working-class victories. In 2020, we fought the Democratic Party and the city's elite, and organized mass rallies and democratically-organized Action Conferences to win the Amazon Tax, a tax on Amazon and other big businesses. The Amazon Tax raises hundreds of millions of dollars every year to fund affordable housing, including in historically Black neighborhoods.
I am now running for the U.S. Congress against warmongering corporate Democrat Adam Smith, who has voted to fund the genocide in Gaza to the hilt, and who also voted in 2022 to break the strike of the railroad workers’ unions.
Our campaign for Congress is taking the fighting strategy that was needed to win the Seattle Amazon Tax to the national stage to fight for free healthcare for all funded by taxing the rich. This is the type of movement we need to build to fight the rich and both their parties. Whether we are up against Jeff Bezos and the Democrats in Seattle, or big businesses and the Democrat-dominated city government of Philadelphia, the strategy remains the same - working people need to get organized to fight back because when we fight, we can win!" 0 reply
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