Statement on Recall Campaign of Councilmember Kshama Sawant

The Puget Sound Socialist Party, a chartered local of the Socialist Party USA and partner in the Ecosocialist Federation with the South Sound Green Party, has endorsed the following statement of solidarity with Kshama Sawant against the recall campaign.

As the only elected official in Washington state who is a member of an independent socialist party, Councilmember Sawant often finds herself the target of sabotage and smear campaigns by the capitalist duopoly. The recall campaign is just the latest iteration of this endless attack on one of the best allies that working class people in Seattle have in its city council. She consistently fights for essential gains that the Democrats either openly oppose or don’t even talk about, such as rent control, tenants’ rights, and the Amazon tax. Since her political opponents cannot defeat her ideas head on, they would prefer to take her out through more cowardly methods.

For all of these reasons and more, we stand with Councilmember Sawant and urge Seattleites to vote “no” on the recall. The working class needs someone with a proven history of going to bat for us through grassroots coalitions that get results. We urge our fellow workers to protect the gains that Councilmember Sawant has realized in her time with the Seattle City Council by stopping the recall in its tracks.