The Briefing Room

General Category => Politics/Government => Topic started by: mystery-ak on November 13, 2013, 04:45:01 pm

Title: Seattle close to electing Socialist candidate
Post by: mystery-ak on November 13, 2013, 04:45:01 pm
http://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/DAA1QN6G2 (http://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/DAA1QN6G2)

Seattle close to electing Socialist candidate
AP 11/13/2013 4:41:01 PM
(AP) Seattle close to electing Socialist candidate
By MANUEL VALDES
Associated Press
SEATTLE

Voters in Seattle are close to electing a Socialist candidate to a city office.

Even in left-leaning Seattle, where police recently made headlines for handing out snacks at a large marijuana festival and politicians often try to out-liberal each other, the fact that 41-year-old Kshama Sawant has taken the lead in a City Council race has surprised many people.

Following the latest ballot count Tuesday night, Sawant had a 41-vote lead over incumbent Richard Conlin. Given Washington state's mail-in voting system, a definitive winner won't be named for days or even weeks.

Sawant has backed efforts to raise the minimum wage to $15, favors rent control and supports a tax on millionaires to fund city needs.
Title: Re: Seattle close to electing Socialist candidate
Post by: Scottftlc on November 13, 2013, 04:58:35 pm
Oh, Hell, Seattle has been electing Jim McDermott to Congress for years, decades, now...and before him, Mike Lowry.  Both are open, avowed Socialists though they have run under the Democrat banner.  This isn't really much news here.
Title: Re: Seattle close to electing Socialist candidate
Post by: Atomic Cow on November 13, 2013, 06:11:03 pm
Seattle is a lost cause, just like LA, San Francisco, New York City etc.
Title: Re: Seattle close to electing Socialist candidate
Post by: Cincinnatus on November 20, 2013, 01:31:41 am
Quote
Seattle City Councilmember-elect shares radical idea with Boeing workers

Quote
SEATTLE —


Seattle City Councilmember-elect Kshama Sawant told Boeing machinists her idea of a radical option, should their jobs be moved out of state

“The workers should take over the factories, and shut down Boeing’s profit-making machine,” Sawant announced to a cheering crowd of union supporters in Seattle’s Westlake Park Monday night.

This week, Sawant became Seattle’s first elected Socialist council member. She ran on a platform of anti-capitalism, workers’ rights, and a $15 per-hour minimum wage for Seattle workers.

On Monday night, she spoke to supporters of Boeing Machinists, six days after they rejected a contract guaranteeing jobs in Everett building the new 777X airliner for eight years, in exchange for new workers giving up their guaranteed company pensions.

Now Boeing is threatening to take those jobs to other states. “That will be nothing short of economic terrorism because it's going to devastate the state's economy,” she said.

Sawant is calling for machinists to literally take-possession of the Everett airplane-building factory, if Boeing moves out. She calls that "democratic ownership."

“The only response we can have if Boeing executives do not agree to keep the plant here is for the machinists to say the machines are here, the workers are here, we will do the job, we don't need the executives. The executives don’t do the work, the machinists do,” she said.

Sawant says after workers “take-over” the Everett Boeing plant; they could build things everyone can use.

“We can re-tool the machines to produce mass transit like buses, instead of destructive, you know, war machines,” she told KIRO 7.


Sawant says she was referring to “drones” when speaking of war machines. Still, she says even as they work on the lines, building airplanes daily, she believes Boeing workers are under siege.

“Workers have to realize, they have more power than they think,” she said.

http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/seattle-city-councilmember-elect-shares-radical-id/nbxbC/

Emphasis added as an example of Socialist economic thinking. Ms Sawant might reflect on the fact the Boeing plant is a successfully operating entity because people want airplanes, Boeing airplanes. Moreover, her statements about not needing the executives and the workers being able to function alone in production remind me of nothing so much as the primitive economic theories of Lenin. Neither hers nor his had any connection with reality.

As to "occupying" the Boeing factories I don't believe we have seen such labor militancy since the industrial disturbances of the 30s. It's also a great idea if you are planning on driving Boeing completely out of WA.
Title: Re: Seattle close to electing Socialist candidate
Post by: Rapunzel on November 20, 2013, 01:38:05 am
Quote
Now Boeing is threatening to take those jobs to other states. “That will be nothing short of economic terrorism because it's going to devastate the state's economy,” she said.

Cry me a river.  They can always move to Texas or Arizona or Florida or South Carolina....   Apple just received approval for a new large facility in Gilbert, AZ,  building component for the iPhone...
Title: Re: Seattle close to electing Socialist candidate
Post by: Chieftain on November 20, 2013, 01:41:48 am
Some day Mt. Ranier is going to come back alive, and when it erupts it will flush the Puget Sound like the giant toilet bowl it has become, and scour Seattle out into the Pacific once and for all.


Title: Re: Seattle close to electing Socialist candidate
Post by: Oceander on November 20, 2013, 02:32:50 am
Quote
Sawant says after workers “take-over” the Everett Boeing plant; they could build things everyone can use.

“We can re-tool the machines to produce mass transit like buses, instead of destructive, you know, war machines,” she told KIRO 7.

I'm certainly no expert, but it strikes me that this would be a hugely expensive proposition, if it could be done at all.  I suppose though, that this fascist cares not for petty trivialities like a lack of funds, after all, she's willing to steal an entire factory, so she wouldn't bat an eyelash at stealing the money to "retool" it.