Kshama Sawant responds to Jeff Bezos’ $2 billion charitable fund
Sep 13, 2018, 4:06 PM | Updated: 4:12 pm
(AP images)
(AP images)
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos seems to be Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s arch-nemesis, so it only makes sense that she would have something to say about the entrepreneur’s $2 billion charitable fund toward homelessness and education.
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos spending $2 billion on homelessness, education
And she didn’t disappoint and tweeted on Thursday:
After viciously nixing Seattle’s modest tax & facing nationwide outrage on abysmal conditions he forces on Amazon warehouse workers, @JeffBezos is attempting to mitigate his image – evidence of our movement’s impact. Rather than buy into this, our movement should keep fighting!
— Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) September 13, 2018
Sawant is referring to the Seattle head tax that the Seattle City Council adopted and then repealed a month later. “Jeff Bezos is our enemy, he is our enemy,” Sawant said before the council voted.
Seattle head tax 101: What to know about the tax
The head tax or employee tax would have applied to companies making more than $20 million annually in gross receipts. Naturally, it was easy for Sawant and others to target Amazon, but 500 businesses would have been subject to the tax, which is about 3 percent of the city’s companies.
After the repeal passed, Amazon responded saying it is committed to solutions:
Statement on Seattle City Council’s vote: pic.twitter.com/4LjHFGlQwf
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) June 12, 2018
