SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Socialist Alternative controls Kshama Sawant’s every move

Jan 9, 2019, 5:53 AM

Kshama Sawant...

Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

In shocking new documents that have been uncovered in this article on the watchdog website SCC Insight — a great website, operated by Kevin Schofield, that provides fantastic coverage of the Seattle City Council — we now know the extent that the Communist Party, via the group Socialist Alternative, is in control of local politics.

Socialist Alternative is not for Democratic Socialists like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), both of whom were just elected to Congress. Believe it or not, they are more moderate than Socialist Alternative. They would like to see policies in America resembling those of Scandinavian countries. Socialist Alternative is far more radical; it is a Communist group driven by Marxist principles. The people running Socialist Alternative would like to see a complete Marxist take-down of existing structures.

According to these documents obtained by SCC Insight, Socialist Alternative literally tells Councilmember Kshama Sawant what to do — how to vote on items before the council, who to fire, and who to hire — all of which is in violation of city ethics laws. In these documents, Kshama Sawant has pledged that she will make decisions and cast votes, not based on what’s best for the city and her constituents, but based on the directives of the Seattle Executive Committee of Socialist Alternative.

RELATED: Kshama Sawant wants fewer cops, more addicts

As SCC Insight pointed out, Sawant has never disclosed to her constituents that she has turned over her duties to independently think and vote on her constituents’ behalf. She will do only what is best for this Marxist organization.

Sawant sent a letter to the new Democratic Socialist congresswomen, congratulating them on their elections but warning them that they are still not far enough left.

Finally, we must recognize that while we agree on many things there is a fundamental difference between Marxism and social democratic politics. Socialist Alternative and I are fighting for a socialist world and recognize capitalism cannot be made to work for the working class. Social democrats hope to create a humane capitalism – a futile mission and fundamental error.

We also believe we need a new party for working people, independent of corporate money and the ruling class and we do not agree with your decisions to run as Democrats.

This is what we have embedded in Seattle city government. Socialist Alternative calls Sawant’s position “a stronghold in enemy territory.” They say Sawant — and her office — must be entirely accountable to Socialist Alternative.

I want you to understand the significance of this. A member of the Seattle City Council, whose sworn duty is to represent the best interests of her constituents, is not adhering to that commitment. She is wholly accountable to Socialist Alternative. Sawant assured Socialist Alternative’s Seattle Executive Committee in a letter dated October 2017 that she “completely reject[s] the idea that the Council Office is failing – in any way – to communicate to the SEC, or to be accountable to the SEC and the organization.” She added that she even “err[s] on the side of taking political questions to the SEC.” So Sawant admits, right there in writing, that her adherence is to a Marxist organization.

Another example of Sawant’s complete deference to Socialist Alternative is when Sawant voted yes on Carmen Best. The SEC sent a statement to Socialist Alternative’s National Committee explaining why they told Sawant to vote for Best, and adding that they told her to give a speech about the downsides to electing Best (who, as police chief of a police department in a capitalist society, does not represent a Socialist agenda).

After careful consideration of all sides of this issues [sic] … we feel confident that the best tactic is to vote ‘yes.’ This must be combined with a speech from Kshama before she votes warning about Best’s limitations, appealing to step up the fightback against racist policing, and pointing towards to [sic] need for an alternative to the capitalist system.

This Socialist Alternative Seattle Executive Committee also voted about a year ago to fire Whitney James Kahn. Kahn was a member of Socialist Alternative, but she also worked in Sawant’s office at City Hall, and was therefore on the city payroll. So you have a Marxist organization directing the hiring and the firing of employees that you and I pay for on the city payroll.

SCC Insight also linked up a pamphlet that serves as a guide for all Socialist Alternative members. It is like reading any textbook cult document or pamphlet. They talk about how to contact and groom prospective members. And do you know how much they want in membership dues from their recruits? Between five and 10 percent of their monthly wages. This is pure cult manipulations.

Putting it all together

What does all this mean? SCC Insight points out that there are multiple violations of the city’s ethics code here, including “using an official position for other than the benefit of the city.” I think that is clear. If she is making decisions that are best for a Marxist organization that wants to destroy capitalism, instead of doing what’s best for the City of Seattle, that’s an ethics violation.

She also is using city personnel for a purpose other than a city purpose. The employees in her office are working for a Marxist organization rather than for the City of Seattle and its taxpayers.

Another violation would be using private Gmail addresses to communicate about business like hiring and firing, rather than city email addresses.

As you may remember, one of the only charitable donations that Sawant makes is to Socialist Alternative for around $15,000. And then Socialist Alternative pays her husband about $15,000. So her only charitable donation is to herself — just like a good Socialist.

Sawant and her husband, who is employed by Socialist Alternative, are in India right now and could not be reached for comment.

Now we know that there is literally no thinking behind what Kshama Sawant says. She takes her orders from a Marxist organization. They tell her who to hire. They tell her who to fire. They tell her how to vote. They tell her to embrace only policies that work, not for the taxpayers of Seattle, but for an organization with a stated mission to dismantle “the rotten capitalist system” and replace it with a Socialist state. They want to take existing police departments and dissolve them until a Socialist state is established.

Do you know why this city is going to hell? It’s because of the people who voted for her. I exposed her lack of ethics and ability when she ran for office the first time — that’s why she won’t do any more interviews with me. She is a puppet and a mouthpiece who has some really dangerous people controlling her. And the people of her district put her in place. You want to know why we have a city that is being taken over by drugs, crime, and homelessness? Because it’s all necessary to destroy the capitalist city that is Seattle. They are trying to destroy our city so that they can rebuild it in their image.

I’ve told you before that there is a very calculated effort to destroy our city. Now we have the documents to prove it. Thank you again to the great work at SCC Insight for exposing these documents.

Seattle is a city that was built on independent principles. On people who were self-sufficient — the fishers, the loggers. How did it become one of the leading Communist outposts in the United States? If we don’t fight back against the Marxists, then shame on us. Absolute shame on us.

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Dori: Socialist Alternative controls Kshama Sawant’s every move