Sawant responds to report alleging votes, decisions made by outside group

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant responded Thursday to a recent report from SCC Insight, that alleged her council votes and political decision-making were governed by an outside special interest group.

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The group is known as Socialist Alternative, with a stated view pointing toward “the global capitalist system as the root cause of the economic crisis, poverty, discrimination, war, and environmental destruction.”

“In response to SCC Insight and other recent media coverage attacking Socialist Alternative and my office, I plead guilty – to being a democratically accountable socialist elected representative, and not a corporate politician,” Sawant fired back in a lengthy blog post responding to the report.

SCC Insight’s report claimed that Sawant “has handed over significant decision-making to the organization — including how she votes on business that comes before the City Council, and the hiring and firing of government-payroll staff in her office.”

Responding to those allegations, Sawant cited her leadership role within Socialist Alternative.

“These articles insinuate that my votes reflect some sort of puppetry,” she wrote. “In fact, I am an elected leader of Socialist Alternative who agrees with, and has argued for within our democratic structures, the political decisions and votes I have taken while in office.”

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“The allegations of ethics violations are similarly utterly baseless,” she added.

SCC Insight had previously noted that Socialist Alternative “doesn’t publish information on its leadership, nor does it disclose any information on its finances,” making it difficult to confirm Sawant’s role in the group’s hierarchy.

It also reported that at the end of 2017, the group had about 1,000 members nationwide, 200 of whom are based out of Seattle.

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