Sawant continues call for larger May Day protests

Seattle Socialist Councilmember Kshama Sawant continued her call during a Wednesday rally to make the coming May Day demonstrations even larger than before.

“Today we are watching the birth of a new women’s movement,” Sawant said at a rally in Westlake Park Wednesday evening. “Millions of us see Donald Trump as completely intolerable.”

“We need an opposition that is 100 percent against Trump,” she said. “And against the billionaire class. We cannot wait for establishment politicians to stop Trump, we must take him down ourselves.”

Learn more about the rally

The “Fight for Planned Parenthood!” rally at Westlake Park started at 6 p.m. on Wednesday — International Women’s Day. It lasted for nearly two hours in rain and 38 degree weather. Sawant repeated rhetoric that the Democratic Party cannot be relied upon to resist President Trump’s administration. And she noted that the “threat of Trump” will harm health care and women’s rights.

“Why should the people of Washington state be held hostage to Trump and his billionaire cabinet?” she said. “Why doesn’t the legislature and the government tax the rich and fund a single payer health care system? … Such a system would give guaranteed affordable health care to all women, from the trans community to everyone.”

Sawant further promoted that Washington, Oregon and California tax wealthier residents and form a West Coast single payer health care system.

But even before Wednesday’s rally, Sawant’s primary message was to build momentum for May Day demonstrations.

Sawant said that the Seattle Education Association and the Washington Federation of State Employees are considering walking out on May Day to take part in the daytime march. The council member also said that Seattle employees should be allowed to take a paid day off on May 1 to take part in the demonstration.

“We have the potential to strike a major blow against Trump … but it will take planning,” Sawant said. “The discussion within the labor movement is already underway.”

Women’s Day rally

Before Wednesday’s rally, Sawant said that Republicans have introduced a bill in the U.S. House that would prevent patients from accessing vital Planned Parenthood services. The bill she is referring to is one that would strip all federal funding for Planned Parenthood and could impact millions of Medicaid recipients.

“Donald Trump and his billionaire, bigoted cabinet have announced cuts to Planned Parenthood, attacks on abortion rights, and a bill that would repeal the the Affordable Care Act and make it worse for tens of millions of people around the country to get access to health care,” Sawant said.

“We are going to have the message that — let’s rally today for women’s rights — but let’s take that energy and passion and turn it into a historic turnout for May Day,” she said. “So, I see this as a link … between International Women’s Day and May Day because women are fighting for health care rights, abortion rights, we are in solidarity with the trans community, but we are also workers fighting for our workplace rights.”

“It’s extremely concerning that our reproductive health care and all aspects of health care are in the cross hairs,” she said. “Not only abortion rights, all kinds of health care.”

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