Seattle councilmember Kshama Sawant speech to Bernie [View all]

[Ichingcarpenter]

Seattle councilmember Kshama Sawant joined a star-studded climate panel in New York that included Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben to deliver a barnburner speech that ended with the endorsement of potential 2016 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.





Nobody here will disagree that we can’t rely on the right wing climate change denying Republicans, but neither can we rely on the big business Democrats. Under Obama, there has been a massive expansion not of clean energy, but of fossil fuels, oil drilling in the arctic, of fracking. It’s an expansion that hasn’t been seen in more than a generation. And it’s not just Obama, the political establishment is awash with oil money. If we tone down our demands to appease the Democratic party elite, they will simply use our generosity to further appease their corporate donors.

Only an independent force of the 99 percent, a new party based on workers, young people, environmentalists and labor will be able to fight Wall Street and big business. A party that will struggle and boldly advocate for alternatives to this crisis ridden system. It was great to hear Bernie Sanders tonight—there has been some talk about Bernie running for president in 2016 to provide an alternative to Hillary Clinton (laughter).

I don’t always agree with Bernie, I’ll be honest, especially his recent positions on US foreign policy, but just for a moment—let us imagine the impact of a well known and credible independent left challenger of the stature of Bernie, running as a challenge to the two parties of big business in the 2016 elections. If we had a left wing campaign that refused any corporate cash and called for taxing corporations and the superwealthy to fund a massive green jobs program, an end to corporate welfare, a $15 minimum wage, single payer health care, and a cancellation of student debt.

I would appeal to Bernie to run as an Independent candidate in 2016, not tied to the Democrats and their big business agenda.

http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/954712-129/sawant-urges-bernie-sanders-to-run