How a grassroots Seattle movement delivered Amazon a major loss

Pushback with Aaron Mate

Pushback with Aaron Maté

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4.7 • 594 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2019

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pushback with Aaron Maté In Seattle's recent election, Amazon spent at least $1.5 million to defeat a slate of progressive candidates -- and lost. One of Amazon's top targets, re-elected socialist city councilmember Kshama Sawant, explains how people power beat big business. Guest: Kshama Sawant, re-elected Seattle City Councilmember and member of Socialist Alternative. Support Pushback at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aaronmate Pushback on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pushbackshow Aaron Maté on Twitter: https://twitter.com/aaronjmate Pushback on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lu7MGQ Pushback on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/pushbackshow Pushback on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2mpwIQm Pushback on Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=465855 Find transcripts and more at https://thegrayzone.com/pushback Find more reporting at https://thegrayzone.com Support our original journalism at Patreon: https://patreon.com/grayzone Twitter: https://twitter.com/grayzoneproject Facebook: https://facebook.com/thegrayzone Minds: https://minds.com/thegrayzone ||| The Grayzone ||| Find more reporting at https://thegrayzone.com Support our original journalism at Patreon: https://patreon.com/grayzone Twitter: https://twitter.com/grayzoneproject Facebook: https://facebook.com/thegrayzone Minds: https://minds.com/thegrayzone

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Pushback. I'm Erin Mate. My next guest recently took on the world's richest
0:08.1	person and won. Kashama Savant is a socialist member of the Seattle City Council,
0:13.8	and in her recent bid for re-election, Amazon, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, spent half a million
0:19.6	dollars to defeat her.
0:21.7	Well, Kashama Savant prevailed, winning re-election, along with four other progressive candidates,
0:27.9	maintaining the progressive majority on the Seattle City Council.
0:31.6	Amazon backed seven candidates, but just two of them won.
0:35.6	Kashama Savant joins me now, socialist member of the Seattle City Council.
0:40.3	Welcome Kashama Sivant to pushback.
0:42.3	Congratulations on your victory.
0:44.3	How did you do it?
0:45.3	I think it really demonstrates the power of social movements.
0:49.3	Ordinary people who are facing deteriorating living standards, affordable housing crisis, escalating homelessness.
0:58.0	Most of us under capitalism in normal circumstances are atomized and isolated from one another
1:05.6	and the system, everything in the media, all the narratives tell us that if our lives are difficult, if you can't
1:13.4	pay the rent, if you have student debt, if you don't have a well-paying job, and it's your
1:18.8	fault because you can't get your life together.
1:21.8	And instead, the reality is that most of us are struggling to get by because that is the
1:26.6	nature of the system.
1:32.3	Capitalism greatly increases the wealth.
1:35.6	It siphons off the wealth from the bottom to the top.
1:41.4	And so it's when we, as ordinary people, come together, get organized and fight as a collective around concrete questions like taxing big
	...

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