We’re Coming For You And Your Rotten System /w Jonathan Rosenblum

From inside Kshama Sawant’s historic tenure in Seattle City Hall comes a blueprint for twenty-first-century socialists, a counterpoint to the common strategies of mainstream progressives today. Seattle was the first major city in the US to mandate a $15 minimum wage; the first to implement a payroll tax on Amazon to build affordable housing; the first to secure a bevy of renters’ rights laws, making good on the slogan, “Housing is a human right.” In a municipal government dominated by pro-business Democrats, Kshama Sawant and the popular street movements she led against major corporations headquartered in the region – including Amazon, Boeing, Microsoft, and Starbucks – won battles that would transform the city’s trajectory for years to come. "We’re Coming for You and Your Rotten System" (https://orbooks.com/catalog/we-re-coming-for-you-and-your-rotten-system) tells this extraordinary story from the inside. Jonathan Rosenblum, who worked in Sawant’s office and alongside community activists, weaves together intimate story-telling and political analysis to show how and why the movement succeeded where other progressive outsiders – such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – have failed. For political activists searching desperately to make sense of the world after the reelection of Donald Trump, the Seattle experience offers a vital framework for fighting our way out of the despairing miasma of twenty-first-century capitalism. 0:00 Intro and moderated by Graeme 2:55 Jonathan Rosenblum 29:00 Q+A