If Seattle had any lingering questions about just how socialist its new City Council member was, Kshama Sawant answered them unequivocally on a rainy evening in November, six days after Boeing machinists rejected a contract that gutted their pensions. “The workers should take over the factories, and shut down Boeing’s profit-making machine,” Sawant told a cheering crowd. In other words, fresh off her victory over longtime City Councilmember Richard Conlin, Sawant boldly stood in Westlake Park and unapologetically called for a real-deal socialist revolution, suggesting that Boeing machinery could be used to make buses instead of “war machines.” So far, of course, the revolution has yet to materialize, and Boeing is still making airplanes. But when it comes to capitalism, we all know exactly where Sawant stands.
Read all of our picks for People & Places, and explore the rest of this year’s edition of Best of Seattle.