Comments

1
This reminds me so much of community college! Thanks for the blast from the past.
2
Why would you write in the Stranger? The Stranger itself is a corporation that exploits its non-union workforce and unpaid interns. Have you ever seen the exorbitant markups it places on its tickets?
3
Social justice and foreign wars may not get the attention you think they deserve, but when you accuse the entire press of ignoring these subjects entirely, you lose credibility.
4
"As an activist and a socialist, I strongly oppose protesters smashing windows, especially of small businesses."

In other words, it is okay but try and leave the little guys alone. I'm curious what the writer considers a small business? At what dollar amount does it become a big business? What's the basis? Is it gross sales for the company? Gross Sales per employee? Profit per employee? Gross Profit for the company? Just using the term "big business" or "corporations" doesn't tell me anything.
5
Why do the protesters get a free pass even (and there is no proof of this, just biased anecdotes from people) if they were provoked to act against the cops?

What if someone walks up to me, calls me a horrid name and dares me to punch him, so I do? Do I just avoid all responsibility for my actions just because I was "provoked?" Of course not.

If a crowd of people are attacking the cops (throwing objects is attacking), than the crowd has to be addressed as one entity, and any individual who chose to join that violent crowd has to accept the consequences of their choice.

Now, police should not be provoking anyone, and should not be looking to fight, and if there is any evidence of this, I would love to see it. However, provoked or not, once the crowd attacks the police, they give up their right to assemble peaceably.
6
I would love to see a timeline of key events of May Day created. My impression is there was no violence or property damage until the police started their crowd dispersal maneuvers with flash bangs and pepper spray. It seems they antagonized an otherwise peaceful demonstration by their tactics. I think a timeline would lay out what's true.
8
I think my eyes just rolled out of my head.
9
You have my vote, Kshama.
10
I pity the hardworking small business people who are going to learn economics from the same deluded bunch that wrecked the economy in 2008. One thing we can all be certain about is that Sawant's economic ideas have had absolutely nothing to do with the actual economic crisis, the one that has seen the mega rich get richer while the rest of us get the shaft. Wall Street has had it their own way for years. We need more people to take a stand like Sawant to help rally the millions who have been left behind. We don't need anymore voodoo economics. Thanks for publishing this.
11
The dipshits in the "radical young people" march started it, not the cops. Provoked by cops? They were BEGGING FOR IT. Escalating tensions? Not like those brave thinkers who lined the way with rocks and bricks and bottles beforehand, and brought more in bags to the scene.

The "hypocrisy" of the mass media is nothing compared to the hypocrisy of the idiot privileged youth who've taken one class from parasites like Sawant and now, in yet another expression of that privilege, are "fighting the power" just like the saintly protestors of yesteryear, using their favorite weapon: utter bogosity.

You're not; you're shitting on the real radicals, the people who actually had something to lose on May 1st, but marched anyways. You patently do not; not you cunts in the streets begging to be sprayed, and not you cunts on the sidelines egging them on with your cartoon-socialist radical rhetoric.

You're a fraud, Sawant. Does it give you any grief that most of your acolytes are going to working for corporations and banks after their daddies get them jobs once the radical bullshit plays out in a few years? Probably not; there will be a new crop by then, ready and armed to take another series of shits on our city.

See you next year, when you'll ask for it all over again, and get it. Or you could do the decent thing for once and fuck off.
12
Tell us how you really feel, Fnarf....
13
Totally reminds me of the street-corner socialists I used to see and hear during my college days 40+ years ago.

Rhetoric is unchanged, and undoubtedly just as ineffective now as then. Some people, some movements, never learn.
14
Looks like Sawant's detractors sent in the drama club in place of the debate club today. Regardless of whether the radicals "were asking for it," the tactics of the police were designed to escalate.
15
This from the moron whose platform includes nationalizing Starbucks, MSFT, Amazon and Boeing.
16
"the tactics of the police were designed to escalate."

Seriously? You think that's what the police wanted?

What a fucking moron.
17
It might be argued that the SPD were the aggressors, but the responsibility for playing right into their hands will forever be with the May Day protestors. When you flush the doctrine of nonviolence (which means a zero tolerance for any confrontational gesture, look, or expressing any anger - it isn't just marching down the street), you run the risk of losing the people and having them side with the police. And that's what you have here.

Oh, and it helps if you have a clear agenda and that it doesn't have anything to do with the police. Cops are, at the most, a symptom. Protest the disease.
18
How come the immigrants' rights rally had no problems morons?

But yes, the words 'community college professor' have so much swing! What's next, a literary review by a pastry arts academic?
20
@ 4 Sawant says she is against smashing windows, especially of small businesses. This very clearly says she is against smashing any windows - not just small businesses (but especially small businesses)
21
Meanwhile 32 trillion dollars and growing sits in offshore accounts and all of this matters nary a whisker.
22
There are other strategies for dealing with crowds of 250 people and not all of them involve throwing flashbangs. I thought that was obvious.

And seriously, a "fucking moron"? Are you trying to make this a bro-down?
24
"There are other strategies for dealing with crowds of 250 people"

How come the immigrants' rights rally (which unlike the white kids on Cap Hill had actually working class, black and brown people) of several thousand didn't have a single incident, fucking moron?
25
Come on, I double dare you people to explain how the 'racist thugs' at the SPD didn't 'attack' the immigrants' rights march and why that march went off with zero problems.

Do the racist police and their "bankster" supporters just have it in for white college kids? You know, the top 20%?
26
Kshama Sawant is clearly high. Yes the police were in riot gear, why is that? Because of assholes threatening to riot like they did last year! Military grade weapons? LOL!

If the police wanted to provoke the protesters, they wouldn't let them march int he first place. They wouldn't make it to Westlake, and the corner of Broadway and Pine would have been trashed by both parties.

Never have I see a bunch of whiny thin skinned hypersensitive losers in my life.
27
The federal case began before May 1, 2012 and continues today. Holding people without charges and demanding information about others is not Constitutional. The SPD had been planning a confrontation since May 1, 2012, and used tactics to escalate the situation so that they could use violence. That is consistent with a pattern of escalating such that the DoJ had to intervene, and the mayor and SPD continue to resist the changes that will be required. The media, including some Stranger writers, reported the SPD side for days in advance to escalate the tension. Some in the protest played into that hand by responding with confrontation.
28
Wow, Kshama, what a lot of dreadful commentary your brilliant, inspiring essay has provoked! From rich SOBs to wiseacre liberals, it's clear that thoughtful, dedicated Socialists such as your good self do have an uphill fight to be heard and comprehended and not just where you reside and campaign. Corporate-controlled media propaganda has done a real number on the people. The adulation promoted by corporate media as they continuously shill for the 1% and elite political stooges of the system is anti- democratic, anti-working class and anti-community. The basic message is 'I've got mine now you get yours.' Arrogant voices of the 1% have indeed distorted the truth, that this country is deeply unequal and unfree for any but millionaires. Where ordinary working people are directly concerned, there's not a dime's worth of difference between the Demopublicans and the Republicrats, the two parties of big business. Thank you, Kshama, for speaking truth to power, and for fighting this good fight for the majority, for the 99%! I wish I lived in Seattle so that I could help in your campaign and of course vote for you! In the meantime, I will do all I can to publicize your brilliant work. Never mind the japes from assorted cynics, know-it-all talking heads, and assorted hateful SOBs. In Solidarity, Tom from Boston Socialist Alternative.
29
"used tactics to escalate the situation so that they could use violence."

Show me that memo why don't you, I need a good laugh.

I see not one of you pussies can explain why the immigrants' rights march had no problems.
31
The police and the "radical youth protestors" are BOTH to blame for deflecting attention from the (actually important) immigrant rights march. Those 4,000 brave marchers with everything to lose for publicly identifying themselves as undocumented should have been the real story, but...

The cops wanted to show off their supposedly new & improved crowd control tactics, which basically amounted to lobbing flashbangs and pepper spray at everyone in sight, and the "radical youth" wanted to show off their self-aggrandizing martyr complexes, which basically amounted to smashing shit, making a mess, and daring cops to strike back.

So really, screw both groups for that attention-whoring circle jerk.
32
What are they talking about?

I thought May Day was to celebrate getting ready for Cinqo de Mayo, when we celebrate the Battle of Tequila.
33
A voice even sillier and less credible that Ian Twinkledouche and she collects a paycheck from the state to mentor young adults. Contemplate that.
34
@ 33, how much money does SCCC actually get from the state? Probably not much.
35
@33 That's 'Finklewanker" thank you very much.

Oh, and that pink gerbil he pulled from his ass and stuck on his head? That was in hiding from animal experimentation. It's the Anne Frank of gerbils.
36
@30: Why don't you go be the first to murder someone as a "protest?" Make sure to let everyone know it was you so that they really get your message. I am sure most people will back you right?

Or keep being a hyperbolic and idiotic bitch your whole life, egging other people to murder and destroy because you are too much of a coward to leave your computer.

But maybe you are right, we should be moving towards the golden days of protest, where people were regularly shot and killed for "protesting" violently as you suggest. Are you going to be the first to volunteer to run headlong into the rifle barrels?
37
Ms. Sawant, you are a leader in the Socialist Alternative party, an organization that openly identifies itself as Trotskyite. Among the core tenets of Trostkyism is the belief that society and all its institutions must be torn down -- by violent means, if necessary -- and replaced by a small cabal of dedicated fanatics who will recast society into the Socialist Ideal. The permanent revolution, I believe it is called. So how can you come to one of the social institutions your party is dedicated to overthrowing and condemn people for doing what your party says is vitally necessary?

And while we are on the topic, why should anyone elect a candidate to government office running under a party whose stated goals include overthrowing the government? Wouldn't that meet the very definition of treason?

One word, Ms. Sawant: blackwhite. Look it up.
38
"Ms. Sawant, you are a leader in the Socialist Alternative party, an organization that openly identifies itself as Trotskyite. Among the core tenets of Trostkyism is the belief that society and all its institutions must be torn down -- by violent means, if necessary -- and replaced by a small cabal of dedicated fanatics who will recast society into the Socialist Ideal. The permanent revolution, I believe it is called."

Well come on, like their platform to nationalize Starbucks and have the folks from the DMV make your latte, she doesn't actually believe that!
39
Bullshit.
40
@34, our local district ("State of Washington Community College District VI") has a budget website whose most recent figures are for 2010-11.

SCCC's direct funding from the legislature amounted to about $22 million: a bit more than half its $40 million budget. http://www.seattlecolleges.com/DISTRICT/…
41
@37 - What are you talking about? Where on Socialist Alternative's website or printed material do you see the idea that govt. institutions must be torn down and "replaced by a small cabal of dedicated fanatics who will recast society into the Socialist Ideal?" No where. Stop detracting from the real issues by trying to mischaracterize an organization that is clearly dedicated to fighting for reforms for all working people (like single payer healthcare, expanding transit, higher minimum wage, etc.) while arguing that systemic change is necessary to secure the reforms we win.

Yes, we think that capitalism (an economic system based on private property, where decisions are based on increasing profits for the owners of industry) should be replaced with socialism (a system based on meeting human need, not increasing profits for the super wealthy). We can discuss how we think that can be achieved, but no where do we call for the violent overthrow of the government and installing a small group of fanatics to run things. This is a red herring and a straw man argument.

The issue at hand is the brutality of the SPD in handling protests of those whom are understandably upset with the situation they face daily (or see happening globally) - homelessness, hunger, unemployment, underemployment, police harassment, student debt, food insecurity, unchecked climate change, war, etc. etc. Basically, a world where the vast majority suffer while the rich get richer. The real question is why that doesn't upset you and make you want to fight for change. I don't agree with their tactics because I feel it gives the police cover to crack down as they have (see comments above agreeing that the protestors are the problem), but they are not the real problem here. The SPD uses such excessive force that a federal investigation was warranted.

42
Great article Kshama! Thanks for sharing your important and pertinent ideas.

While many of the media outlets noted injuries to the Seattle police many also failed to mention the injuries the "radical youth" received. In a photo of one of the men arrested, he has quite the abrasion on his temple and was even said to be limping into court. The media and city council should not allow the police to use such force during an arrest, especially when all of those arrested were unarmed.
Many of those arrested were young people in their 20s with previous criminal charges. Instead of losing these people to the judicial system and creating yet another burden for the tax-paying working class, we should be focusing on rehabilitation. I believe a lot of those arrested were specifically targeted by the police. The more arrests made during these protests, the more the police are seen as "doing their job," even if they have to create reasons to arrest people.

When police show up to a protest or march in riot gear, armed with guns, batons, and pepper spray, and set up blockades using bicycles and intimidation, it is no wonder that out of fear a few protestors lash out. But these people were not acting out because they are aggressive, psychotic individuals, but because they are frustrated at the way the capitalist system functions to benefit only the super-wealthy and leaves the youth, the working class, and people of color and immigrant status in poverty.

Socialism is not a failure. It is the incredible gathering of the 99% to create a better system for humanity and the environment.

Kshama is running for city council not in a treasonous sense, but to inform the good people of Seattle that there is a viable alternative to police brutality, austerity, and the destruction of the environment; that there are honest and intelligent people working to rebuild the system and provide the youth that were targeted by the police and the 4,000 immigrant and LGBTQ workers marching for May Day with green jobs and living wages.
43
@ 40, thanks. That's higher than I thought it might be, based on what I know about how Colorado's state colleges and universities are funded (less than 20% from the state) as well as Goldy's posts that Washington's expenditures on higher education decrease every year.

That said, my point in asking is whether it's fair to say that this instructor is "collecting a paycheck from the state." I guess it's more fair than I thought, but still not wholly accurate.
44
@ 24 You wrote "'There are other strategies for dealing with crowds of 250 people'. How come the immigrants' rights rally (which unlike the white kids on Cap Hill had actually working class, black and brown people) of several thousand didn't have a single incident, fucking moron?"

The immigrant rights march had 4,000 people at it, that is why. It would have been a disaster of the cops had acted in the provocative fashion that they did to the small protest of 250 people. What would have been the result if they had started slinging flashbang grenades into a crowd of 4000? What would have been the public reaction? To simply pose the question answers it.

On the other hand the "anti-capitalist" march was very small, around 250, and was an easy target for the SPD due to last year's May 1 demo which allowed the police to target a politically unpopular group. This was compounded by the mistaken rhetoric & tactics that some of the protesters engaged in, as Sawant points out. I share her critique and strongly oppose activists falling for the police's trap of smashing windows etc.

But that does not change the reality that the SPD (and the FBI) were clearly trying to encourage a confrontation, sent in undercover cops to encourage people to break windows and attack the cops, etc.

More than 1 thing can be true at the same time.
45
"When police show up to a protest or march in riot gear, armed with guns, batons, and pepper spray, and set up blockades using bicycles and intimidation, it is no wonder that out of fear a few protestors lash out."

They didn't at the earlier immigrants' right march where actual working class people of color marched.

How come?

How come no one can explain that?
46
"The immigrant rights march had 4,000 people at it, that is why. It would have been a disaster of the cops had acted in the provocative fashion that they did to the small protest of 250 people."

So the if the immigrants rights march had had only 250 people the police would have stopped it from marching on its permitted route?

You're a fucking joke.
47
" oppose activists falling for the police's trap of smashing windows"

You make them sound like two year olds.
48
"o encourage people to break windows and attack the cops, etc."

Again, show us the memo why don't you and will I need to wait until inforwars posts it?
49
"a politically unpopular group"

Well, you got one fact right.

Kudos! I'm amazed you noticed through all the self-aggrandizement and paranoia.
50
I'm no fan of Sawant, but the best part of my day is always seeing how ANGRY Fnarf gets at things like May Day or the word socialism (and now, apparently women). MORE MORE MORE
51
"With over 68,000 millionaires in King County, there is plenty of money to fund such initiatives if we have political representatives who are prepared to stand up to the super-wealthy and tax them."

How do you tax people in, say, Bellevue, when you sit on the Seattle city council?
52
@ 51 You can't. But you can campaign for it, publicize it, and bring pressure to bear for King County and Washington State to. Do you see the current Mayor and City Council doing that? Seattle has serious weight to throw around in state politics, and it's politicians do when it suits them.
53
@ 44, do you mean to imply that the police would have treated the immigration reform marchers the same way as the May Day protesters if there were only 250 of them? That the sheer number of people was the only inherent difference between the two rallies?
54
The MayDay Protestors were allowed their Constitutional Right to Assemble and March. Something that SPD did not allow us to do during WTO. Still the spoiled children of anarchy had to throw fit, break some glass and fling rocks at the cops. Over some half-baked "Capitalism is bad" taught by half-wit intellectuals like Sawant. Then they cry like bitches when they get pepper sprayed and flash banged. Guess what, that is called continuum of force, when you punch the cops they pepper spray you, when you throw rocks they throw flashbangs. The Police have a duty, both to protect the Constitution, and to maintainorder. As a society we cannot allow mobs to go around smashing things that they don’t like in the name of "Justice."

What is truly disgusting is that Sawant, an immigrant, who was given the full benefit of the American infrastructure and education, paid for by the American tax payer, turns around and preaches for the destruction of the very System that she has benefited from.

Worse still she preaches her treasonous drivel at the pulpit of our public intuition of learning, poisoning the impersonal minds of our students. Our college kids should be being taught the skills needed to be successful, not how to beg, bitch and moan that the world owes them a living.

If America is SOOOO terrible I don’t think Sawant will mind being deported back to Mumbai.
55
@42 "When police show up to a protest or march in riot gear, armed with guns, batons, and pepper spray, and set up blockades using bicycles and intimidation, it is no wonder that out of fear a few protestors lash out."

None of the people at the immigrant rally had this problem. I can understand how the mere presence of someone can cause them to freak out, but honestly when you have a problem with cops, then you really shouldn't inject yourself into a situation where police are going to be there, because its not going to end well and people are simply tired of blaming the cops for all your problems.
56
Mayor McGinn's office is not "anti-poor", that's bullhit, he vetoed both of those panhandling bills, and Kshama Sawant needs to read the Real Change articles she posted, as they prove her wrong.

Second, there were no "military" weapons at the protests, and while I do not agree with using tear gas until someone becomes violent, (in the pictures I saw the protesters were not violent, just tear gassed), I do here point out that every weapon the police used are weapons that a civilian can buy, and not "military" weapons.

There are enough facts to support your case, you don't need to make them up as you go along. You are losing credibility with me.
57
What I wonder about is why is everyone saying that SPD used flash-bang GRENADES on the crowd? While they probably used a bang ball which is nowhere near a flash-bang grenade in effect they most certainly didn't use flash-bang grenades on that crowd. Flash-bangs tossed into a crowd will most certainly leave people bleeding from the ears. If one goes off right next to you then you will most certainly not be standing around talking about it to anyone for a while. More likely is that you will be laying there rolling around on the ground screaming loudly while blood drips out of your ears. I remember reading here on slog of one guy saying they used 3 of them on him. If they had fired 3 flash-bangs at his feet he wouldn't have been talking about it. At least not till the surgeons finished repairing his legs and feet and got lots of good painkillers in him while he healed from the skin grafts. Saying flash-bangs while meaning bang balls is like calling all firecrackers M-80's. But your standard blackcat firecracker, if held in an open palm, will usually cause just a small burn and a stinging pain that goes away fairly quickly while an M-80 held the same way will blast the skin off your palm if it doesn't just blast a hole all the way thru.
Flash bangs are designed to stun or incapacitate people which takes a fairly decent sized powder charge with appropriate damage if you are too close to it while a bang ball is designed to make the target stop and hopefully start thinking about what he or she is doing and stop doing it.
58
I think The Stranger was doing much better for Sawant here when they just worshipped the ground she walked on, instead of letting her speak.

From what I read about her, she seemed very intelligent and perceptive. Yet in her piece I see lies, exaggerations, opinions stated as fact, as well as any unproven statements passed off as fact without a second thought, much less any evidence.

Sawant appears to be blinded by her politics as any establishment democrat or republican. Sad.
59
@53 My comment pointed to a number of differences between the 2 marches, the difference in size being one of them (but the biggest).

It is much harder for the police to mess with a demo of 4,000 than a demo of 250. But I also explained that due to the mistaken tactics of some the 2012 May 1 protesters the smaller demo was an easier target, politically, for the police in that the protesters were less popular. Than there is the point that some of the protesters this year pulled the same mistaken tactics as last year (smashing windows), which I said I think was wrong (and Kshama says so in her article).

Lastly, I would add to what I said before: the cops were looking to settle a score with the radical protesters after last year (which was not the case with the immigrant rights protest).

None of which alters, in my view, the cops unacceptable conduct and deliberately provocative approach which aimed to incite the protesters.
60
@57

Fair enough, thank you for the correction.

Though I honestly wouldn't have minded if they used flashbangs on this group of childish political miscreants.
61
This is a game being played by two groups, only one of whom is clearly defined, and only one of whom works for us. It's bizarre that the same people denigrating the anti-capitalist demonstrators as ineffective fools give our highly-trained peace officers a pass on their participation in the pissing match. We should expect more out of our public servants, no?
62
Pretty sure most of the people in the immigrant rights march work for you too, @61.

Or did someone magically trim your hedges and cook food when you went out to eat?
63
"the cops were looking to settle a score with the radical protesters after last year "

Where's your evidence? Oh that's right, up your ass like that pink gerbil Ian Finklewanker pulled out and stuck to his head.
64
"It's bizarre that the same people denigrating the anti-capitalist demonstrators as ineffective fools give our highly-trained peace officers a pass on their participation in the pissing match."

No, what's bizarre is you imagining a bunch of spoiled white college kids and the cops serve the public the same way.
65
@63

Maybe we should have a "Free the Gerbils" protest at Ian Finkwieners house. We can even smash his belongings because property destruction is not violence.

Besides, Sawant agrees that people should not have private property anyway, she probably has some Apple products that we could redistrubute to those who are without.
66
@44 - Socialist Alternative openly describes itself as Trotskyite. I was describing a vision of socialist revolution that is central to that ideology. If Socialist Alternative does not espouse such actions, then why model themselves on an ideology that does?

While they have purged this information from their website and the Wikipedia, they have forgotten that the internet is forever: archives of now deleted and changed pages show how they have described themselves in the past. And, they still proudly affirm their affiliation with the Committee for a Workers' International, another Trotskyite group with its own history of espousing violence for the cause and whose history has not been so whitewashed.
67
"Take into public ownership the top 500 corporations and banks that dominate the U.S. economy and run them under the democratic management of elected representatives of the workers and the broader public. Compensation to be paid on the basis of proven need to small investors, not millionaires."

Apparently, Sawant wants the Seattle City Council to take over Starbucks (and MSFT, Boeing and Amazon) and have the folks from the DMV make our lattes, software, airplanes and deliver your family presents on time every Christmas (or Kwanza).
68
To sum up this thread, Theodore Gorath embodies the vacuous mentality once again and Fnarf's invective still undermines any credibility in his "arguments." [I guess at the Bush School or wherever he went, calling someone a "cunt" bolster's one's logic.] Just another day!
69
There are a lot of really negative and angry comments here, especially given that the article is pretty tame IMO. I guess that's what you get when you publish in a paper mostly read by hipsters...
70
Always good to see an ad with a stripper sticking her tits in your face next to Kshama Sawant's name. Gives you hope.
71
Kshama Sawant is saying very clearly that she opposes property destruction, which she argues is counter-productive for building a social justice movement. But she is also pointing out that the police were violent, too, throwing flash bang grenades into crowds, tear gassing individuals and journalists, and shoving protesters with their bikes, which the corporate media failed to cover. I think she has the right balance.

If you want to check out Sawant's campaign for City Council: www.VoteSawant.org

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