Movement for Kshama

Kshama Sawant has issued a statement calling our organization "reckless" & "damaging." Kshama is pretending she doesn’t know who we are: DNC wreckers? Agents of @RepAdamSmith? Kshama knows exactly who we are. Her statement is a dishonest political attack on our organization & on revolutionary socialists. The Democrats are busy taking an axe to public services in Seattle, including the cancellation of the Ballard light rail extension and threatening cuts to healthcare, housing & education. @MayorofSeattle Katie Wilson has dropped her campaign promise to fight for free childcare & shut down surveillance cameras. Democrats have failed to take action against ICE or protect victims of police brutality. In the last 5 years, they have INCREASED the Seattle police budget by $123 million. Kshama should be using her campaign to fight against these attacks by the Seattle & King County Democratic Party, including Mayor Katie Wilson. Activists and socialist organizations have urged Kshama to use her campaign to mobilize against these attacks, but she has not. Instead of fighting to stop the Democrats’ cuts, Kshama is using her $500,000 war chest to make social media posts, create Instagram graphics, and send emails to her national list attacking other socialists with @movement4kshama. Unfortunately, Kshama has a pattern of sectarianism, which HAS done damage to her campaign. But it’s not just her: there is a crisis of both sectarianism and opportunism on the left. Most of the left has refused to support Kshama’s campaign. There has been total silence from self-described socialist organizations like @DemSocialists, @SocialistAlt, @revcommunists, and @pslnational. A whole wing of the “socialist” movement has chained itself to the Democratic Party. Last month, @SeattleDSA voted against even having a debate about endorsing Kshama’s campaign, while voting happily to endorse Democrat Jaelynn Scott. @CentralINDSA has refused to support the new Socialist Party of Indiana, while endorsing Democrat Jackson Franklin. New York DSA won’t support @AndreEastonBX, but endorsed strikebreaking Democrat AOC again. Even the “left wing” of DSA like @dsarandr have refused to support Kshama’s campaign. Yet their members argue for “critical support” for sellouts like @AOC. Only the @labormilitant and @cleanbreaknow caucuses in DSA have taken a principled stance. Labor Notes, the supposed “left” of the labor movement, has banned a member of the left caucus @Teamsters_Mblz from attending this year’s @labornotes conference. But Labor Notes had no problem inviting @ChicagosMayor Democrat Brandon Johnson to deliver a keynote address in 2024, right as he was preparing a crackdown on anti-genocide protesters ahead of the DNC. Socialist Alternative, Kshama’s former organization, endorsed DSA Democrat Zohran Mamdani (who hired Zionist police chief Jessica Tisch and endorsed Hakeem Jeffries), but has yet to say anything about Kshama’s campaign. The Revolutionary Communists of America are sticking their heads in the sand until the revolution comes to them. Other organizations like @SEP_US are just hopelessly sectarian. They have not been silent (give them credit!), but they have been hostile to any working-class campaign not run by the SEP/@WSWS_Updates. Kshama’s recent statement is also sectarian: it is an attack on the only revolutionary socialists who ARE supporting her campaign: @labormilitant, @WorkersVanguard, and @SEASocialists, all of whom have been involved with Movement for Kshama. So why is Kshama attacking us? Movement for Kshama was launched by 5 former members of @cmkshama’s organization, including her former campaign manager @socialistem and 3 former campaign staff. We launched it after Kshama & the leadership fired these staff members and suspended two of them from her organizations @revworkers & @wrkrsstrikeback. These members were suspended and fired after raising political disagreements with the campaign leadership, including objections to a months-long campaign against a dedicated member that was characterized by a series of ugly personalized attacks. These personal attacks were a substitute for much-needed political debate within the organization. Kshama and the @revworkers leadership carried out a series of undemocratic maneuvers to suppress debate inside the organization, including bureaucratic and draconian suspensions. Several elected leaders quit the organization in protest, and founded @labormilitant. We think that the members of Workers Strike Back (WSB) should demand answers, and fight to reverse these suspensions, including the undemocratic suspension of an elected member of the National Coordinating Committee (NCC). Unfortunately, most WSB members aren’t even aware that the suspensions happened. The suspension of an elected leader was carried out during a 30-minute meeting of the NCC, and was never communicated to the members. Rank-and-file WSB members have been kept in the dark for almost 3 months. We have many political disagreements with Kshama, @revworkers, and the leadership of @wrkrsstrikeback. But despite our disagreements, we urged them at the time to work together to build Kshama’s campaign. Instead, Kshama and her campaign told us to get lost. They explicitly banned us from attending campaign events. They told us that if we wanted to support the campaign, we would have to do so independently. So we did. We launched Movement for Kshama. Since launching our Super PAC, we have had no communication with the campaign whatsoever. All of our work has been done independently, and is 100% legal. This is a *working-class* Super PAC (a fact Kshama withheld in her statement). We have received donations from more than 400 working people, overwhelmingly from Washington state. Our median donation is $5. Kshama’s campaign didn’t release this statement because they don’t want us collecting signatures, or because they’re concerned about legal consequences for the campaign. If that was all, they wouldn’t have needed social media graphics and a national email campaign. They released this statement because they don’t want us to support the campaign at all, with or without a Super PAC. This is an attempt to smear us and undermine support for our efforts. The left cannot respond to every disagreement with dishonest attacks and refusing to work together. This is how we got here, where the left is splintered into 1,000 organizations that act like competing small businesses. Kshama’s sectarian attacks have not helped her win support from the rest of the left. She has alienated thousands of would-be supporters. But we can’t fight sectarianism with yet more sectarianism. Workers and the left need to unite to elect Kshama. We need to support EVERY working-class effort to break with the capitalist Democratic Party and build a party of our own. Kshama’s campaign announced a target of 5,000 ballot signatures. We hope she reaches that goal. We are forced to suspend our signature collection, since Kshama’s campaign will not accept them. We refuse to mislead working people. But we will not suspend our support for the campaign. Our work has expanded far beyond campaigning for one election, so we will also be voting at an upcoming meeting on whether to legally dissolve our working-class Super PAC (which was launched at a time when Kshama’s campaign was the organization’s primary purpose), and continue building a broader movement through United Front for a Workers’ Party (@4aworkersparty). We hope Kshama will end her sectarian attacks, and work to build a unified movement. Kshama calls herself a revolutionary socialist. A revolutionary socialist would use her campaign to fight against the brutal attacks on working people from both parties, including the attacks currently being carried out by the Democrats in Seattle and King County. We have many disagreements with Kshama, and we have no problem saying so. Socialists need to be willing to accept criticism, especially those who want to lead the movement. And we need to be open and honest when we disagree. At the same time, we can’t allow disagreements to get in the way of taking steps forward for the workers’ movement, and a victory for Kshama would be a massive step forward. Our enemies are Adam Smith, the Democratic and Republican parties, and the opportunist leaders of the socialist & labor movement. We urge all working people to organize support for Kshama’s campaign. Socialists should demand support from their organizations. Rank-and-file union members should organize for endorsements in their unions, and expose sellout union leaders in @LIUNA, @AFSCME, @IAM_Union, @AFGENational who are supporting Kshama’s strikebreaking opponent, genocidal Democrat Adam Smith. We need a united front to elect @cmkshama and other independent socialists, and build a workers’ party that can take on both capitalist and imperialist parties. We urge all socialists and working people to join us. Reach out at movementforkshama@gmail.com or movementforkshama.org.

Workers STILL need an independent, anti-imperialist alternative to Avi Lewis’s pro-NATO, pro-imperialist NDP. That’s why we backed Yves Engler’s campaign to lead the NDP. His opposition to NATO and defense of Palestinians offered a way to push back against the pro-imperialist sell-outs who have run the labour movement into the ground. Likewise, in the U.S., our comrades are backing Kshama Sawant’s run for Congress. She provides a genuine rallying point for all those looking to launch a fight in opposition to both capitalist parties. It’s high time for the left to ditch the sectarian rubbish and keep our eyes on the prize—which is to give revolutionary leadership to the struggles of the working class. Why are we in business if not to do that? For workers unity, not Canadian “national unity"! For a workers government! iclfi.org/pubs/wv/1189/s… x.com/Workers_Tribun… @engleryves @socialistaction @avilewis @kshamasawant @Movement4Kshama

JUSTICE FOR JUNIPER BLESSING Fight Anti-Trans Violence! Build a Party for Workers & All Oppressed People! Trans Solidarity March, Friday, June 26 @ 6 pm! JOINT STATEMENT On May 11, a 19-year-old transgender student, Juniper Blessing, was murdered at off-campus student housing at the University of Washington in Seattle. While cops & Democrats make hollow statements and offer condolences, they have no solutions to the crisis of violence against trans people, or against any other oppressed group. Investigators say Juniper’s murder is “not being treated as a hate crime.” But transgender people are four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime. The murder rate for trans people doubled between 2017 and 2021. This is not an isolated incident, but the product of the capitalist system and its hostility toward workers and the oppressed everywhere. For years, the right has mounted escalating political attacks on transgender people. So far in 2026, more than 750 anti-trans bills have been introduced in state legislatures around the country. This includes a bill in West Virginia “recognizing transgenderism as a mental disorder,” and a bill in Maryland to make it a felony for a doctor to prescribe hormones to minors. The Trump administration has also made numerous federal attacks on trans people, including removing trans people from hate crime studies and having counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka investigate trans right groups for being “violent left wing extremist groups.” The right-wing assault on transgender people has led to acts of violence against transgender people on a mass scale. Seattle and Washington state are completely controlled by the Democratic Party. This March, @SeattleCouncil passed a proclamation “affirming” Transgender Day of Visibility. But what are they actually doing to keep transgender people safe? Evictions have gone up 12 percent in King County since last year. Nearly one in three transgender people report being homeless at some point in their lives. Yet last year, Seattle City Council tried to REPEAL renters’ rights, making it easier for corporate landlords to jack up prices and evict tenants. This attack failed only because renters and socialists, including many transgender people, fought back. Last year, the Seattle Police Department attacked peaceful protestors who were demonstrating against an anti-trans hate group which was holding a rally in Seattle. The SPD used chemical weapons on the crowd. How did Democrats respond? By giving the police department a $40 million “funding surge”! SPD’s budget has now increased by $123 million since the George Floyd movement. Last year’s police budget was approved unanimously by the all-Democrat council, including by Alexis Mercedes-Rinck, the so-called “progressive” on the council. We could take that $123 million from the police to fund clinics providing free healthcare to 100,000 people in Seattle, including free gender-affirming care, as a concrete step toward free universal healthcare. ICE puts transgender immigrants and asylum seekers under intense scrutiny, aided by the Trump administration’s new anti-trans visa requirements. The City Council passed a one-year moratorium on ICE detention centers under pressure from the movement, but won’t even commit to making the ban permanent. @MayorofSeattle Katie Wilson refused to follow through on her campaign promise to shut down the city’s Axon surveillance camera system, prioritizing big business and the World Cup over keeping immigrants safe from ICE surveillance. The Democrats are a party of war and genocide. We cannot count on them to fight back against these violent attacks on trans people and immigrants. We need an independent working-class movement to lead walk outs, sick outs, and strikes. To end these escalating attacks on trans people and fight for the demands that trans people and all workers need, like free healthcare for all. At this year’s Trans Solidarity March, our demands are: ♦️“Fight Anti-Trans Attacks!” ♦️“Not Another Cent for ICE, War, or SPD!” ♦️“Free Healthcare for All — Tax the Rich!” ♦️“Dump the Democrats — Build a Workers Party — Fight for Socialism!” To get real justice for Juniper Blessing or any of the hundreds of trans people murdered every year, and to fight the right-wing attacks, we need to go on the offensive. We need a new party that will fight for transgender people, workers, and all oppressed people. Mark your calendar and join us at this year’s Trans Solidarity March: FRIDAY, JUNE 26 @ 6 PM. We will rally at Seattle Central College, then march to Volunteer Park, where we will host a teach-in to discuss how to build a movement to win trans liberation. -- Joint Statement of Trans Solidarity Coalition: @SEASocialists, @labormilitant, @SocialistAlt, @APLPugetSound, Seattle Transfeminists, @4aworkersparty

We received this letter from @Movement4Kshama on May 4. During our trip to Seattle in lead-up to May Day, we campaigned for Sawant alongside Movement for Kshama, while engaging in an exchange of views. Read it here! iclfi.org/wv/2026-sawant

My campaign is proud to be endorsed by Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Color Purple,” novelist, short story writer, and activist. “I am proud to support Kshama Sawant’s upcoming Seattle, WA congressional election campaign. Her victory would mark a great advance for all who stand opposed to today’s endless U.S. wars against working people at home and abroad. "Her defense of immigrant workers, her opposition to mass deportations, her fight to abolish ICE, declaring, “No Human Being Is Illegal,” and her opposition to racism, sexism and LGBTQI discrimination are inspiring. "Her method centers on mobilizing working people and their allies among the oppressed in united mass mobilizations to defend their own interests. "Vote Kshama in 2026!”

I am excited to announce that our campaign IS ON THE BALLOT for the U.S. Congress! kshamasawant.org/kshama-is-on-t… I am  running as an independent antiwar socialist against warmongering Democrat Adam Smith! For the month of May, my campaign is launching a fundraising drive for $75,000 to build on our momentum and go all-out to defeat warmonger Adam Smith. Raising $75,000 in May would bring our campaign to $600,000 overall. Please donate now, and help us spread the word!

Yes, Seattle!

Will you mobilize? @cmkshama @wrkrsstrikeback

King County Democrats want to cancel Ballard light rail. @MayorofSeattle Katie Wilson is threatening cuts to public services. But in the last 5 years: 📈SPD budget is up $123 million 📈Amazon’s profits more than tripled, from $21B to $77B Fight the cuts TOMORROW @ City Hall

Seattle Democrats are taking an axe to public services, including Ballard light rail. They've failed to take action against ICE. Demand action TOMORROW @ City Hall w/ @SeattleDSA, @labormilitant, @SEASocialists, @movement4kshama, & @seattlegreens. RSVP: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

SHUT DOWN ICE! SAVE BALLARD RAIL! FIGHT THE CUTS! Pack Seattle City Hall TOMORROW, Tuesday, May 5! @ 2 pm or 6 pm Join @SeattleDSA, @labormilitant, @SEASocialists, @movement4kshama, & @seattlegreens to fight ICE, tax the rich & stop the cuts. RSVP here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

SEATTLE MAY DAY: We marched with International Socialist Alternative (Revolutionary) and @labormilitant. Defend Iran, defend immigrants, defend the unions! Ditch the Dems—Build a Workers Party!

Democrats like Mehdi Hasan sharing videos of @RepAdamSmith are trying to whitewash his crimes. Adam Smith voted for ICE & the Iraq War, has taken over $1 million from AIPAC & the Zionist lobby, and sent billions for genocide in Gaza. Dump the Democrats. Elect @cmkshama.

SEATTLE: Join us this Thursday for a discussion on the recently re-launched Black History and the Class Struggle! We’ll be at Rainier Beach Library, Meeting Room, 9125 Rainier Ave. S. For more info (and to check out the latest BH) click the link below: iclfi.org/usa/events/202…

Seattle was a center of Black Power. But capitalists waged war on Black people: thousands forced from the Central District + police brutality + political betrayals. We’ll join @WorkersVanguard THIS Thurs @ 5 at Rainier Beach Library: “Which Way Forward for the Black Struggle?”

HELL YEAH

@movement4kshama @RepAdamSmith This left unity and maturity is good to see. Obviously a messy situation but the important part is coalescing behind a socialist candidate.

@WeshouldRead @420Davidkoresh @RepAdamSmith x.com/movement4ksham…

@420Davidkoresh @movement4kshama @RepAdamSmith I am lost also

Kshama Sawant has issued a statement calling our organization "reckless" & "damaging." Kshama is pretending she doesn’t know who we are: DNC wreckers? Agents of @RepAdamSmith? Kshama knows exactly who we are. Her statement is a dishonest political attack on our organization & on revolutionary socialists. The Democrats are busy taking an axe to public services in Seattle, including the cancellation of the Ballard light rail extension and threatening cuts to healthcare, housing & education. @MayorofSeattle Katie Wilson has dropped her campaign promise to fight for free childcare & shut down surveillance cameras. Democrats have failed to take action against ICE or protect victims of police brutality. In the last 5 years, they have INCREASED the Seattle police budget by $123 million. Kshama should be using her campaign to fight against these attacks by the Seattle & King County Democratic Party, including Mayor Katie Wilson. Activists and socialist organizations have urged Kshama to use her campaign to mobilize against these attacks, but she has not. Instead of fighting to stop the Democrats’ cuts, Kshama is using her $500,000 war chest to make social media posts, create Instagram graphics, and send emails to her national list attacking other socialists with @movement4kshama. Unfortunately, Kshama has a pattern of sectarianism, which HAS done damage to her campaign. But it’s not just her: there is a crisis of both sectarianism and opportunism on the left. Most of the left has refused to support Kshama’s campaign. There has been total silence from self-described socialist organizations like @DemSocialists, @SocialistAlt, @revcommunists, and @pslnational. A whole wing of the “socialist” movement has chained itself to the Democratic Party. Last month, @SeattleDSA voted against even having a debate about endorsing Kshama’s campaign, while voting happily to endorse Democrat Jaelynn Scott. @CentralINDSA has refused to support the new Socialist Party of Indiana, while endorsing Democrat Jackson Franklin. New York DSA won’t support @AndreEastonBX, but endorsed strikebreaking Democrat AOC again. Even the “left wing” of DSA like @dsarandr have refused to support Kshama’s campaign. Yet their members argue for “critical support” for sellouts like @AOC. Only the @labormilitant and @cleanbreaknow caucuses in DSA have taken a principled stance. Labor Notes, the supposed “left” of the labor movement, has banned a member of the left caucus @Teamsters_Mblz from attending this year’s @labornotes conference. But Labor Notes had no problem inviting @ChicagosMayor Democrat Brandon Johnson to deliver a keynote address in 2024, right as he was preparing a crackdown on anti-genocide protesters ahead of the DNC. Socialist Alternative, Kshama’s former organization, endorsed DSA Democrat Zohran Mamdani (who hired Zionist police chief Jessica Tisch and endorsed Hakeem Jeffries), but has yet to say anything about Kshama’s campaign. The Revolutionary Communists of America are sticking their heads in the sand until the revolution comes to them. Other organizations like @SEP_US are just hopelessly sectarian. They have not been silent (give them credit!), but they have been hostile to any working-class campaign not run by the SEP/@WSWS_Updates. Kshama’s recent statement is also sectarian: it is an attack on the only revolutionary socialists who ARE supporting her campaign: @labormilitant, @WorkersVanguard, and @SEASocialists, all of whom have been involved with Movement for Kshama. So why is Kshama attacking us? Movement for Kshama was launched by 5 former members of @cmkshama’s organization, including her former campaign manager @socialistem and 3 former campaign staff. We launched it after Kshama & the leadership fired these staff members and suspended two of them from her organizations @revworkers & @wrkrsstrikeback. These members were suspended and fired after raising political disagreements with the campaign leadership, including objections to a months-long campaign against a dedicated member that was characterized by a series of ugly personalized attacks. These personal attacks were a substitute for much-needed political debate within the organization. Kshama and the @revworkers leadership carried out a series of undemocratic maneuvers to suppress debate inside the organization, including bureaucratic and draconian suspensions. Several elected leaders quit the organization in protest, and founded @labormilitant. We think that the members of Workers Strike Back (WSB) should demand answers, and fight to reverse these suspensions, including the undemocratic suspension of an elected member of the National Coordinating Committee (NCC). Unfortunately, most WSB members aren’t even aware that the suspensions happened. The suspension of an elected leader was carried out during a 30-minute meeting of the NCC, and was never communicated to the members. Rank-and-file WSB members have been kept in the dark for almost 3 months. We have many political disagreements with Kshama, @revworkers, and the leadership of @wrkrsstrikeback. But despite our disagreements, we urged them at the time to work together to build Kshama’s campaign. Instead, Kshama and her campaign told us to get lost. They explicitly banned us from attending campaign events. They told us that if we wanted to support the campaign, we would have to do so independently. So we did. We launched Movement for Kshama. Since launching our Super PAC, we have had no communication with the campaign whatsoever. All of our work has been done independently, and is 100% legal. This is a *working-class* Super PAC (a fact Kshama withheld in her statement). We have received donations from more than 400 working people, overwhelmingly from Washington state. Our median donation is $5. Kshama’s campaign didn’t release this statement because they don’t want us collecting signatures, or because they’re concerned about legal consequences for the campaign. If that was all, they wouldn’t have needed social media graphics and a national email campaign. They released this statement because they don’t want us to support the campaign at all, with or without a Super PAC. This is an attempt to smear us and undermine support for our efforts. The left cannot respond to every disagreement with dishonest attacks and refusing to work together. This is how we got here, where the left is splintered into 1,000 organizations that act like competing small businesses. Kshama’s sectarian attacks have not helped her win support from the rest of the left. She has alienated thousands of would-be supporters. But we can’t fight sectarianism with yet more sectarianism. Workers and the left need to unite to elect Kshama. We need to support EVERY working-class effort to break with the capitalist Democratic Party and build a party of our own. Kshama’s campaign announced a target of 5,000 ballot signatures. We hope she reaches that goal. We are forced to suspend our signature collection, since Kshama’s campaign will not accept them. We refuse to mislead working people. But we will not suspend our support for the campaign. Our work has expanded far beyond campaigning for one election, so we will also be voting at an upcoming meeting on whether to legally dissolve our working-class Super PAC (which was launched at a time when Kshama’s campaign was the organization’s primary purpose), and continue building a broader movement through United Front for a Workers’ Party (@4aworkersparty). We hope Kshama will end her sectarian attacks, and work to build a unified movement. Kshama calls herself a revolutionary socialist. A revolutionary socialist would use her campaign to fight against the brutal attacks on working people from both parties, including the attacks currently being carried out by the Democrats in Seattle and King County. We have many disagreements with Kshama, and we have no problem saying so. Socialists need to be willing to accept criticism, especially those who want to lead the movement. And we need to be open and honest when we disagree. At the same time, we can’t allow disagreements to get in the way of taking steps forward for the workers’ movement, and a victory for Kshama would be a massive step forward. Our enemies are Adam Smith, the Democratic and Republican parties, and the opportunist leaders of the socialist & labor movement. We urge all working people to organize support for Kshama’s campaign. Socialists should demand support from their organizations. Rank-and-file union members should organize for endorsements in their unions, and expose sellout union leaders in @LIUNA, @AFSCME, @IAM_Union, @AFGENational who are supporting Kshama’s strikebreaking opponent, genocidal Democrat Adam Smith. We need a united front to elect @cmkshama and other independent socialists, and build a workers’ party that can take on both capitalist and imperialist parties. We urge all socialists and working people to join us. Reach out at movementforkshama@gmail.com or movementforkshama.org.

@420Davidkoresh @RepAdamSmith We support Kshama’s campaign. We don’t agree with her on everything, and we think her attack on our organization is dishonest. But we think the whole socialist and workers’ movement should be supporting her campaign.

@movement4kshama @RepAdamSmith are u for or against kshama i am so confuse

@cmkshama I’m proud to volunteer with Kshama for Congress and her campaign. We were out canvassing yesterday and I collected 22 signatures and 6 voter registrations at a single bus stop in the CD. One person, who had never voted before, registered and signed so he could vote for Kshama