NEW YORK: A 41-year-old Indian-American woman has emerged as a rising star on Seattle’s political landscape, having been
elected to the City Council and becoming one of the few elected socialists in the nation.
An economics teacher and immigrant from India, Kshama Sawant took on her new role in Seattle’s nine-member City Council on January 1, representing the Socialist Alternative Party.
A report in the New York Times titled ‘A Rare Elected Voice for Socialism Pledges to Be Heard in Seattle’ said Sawant “heartily embraces” the label of a socialist, a political brand most politicians run from.
“Ask her about almost any problem facing America today, and her answer will probably include the “S” word as the best and most reasonable response,” the report said, adding that according to her, socialism is the path to real democracy.
Sawant won her seat to the Council by defeating a veteran Democrat by a margin of 3,100 votes of about 184,000 cast in a citywide contest.
“If you ask me as a socialist what workers deserve, they deserve the value of what they produce,” she told the Times.
An idea that was central to Sawant’s campaign was a USD 15 minimum wage in the city, matching the highest in the nation.
The report said the spotlight on Sawant, as one of only a handful of “self-avowed” socialists to be elected to a city council in a major American city in decades could be intense.
“If she remains only an activist, she’ll be a one-shot wonder,” said Rich Lang, the pastor of University Temple United Methodist Church in Seattle and a Sawant supporter.
But if she moves too far towards the centre, “she’ll be shot down from the left as a compromiser.
“There’s tremendous pressure on her,” he said.
She said she was shocked and radicalized seeing sharp income inequality in America when she immigrated here in her 20s.
Sawant left software engineering and began studying economics and now teaches the subject at Seattle Central Community College.
She had run for the public office two years ago but lost when she challenged a Democrat for a state legislative seat.
But she said she learned a valuable lesson in targeting voters and this year, she aggressively and successfully courted transgenders and other groups. -PTI
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