Lessons from the Amazon Tax Victory in Seattle Labor Notes, July 23 https://labornotes.org/2020/07/lessons-amazon-tax-victory-seattle
Pressed by a relentless working class movement, the Seattle City Council on July 6 adopted a first-time-ever tax on Amazon and other big businesses that will bring in at least $214 million a year to fund affordable housing, Green New Deal projects, and union jobs. The win was a stunning turn of events: just two years earlier, Amazon, the Chamber of Commerce, the corporate-backed mayor, and several business-oriented labor leaders forced the city council to rescind a newly adopted tax on big business of only $47 million a year. The dramatic victory shows how workers and activists can recover from a bitter defeat and organize successfully to beat austerity. The brutal corporate beat-down of two years earlier centered on attacking socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, whose organization had led the grassroots push for the tax. Big business deployed attack ads, push polling, a tax repeal campaign that paid signature-gatherers up to $6 for each signature, and a capital strike in which Amazon threatened to stop expanding in Seattle, its main headquarters. The attack was supported by right-wing talk radio shows, pro-corporate editorials, and a building trades union leadership that openly sided with Amazon. Emboldened by success, the Amazon-led business coalition spent an unprecedented $4.1 million in last November’s city council elections against Sawant and other progressive and socialist candidates. The brazen corporate election-buying aimed to remake city politics and teach working people an enduring lesson about corporate power. They lost. Five out of seven business-backed candidates fell to defeat, and Sawant prevailed thanks to an unparalleled grassroots effort, with more than 1,000 campaigners knocking on 225,000 doors. Sawant didn’t shy from what the fight was about, declaring, “What’s at stake this year is who runs Seattle—Amazon and big business, or working people.” . . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#834): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/834 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/76398846/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
