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Winning $15 in Seattle – A Socialist Strategy
Socialist Alternative ^ | 3/27/14 | Patrick Ayers

Posted on 03/29/2014 9:12:48 PM PDT by Libloather

“Onto the ballot – into the streets.” That’s the headline for the next big moment for 15 Now – a conference on April 26 to kick-off a mass campaign in Seattle to collect 50,000 signatures for a robust $15 minimum wage ballot initiative. Whether or not 15 Now will file those signatures in June, triggering a popular vote on November 4, depends on whether the City Council passes a real $15 minimum wage ordinance and will be decided by a democratic 15 Now conference in June.

The credible threat of a winnable ballot initiative is the best tool – under the current conditions of a weak union movement and a historically low level of strikes – that working people have to push back attempts by big business and politicians to dramatically water down any effort for a $15/hr minimum wage. The April 26 Conference aims to launch dozens of new local 15 Now Action Groups as the basis for a powerful mass movement to, if necessary, overcome the millions big business will pour in to defeat a ballot initiative.

Kshama Sawant, Seattle’s Socialist Alternative city councilmember, used the recent “March for $15 on March 15” to help mobilize for the April 26 Conference and put forward a new proposal for winning $15 in Seattle this year. Below is the thinking and strategy of Socialist Alternative.

(Excerpt) Read more at socialistalternative.org ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: sawant; seattle; socialist; wage
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To: Dapper 26

——Cheap bastards. In Seattle, you’s need $25 an hour to make a decent living.-——

They want a “living wage” not a decent wage....

I personally think my “living wage” should mirror Bill Gates, after all to be fair and equal we all need to live like Gates...


21 posted on 03/30/2014 6:06:58 AM PDT by Popman ("Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God" - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: Libloather

Maybe if the minimum wages go up to 15 dollars an hour they will only hire people who are worth 15 and hour and who can speak English. Since the people who are going to be paing these minimum wages are exactly the people who are supporting amnesty maybe this would teach them a lesson too.


22 posted on 03/30/2014 6:18:21 AM PDT by amnestynone (Lindsey Graham is a feckless, duplicitous, treacherous, double dealing backstabbing corksucker.)
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To: Libloather

Let ‘em have it and then let the windbag commies have to explain the consequences.


23 posted on 03/30/2014 6:20:42 AM PDT by RWB Patriot ("My ability is a value that must be earned and I don't recognize anyone's need as a claim on me.")
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To: Lazamataz
"$...,293,504,382,392.91 a picosecond."

I think it should be $...,293,504,382,392.92 a picosecond you cheap b*st*rd!

24 posted on 03/30/2014 6:41:26 AM PDT by Thom Pain (If you like your country you can keep it. Period.)
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To: Thom Pain
I think it should be $...,293,504,382,392.92 a picosecond you cheap b*st*rd!

I must be a racist.

25 posted on 03/30/2014 7:01:41 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Early 2009 to 7/21/2013 - RIP my little girl Cathy. You were the best cat ever. You will be missed.)
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To: ronnie raygun

Of course not. That requires critical thinking, can’t happen with idiots that don’t have the skill.


26 posted on 03/30/2014 9:16:22 AM PDT by bigfootbob
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To: Popman

Agree.


27 posted on 03/30/2014 6:34:46 PM PDT by Dapper 26
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To: dagogo redux

The reality is this....once it goes into effect, and that evening the ‘gifted’ folks show up at McDonalds to find the quarter-pounder menu is now $14...they will ask the heck happened. Then they stop for some ice cream and find that a two-scoop cup is now $7.

Basically, after a week or two...they decide that they won’t be able to afford fast food, entertainment, or weekends out.

I do agree...there needs to be some inflation buffers built into this game, but the idea that ‘Marginal Mandy’ will spend the rest of her life in the minimum wage game and never get ahead....says more about your loser status in life, than the minimum wage. If by age 23, you haven’t moved on....there’s no hope, and you pretty much deserve minimum wage.


28 posted on 03/31/2014 1:11:34 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: cherry

That’s exactly how many union wage rates are figured.


29 posted on 03/31/2014 1:54:32 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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