In the letter, she wrote:
We note that during your visit to the United States, starting here in Seattle, your itinerary is monopolized by discussions with representatives of big business such as Uber, Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, Amazon, Apple, IBM, Cisco, Dow Chemical, DuPont, GM, Pepsi and Berkshire Hathaway,.We believe the problems facing working people in both China and the US should be given attention, instead of being pushed to the side by politicians and corporate leaders, with their sole focus on maximizing profits...
Throughout the US and here in the Seattle region we see a constant loss of unionized, well-paid jobs and a proliferation of low-wage jobs where poverty pay is enabled by the brutal denial of democratic rights such as the right to organize and go on strike. We urge Mayor Murray and Governor Inslee to publicly discuss these important issues with President Xi, in support of workers and the environment globally...
Drivers working for the Uber multinational corporation are being exploited both in Seattle and in China. Seattle’s Uber drivers are pushing the City Council to enact pro-worker legislation. Their success will be of significance to Uber drivers worldwide...
We stand in solidarity with the workers of China in their struggle for democratic rights, including the right to organize in independent trade unions. Multinational corporations exploiting the present sweatshop conditions in China, enforced by your government, will be confronted with our opposition and resistance.
I can't emphasize enough how important of a book Benjamin Powell's Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy is in taking apart the many errors in facts and argument contained in the Sawant letter.
-RW
Let's see, a Chinese communist is more capitalist than an American socialist. Boom!
ReplyDeleteWhat a stupid bitch. The Chinese president has to laughing his butt off over her stupidity and that of the Seattle residents who voted her into office.
ReplyDeleteSocialist plus no understanding of economics plus leadership role is deadly. They apparently truly believe that their rules, regulations, fees and taxes are going to have no effect on people's behavior.
ReplyDeleteHilariously, Sawant successfully shut down Uber in Seattle last year for several months by limiting the number of 'Ubers' on the road to less than 100, until public pressure forced the city council to relent. Now the very drivers she tried to put out of work are 'exploited' and need her patronage?
ReplyDeleteI gotta say I disagree with Wenzel's analysis about how Bernie must be stopped by any political means, I think it's great to have clowns like Sawant or Bernie as the face of Socialism. What I despise are pols that implement socialist policies while campaigning on a platform of 'freedom' (cough cough Rand).
I also think the 'looney left' element on the West coast provides a lot of opportunities for libertarians to infiltrate and discredit the movement. For example, imagine inserting yourself into a far-left women's sexual rights group and mobilizing it to campaign in favor of having private rooms with Internet access in Seattle public libraries, for homeless men to... 'enjoy' themselves in. I don't think it would be hard to get some of them to sign a petition if it was carefully couched in the language of sexual freedom / equality.
Without those corporations and their "sole focus on maximizing profits" how does Sawant figure she would be able to confiscate enough money to impose her socialist fantasies on the rest of us?
ReplyDeleteI'm a broke college student with close to zero disposable income, otherwise I would buy this book! Maybe Berine's compassionate crusaders here on campus will "invest" in my education and give me a free copy! :)
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Delete"Without those corporations and their 'sole focus on maximizing profits' how does Sawant figure she would be able to confiscate enough money to impose her socialist fantasies on the rest of us?"
DeleteThat is a great question, and with just a slight re-phrasing to make it more "palatable", yet recognizable, to the minds of the masses, it is exactly the type of question that anti-freedom types need to be asked publicly.
Let them squirm and struggle to make sense of an answer to their hearers in the hope that they may be seen for what they are.
Why doesn't this c@nt start her own business and pay everybody above market wages that way no one is exploited? If she thinks it's so damn easy, she should shut her c**k holster and show us all how it's done.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because people like her, with ideas like hers, can't compete in an economy where people are free to choose on whatever basis they deem best for them. Nobody wants their goods and/or services at the prices they are asking, so with their smug, sick sense of morality they have no other alternative but to force others to give up what they have worked for to get their ideas to "succeed".
DeleteAnd I am quite certain Ms. Sawant has long since realized it's not so easy to peacefully compete, thus she cannot show anyone how it's done.