Kshama Sawant talks about why she's running for Congress, her theory of change and what socialism means. Palestinian writer and organizer Tara Al-Alami talks about "Predatory State," a new report published by the Palestinian Feminist Collective with supported from Progressive International, which documents Israel’s systematic use of sexualized and gendered violence against Palestinians, across detention centres, homes, military operations, and systems of surveillance, from the Nakba of 1948 to the present. The report shows that this violence is not incidental. It is a systemic and historical mechanism of settler-colonial rule.

Kshama Sawant was elected to the Seattle City Council in 2013 as the first socialist in nearly a century. She won four elections during a decade in office, overcoming bitter opposition from big business and the Democratic Party. Her office won the nation’s highest minimum wage (now $21.30/hour), the Amazon Tax, and landmark renter rights. In the wake of the Dobbs ruling that dismantled Roe v Wade, Kshama won publicly funded free abortion in Seattle. She also won the nation's second and strongest resolution against the genocide in Gaza in November 2023. Kshama won these victories because she refused to adopt the careerist approach of making private deals with Seattle’s Democratic Party politicians. Instead, she used her office to build mass movements of working and oppressed people. Kshama is now running as an independent antiwar socialist for the U.S. Congress and calling for a total arms embargo on Israel and for free healthcare for all funded by taxing the rich.

Tara Alami is a Palestinian writer and organizer from occupied Jerusalem and occupied Yafa, based in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). She is a member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective, and n author of the "Predatory State," a new report published by the PRC with supported from Progressive International, which documents Israel’s systematic use of sexualized and gendered violence against Palestinians, across detention centres, homes, military operations, and systems of surveillance, from the Nakba of 1948 to the present.

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