First let me congratulate Kshama Sawant and all the people who did the hard work in getting a Socialist elected to a city council seat in Seattle. And congrats to Ty Moore and all those who worked hard to try and get him elected in Minneapolis. Getting within 230 votes is a real accomplishment especially when an organization like Socialist Alternative does not have the resources of the two capitalist parties.
Although winning an election like this is great news, and it provides momentum and an example for running in and winning other elections, for socialists whether we win or lose it is the organizing and making people aware of what socialism represents that is also important.
Running as socialists in elections clearly puts the ideas of Socialism back on the agenda as Bryan Koulouras of Socialist Alternative stated in his article:
""Socialist ideas are clearly back on the agenda, and Socialist Alternative is uniquely positioned to help build a new socialist movement. This needs to be done by socialists being the most effective fighters for the needs of ordinary working-class people such as a $15 an hour minimum wage and a tax on the super-rich to fund jobs and services. Socialist Alternative has stood out on the left for our ability to connect with politicized workers with understandable language. At the same time, we honestly explain that reforms in our society can only be fully sustained if power is taken out of the hands of big business and a new socialist system based on democratic public ownership of the top 500 corporations is established".
So once again congrats to Kshama, and Ty and all the comrades out there that have made these campaigns possible
As Spock has said many times on Star Trek "The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few"
Onward to Democratic Socialism
