INTERACTIVE
FLUX · Kshama Sawant & Nikil Saval on US Left Electoralism & COVID-19
Where do radical movements stand in the US? In December 2020, Kshama Sawant and Nikil Saval took stock of the response to the COVID-19 crisis at the federal, state, and city levels and discussed the many failures of two-party politics. But the movements for housing, defunding the police, and taxing corporations in Seattle & Philadelphia are also deploying innovative and unprecedented organizing strategies, most obviously at the local level, that have ramifications for movements across the country.
VOL. 1
EVENT
AUTHOR
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Watch the event in full in on IGTV.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
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AUTHOR
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Watch the event in full in on IGTV.
Event
Panel
5th
Dec
2020
Event
Panel
COVID-19
Recall Efforts
Democratic Party
Progressive Politics
Electoral Politics
Accommodationism
Bernie Sanders
Socialist Alternative
State Senate
Local Politics
Local vs. National Politics
Washington
Pennsylvania
City Council Races
State Senate Races
Centrism
Right-Wing Assault
Amazon
Gentrification
Criminal Negligence
Fighting the Two-Party System
Migrant Workers
Stimulus Package
Legitimacy of the Capitalist System
Demographics
The Guise of Bipartisanship
Capitalist Class
Reactionary
Democratic Elites
Nancy Pelosi
Chuck Schumer
Insider Negotiation
Standards of Living
Minimum Wage
Democratic Establishment
Post-George Floyd Moment
George Floyd
Anti-Racism
Mass Protests
Amazon Tax
Corporation Taxation
Labor Movement
Racial Justice
Tax Cuts for the Rich
Primarying Centrist Democrats
Defund the Police
Abolitionism
Minneapolis
Police Departments
Mayoralties
Pledges to Defund Police
Career Politicians
Budget Votes
Movement Organization
Movement Strategy
Seattle Activist Politics
Black Lives Matter
Democratic Socialists of America
Ballot Initiative
Housing
Municipal Politics
Shelter System
Encampments of the Unhoused
Negotiating Directly with Philadelphia City
City-Owned Properties
Land Trusts
Leftist Media
Magazine Culture
n+1
Hospitality Workers
Growth of Left Media
FLUX
Philadelphia
Seattle
City Councils
Labor
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FLUX: An Evening in Dissent
FLUX was held at a peculiar time. In December 2020, there was both during a raging pandemic and following exciting victories by progressive candidates in state elections in the US, including Nikil Saval, former co-editor of n+1, to PA State Senate. Tisya Mavuram and Kamil Ahsan convened with Sen. Nikil Saval and longtime socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant to talk about the future of left politics, relations with the Democratic Party, and the pandemic.
In Philadelphia, on the actual city budget level, the [Defund the police] movement's ability to win the cuts it demanded did not succeed, as it didn't in many other cities. But what did happen, it is important to highlight, was a protest encampment of the unhoused on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway which is very near to the Art Museum, a symbolic institution of the city. It's one of the richest and most subsidized areas of the city. It's rich because it has been made to be rich. So to have this encampment protesting for housing was a physical challenge to the housing in the city, including the shelter system, which is in shambles. Despite attempts by elected officials, the encampments were able to secure the transfer of city-owned property to a community land trust. This was unprecedented in Philadelphia history. It doesn't meet the actual need, but it begins to pioneer how movements can work with officials on the left in city government, coming from an abolitionist impulse.
