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Leading US socialist Kshama Sawant has launched a bid to export her campaign that scored a historic victory for higher wages in Seattle across the Atlantic.
Ms Sawant spoke in Britain for the first time on Saturday after her shock election to Seattle’s city council on a Socialist Alternative ticket last November.
Hundreds heard how that sparked a successful grassroots campaign for a $15 (£9.50) minimum wage in the city — the highest anywhere in the US.
She told the Socialist Party rally in London that it showed a “first glimpse of the power of the mighty American working class.
“Seattle is a very beautiful city but I can tell you our election to city council and the victory on $15 has less to the do with the particulars of Seattle and far more about the awakening of the US working class,” she said.
“It shows a growing questioning of capitalism and openness to socialist ideas.”
Trade union leaders speaking alongside her said the example can inspire similarly bold campaigns here in Britain.
Bakers’ union BFAWU general secretary Ian Hodson said a £10 minimum wage is in his union’s sights, together with union rights and a ban on zero-hours contracts.
The union is hosting meetings in Glasgow and London this week with two young workers who took part in September’s US-wide fast food pay strike.
Flavia Cabral and Jorel Ware, who work at McDonald’s in New York, will also join British workers and MPs in a protest in London on Friday.
Ms Sawant returns to the US today to continue raising the funds necessary to fight for re-election next year.
The councillor, who accepts only £25,000 of her £74,000 salary, said she is “confident” despite the prospect of a challenge from a left-wing Democrat.
She said “working people are able to see the difference in having a socialist in city hall,” citing the highest approval rating of any councillor at 60 per cent.
And she told the rally: “Americans are moving to the left and the Democrats have lost ground by yet again proving themselves to be shameless shields of the hated corporate establishment.”
