Author: Jonathan Rosenblum (Jonathan Rosenblum)

This is the speech that union carpenter Nina Wurz delivered at our Sept. 18, 2021 Rent Control Now rally! — Councilmember Kshama Sawant I’m a 33 year old queer journeyman carpenter out of Local 30, but my number one title is mom. I’m here today because the parallels between the carpenters’ fight for better wages […]

Friday September 17, 2021 Dear Carpenter sisters, brothers, and siblings, Workers have been pressed from all sides and our conditions have been deteriorating. Meanwhile, just since the COVID crisis began, American billionaires have become nearly two trillion dollars richer. And the bosses have raked in trillions more over the last decade, while workers fell behind. […]

Pacific Northwest union carpenters are fighting millionaire bosses for a good contract. Through aggressive rank-and-file organizing they have rejected a series of substandard, insulting offers from construction contractors. I stand in solidarity with the union contractors, and with all workers organizing and fighting for their rights. My Labor Day statement to the union carpenters: Sept. […]

My Aug. 4 picket line statement in solidarity with the 4,000 SEIU 1199NW members at UW Medicine who are fighting for a good contract. As a rank and file union member, a socialist, and an elected city council representative of working people in District 3, I stand in complete solidarity with all of the caregivers […]

Speech at protest in solidarity with Palestinians – May 16, 2021 Gaza and Jerusalem are on Fire, again. At least 192 Palestinians have already been killed in these brutal, racist attacks, including at least 58 children. Hundreds more have been injured and/or lost their homes.  This comes on top of the ongoing Palestinian struggle to […]

“It is a testament to the power of mass action with multiracial, working-class solidarity. All credit goes to the rank-and-file activists in the Black Lives Matter movement for this victory.”  Press release – April 20, 2021 SEATTLE – Councilmember Kshama Sawant (District 3, Central Seattle), chair of the Council’s Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee, sent […]

NEWS RELEASE March 23, 2021 ‘Renters’ movements will need to go up against powerful corporate landlords and the political establishment. Just this week, a Democrat-dominated State Legislature created serious loopholes in basic tenant rights bills.’ SEATTLE – Vowing to push back against the continued drive by corporate landlords and the political establishment to limit renters’ […]

We need at least a hundred buildings like the Clay, the Liberty Bank Building, and other community-controlled affordable housing. So as we celebrate this morning, I also urge the residents of the Clay and all community members to join with our movement to fight for an expansion of the Amazon tax, which we won last […]

February 27, 2021 David Danner, Chairman, Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) Ann Rendahl, UTC Commissioner Jay Balasbas, UTC Commissioner Mark Johnson, UTC Executive Director/ Secretary PO Box 47250 Olympia, WA 98504-7250 Members of the UTC Commission and Executive: On behalf of Seattle and District 3 community members and working people, I am writing […]

We owe a deep appreciation to the union workers for the Fire Department (Firefighters Local 27) and PSE (Electrical Workers Local 77) who responded to this dangerous situation, stopped the leaking gas, and put out the fire. On Wednesday (Feb. 24) the lives of thousands of residents and workers in Seattle’s Central District, in the […]