Workers Strike Back is an independent, rank-and-file campaign organizing in workplaces and on the streets against the bosses and their political servants.
Workers are falling further and further behind, while billionaires and big business hoard the wealth that workers create. Workers Strike Back was launched by socialist Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant, Socialist Alternative, and others who want to build a national movement to fight back. Workers Strike Back takes inspiration from the hundreds of thousands of workers fighting to unionize at Amazon, Starbucks, and workplaces everywhere; the movement to defend abortion rights in the U.S.; the Enough is Enough working-class campaign in the UK; and the ongoing struggles of workers and young people to stop climate catastrophe and fight for a better society.
The Green Party of Seattle supports the demands of Workers Strike Back:
1
Workers Need a Real Raise
Biden and corporate politicians in Congress keep giving themselves raises but can’t pass a bare $15 federal minimum wage for working people. We strongly support the fight for a $25 an hour starting wage by workers trying to unionize their workplaces—in major cities that’s just a basic living wage. As prices skyrocket on everything from food to housing, we need at least a 20% raise for all workers with automatic cost-of-living increases above inflation going forward. Instead of long hours and multiple jobs just to pay the bills, we need to shorten the workweek with no loss in pay and benefits. We work to live, not live to work!
2
Good Union Jobs for All
With billionaires and corporations making obscene profits, there is no reason we cannot have good union jobs for all. Unions are the key tool workers have to fight the bosses for the things we desperately need. Organize the unorganized—unionize Amazon and every workplace! We need to rebuild a fighting labor movement that arms itself with clear, bold demands and is prepared to go on strike to win them. We need a massive green jobs program that can employ millions of workers in clean energy and prevent climate catastrophe. To succeed, we must take the big energy corporations into democratic public ownership, because we can’t control what we don’t own.
3
Fight Racism, Sexism & All Oppression
Only the bosses profit from divisions among the working class. We need to build a united, multi-racial, multi-gendered movement of working people. Fight back against the brutal anti-trans legislation in many states and against all right-wing attacks on LGBTQ+ people. We need to organize to win legal, safe, free abortions for all who need them. End racist policing—put the police under the control of democratically-elected community boards with full power over department policy, hiring, and firing. Movements are how change happens—we need to get organized to fight for our rights. An injury to one is an injury to all!
4
Quality Affordable Housing & Free Healthcare for All
We face an epidemic of unaffordable housing—the rent is too damn high! We need strong rent control with no rent increases above inflation. Fund a massive expansion of publicly owned, high-quality affordable housing by taxing the rich. The private housing market has failed us—take the big real estate corporations and banks into democratic public ownership. We’re dying from unaffordable healthcare as the pharma bosses and for-profit health insurance industry make bank off our sickness. We need free, state-of-the-art, Medicare for All—owned and democratically run by working people.
5
No More Sellouts — We Need a New Party
The Democrats and Republicans both answer to the billionaires, that’s why working people keep getting screwed. Even so-called progressives in Congress have completely failed to fight against the establishment, and offer no solutions. We need a new, multiracial, working-class party that organizes movements and fights unambiguously for our needs. In such a party, all elected leaders would accept only the average workers’ wage, like Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant. We would need elected leaders to be fully accountable to our membership and our demands, or else be removed. We need a party that consistently opposes war and imperialism. Under capitalism, the bosses call the shots and have a dictatorship over our workplaces. We need a fundamentally different kind of society—run by and for working people, not billionaires.
Read more about these demands, sign the WSB petition, and get involved in the fight!