Seattle

Building Solidarity Around Survival: A Seattle Example

March 8, 2025 Patrick Mazza, Resilience. Organize! Affordable Housing, Housing, Seattle, Social Housing, Solidarity, Washington

We are in for a long hard time in the U.S. and the world as a whole. The divisions between people have grown too deep. The concentration of power in individuals and institutions that care little about the common good, pursuing their own interests at its expense, is too great. The buildup of problems either unaddressed or insufficiently addressed has mounted to an overwhelming extent. The ascendancy of Trump and Musk has intensified the situation, but the trends were going the wrong way for a long time before. It is enough to make people throw up their hands in despair, wondering what they can do, or retreating entirely into personal life.

Japanese-Americans Confront ICE Detention

February 27, 2025 Jim McMahan, Workers World. Resist! Detention, History, ICE, Immigration, Japanese Americans, Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington - With the increase of the U.S. Trump/Musk pogroms against immigrants, Japanese and Japanese-Americans have increased their solidarity against roundups, detentions and deportations of migrant workers. In Seattle, 400 people marched in the International District/Chinatown protesting U.S. immigrant detention on February 19, the Day of Remembrance. It’s the day in 1942, a few months after the U.S. entered World War II against Japan, when U.S. executive order 9066 was signed. President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the internment or imprisonment of Japanese-Americans who had emigrated to the United States and were living on the West Coast.

Activists Win Excessive Compensation Tax To Fund Social Housing

February 23, 2025 John Burbank, Inequality.org. Create! Amazon, Housing, Microsoft, Seattle, Social Housing, Taxes, Victory

Seattle voters have just beaten the oligarchs, Amazon, Microsoft, the local Chamber of Commerce, the real estate industry, the coup makers and backers, the Muskites, and the Trumpiphiles. How? Through a ballot measure, the people in Seattle have just approved a tax on excessive executive compensation to fund affordable housing. The vote wasn’t even close. The proposal, Proposition 1A, won by a 26-point margin. The advocacy group House Our Neighbors led the ballot campaign. Their leaders and leafletters and canvassers prevailed over a conservative and obstructing city council, a mayor focused on toadying to Seattle-based Amazon, a half-million-dollar opposition campaign, and the overlords of the Trump/Musk dictatorship.

Vote On ‘Social Housing’ Could Break Stranglehold Of Private Landlords

January 29, 2025 Rebecca Burns, In These Times. Create! Elections, Housing, Landlords, Seattle, Social Housing, Washington

On a once-vacant plot of public land in Seattle, a cluster of mid-rise buildings surrounds a tree-filled courtyard. Children play on swings while adults run laps and chat on shared stoops. Some neighbors live in dorm-style rooms with common kitchens, others in family-sized townhomes — but all benefit from access to parks and transit, affordable rents and a democratic say in how their buildings run. None of this exists yet, to be clear. But it’s the vision, laid out in proof-of-concept sketches and during door-to-door canvassing conversations, that Seattle housing activists are hoping to make tangible to voters.

Starbucks Workers Begin Five Day Strike In Seattle

December 25, 2024 Mathieu Chabaud and Clio Jensen, Fight Back! News. Resist! Seattle, Starbucks, Strikes, Unions, Washington, Worker Rights and Jobs

Seattle, Washington – On Friday, December 20, Starbucks workers at five stores in Seattle went on strike. Anchored by the 24 hour picket line at the Reserve Roastery, one of Starbucks’ premiere stores, workers on these picket lines are planning to strike through December 24. Baristas are on an unfair labor practice strike after the company has continually stalled negotiations and engaged in bad faith bargaining. Starbucks workers say the company has not been willing to agree to pay that meets workers’ needs. “We make our store so much money, we make Starbucks so much money,” said Bruce Halstead, a striking worker at the Reserve Roastery.

Seattle Planned To Close Up To 21 Public Schools; Here’s How We Stopped Them

December 19, 2024 Jesse Hagopian, Truthout. Organize! Education, Public schools, School closures, Seattle, Victory

From coast to coast, school districts are proposing closures, as pandemic-era funds have long since dried up and gentrification has driven families out of increasingly unaffordable neighborhoods. Yet in a time when budget cuts threaten public education nationwide, Seattle organizers have shown that communities can fight back — and win. After initially proposing in spring to close up to 21 schools — and, under immense pressure, reducing that number to four — Seattle Public Schools (SPS) announced in late November that it was canceling all plans to close schools.

Museum Security Workers Strike Against Billionaire Bosses

December 7, 2024 Jim McMahan, Workers World. Resist! Black Friday, Museums, Seattle, Strikes, Washington, Worker Rights and Jobs

Seattle, Washington - About 70 service officers struck the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) on Nov. 29, “Black Friday,” hitting the museum’s rich bosses. The Visiting Service Officers Union (VSO), an independent union, put up a strong picket line on the strike’s opening day. Not only did the strikers have a militant picket line with chants, a sound system and colorful signs , they had informational leaflets, chant sheets, buttons and other union swag, along with food and beverages. The union had a giant inflatable rat, representing the museum’s ruling-class bosses and their union-busting private security contractor working inside the museum.

Our World Is Not For Sale: 25 Years Of Fighting The WTO

December 1, 2024 David Solnit and Deborah James, Common Dreams. Strategize! Battle for Seattle, Labor Movement, Neoliberalism, Seattle, Trade, WTO

25 years ago, for the six months leading up to the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit in Seattle in 1999, I met Deborah in organizing meetings to prepare. Today, while many of us continue our efforts for a better world in many different places and movements, for 25 years Deborah has remained in constant combat with the WTO, together with global movements as part of the Our World is Not for Sale network. I asked if they could share insights on the impacts of the Seattle WTO confrontation and the current threat of the WTO–including obstruction of the needed transition off fossil fuels and the growing domination of Big Tech.

SeaTac Hotel Workers With UNITE HERE Local 8 On Strike

October 20, 2024 Clio Jensen, Fight Back! News. Resist! Hotel workers, Seattle, Strikes, Wages, Washington, Worker Rights and Jobs

Seattle, Washington – On October 12, over 400 hotel workers at the Doubletree Seattle Airport and the Seattle Airport Hilton & Conference Center walked out and went on strike, joining hotel workers across the U.S. Workers at the two hotels are fighting for good raises, pension plan improvement, fair staffing and respect in their new contract. The picket began at 5 a.m., when dozens of workers joined the picket line outside both striking hotels. As they marched, they chanted, “What do we want? Contract! When do we want it? Now!” and “If we don’t get it, shut it down!” Workers carried signs that read “Respect our work,” “One job should be enough” and “Make them pay.” Cars and buses passing by honked their horns in support as the picket continued throughout the day.

Seattle Festival Celebrates Palestinian Resilience And Resistance

September 27, 2024 Sammy Baroud, Palestine Chronicle. Organize! Arts, Culture of Resistance, Israel, Palestine, Palestine Solidarity, Seattle

Various artists, speakers and influencers joined hands in a show of solidarity at a concert attended by thousands in Seattle, USA, on Saturday, to celebrate the resilience and resistance of the Palestinian people. The Palestine Will Live Forever Festival was headlined by the Grammy-winning Seattle rapper, Macklemore, who performed his newly released song, Hinds Hall 2 – along with Palestinian American singer Anees and 16-year-old Gazan rapper MC Abdul – live for the first time to the roaring crowd. The event also featured many other pro-Palestine artists such as Jordanian rapper and singer Eddy Mack, and South Seattle-based Moroccan-American rapper Essam, as well as many other talented musicians.

WFSE Local 1488 Workers At University Of Washington Rally

September 14, 2024 Fight Back! News. Resist! Higher Education, Seattle, Strikes, Unions, University Workers

Seattle, WA – On Tuesday, September 10, over 100 members of WFSE Local 1488 walked out ahead of their current contract expiring in a few weeks. The union, representing food service, custodial, maintenance and other workers at the University of Washington, has been bargaining since the beginning of June for a strong contract, with university administration stalling. Workers rallied in front of the administration building on Red Square, as well as at a picket line in front of the University of Washington Medical Center. The walkouts at the University of Washington were part of a larger, coordinated walkout by WFSE members across the state of Washington, with thousands walking out in total.

Seattle Is Walking Back Its Promises On Community-Led Anti-Displacement

July 23, 2024 Quynh Pham, Ryan Curren and Ben Palmquist, Next City. Educate! Displacement, Equity, Gentrification, Seattle, Systemic Racism

When it launched a first-in-the-nation anti-displacement fund in 2016, Seattle established itself as a leader in racial equity. But a new attack on the City’s Equitable Development Initiative (EDI), part of a national backlash against government efforts to address systemic racism and inequality, threatens that progress. The EDI finances the construction of community cultural and commercial space developed by community-of-color organizations in Seattle, often co-located with affordable housing. As of March of this year, the fund had provided over $100 million in grants for 56 different community-led projects that are helping create an inclusive, multiracial city.

Low Voltage Electricians Live To Strike Another Day

June 22, 2024 Jorge Torres, Labor Notes. Resist! Electrical Workers, Seattle, Strikes, Unions, Washington, Worker Rights and Jobs

Two months into an unprecedented strike, the 1,023 members of the limited energy construction unit of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 46 in Seattle voted overwhelmingly June 11 and again June 15 to stay out. But the union announced June 17 that it had agreed to end the strike. Members would be voting on a third offer that barely differed from the latest rejected one—the raise had increased by 50 cents. In an emotional meeting, members were told the strike was ending regardless, and if they didn’t accept this latest deal, with no leverage they would likely end up with something worse. They voted it up by 85 percent. One big win, though: the union will live to strike another day.

ʔÁLʔAL A Place For Connection, Healing, And Growth

June 17, 2024 Rae Rose, Last Real Indians. Create! Indigenous Activism, Indigenous culture, Seattle, Washington

The Chief Seattle Club, CSC, has long since tended to and nurtured the seeds for growth, sowing opportunities, and holding space for healing. It is an important center we need for our Indigenous communities to survive and hopefully thrive in this urban Coast Salish territory of Seattle Washington. For me CSC has always stood as a place our Indigenous Urban community can find resources, give support, and or/ just be, no façade or mask necessary. This is CSC’s foundation, a place for us Urban Indians to connect or reconnect in an otherwise isolating urban setting. My own memories here at CSC go back decades, sitting in talking circles, filming, and learning from amazing indigenous teachers.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 »

Daily movement news and resources