by jackson0cooper

Rebecca Williamson, Seattle City Council District 5 Candidate — 2023 Primary Election

CANDIDATE: Rebecca Williamson, Seattle City Council District 5 Candidate

ARTS PLATFORM

The struggles of the working class and working farmers for conditions that allow us to have time for family, political and cultural life are at the center of my campaign, which are deeply tied to access to culture. My party, the Socialist Workers Party, is building solidarity for the Writers Guild strike for more than 90 days, which became stronger when the actors and other members of Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) joined them this month, participating in the rally at Gasworks Park July 28, for example.

My campaign opposes all attacks on freedom of speech and artistic expression. I oppose all which is aimed at silencing opposing viewpoints, and sometimes in the form of banning books and art, like the attempted destruction in 2019 of the “Life of Washington” mural at George Washington High School in San Francisco, which was a blow to artistic and political rights in the name of “political correctness.” 

Access to culture and art under capitalism is largely reserved for the wealthy classes. Little or no value is given to expanding the artistic and cultural scope of the average working person in Seattle or the U.S. today. We see the ongoing cutting of arts and athletic programs in public schools. Access to cultural activities—costs for attending theaters, symphonies, most museums and ballets are out of reach for many working people. It is viewed as an unnecessary expense that cuts into profits. With our schedules, more and more needing to work overtime or multiple jobs to keep a roof overhead and food on the table for our families, we often have little time to read or participate in cultural activities. 

We call on all to join and support struggles of workers seeking to organize and strengthen unions. Through these struggles working people can begin to discover our own self-worth and capacity to reorganize society on the basis of human solidarity. It will take a socialist revolution to open the door to uprooting the dog-eat-dog social relations bred and perpetuated by capitalism. The Russian Revolution of 1917 and Cuban Revolution in 1959 show the possibilities for the expansion of human culture and art among the toiling masses – as opposed to the Stalinist counter-revolution (including Mao’s “cultural revolution”) state-mandated “socialist realism”. 

In “Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art,” André Breton, revolutionary leader Leon Trotsky and artist Diego Rivera in 1938 state: “The communist revolution is not afraid of art. It realizes that the role of the artist in a decadent capitalist society is determined by the conflict between the individual and various social forms which are hostile to him. This fact alone, in so far as he is conscious of it, makes the artist the natural ally of revolution. … The need for emancipation felt by the individual spirit has only to follow its natural course to be led to mingle its stream with this primeval necessity — the need for the emancipation of man.”

The full text is currently published as part of the book What Is Surrealism? By Breton.

I will continue to defend the right to freedom of expression and seek to bring forward the day humanity and our art and culture can by truly free.

I work as a railroad brakeman and I’m active in my union. I support workers fighting for cost-of-living wages and benefits, livable work shifts and safe conditions. This includes workers who have recently gone on strike, such as the ILWU workers in British Colombia and those fighting to win their first union contract like the mushroom workers at Windmill Farms in Sunnyside, WA.

I have been part of the day-to-day efforts to organize on the job to defend coworkers who are unjustly victimized by bosses for standing up for their rights, to fight for safer conditions, and to build and organize unions that can wield the power of the working class to fight in our own interests.

At the heart of this is defending Constitutional freedoms: The sweeping indictment of Donald Trump under the Espionage Act by President Joseph Biden’s Justice Department is another step along the course the Democratic Party has been pressing for seven years of criminalizing political opposition and debate. This must be opposed by all defenders of constitutional rights in this country. I oppose Donald Trump’s politics; he is a capitalist politician. Regardless of who is the target of these attacks now, history shows it will be the working class, our unions and our leadership that are ultimately targeted as the capitalist rulers fear growing opposition from working people as the crisis of capitalism deepens.

We need to recognize and address the growing social and economic crises that prevents working people from starting families and providing for them. That means fighting for jobs with wage rates, work schedules and conditions that make families and time with them possible — time for social activity together, sports, recreation, caring for children who are sick or need help with their homework, help for the aging. Time for workers and our families to take part in union, political, and cultural activity.

Capitalism’s twin scourges of joblessness and soaring prices are ravaging working people and our families. We need to fight for universal child care and medical care. These are crucial to opening the road to women’s equal participation in economic, social and political life on all levels. As is addressing the broader, family-destroying social and moral crises spawned by decaying capitalism — opioids and other deadly drugs, alcoholism and gambling, as well as growing mental illness, suicides, domestic violence and crime, which are symptoms of the deepening capitalist crisis our class is bearing today. Neither the capitalist ruling class, nor the government officials who do their bidding, have any solutions to these problems.

This is a fight that must be led by the labor movement. In order to win these struggles, working people will have to break from the Democratic and Republican parties and organize independent political action – independent from the capitalist class and their parties.

We need to build revolutionary internationalist leadership. Neither “progressive politicians,” nor reforms to Seattle’s laws and taxes – or any other city or state in the nation, can begin to address the crisis facing working people. In fact, the system will continue to breakout into more wars, including larger and larger conflicts over markets and resources, and more economic turmoil and instability – for which working people will pay the highest price.

It’s the transformation of working people through political struggles in our own interests that can allow us to discover our self-worth. We can build a movement, and ultimately a government, based on human solidarity and internationalism. For that we need revolutionary leadership like that of Fidel Castro that led the Cuban revolution – an example of workers and farmers organizing to take power out of the hands of the capitalist class and reorganizing society as such. That revolution is a living example of what it means to develop broad access to all forms of art and literature, seamlessly integrated into daily activities of all kinds.

My campaign is part of my party’s slate nationally. Locally, that includes bakery-worker Vincent Auger for Seattle City Council District 1 and rail-worker Henry Dennison for King County Council District 2. We have decided to run to give a voice to working people and our struggles. We as individuals alone cannot change society, but we can all join struggles that can, which is what you should do if you support my campaign. Join the picket lines of Alaska Airlines flight attendants organized by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA or the SEIU organized healthcare workers picketing Kaiser for safe staffing.

**Candidate Williamson shared their contact information if anyone is interested in learning more:

Email: swpseattle@gmail.com

Phone: 206-323-1755

Campaign Office: 650 S. Orcas St., Ste. 120, Seattle