We're Coming For You and Your Rotten System (Paperback)

Jonathan Rosenblum

ISBN 10: 1682196364 / ISBN 13: 9781682196366

Published by OR Books, New York, 2025

About this Item

Paperback. From inside Kshama Sawant's historic tenure in Seattle City Hall comes a blueprint for 21st-century socialists, a counterpoint to the strategies favored by The Squad and other progressive activists.Seattle was the first major city to mandate a $15 minimum wage; the first to implement a payroll tax on Amazon to build affordable housing; the first to secure a bevy of renters' rights laws, making good on the slogan, "Housing is a human right."Behind these remarkable breakthroughs in the 2010s stood a small but feisty Marxist movement, Socialist Alternative, and the City Council member they helped to elect, Kshama Sawant. In a municipal government dominated by pro-business Democrats, Sawant and the popular street movements she led against major corporations headquartered in the region-including Amazon, Boeing, Microsoft, and Starbucks-won battles that would transform the city's trajectory for years to come.We're Coming for You and Your Rotten System tells this extraordinary story from the inside. Rosenblum, who worked in Sawant's office and alongside community activists throughout this dynamic decade, weaves together intimate story-telling and political analysis to show how and why the movement succeeded where other progressive outsiders-such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-have failed. For political activists searching desperately to make sense of the world after the reelection of Donald Trump, the Seattle experience offers a vital framework for fighting our way out of the despairing miasma of 21st-century capitalism. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781682196366

Bibliographic Details

• Title: We're Coming For You and Your Rotten System (Paperback)
• Publisher: OR Books, New York
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1682196364
• ISBN 13: 9781682196366
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

From inside Kshama Sawant's historic tenure in Seattle City Hall comes a blueprint for 21st-century socialists, a counterpoint to the strategies favored by The Squad and other progressive activists.

Seattle was the first major city to mandate a $15 minimum wage; the first to implement a payroll tax on Amazon to build affordable housing; the first to secure a bevy of renters’ rights laws, making good on the slogan, “Housing is a human right.”

Behind these remarkable breakthroughs in the 2010s stood a small but feisty Marxist movement, Socialist Alternative, and the City Council member they helped to elect, Kshama Sawant. In a municipal government dominated by pro-business Democrats, Sawant and the popular street movements she led against major corporations headquartered in the region—including Amazon, Boeing, Microsoft, and Starbucks—won battles that would transform the city’s trajectory for years to come.

We’re Coming for You and Your Rotten System tells this extraordinary story from the inside. Rosenblum, who worked in Sawant’s office and alongside community activists throughout this dynamic decade, weaves together intimate story-telling and political analysis to show how and why the movement succeeded where other progressive outsiders—such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—have failed. For political activists searching desperately to make sense of the world after the reelection of Donald Trump, the Seattle experience offers a vital framework for fighting our way out of the despairing miasma of 21st-century capitalism.

About the Author

A member of the National Writers Union and veteran newspaper reporter, Jonathan Rosenblum has published dozens of articles about organizing in The Nation, Jacobin, Truthout, Labour Hub, Red Pepper, and Labor Notes. He has been an invited speaker in the US, Canada, and Europe. As a union organizer, he has workers throughout North America organize, bargain, and strike in a wide range of industries—warehousing and logistics, higher education, healthcare, and public service. He has worked as a part-time delivery driver for Amazon.