Rare elected US socialist makes waves

Ask Sawant about almost any problem facing America today,and her answer will probably include the S word. Socialism is the path to real democracy,she says. Socialism protects the environment. Socialism is the best hope for youth who have seen their options crushed by the tide of low-wage jobs in the post-recession economy.

The take-home message for the left in general is that people are looking for alternatives, she says. If you ask me what workers deserve,they deserve the value of what they produce.

Progressive liberals have made inroads in other places in the US,notably in New York City,where Bill de Blasio won the mayors race partly on his plan to address the gulf between the two New Yorks of poverty and wealth.

In Seattle,Mayor-elect Ed Murray,a leader of the states drive to allow same-sex marriage,promised support for an idea that was central to Sawants campaign: a $15 minimum wage in the city,matching the highest in the nation.

Seattle Republicans say a socialist on the City Council will probably fit right in. I dont think Sawant differs that much from other council members, the chairwoman of the King County Republican Party,Lori Sotelo,says.

She tapped into a growing discontent, James N Gregory,a professor of history at the University of Washington,says. But she also built off a framework of liberalism and economic liberalism that is pretty widely,strongly based in Seattle.

The spotlight on Sawant,as one of only a few self-avowed socialists to be elected to a city council in a major American city in decades,experts say,could be intense. Her party has supported Ralph Nader for president,but its website also links to the writings of Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky. It put up municipal candidates in Boston and Minneapolis this year,though none won.

If she remains only an activist,shell be a one-shot wonder, says Reverend Rich Lang,a Sawant supporter. But if she moves too far toward the centre,shell be shot down from the left as a compromiser,he says. Sawant claims to be willing to engage with people who dont agree with her,for larger good.

The daughter of a schoolteacher and a civil engineer,Sawant says she was seared by the disparities between the rich and poor around her hometown Pune in India. But she was also shocked,and radicalised,she says,by the sharp income inequality in America when she immigrated here in her 20s.

This year,she courted transgender people and other groups for her win.