INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Seattle Councilwoman Ups The ‘Bernie Or Bust’ Ante With #Movement4Bernie Petition

By Dawn Papple
Published on: 17:55 PST, Apr 16, 2016

The Inquisitr last reported on Seattle city councilwoman Kshama Sawant as Seattle raised its minimum wage to $15 per hour, thanks to a massive push by the then-freshman council member, and now, she is leading what’s known online as the “#Movement4Bernie.”

“We did it. Workers did this. We need to continue to build an even more powerful movement,” Sawant said after the wage increase was approved, but long before anyone could have anticipated that the 2016 Presidential election would be shaken to its core by a massive political revolution led by a U.S. senator on the opposite coast.

Late last year, after Bernie Sanders’ campaign members found themselves locked out of the DNC database, Sawant joined with others and launched the #Movement4Bernie campaign, which received very little media attention. As reports compound about election fraud and voter suppression in states across the Union though, the #Movement4Bernie campaign, which asks Bernie Sanders to run in the general election in November if he should be denied the Democratic nomination, is picking up steam.

The Bernie or Bust movement is also picking up steam. A petition on Change.org which is a warning to Debbie Wasserman Shultz and Democratic National Party is showing growing numbers of voters who vowed to write in Bernie Sanders (if their state allows write-ins) should Hillary Clinton win the nomination. That petition shows in excess of 16,000 signatures already. Another 9,000 signatures can be found on a MoveOn.org petition, in which voters say they are “progressives and Democrats who are conscientious objectors to Hillary Clinton’s record,” and say they will never vote for Clinton.

Incidentally, MoveOn.org endorsed Sen Sanders after than 340,000 of the site’s members participated in the endorsement process in which Sanders won with 78.6 percent of its members choosing Bernie over Hillary.

In the #Movement4Bernie petition to Sen. Sanders, signers call upon him to continue to the general election in November one way or another. Signers say that they have worked too hard, and that the movement is too important to allow a “rigged primary” system to determine the fate of the country.

“Dear Bernie,

“You are fighting to win, and we support you. If billionaire interests block you from winning the Democratic nomination we urge you to continue the political revolution by running independently of the Democratic Party rather than endorse Hillary Clinton.

“Your grassroots campaign that we have all worked so hard to build is too important to let its fate be decided by a rigged primary which involves only a small minority of voters. Running in the general election will reach tens of millions more people and can be the start of building a new political party for the 99 percent.”

Sawant was born in India, and her observations of poverty in her native country and her disapproval of the Indian caste system are cited as significant factors that shaped her political views.

“The stakes are too high to let this moment slip through our fingers,” Sawant says. “That’s why I’ve launched this petition urging Bernie – if he is blocked in the rigged primary process – to run as an independent, or as a Green on the ticket with Jill Stein. We can’t allow the corporate media, Wall Street PACs, and the Democratic Party establishment to derail this movement before the real presidential election even begins.”

The Wall Street Journal says that 33 percent of Sanders’ supporters will not vote for Clinton if she were to win the Democratic nomination, though this figure is called vastly underestimated by Sanders’ supporters and online polls.


The #Movement4Bernie campaign began months ago, but has picked up increased steam as voters across the country are becoming disenfranchised amidst reports of voter fraud and voter suppression.

“What’s clear is this — we’re entering into a new era where millions and millions of us aren’t simply interested in moderate tweaks here and there, but serious systemic shifts,” Shaun King wrote in the Daily News. “Nobody is going to make those happen for us. We will have to make them happen.”

[Image via Kshama Sawant, #Movement4Bernie | merged and cropped]

Share this article: Seattle Councilwoman Ups The ‘Bernie Or Bust’ Ante With #Movement4Bernie Petition
bernie sanders
More from Inquisitr