SPOKANE, Wash.—I was a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Party Convention in Spokane, June 19-21. There was a crowd of 1,000 people from across the Evergreen State, delegates, alternates, and guests of all races and backgrounds. They greeted with a roaring standing ovation the call by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Seattle) for a massive “get-out-the-vote” in the Nov. 3 general election to terminate MAGA control of the House and Senate and save our nation from the billionaire Trump oligarchy.
Shasti Conrad, Chair of the Washington State Democratic Party, welcomed the crowd to the Convention Center in Spokane. She blasted the drive-by agents of the billionaires in seeking ballot status for a measure to repeal the “Millionaires’ Tax” approved by the legislature last year, and urged the Democratic Party to stand in defense of this measure to tax the rich, a measure that is a small step toward correcting the state’s extremely regressive tax code. Conrad’s call was greeted with a thunderous ovation.
Jesse Wineberry, who dressed in the elegant garb of an 18th-century founding father, told a jampacked meeting of the Labor Caucus that in his ten years in the legislature—rising to the post of Majority Whip—he accumulated a 100% pro-labor voting record. The crowd cheered. He called on the convention to approve new language in the Washington Democratic Party platform calling for the payment of “reparations” to compensate the enslaved Black people whose unpaid labor—like that of his great, great grandparents, contributed tens of billions of dollars to the economy of the new nation. If the WA-Dems add this language to their platform, Wineberry said, it will be the first state Democratic Party to embrace the drive for reparations. The convention later made history by voting to add the pro-reparations language to the Party’s platform.
The delegates were in a rage that President Donald Trump is scheming to take away our right to vote by mail, a system supported by grassroots members of both the Republican and Democratic parties that increases the number of people who vote and reduces ballot fraud. I served on the Convention Resolutions Committee, which reported 91 resolutions to the convention for approval or disapproval. Scores of left-progressive resolutions were approved by the delegates, sometimes rejecting the advice for a “Vote No.”
One approved unanimously denounces ICE abductions and deportations of farmworkers and other victims of Trump hatred. The same resolution calls for Trump’s impeachment. Another was a resolution calling for “ranked choice voting,” strongly endorsed by speakers who condemned “winner-take-all” voting for shutting out candidates who stand for progressive change. The convention approved a resolution calling for a “Carbon Tax” on timber, with the revenues generated used to help fund education and health care. The Resolutions Committee recommended, “Approve as amended.” Delegate Ed Chadd, a delegate from Clallam County, author of the resolution, said a “Carbon Tax” on timber corporations’ billions in profits, together with the Climate Commitment Act and the Millionaire’s Tax, will help correct Washington State’s highly regressive tax code.
Narrowly rejected, despite a passionate plea from a Seattle delegate, was a resolution to cut the military budget by 50% and redirect the saved revenues to health care, public education, affordable housing, and other human needs.
Another resolution introduced by many Arab-American delegates was an emergency resolution that required them to collect signatures of 75 delegates to be introduced for debate and a vote by the delegates. It denounces the genocide inflicted by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, and calls for rejection of the plan to merge U.S. and Israeli military intelligence. An overwhelming majority voted to approve this resolution. When it was announced, the crowd erupted in cheers.
Karen Ducey, staff photographer of the Seattle Times, spotted me wearing my Greek fisherman’s cap adorned with buttons from a dozen different mass organizations in the Dump-Trump coalition. She snapped a photo of me and my cap. This convention lifted my spirits and fired me up! PLEASE, register and VOTE!
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