tragic but it meant a lot to have you there representing our community it was important for me to be there both as an elected official and as a fellow immigrant and really what happened the tragic incident that happened it really are reminder that we who are on the receiving end of economic inequality and exploitation we have a strong link globally regardless of our skin color or nationality and we have a common  duty to really address the problems in society and we completely agree we're going to take a moment to get to know our very own doctors amazons and i say doctor because can you tell us a little bit yes i i grew up in mumbai in india and i initially when you do engineering school because mathematics was my favorite subject but in reality my whole childhood and my teenage years i was primarily preoccupied with thinking about poverty and inequality and it really was i guess it's fair to say it was an obsession with me because i could not for the life of me understand why there was any poverty at all and i grew up in india you know observing tremendous poverty and just deprivation and oppression but for me the question was how is it possible that we have have so much deprivation and violence and oppression when it was clear that the world the human society had more than enough resources and more than enough intelligence to solve all these problems so it was clear to me that there were systemic reasons so later on when i was thinking about because i want i want what i say to be an acknowledgment of something many many people are thinking about you don't have to have a ph d in economics to know that that i'd be systemic problems in our society there's deep inequality and even in a wealthy city like seattle we're seeing poverty rates go up we're seeing homelessness go up up every day and we're seeing and our communities the indigenous community that african american community african immigrant community and other immigrant communities of color being marginalized even though the city is producing more millionaires and so i want to make sure that everybody feels like they have a room to play and ultimately if we don't build broad based movements many many people whether you have your peers you're not we're not going to be able to succeed in making social change social change you know i have to say i've been in seattle about forty years and to acknowledge that your being here outside of just your just your politics that just your be kind of sways i think the climate for a lot of young people and perhaps young women  specifically in terms of knowing where they can go where their lives can shift and and in the ways in which that they choose to serve so what was it that made you feel that you wanted to serve  this way because you could have lived anywhere you know you could have had a very successful successful career anywhere but what is it that led you to seattle and why paul it's a very good question question and i think a lot of what i might share about my own life i think a lot of people will be able to relate there's really nothing special other than the fact that i was like i'm sure many many young people around us and i'm sure you yourself have been thinking about the state of the world and i never intended to run for office what i wanted to do was to be an activist and i was for many years in search of a group of people an organization to belong to because i  knew just instinctively not that anybody dogmeat is in school or anything like that but i knew instinctively that if we are to have a real impact on society and address the questions that face us like poverty like climate change and you know questions like that i knew that you can have an impact just by yourself just by good intentions i mean just because i feel compelled to change i won't be able to do it myself on my own and individualized action does not work it really has to be collective action but then collective action has to be organized you know and really geared toward success and so i came to seattle for personal reasons because i'm a former partner also moved here but you know when i want one thing that happened was i again in two thousand and nine attended a meeting that was organized by socialist alternative which is a nationwide organization of social and economic justice activists and when i heard one of the speakers  socialist alternative talk about what their ideas were that really resonated with me and i joined socialist or just alternative in two thousand and nine and since then i haven't looked back and i mention all of this to share with everybody is watching this that for me running for office was not my individual decision and as a matter of fact i don't know if i would want to if it was left to me because i don't know that i wanted to be a public figure but we all have to play our part and really it came about when we as a democratic organization were thinking about in two thousand and twelve and two thousand thirteen you know everybody's looking for an alternative to car but politics if you look at the opinion polls from people you know people  sixty percent of americans say we need an alternative the democratic and republican establishment because we know that despite genuine people in the democratic party both party establishments are beholden to wall street interest and they are who they are responsible for the gutting of welfare for the fact that we don't really have true comprehensive immigration reform we don't have so many things that we could have because this is such a wealthy country it's the wealthiest country in the world and we wanted to demonstrate an alternative to corporate politics you know what does truly a grassroots campaign on a grassroots candidate look like but it was a democratic decision by a number of people and who the candidate should be was also a democratic decision not my personal decision and i mentioned that specifically because i want everybody to think about what that looks like you know politics where we don't have candidates running because they want to  careers and their own personalities and they're doing it for self aggrandizement but instead they are part of an organized movement where the movement tells you you have to do this for the movement that's how our campaign came about that's how it came about that i became a candidate in the first place and i want this to this message to be spread because young people should start thinking about how do we get organized this is a very serious question facing us facing us we're not going to be able to solve the problems we want to under represented minority they use and people of color and the champion behind the fifteen dollars are we to increase seattle now i want to ask and i want to know what feels you to keep going and what are some of the movements that i raise in concrete dimaggio specific demands not in the abstract but fifteen dollars an hour is a very specific demand that we want it so really a life example of how we can accomplish social change and the bank thing that keeps me going as an individual as a person is my unflinching faith in working people like myself that we all have the power to change society and we don't have to imagine it history is full of examples of how ordinary working people when they come out and get you know become a part of an organ i struggled we can make massive changes and fifteen dollars an hour is the most recent example one on one recent examples but if you look at how the civil rights for black for the african american committee for the black community was one how women won the right to vote in this country and in every other country how well marriage equality was won in all of the struggles they represent every in every era they represent working people coming out in thousands tens of thousands millions and demanding social change and i think that because i know that that happens and i know that we can have an impact that keeps me going well  your passion resonates beyond this room just like beyond the walls and i'm not just making that up right in the right exciting for me as somebody who grew up saying to my mom we were like reversed i should've been you know your age in the sixty's and seventy's and you should've been my eighty's and ninety's is what i used to tell her because i was always by the civil rights movement and by the ordinary people's efforts to create the changes that we are actually enjoying today including the studio including the diversity and for us is  had recently said i feel like we are back to where we were during the civil rights movement upon seeing and observing the work of grace the bugs who just from black lives matter to everything that you're talking about like is it all done or are we in a resurgence or has it just very important question let me start with first of all just on a personal level of knowledge in what would you said earlier that you vietnam war which was a phenomenal movement of young people you know many of them college students you know vietnam war veterans and so on and it's true that after and there's a reason why people like us feel that way is because after the seventy's in the eighty's ninety's and two thousand there was a decline of activism and it was sort of in that period it was would call it the you know the new liberal era globally there was a real clamp down from the political establishment and the business establishment on activism in the eighty's for example and in the united states under the regime there were vicious attacks against unions labor unions and the labor american labor movement has a proud history you know that's what because of them we have a you know eight hour work day and the weekend and many rights especially for women and people of color and all those labor movements were actually multimedia you know the people who fought in those labor movements came from various countries they were multiethnic multinational really the first people who fought in that and they fought together because they were united in  it's our job to revive it but it's absolutely true that we are now coming into a similar era it's by no means and it's only the beginning the winning of fifteen dollars an hour in seattle is a sign of  things to come the resurgence of black activism through the black lives matter movement is another very very important sign perhaps the importance line right now of the times of being into an what i think will be massive social movements but it's not none of that is guaranteed what's true and what is what exists right now is a latent anger and frustration at the status quo especially for young people who have come into a well where they're facing for the most part unless you're very very fortunate to have been born in a privileged family for the most part our young and patient is facing a future of low wage jobs student debt that has now climbed over a trillion dollars in this country we're facing a world that has been ravaged by climate change and urgently need to shift to renewable energy  facing a massive increase in poverty and homelessness we have in dream you attacks against women's rights all that is true and there is an anger against it and people want to fight back what's not what's not guaranteed is that that that anger and frustration can be transformed into organized struggles that can really bring about change and that's where we have to be intentional about it gentle about it unless we actually stand that we are stepping into an  where there is an opening for the left unless we don't we recognize that and really build movements in a very conscious way we want when those successes we want to be able to change the world and that's why it's important not to miss this moment you know it's what you said is very important because unless we know less this is happening we want we want to grab that moment and it is so important for us to do that that is why we take every everything we do on the city council seriously so we we don't run fifteen but we had no intention to but how to get involved is also an important question so just to give concrete examples of how this can be done when we when we launched our campaign for city council in two thousand and thirteen we made fifteen dollars an hour the most prominent part of our campaign platform but what we did through the campaign itself through our election campaign itself was go out into and go out into the community and bring young people into the campaign but not just for our election purposes but to to empower them themselves taking the message of fifteen dollars an hour to young people like themselves and really the reason we won fifty were many many people who played an important role the labor movement played an important movement played an important role in winning fifteen dollars an hour the faith community people of every faith well part of the leadership of you know pushing for fifteen and saying that this is a moral obligation our society has to make sure that one hundred thousand workers in seattle who are stuck in poverty are lifted out of it but perhaps the most powerful dollars an hour was that of young workers people who are young in their late teens twenty's thirty's but are have been stuck in low wage jobs for for a long time and have other than social movements they have no hope of moving out of poverty and they see when they came into the rallies and the protest marches but if you talk to them and i talk to many many of them they will tell you it wasn't just about themselves you know what brought them the first thing that brought them of course was being able to make a material change in their life but when you come out in a struggle like this with so many other people like yourself you realize i'm not the only one and that feeling of solidarity i think was very very important for younger workers to see that we can we can really fight against this kind of entrenched need quality we can fight big business and that's truly inspiring because you know when we won fifteen not because big business represented a suddenly became nice and said oh you know yeah you're right you're right it's wrong that you're living in poverty let's make a change no they fought tooth and nail against fifteen and young workers had to fight against that and that winning despite the opposition by big business is so empowering now young people have to say  i'm you know we need to build this movement farther and i would say in seattle affordable housing is probably one of the main issues we should tackle but we have to bring in the question of corporate politics as well because if if we want to if we want to empower the younger generation by showing you know by by by winning social change on many fronts do show that the this can be done we're going to and we have already come up against corporate politics the money and influence of big business so even in this election year you can see that the candidates that are bankrolled by big business are not going to be the ones who are fighting for young people so young people have also you know to have to educate themselves understand you know what's going on in this election year who's really on my side and who's who's paying lip service to the issues that affect me but are not well speaking of young people one of the reasons that we have the studio is to make sure that everybody feels like they have a right to their voice and of course media and one of those tools that they can employ and probably the most powerful tool nowadays right yeah very true yeah so they come in and they get to learn how to use the camera as well as at it as well as just finalize a story but with a story that they want to tell you know i'm constantly concerned about the bridge building that's happening within our different climates i'll call it that so young people are obviously everybody says you know the children are the leaders our youth are leaders or not really doing i don't think enough i mean big i think our young people especially immigrant youth and up carrying a huge weight right absolutely lot of times are the translators for their parents many times they have to quit school in order to go to work so that they can support their family many times they are again missing either from school or work to take care of younger siblings and such  how can they get involved in a very practical way in movements that allows for the changes that they desire for their own families and communities do you think is i think one of the things that one of the messages that needs to get across to everybody but especially young people who are looking to get politically involved is that whatever you know we all have our own personal experiences and what one of us politicized you know what one of us what got one of us thinking about why i should get involved may be different than some others you know it may be something that you experienced in your workplace it may be something that you experienced in your home country you know it it varies but at the end of the day i think it's extremely important for us to recognize that whatever it is that we feel most strongly about whether you know young maybe young people who feel most wrongly about student debt maybe some feel most strongly about immigrant rights maybe some feel most strongly about the lack of good paying jobs but whatever those individual things might be i think it's very important i would say critical that we all get especially young people we get engaged in the movement that is happening around us at this moment so the reason i say that is because unless we win concrete victories on many many things we're not going to be able to build a movement strong enough that will be with all of those things that are that people are people are worried about so what i mean by this is to say is that but helps young people are thinking about racial injustice and in schools the dropout rates that are immigrant communities face and the talk of real opportunity to get higher education to get well paying jobs and so on but at this moment if we see movement around affordable housing and and control of our tenant rights if we see that emerging  absolutely important that young people get involved in it even if you are living with your parents and you are not paying the rent check you still should get involved and the reason is first of all we're not going to win victories on affordable housing and housing justice unless young people get involved and secondly it's because we will win victories on these things it will help us build a movement further that will go i have no doubt go ahead and tackle other questions that are of maybe of most immediate necessity for for other you know young people so we if we win the trees on housing just as there is no question that we will be able to build a movement for there to fight against to conduct to fight for you know fight to reduce tuitions in college to fight for apprenticeship programs for apprenticeship programs for a public works program that will create unionized living wage jobs i mean there's a lot to be done but it's important that we get involved right now  you know would have been a little yes absolutely it's no it's not just one thing or another that's wrong in our society that we are fundamental problems and they're related you know really show injustice is very much die to economic injustice which is to social injustice or even gender injustice so when women you know what we need to fight for gender you know to end the gender pay gap we need to fight for a twelve week paid parental leave but we need to link the struggles to other struggles as well because win on any of these things is if we fight together and we build our movement even stronger there's another important reason why young people should get involved right now in our movement for affordable housing and other movement emerging in seattle and the black lab matter movement and that is because unless you unless we all and it's and it's not specific to young people anybody who wants to win in a political struggle needs to learn how  and so experience in a live political struggle like fifteen dollars an hour is extremely important there is no textbook that i could recommend that young people can open and say what are the strategies and tactics you can use to build a successful organized movement how do you how do you spend your message to workers when business big business is spreading lies about how if you know fifteen would be bad you know or we had to fight against all those all those negative messages how do you build a movement that is strong enough to withstand all of that there's no formula for that and in every struggle you're going to have to employ different tactics and strategies and the only way to understand organized movement let's like fifteen dollars an hour you there's never any guarantee that we're going to win we didn't know we were going to win but we knew one thing if we didn't fight we're never going to make a change good afternoon my brothers and sisters who are watching me in this video i am here today with my wonderful fantasize with them i have to program and so on and to be here today as always the reason why i'm here today is i'm going to talk to you about a very this year we had an opportunity to bring the thing back and how does the work on october twenty second twenty fifth twenty fifth it will be held a seattle center and what is it for it is for free thousand thousand people a day so when you come in you would be given a ticket and you will be served so please let me give you a little bit background about last year what happened while the law it is a partnership between seattle the services and there are one thousand five hundred volunteers provided two point five million dollars worth of value or free dental and medical nearly three thousand four hundred individuals washingtonians so it is want to see the year we have a soul lucky to have this program here so my fellow brothers and sisters are let you know that take advantage of this program it's  and glass for free will be given a class right there if you have a medical and other medical issues that will be taken care of it's free so let me tell you last year what happened last year close to two thousand four hundred people were being treated in the place and the edge of those people from two eight twenty six years old to fifty nine years old let me give you the numbers what were the people that was giver it was quite a diverse number thirty one percent a wh sixteen point seven percent were hispanic fifteen point seven or asia pacific islanders fourteen point five one african americans are one point five one indian american  dental very challenging so you can get a free dental here it's a wonderful please come and join us for those three days and let me tell you about the medical there were one thousand three hundred sixty five patients receive medical seen they have a very challenging health issues so might be a process sisters this is going to be at seattle center you know that she had a summer cyrena she had a summer five o'clock in the morning again let me tell you the dates the dates are the city and the county have tried best to bring this service back again this year because of the demand from you and everyone else who have taken advantage last and so might be a process sisters i hope you get this message and i hope that advantage of it on top of that there will be a shoes tennis shoes a beautiful tennis shoes everyone who comes will get a brand new shoes bring your children bring your families everything is free i can express my enough by a lot of americans aren't aware that even though we spend more on health care than any other country in the world we aren't as healthy as many people in other countries obviously as the patients who come here show a lot of needs that aren't being met public health is not just something that people in health departments do or that schools of public health teach public health is really a cultural value we all look forward to the day when we have health equity for everybody in our community has maximum  we are changing their lives you can see it in their faces you can hear it in their stories it is absolutely life changing as a volunteer and as a partner in this work to be able to be involved in a little thing they need that you've got to work hard for them hi sisters and brothers i'm seamus allen i'm on the seattle city council i'm also a member of socialist alternative and you might know that we are in a really exciting period of political change in seattle we've just won the historically high minimum wage fifteen dollars an hour last year we're also making future gains in affordable housing and housing justice for everybody but we have a long way to go and it's really really important that you all get involved and it's great work that m m r is doing here having a media center or truly grassroots media center and using their media resources specifically with the girl off in engaging youth in political activism and it's really important that they're doing hundred more