evidence: I am writing to congratulate you, and other newly elected socialists, on your elections and to outline the lessons of our experience in Seattle since my first election to the city council in 2013. To those who campaigned for you I also offer my congratulations, including to members of Democratic Socialists of America, who along with my own organization, Socialist Alternative, helped bring your fight to hundreds of thousands of working people. [...] Yet while the election of self-declared socialist candidates in the belly of the capitalist beast is a victory in itself, it is also just the beginning. We face a decisive struggle to defeat the sexist, racist, anti-LGBTQ, anti-worker agenda of the right and the deeply reactionary Trump regime. Trump is licking his wounds from the midterms but he is far from vanquished. His campaign was a relentless torrent of hate against immigrants and the Trumpian wing of the Republican Party is increasingly taking on aspects of a far right movement. This is a major threat to working people as a whole and to the most oppressed sections especially. [...] I also want to share a few things with the emerging socialist movement behind your electoral successes: We should always remember that most gains are won by the mass struggle of working people, not elected office, and that is where we must root our power. Our struggle cannot base itself on a few elected representatives, and our own responsibility must be to the working class, not to any individual politicians, even those we judge well meaning.