Mamdani and the tasks for NYC socialists 

The intense interest in the New York City mayoral campaign of avowed democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani has been shared by members of the local Tempest branch. It has engaged in many discussions and debates—informal and formal, public and private— about how NYC Tempest, and the socialist Left in the City, should relate to Mamdani’s campaign, as well as his probable election as mayor.

Members were encouraged to present their ideas and thoughts, which were collected and shared internally. Members of the branch Organizing Committee also took on the role of drafting a document that aimed to articulate both the broadest sentiment of membership, as well as provide an explanation of what motivated our collective decisions.

After a formal vote, the organizing committee was tasked with producing a finalized report that incorporated specific elements agreed to by the membership: our decision to not call for members and supporters to campaign for Mamdani, even as we recognize and embrace the exciting opportunities of this moment. Of equal importance was outlining our belief in the necessity of organizing independent political spaces and our goals for participating in doing just that, especially facing the prospect of a Mamdani mayoralty.

To this end, NYC Tempest will be holding a series of local educational and strategic discussions this fall. If you are based in NYC and would like to find out more, and be added to our announcements list, you can do so by emailing nyc@tempestmag.org.

Amidst the reactionary violence, vitriol, and ever-lowering political horizons of Trump’s America, Zohran Mamdani’s stunning success in the Democratic Party’s primary election for mayor represents the hope of many in New York City for an actual alternative. The campaign ran on an overt pro-Palestine solidarity position that combined explicit appeals to working-class New Yorkers over deeply felt concerns about affordability and the ongoing failure of the Democratic Party.

The campaign’s ability to overcome a massively funded, ruling-class and Zionist smear campaign, against what would be the city’s first Muslim mayor, speaks volumes to the public’s shift in opinion amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The primary results represent an outright rejection of the former governor and accused sexual harasser, Andrew Cuomo, and likewise shows an exhaustion with the continued neoliberal centrism offered by the Democratic Party leadership. It was an explicit rejection of the billionaire capitalists that supported Cuomo, the other candidates of the right (including the corrupt Mayor Eric Adams), and all of their fear-mongering. As revolutionary socialists, we celebrate this as an electoral victory made possible by the increased participation of youth, working people, and oppressed communities in the primary.

Cause and effect—the Mamdani moment

Mamdani and his campaign did not appear in a vacuum. Neither his primary win, to become the Democratic nominee, nor his potential victory in November, should be seen as isolated developments. Understanding Mamdani’s moment requires a clear understanding of how we got here and the opportunities and limitations of our current context.

Since the 2007-2008 global financial meltdown, the capitalist social and political order has been under increasing strain. The ruling class internationally has been unable to address the ongoing crises created by, and inherent in, the capitalist system. From the seemingly intransigent climate disasters and the concomitant public health emergencies; the sharpening inter-imperial competition, rearmarment, neo-colonial wars and genocide; from wage stagnation to crushing inflation on rent, food, and health care; from the precarious job markets and the ever more dangerous, “free-market” working conditions; and the continued growth of the authoritarian state, an ICE gestapo, and attacks on all of our democratic rights, working and oppressed people are bearing the brunt of the ruling elite’s dead-end commitment to the profit motive.

Not surprisingly, this experience is reshaping our collective political expectations and understandings, for better and worse. Out of this combustible social dynamic has come political polarization and radicalization, on both the Left and the Right. The particularities of the U.S. political system and the historic weakness of working class and socialist organizations have meant that the politics of the left-wing radicalization has cohered, in the first instance, around a quest to transform policy through the electoral process, specifically within and through the Democratic Party. Most importantly, this remains true of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) which—despite the increased attention, presumed membership growth, and the sharpening of internal factional politics—is overwhelmingly committed to this strategy. This is a dynamic process, and could yet evolve, but it reflects the reality that the regeneration of the U.S. socialist movement is still in its early stages.

Following the rise and fall of the Occupy movement in 2011-2012 and the outbreak of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014, the national presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020 picked up on, and popularized, a broad desire to challenge the political status quo and those who benefit most from it. The leftward push for policies, that acknowledged the legitimate causes of pain for the working class as a whole and that attempted to offer reforms, made clear that a palpable desire for deep, systemic change was out there, it was growing, and it could be mobilized. Mamdani’s campaign is the most recent activation of those forces.

These electoral phenomena, while inspiring in what they represent about the current radicalization, are not the cause of that radicalization, but an effect of it. The political impasse of the ruling class, its failure to address our growing crises, have people in search of alternatives. In other words, these electoral campaigns are not the reason for the political radicalization, but rather one of its immediate reflections. The urgent struggles for Palestine, growing workplace and union militancy, mutual aid, community and tenant-organizing initiatives, and the mass resistance to ICE equally reflect this dynamic.

A path out of the mess?

Given the threats we are collectively facing, and how far we remain from our goals as socialists, it is healthy and natural that there is an ongoing contest over strategy within this radicalization. We should expect that contest to continue so long as we remain stuck in the conundrum of mass support for left demands but absent an adequate vehicle for their delivery. The current conditions are ripe for the flourishing of, and contestation around, all strategies that aim for social transformation. These must be tested in practice.

But it’s critical to take real stock of the results of such tests. Individual socialists have been elected to office, and much of our collective resources continue to be devoted to this goal. But we have not yet put a stop to our government’s funding of the genocide in Gaza, ending the ICE gestapo, successfully decommodifying housing, and so on. The key question—the focal point of what is being contested strategically—is whether these electoral projects inside the Democratic Party are getting us any closer to those goals. In other words, what does “working class power” actually look like? While we fully understand and identify with the desire for material victories, it is wrong for socialists to conflate winning elected office with winning actual policy or social agendas, or even with strengthening the organized forces of the Left.

There is a more concrete basis for revolutionary arguments today, given the trajectory of the last ten-plus years, because the strategic lines of debate within the socialist Left have sharpened. In 2016, there was a common argument among socialists to build the basis for independent politics, on some unknown timeline, through a left orientation within the Democratic Party—the so-called dirty break. This break never came. Through the defeat of the Sanders presidential campaign, the experience of the Biden Presidency, and the persistent capitulation to the Right by sections of the reformist Left (including the democratic socialist Left), the popularized 2016 position—of the ability to reach socialist objectives through work within the Democratic Party—is now much less tenable.

This, then, generates a tension around the Mamdani campaign. The candidate has made it clear that his goal—his strategy—is to transform the Democratic Party. His commitment to explicitly (some may say exclusively) seek change through an inside-out approach of getting elected as an avowed democratic socialist and Democrat, has already started the rightward tack that has become a signature path for so many committed to this strategy. Since becoming the Democratic Party candidate for mayor in June, we have seen him take positions to placate the ruling class and right-wing critics. He’s walked back his pro-Palestinian rhetoric, acceeding to demands he discourage the use of language like “globalize the intifada.” He’s praised the current mayor’s police commissioner, billionaire heiress Jessica Tisch, and raised the prospect of her continuing in her role—in overseeing an unredeemably corrupt New York Police Department, and reinstating killer cops—and has been clear that he does not want to defund the police. And he’s made it a priority to placate the capitalist class concerned about his social democratic policies, “evolving” his position on the role of private capital in the housing market, and meeting with corporate leaders in the city to assure them his policies won’t jeopardize their economic and social hegemony.

This tension, however unsurprising, should deepen the commitments of the socialist Left for building our independent political strength, at every level, whether organizational or ideological. Perspective matters. Recognizing a candidate and an election as tactical parts of a struggle, not the focal points, is essential. It’s possible to see Mamdani as the inarguable, best candidate for mayor on the ballot this November, and as a reflection of a growing left-moving radicalization and popular desire for real material change, while remaining critically concerned on what it will take to see the potential of a Mamdani victory realized. It is vitally important to deepen our understanding of this moment, the dynamics and strategic limitations of the Mamdani campaign, including the forces arrayed against it. A failure to do so, especially amongst those who have strongly supported the campaign, runs real risks. As recent history has taught us, shattered expectations can easily lead to deeper demoralization, strategic confusion, and demobilization. It’s in these conditions that the Right is given oxygen to grow qualitatively and quantitatively, as we’ve seen nationally and internationally.

Strategic priorities

How a socialist organization relates to an election is not a question of applying a ready-made principle without a concrete analysis of the particular situation. There is, however, a principle involved in deciding on strategies and tactics once we’ve made a good start on our analysis: That is, socialists need to help build the political independence of the working class and oppressed communities. Socialism can only be won as a movement of self-emancipation, and for this, the development of political independence is essential.

In the United States, the single biggest barrier to such political independence has been the profoundly undemocratic structures of “our” “democracy,” and within that, the role of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is a party controlled by capital but which historically, and especially in the post-war period, has depended on organized working class electoral support. Building independent organizations, including parties independent of the Democrats, remains a (if not the) strategic priority for the socialist Left in this country.

It is conceivable, as a counterfactual thought experiment, to imagine a different history, a different New York City, in which a large, organized, rooted, socialist movement, made up of thousands of cadre, with a clear set of revolutionary politics and historical understanding, might choose a particular endorsement tactic for a reform candidate during an election campaign. But it would be an understatement to say that those are not our current circumstances. In the current moment, there are massive and compounding crises for the working class and oppressed communities, growing authoritarianism, and relatively small forces of organized socialists that includes an even smaller subset of revolutionaries.

Just as importantly, within that radicalization, and within the majority of that socialist movement, the dominant strategy has been one of electoralism within the Democratic Party as the way the socialist movement will be built. This strategy is defined by its focus on electoral politics as the means of gradually winning more representation in the government as the way reforms are won, living standards are improved, and a stronger socialist Left is built. While we understand why this strategy has so much support given the challenges of building a working-class party—let alone a revolutionary party—in the United States, we reject this reformist, electoralist perspective and the strategic arguments that come along with that approach.

As Tempest, we think that prioritizing the building of independent organizing spaces for working class and oppressed people—including building openly revolutionary socialist organization—is the key to changing the terrain of politics, including electoral politics. In this way we can best strengthen our ability to win working class demands and to build a stronger movement that sees capitalism and the rule of the market as the root cause of our misery.

Mamdani, even while predictably tacking to the right, is set to face unprecedented challenges in the role of the city’s chief executive. He has already become a fixation for the authoritarian right that is eager to see the failure of a young Muslim standing with Palestine. Some are surely—and frighteningly interested in going further, emboldened by the xenophobic violence and white nationalist hatred that has accompanied the rise of Donald Trump. And Trump himself now promises to intervene in the mayoral race directly—praising Cuomo and threatening to “take over” New York City as a follow-up to his federal militarization of Washington, D.C. It is incumbent on the socialist Left to continue to organize resistance to all forms of repression—currently being executed by Trump and the right but enabled by the Democratic Party—including the attacks on our potential future mayor, as an attack on our democratic rights. Looking at recent events in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., the tools at the disposal of the federal and state governments and legislatures to dispatch the military, withhold funds, and politically maneuver should not be underestimated.

Neither should we underestimate the lessons of the mass response in Los Angeles to Trump’s targeting of immigrants and movement activists. The resistance in Los Angeles is a signal of the importance and potential, in this moment, for nurturing, developing, and growing Left political independence from the Democratic Party. For the election of Mamdani in November to mean more than having a new, more sympathetic manager of our municipal affairs, New Yorkers will need to learn and organize independently of Mamdani, the Democratic mayor. This can mean developing committees in our unions or tenant organizations to advocate for some of the campaign planks that drew the attention of Mamdani’s supporters; growing emergency response networks and abolitionist organizations in our neighborhoods to organize against ICE raids and to lay groundwork for bigger struggles against the far right that we know are coming; keeping up the ongoing organizing for Palestine and making sure that any demands are being driven by the forces on the ground and not by the considerations of a campaign for an election. Ultimately, it will also mean being willing to disagree and demand more from Mamdani himself. Our standpoint should be one of critical solidarity, including a willingness to hold Mamdani fully accountable for his successes and failures. We should work to ensure that this moment serves to break the too-common cycle from election excitement to political detachment and demoralization, and can instead lead to the development of new, independent avenues for New Yorkers to work towards the policies Mamdani advocates and more. Those independent spaces are essential if our Left is to grow and thrive.

All of the above, taken together, represent the conditions under which our small group of revolutionaries in NYC have decided to relate to the Mamdani campaign, to the election, and to a possible, even likely, Mamdani administration. These dynamics do not start in campaign season and end on election day, November 4. In fact, it’s if/when Mamdani takes office that these discussions will take on their most concrete meaning. It’s imperative that we all prepare for that moment now.

On this basis, NYC Tempest Collective is not calling on our members and supporters to campaign for Mamdani. We do this not out of abstentionism, as we will continue to be actively engaged, in our day to day organizing, with many who are campaigning for Mamdani, and many more who will likely be voting for him. Neither are we driven by pessimism, as we understand this moment as part of an ongoing dynamic process which heightens the possibilities (and risks) for real organizational and political advances for our class. Yet, ultimately, such advances will require independence from the Democratic Party. So it is our commitment to this set of strategic priorities—which we believe are necessary for the Left to take greatest advantage of the Mamdani moment, and to have it succeed on the terms which brought it mass hope and mass support—that determines our work. The real possibility exists for collectively building the organized forces necessary for the struggles ahead, including those being unleashed by this election. We in Tempest are best placed to support those forces outside the campaign, and will continue to focus on our trade union, community, and social movement activism. And we are recommitted to this project as essential to preparing our side—ideologically and materially—for the massive class war that is escalating in NYC.

Solidarity, independence, and struggle

These are the strategic debates that need to be developed and considered in all of our movement spaces, unions, and socialist organizations. To reiterate, one of the silver-linings of the roller-coaster of the class struggle over the last decade-plus years is that today there is greater openness and relative, critical sophistication, in understanding and engaging these debates within the broader Left. We are confident that having these debates makes our side stronger.

If the last 10 years have shown us anything, it’s that no politician, no court, no 238-year-old constitution can stop the rot that makes our lives worse each day. Things can get better, but for that to happen, we need to foster our collective ability to act in our own interests. And while Tempest chooses to expend our resources uplifting this central strategic argument and organizing outside of the campaign, we do so with an unconditional commitment to stand shoulder to shoulder with all those supporters to fight for the reforms that Mamdani has promised, and to play our part to make sure that fight goes on to win even more.

---

Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Tempest Collective. For more information, see “About Tempest Collective.”
Featured Image credit: Eden, Janine and Jim; modified by Tempest.