You make some excellent arguments. Certainly mass mobilization is needed. But I am not sure how much of that is on Zohran. Perhaps he could do more but isn’t it the main responsibility on NYC DSA, 14,000 strong? And the current statue is a reflection of the weakness of our college-educated left and especially of the labor movement?
I agree the main responsibility is on us! But it's also just a fact Zohran has by far our movement's biggest platform, so what he does/says has an outsized impact.
I hear where you're coming from with this and agree we should never lose sight of the need for a mass organized proletariat that's realizing these wins together rather than relying on the political prospects of a single charismatic leader. However, I think it's odd you didn't mention the Union Now rally Zohran and Bernie spoke at this month that was specifically about boosting workers' struggles and launching a new nonprofit to raise money for union fights around the country. If you have specific criticisms of this effort I'm all ears, but this seems to me like the exact right thing Zohran should be doing with his platform to boost the larger movement of building organized power for the working class. I've also been impressed how he's continued his door knocking operation to engage voters to participate in the rent board, again that kind of leveraging of his office to keep mobilizing volunteers to perpetually engage the working class seems vital and like the best possible use of his position. I appreciate your work a lot, just felt like you glossed over some pretty significant things he's doing differently that feel encouraging to me.
Thank you for the thoughtful piece. Zohran has opened doors and made what was not on the table possible. And he will deliver important wins for workers and the poor. But it is not his job to organize workers or tenants or others. It is ours. And when we do, we can hope for support in the places the City and his big following can help. And that is a wonderful opportunity. But we need creative and aggressive bottom up campaigns. Otherwise he will be just using up his bank until it runs dry.
Organizing isn't his job. His job is being mayor of a major city with a $5.4 billion budget deficit thanks to the chicanery of his predecessor. If you want the people organized, get off Substack and get busy.
Some within DSA exhibit the same weakness by substituting elected legislators for organized working people. The idea of putting pressure on politicians of the two capitalist parties is a dead end unless there is an independent and militant mass movement to fight for change.
My problem with the Mamdani phenomenon is the age-old question: is it ever okay to make an alliance with a section of the ruling class. History tells us no. Study what the Social Democracy did in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power, for example. The popular front led to the mass slaughter of revolutionaries and the unions were crushed. What was needed was an independent united front of workers and oppressed peoples.
There are many other examples.
This is my issue with the Mamdani campaign—his program consists of fairly limited demands that HE is going to win for US, ostensibly by negotiating with elements of the ruling class (and others) to win them over to his somewhat tepid projects.
What we need is a solid program for the working class to organize itself around. This would consist of demands that are easily understood by everyone, and by fighting for itself would raise class consciousness as well as making it clear that our power comes from organizing ourselves, bypassing traps set for us by the Democratic Party and the union bosses and their slavish dependence on Democrats who gladly take our money while making sure we don’t get any “funny” ideas about class struggle and fighting back for ourselves and others, instead of trying to elect candidates who may work on making incremental changes when what we need are candidates who are brave enough to stand up and expose the capitalist system. Electoralism has not worked out so well so far. The problem with what I’m proposing is that workers are generally not yet organizing for this kind of fight. As a Marxist, and from some fifty years of experience I know that things can change quickly and we should be prepared for it.
> While Mayor Mamdani’s active support for NYC-DSA’s congressional candidates like Claire Valdez has helped recruit people to the organization, fewer than 2,000 people have joined since the election. NYC-DSA now has roughly 14,000 members — a big step forward from our movement’s former marginality, but still a relatively modest number compared to the roughly 100,000 Zohran campaign volunteers and 1 million voters who backed him in the general.
Elsewhere you've noted:
> By 1912, roughly one out of every hundred people in Milwaukee was a member of the Social Democratic Party. No other city in America had anything close to this level of strength; in contrast, New York City, another socialist bastion, had one member for every thousand inhabitants.
So today DSA currently has 1 member for roughly every 614 residents. Even if Mamdani was giving perfect speeches beseeching people to become activists, that wouldn't be enough to close the gap between DSA's current numerical strength and (lack of) implantation in local unions and what the sewer socialist machine was able to achieve on both scores in Milwaukee in the early 20th century. As you've noted in the piece quoted above, it took at least a decade for the SP to build up the strength to capture the mayor's office if we're starting from the SP's total takeover of the Milwaukee’s Federated Trades Council in 1899.
So while it might be true that "Zohran is delivering. But it’s a problem that workers are receiving the goods instead of helping win them," the *root cause* of this phenomenon is that Mamdani won the mayor's race not *because* of local DSA's strength but *in spite* of its weakness. The real solution, then, isn't to fix or improve Mamdani's speeches but make DSA a/the hegemonic force in city, state, and union politics and that's something only DSA as an organization can accomplish. The question then becomes: Does DSA have a viable long-term strategy for achieving that goal and how does the organization plan to use Mamdani's 4-or-8-year mayoralty as a stepping stone towards that goal?
Labor unions need to organize behind Mayor Mamdani, especially his Living Wage and affordability agenda. Likewise, Mayor Mamdani needs to facilitate unionizing all NYC employees via mandating union hires in all contracts, locking out contractors from interfering in union organizing, and improving union access to NYC employees.
This will form the base for opposition to the entrenched duopoly dynamos controlling elections and NYC's finances. Mayor Mamdani needs leverage.
It's always easy to spot the armchair revolutionaries who get their information from social media because that's easier than doing the hard work of actual journalism by doing research.
Zohran hasn't STOPPED organizing, which you would know if you spent real time keeping up on what's going on instead of reading headlines.
Zohran created the Office of Mass Mobilization and put Tascha Van Auken in charge, the best NYC-DSA has to offer. I spoke to her a couple months in and she was overwhelmed with creating a structure that could manage the day to day and continually create new campaigns. It looks like their first one will be in June.
You make some excellent arguments. Certainly mass mobilization is needed. But I am not sure how much of that is on Zohran. Perhaps he could do more but isn’t it the main responsibility on NYC DSA, 14,000 strong? And the current statue is a reflection of the weakness of our college-educated left and especially of the labor movement?
I agree the main responsibility is on us! But it's also just a fact Zohran has by far our movement's biggest platform, so what he does/says has an outsized impact.
I hear where you're coming from with this and agree we should never lose sight of the need for a mass organized proletariat that's realizing these wins together rather than relying on the political prospects of a single charismatic leader. However, I think it's odd you didn't mention the Union Now rally Zohran and Bernie spoke at this month that was specifically about boosting workers' struggles and launching a new nonprofit to raise money for union fights around the country. If you have specific criticisms of this effort I'm all ears, but this seems to me like the exact right thing Zohran should be doing with his platform to boost the larger movement of building organized power for the working class. I've also been impressed how he's continued his door knocking operation to engage voters to participate in the rent board, again that kind of leveraging of his office to keep mobilizing volunteers to perpetually engage the working class seems vital and like the best possible use of his position. I appreciate your work a lot, just felt like you glossed over some pretty significant things he's doing differently that feel encouraging to me.
Brilliant piece Eric!
Thanks Grace!
Thank you for the thoughtful piece. Zohran has opened doors and made what was not on the table possible. And he will deliver important wins for workers and the poor. But it is not his job to organize workers or tenants or others. It is ours. And when we do, we can hope for support in the places the City and his big following can help. And that is a wonderful opportunity. But we need creative and aggressive bottom up campaigns. Otherwise he will be just using up his bank until it runs dry.
Organizing isn't his job. His job is being mayor of a major city with a $5.4 billion budget deficit thanks to the chicanery of his predecessor. If you want the people organized, get off Substack and get busy.
Hahaha
Some within DSA exhibit the same weakness by substituting elected legislators for organized working people. The idea of putting pressure on politicians of the two capitalist parties is a dead end unless there is an independent and militant mass movement to fight for change.
Not just “some”.
You know he was elected as Mayor of NYC with 8.5 million residents!
My problem with the Mamdani phenomenon is the age-old question: is it ever okay to make an alliance with a section of the ruling class. History tells us no. Study what the Social Democracy did in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power, for example. The popular front led to the mass slaughter of revolutionaries and the unions were crushed. What was needed was an independent united front of workers and oppressed peoples.
There are many other examples.
This is my issue with the Mamdani campaign—his program consists of fairly limited demands that HE is going to win for US, ostensibly by negotiating with elements of the ruling class (and others) to win them over to his somewhat tepid projects.
What we need is a solid program for the working class to organize itself around. This would consist of demands that are easily understood by everyone, and by fighting for itself would raise class consciousness as well as making it clear that our power comes from organizing ourselves, bypassing traps set for us by the Democratic Party and the union bosses and their slavish dependence on Democrats who gladly take our money while making sure we don’t get any “funny” ideas about class struggle and fighting back for ourselves and others, instead of trying to elect candidates who may work on making incremental changes when what we need are candidates who are brave enough to stand up and expose the capitalist system. Electoralism has not worked out so well so far. The problem with what I’m proposing is that workers are generally not yet organizing for this kind of fight. As a Marxist, and from some fifty years of experience I know that things can change quickly and we should be prepared for it.
I do apologize for such a lengthy post
We shall see what happens.
> While Mayor Mamdani’s active support for NYC-DSA’s congressional candidates like Claire Valdez has helped recruit people to the organization, fewer than 2,000 people have joined since the election. NYC-DSA now has roughly 14,000 members — a big step forward from our movement’s former marginality, but still a relatively modest number compared to the roughly 100,000 Zohran campaign volunteers and 1 million voters who backed him in the general.
Elsewhere you've noted:
> By 1912, roughly one out of every hundred people in Milwaukee was a member of the Social Democratic Party. No other city in America had anything close to this level of strength; in contrast, New York City, another socialist bastion, had one member for every thousand inhabitants.
So today DSA currently has 1 member for roughly every 614 residents. Even if Mamdani was giving perfect speeches beseeching people to become activists, that wouldn't be enough to close the gap between DSA's current numerical strength and (lack of) implantation in local unions and what the sewer socialist machine was able to achieve on both scores in Milwaukee in the early 20th century. As you've noted in the piece quoted above, it took at least a decade for the SP to build up the strength to capture the mayor's office if we're starting from the SP's total takeover of the Milwaukee’s Federated Trades Council in 1899.
So while it might be true that "Zohran is delivering. But it’s a problem that workers are receiving the goods instead of helping win them," the *root cause* of this phenomenon is that Mamdani won the mayor's race not *because* of local DSA's strength but *in spite* of its weakness. The real solution, then, isn't to fix or improve Mamdani's speeches but make DSA a/the hegemonic force in city, state, and union politics and that's something only DSA as an organization can accomplish. The question then becomes: Does DSA have a viable long-term strategy for achieving that goal and how does the organization plan to use Mamdani's 4-or-8-year mayoralty as a stepping stone towards that goal?
Labor unions need to organize behind Mayor Mamdani, especially his Living Wage and affordability agenda. Likewise, Mayor Mamdani needs to facilitate unionizing all NYC employees via mandating union hires in all contracts, locking out contractors from interfering in union organizing, and improving union access to NYC employees.
This will form the base for opposition to the entrenched duopoly dynamos controlling elections and NYC's finances. Mayor Mamdani needs leverage.
It's always easy to spot the armchair revolutionaries who get their information from social media because that's easier than doing the hard work of actual journalism by doing research.
Zohran hasn't STOPPED organizing, which you would know if you spent real time keeping up on what's going on instead of reading headlines.
Zohran created the Office of Mass Mobilization and put Tascha Van Auken in charge, the best NYC-DSA has to offer. I spoke to her a couple months in and she was overwhelmed with creating a structure that could manage the day to day and continually create new campaigns. It looks like their first one will be in June.
https://citylimits.org/the-mayor-wants-you-at-this-years-rent-board-hearings-and-what-else-happened-this-week-in-housing
Sounds like you roughly agree with some arguments of the DSA left, but without using the word "deliverism", or the phrase "tribune of the people."