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Average People Won Universal Childcare for New York

By
Corey Robin

Just one year ago, the idea that New Yorkers could get universal childcare was dismissed as utopian nonsense. An organized democratic socialist movement made it a reality, with the first phase launching this year.

What distinguishes democratic socialism from other brands and shades of progressivism? Its victories are won by a working-class movement, not politicians. (Jason Alpert-Wisnia / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images)

One of the critical distinguishing features of the communist movement of the nineteenth century was its insistence, in the words of Karl Marx, “that the emancipation of the workers must be the work of the workers themselves.” Where other movements were willing to advocate on behalf of the working class or other oppressed groups, the First International demanded that it be the oppressed who liberated themselves.

It may seem a leap from that vision to the fact that all New Yorkers, in the next few years, will get childcare for their two-year-olds and, once that is established, perhaps their younger children as well. But I don’t think it is as much of a leap as we sometimes think.

One year ago, at this time, the idea that all New Yorkers would be able to get childcare for two-year-olds was dismissed as so much utopian nonsense, the silly prattle of an unknown Muslim socialist assemblyman who was running a quixotic campaign for mayor. Now it’s happening. Not because of Kathy Hochul, not because of the financial class, not because of elite Democrats or members of the state assembly, and not even just because of Zohran Mamdani, but because hundreds of thousands of you voted for Mamdani, tens of thousands of you knocked on doors for Mamdani, thousands of you organized the people who knocked on doors for Mamdani, and hundreds of you organized the organizers. You made this happen.

Emancipation is not something that is won in one moment or one fell swoop. It’s always a slow boring of hard boards, a phrase of Max Weber‘s that has mistakenly been appropriated by self-styled realists of the Democratic center, but which truly applies, above all else, to the people who go door-to-door talking to their neighbors and mobilizing their friends, who walk up to strangers and ask them to support someone they’ve never heard of. It’s the work of the workers and citizens and residents of the city itself. Universal childcare will be the work of the workers who provide it — and the voters and organizers who made it happen in the first place. It will be the work of the people.

That, to me, is one of truly important elements that distinguishes democratic socialism from all the other brands and shades of progressivism, so we should all take a moment to claim this victory, this work, as our own.