Average People Won Universal Childcare for New York
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)
🚨 Big news for the littlest New Yorkers: 2-K is coming.
Starting this year, we’re delivering 2,000 FREE child care seats for 2-year-olds across our city.
By Fall 2027, we'll be ready to serve 12,000 kids.
Grateful to our partner in this work, @GovKathyHochul, for her . . .— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@NYCMayor) March 3, 2026
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.
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