Zohran Can Do Much More to Boost Organizing
Socialist New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has accomplished much in just a few months. But one major thing is missing from his tenure thus far: activating mass participation of working-class New Yorkers in the fight for his ambitious agenda.
The scale of mass organizing initiatives organized by Zohran Mamdani’s administration is significantly below what is demanded by the moment. (Dave Sanders / the New York Times / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Zohran Mamdani said the word “deliver” twenty-two times in his first one hundred days in office celebration speech. It's the administration's defining theme — and a limitation.
The mayor’s speech foregrounded his democratic socialist convictions and provided example after example of how his city hall has disproved skeptics’ claim that “the Left could debate but could never deliver.” Highlights include big wins like expanding universal childcare and pushing through a tax on secondary-home “pieds-à-terre” as well as smaller but real improvements like filling 102,000 potholes.
It’s fantastic that Zohran is delivering the goods and using his platform to advocate democratic socialism. And the tightrope act he has pulled off while engaging with New York’s centrist governor has been shrewd. But it’s a problem that ordinary New Yorkers are receiving the goods instead of helping win them.
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