
Reports of Socialism’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
Centrists have been declaring the socialist movement dead for years in spite of the victories it has racked up. But Zohran Mamdani’s win makes its rise undeniable.
Opal Lee is a writer.

Centrists have been declaring the socialist movement dead for years in spite of the victories it has racked up. But Zohran Mamdani’s win makes its rise undeniable.

Largely ignored in coverage of the democratic socialist movement that helped produce Zohran Mamdani is this basic fact: at a time of rising authoritarianism, socialists have succeeded by old-fashioned grassroots, democratic organizing.

Last night in Brooklyn, after his win in New York’s mayoral race, Zohran Mamdani gave a victory speech that quoted Eugene Debs, directly challenged Donald Trump, and laid out a vision for a New York City transformed. We reprint it here in full.

Zohran Mamdani ran an excellent campaign. But his victory was made possible by a decade of serious electoral work by New York City’s democratic socialists and the structural dysfunction of the political establishment.

A democratic socialist wasn’t supposed to be able to win a major office like New York City mayor over the objections of billionaires. Yet Zohran Mamdani and the movement behind him built a campaign far stronger than the oligarchs and their unlimited money.

Zohran Mamdani’s campaign represented a struggle for basic dignity and an affirmation of democratic potential. It was ceaselessly denounced by political and media elites from across the spectrum as something sinister, violent, and dangerous.

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From our first interview immediately after he won his state assembly election in 2020 through profiles, op-eds, interviews, and speeches, Jacobin has closely covered Zohran Mamdani’s political career rooted in the socialist movement since its start.

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