Shelton Stromquist is the author of Claiming the City: A Global History of Workers’ Fight for Municipal Socialism and “Municipal Socialism” in Cambridge History of Socialism.
If he wins the New York City mayoral election, Zohran Mamdani will not be in totally uncharted territory. A long line of municipal-level socialists in the United States and around the world have been in his position before.
One of the great labor scholars of the 20th century, David Montgomery was determined to place workers at the center of US history. For Montgomery, rigorous historical analysis couldn’t be divorced from engagement with the working class.
On this day in 1871, the Paris Commune began its brief history before a conservative government drowned it in blood. While it lasted, the Commune sketched out a new way to run a major city based on democracy and the public good, not private profiteering.