
You Can’t Have Social Housing Without Building Housing
Zoning reform measures have divided tenant advocates in New York. Yet loosening the city’s anti-housing regime is essential if we ever want to build social housing at scale.

Zoning reform measures have divided tenant advocates in New York. Yet loosening the city’s anti-housing regime is essential if we ever want to build social housing at scale.

After years of fighting austerity, real estate, and machine politics from inside city hall, I joined the Democratic Socialists of America because only a mass movement can make those fights winnable.

Democratic socialist David Orkin is running for New York State Assembly in Queens, aiming to further bolster the left-wing stronghold and unseat a key ally of former mayor Eric Adams. Jacobin spoke to Orkin about his campaign.

Physician Abdul El-Sayed, one of the most prominent advocates of Medicare for All, is now running for US Senate in Michigan. Jacobin spoke to him about his campaign and the continuing fight for single-payer health care.

New York media has had a field day digging into the backgrounds of socialist leaders like NYC-DSA Cochair Gustavo Gordillo. But what exactly is the “gotcha” — that some people who lead comfortable, secure lives want security and comfort for everyone?

Dave Zeglen is a longtime pro-union, pro-tenant, pro-Palestine, anti-ICE organizer backed by the Democratic Socialists of America — and his sights are set on Ann Arbor City Hall.

After a long delay, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has passed a state budget — a budget that does almost nothing to protect the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers about to lose health care and food stamps due to Donald Trump’s federal budget cuts.

While Donald Trump assaults civil liberties and the social safety net, Democrats are lost. Capital’s continued dominance of both parties and Big Tech’s machinations in particular are key to understanding our political crisis, argues Thomas Ferguson.

In New York City, the Democratic Socialists of America are running a six-candidate socialist slate aiming for state and national office. It will serve as a test run for socialist organizing in the age of coronavirus.

In their despair at Donald Trump’s victory, liberal pundits are concluding that the masses, especially the working class, are irredeemably terrible. That’s apolitical nonsense.

In New York City, a disgraced mayor and a discredited Democratic Party are creating potential openings for socialists. NYC history suggests that the Left might profitably revive proportional representation as a tool to build its electoral strength.

From Milwaukee’s sewer socialists to La Guardia’s New Deal metropolis, urban reformers changed their cities by forging alliances beyond local power.

Rent controls can help to make housing more affordable in cities like New York. But they must be part of a broader solution to the housing crisis that involves increasing density and building more housing.

From 2005 to 2016, against the wishes of both the country’s ruling and opposition parties, the small Venezuelan municipality of Torres underwent a radical experiment in democracy, giving residents direct power over the budget. It worked.

It’s been five years since Berliners voted by referendum to expropriate the big corporate landlords. The ruling parties blocked the move, but next month’s state elections could produce a left-wing government that can finally honor the vote.

The Democratic Socialists of America’s recent convention in Chicago reflected the challenges of strengthening and expanding a socialist movement rooted in the working class that can effectively fight the genocide in Gaza.

Marek Broderick is the youngest member of the Burlington City Council. He’s using his seat to bridge the gap between student activism and the city’s broader working-class struggles.

A surprising number of Andrew Cuomo’s allies, donors, and friends have close ties to the late pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The hard part is over. The harder part is about to start.