Liberation Speaks: On Zohran Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani is the frontrunner for the NYC Mayoral Election that will be held on November 4. His meteoric rise can, in major part, be attributed to the work put in by thousands of DSA members from across the country who have canvassed, phonebanked, and worked tirelessly for him. Questions have been raised, however – as are expected in politics, especially when you have a feasible chance of winning! Is Zohran a Zionist? Will he betray the movement that nurtured him and put him where he is? Will he order the NYPD to crack comrades' heads? Should we be trying to capture executive positions in an empire? These questions are correct and should be asked - one of the principles of Maoism is that nobody and nothing is above criticism. Some of our comrades weigh in on these important questions and answer the big one: What do we think of Zohran?
Tex (At-Large, Political Education Committee): "We need to recognize that while he is the best choice NYC has, valid criticisms for his lip service to liberal and “labor” Zionism and pro-police pivot are not “purity testing” or “ultra-leftism”. Would I vote for him if I were a New Yorker? Yes. Would I uphold him as a successor to Gene Debs or Huey P.? Hell no."
Skrilla (Northwest Indiana, Labor Committee): "A traitor and an opportunist. Pivoting back on the little good he previously insisted upon. Said he won't arrest Netanyahu, said he'd work with Zionists, staffing ex Obama workers instead of DSA cadre, apologized to the NYPD and said he would hire more to keep them staffed at their target strength of 35,000 personnel. All while simultaneously speaking down on two major victims of US imperialism; Cuba, which has faced an embargo for the last 60 years and has had multiple CIA interventions, and Venezuela, which is much of the same case and is currently under threat of US invasion, both countries headed by progressive leadership, as well as condemning Hamas and Palestinian resistance, even when not prompted to, during a genocide in which almost 700,000 Palestinians are estimated to have been slaughtered by the Zionist entity. Would not vote for him if I was a New Yorker."
Toli (Milwaukee, Outreach Committee): "Literally everything Skrilla just said, bar for fucking bar."
BRG (Saint Louis, Political Education Committee): "The best candidate in the race, but has allowed himself to be manipulated by Zionists and has stupidly apologized to the police. Left criticisms are good and needed, and DSA has to seriously investigate the contradictions of having our members in executive seats in an empire. We also need to stop building cults of personality around politicians, and disrespecting Black/Palestinian/Indigenous comrades who raise these questions."
Shane (Space Coast, Political Education Chair): "I don't trust any politician that's running in a bourgeois election. ZIOhran less and less, as he continues to pivot further and further to the right. But for those that do, now's the time to put pressure on him. When it's clear it's going to be a landslide, you have literally nothing to lose. All that said. It's still fuck imperialism, even social democratic imperialism. ZIOhran should steal Sliwa's beret though."
Tiva (Atlanta, Labor Committee): "With the failure to achieve any real and permanent gains for the working class and marginalized communities across the nation on the stage of electoral politics, why are we continuing to play at this game of “creating better conditions to organize under” instead of just organizing? Is a Zohran win good for people in the city? Depends on what he can actually do, not what he says he wants to do. Is he nicer than the other guy? Sure. Does wanting to improve people’s lives cement one as a socialist or communist? Not in the slightest. If you are parading a mayoral candidate as the largest victory of the DSA thus far, you are not only spitting in the faces of a vast number of members, but also reducing the work that they have done outside of electoral politics to essentially nothing. It makes you look unprincipled and weak to champion participation in the bourgeois system as a win for the people when so many electoral gains have been used as bargaining chips for votes just to be snatched away in the end. How many inches of rope are you going to cede to the other side before you hang?"
Thistle (Central Indiana, Political Education Committee): "I think he's one of the guys that comes out of the DSA's organizational orientation toward using volunteer labor to spin the Get Somebody Elected wheel enough times to generate a viable Bernie Sanders 3 or AOC 2 & I wish I thought he'd come through on anything but this zionist apologia line does not look promising."
Numbers (NYC, Outreach Committee): "Zohran's campaign reveals one of the core contradictions in running "socialist" candidates in capitalist elections. He knows that in order to have any chance of implementing his economic reforms (which would indeed offer relief to workers), he needs buy-in from the capitalist stooges around and above him. If he is unwilling to compromise on issues like abolition and anti-imperialism, he will be stonewalled by NYC City Council, Governor Hochul, Chuck Schumer, etc. Zohran's recent "tacking to the center" on crucial issues like Palestine and the nature of policing isn't electoral; he and his team know these are winning issues among his base and broader electoral supporters. But they also know he's got the election itself in the bag, and so their concern has shifted to appeasing other politicians (and their backers). He's betraying Palestine and non-white New Yorkers to earn points not with the masses, but with those already in power. This isn't a result of his indiviual weakness; it's the INEVITABLE result of the contradictions in play. And it's not just a criticism of Zohran; it's further proof that DSA must move away from electoralism as a central strategy."
