So long as Zohran remains tethered to it, the Democratic Party will never stop its efforts to neutralize and sabotage any part of a working-class agenda
Atalya Tamara, Socialist Alternative (ISA in the United States)
(This article was first published on 7 September 2025)
When Zohran Mamdani, the self-described socialist running for mayor of New York City won the Democratic primary outright with 56% of the vote, it sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party establishment and Wall Street. For millions of New Yorkers, it heightened expectations about making New York affordable, and taxing the rich and big business to do it. Zohran’s win made national headlines and proved that running on a working-class platform is winnable.
The campaign’s 50,000 volunteer canvassers (including members of Socialist Alternative) will not only be vital for his win in November, but represents a starting point to build a movement that can win his demands. A mass movement organized around winning Zohran’s program could also be mobilized to combat Trump and the right wing and inspire struggle nationally and internationally. Zohran’s polling numbers, well ahead of corporate Democrat and former governor Andrew Cuomo and current “cop mayor” Eric Adams, reflects the enthusiasm for his pro-working class program, but it’s a long way until Election Day.
The Democratic Party is divided on how to approach Zohran’s massive popularity. One section tried (and failed) to go after him for supporting Palestinian liberation and opposing Israel’s genocidal war, including targeting him on stage during the primary debate. With that strategy backfiring, another wing of the party is prepared to work with him, so long as he stays in his lane (read as: collaborate, moderate, don’t cause trouble).
Given the pressure that big business and the Democratic Party will exert to sabotage his agenda, we urgently need to build structures independent from the Democrats in order to win any of it. That’s why members of Socialist Alternative are involved with groups like “Educators for Zohran” and are building new neighborhood working groups.
Big business is determined to prevent the implementation of Zohran’s program, with some spending big to try to defeat him by backing Cuomo. Others are bracing for a Zohran win, doing everything they can to neutralize him in advance, including coopting him and watering down his program. Unfortunately, there are signs this strategy is working. Zohran has previously said he believes billionaires shouldn’t exist, but since his primary win, he appears increasingly willing to work with them. Last month, he stated that his “vision” is one he wants “everyone to enjoy and benefit from, including billionaires.”
But Zohran won the primary because his platform spoke to the needs of working-class New Yorkers. As we draw nearer to Election Day and beyond, the Zohran campaign will need to be clear about who he actually needs on his side to implement his agenda, and who will stand in the way of getting it done.
Can’t serve two masters
In July, Zohran met with Partnership for New York City, a vicious tool of big business representing giants like JP Morgan, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs. Even those most negative on Zohran were pleasantly surprised to find there’s room to work with him. One top finance executive even said, “The meeting was a net positive… [Zohran] wants to be the mayor of all New Yorkers.”
However, the interests of workers and the interests of big business are incompatible. Working-class policies, like free childcare and rent freezes, clash with corporate profit needs. Rent freezes mean landlords make less, and free childcare requires taxing the rich. It is impossible to be the mayor of all New Yorkers, real estate billionaires and unhoused people alike. You can’t serve two masters.
Collaboration with big business not only undermines his platform but could jeopardize a victory by alienating those who are invigorated by the idea of actually taking on big business. Will people have confidence that he’s going to follow through with his plan?
Socialist Alternative thinks Zohran’s decision to run within the Democratic Party was a mistake. We already see the pressure to bring establishment operatives into his campaign. Zohran has stated he wants to staff his administration with seasoned hands from “across the ideological spectrum.”
Soon after his primary win, Zohran invited establishment strategists like Jeffrey Lerner and Patrick Gaspard onto his campaign team, completely underestimating (or worse, accepting) the hostile pro-business political interests of the Democratic Party. These are not neutral actors who will simply carry out the political aims of the Zohran campaign but will instead use their positions to whittle down the program to what is acceptable to the billionaires.
If he keeps Democratic Party insiders in his campaign, his program will be undermined from the start. Instead, Zohran should only hire staff who are accountable to democratic structures in his campaign and understand that winning his platform will take an approach rooted in working-class struggle.
Ditch the Dems, fight the rich, and build working class power
Socialists know that the interests of the working class and the capitalist class are irreconcilable. If Zohran has confidence that a working-class movement is the way to win real gains (which any socialist should!), he shouldn’t meet with the capitalists at all. Collaboration with big business has only ever led to capitulation and diluting of any workers’ gains. History shows that only a mass working-class movement can beat back the billionaires and win real gains for the working class, even more so today with Trump in the White House and an emboldened billionaire class everywhere.
Compromising is unacceptable when working-class New Yorkers face a massive housing shortage and sky-high rents. Instead, a Zohran administration would need to rely on the power of an independent movement outside of City Hall that can shut down business as usual. Working-class New Yorkers should get organized now to build neighborhood working groups independent of the Democratic Party that can fight for $30/hr, rent freezes, free buses and childcare, and taxing the rich. Socialist Alternative has been actively signing New Yorkers up to get organized with neighborhood groups “Bed-Stuy for Zohran” and “Harlem for Zohran”. We need working groups in many more neighborhoods, so reach out to us to get organized!
If built on and spread, these new independent structures could become the basis for a new party of, by, and for the working class, independent from the Democrats and big business. This could start in NYC but then spread nationally. A glimpse of what’s possible can be seen right now with Britain’s new left party (see p.10).
So long as Zohran remains tethered to it, the Democratic Party will never stop its efforts to neutralize and sabotage any part of a working-class agenda. If he wins in November, Zohran needs to use that momentum to break with the Democrats and launch an independent working-class party, rooted in the movement that propelled his campaign. This working-class movement, completely decoupled from the interests of big business, is the only force that can be relied upon to run his campaign, staff his administration, and organize the movement that is the real engine for change.
Socialist Alternative says:
- Kick Democratic Party insiders out of the campaign! Replace them with working-class activists accountable to the movement and dedicated to fighting for Zohran’s platform.
- No compromises or meetings with big business! Host rallies and build community meetings of working-class New Yorkers in every neighborhood to democratically discuss how to build the movement to win Zohran’s platform and mobilize a working-class fightback against the right.
- Ditch the Dems and build a new workers party! Build a mass movement to fight for working-class policies and use that momentum to build a new party that can win these demands.
