An openly Democratic Socialist Candidate in the United States of America is now within striking distance of winning mayorship of the city that is the beating heart of American capitalism. In only 8 1/2 months of campaigning we have gone from 1% in the polls to now being the electoral favorite.
This is perhaps a long shot, but if you are reading this, we are still looking for people to work the phones for Zohran today and tomorrow! No requirement to live in NYC, just to have a US phone number. We have 9 different phonebanking times today and offer 27 second language options! We need all of the help we can get to win this, and every little bit helps. Please consider signing up for a shift here even if you can only make a few calls.
As somebody working for the campaign, I’m not really supposed to say this, but if you don’t feel comfortable using personally identifiable information, you can use a fake name, burner email, and Google voice number. I don’t really care. We need people working the phones. Zohran is not even above 90% name recognition yet among potential voters, and 4% of voters are still undecided. If even one of you signs up, please let me know so I can recognize you for your efforts to the community here.
You know the answer is no. Whenever a socdem wins an election, they do one of two things: either a neoliberal pivot after winning, or submit to local bourgeois sabotage until the public blames “progressives” and drives them out of office. Wielding power against the bourgeoisie is “authoritarian”, so the only choices left are to wield it against the working class or wait to be replaced by someone else who will.
Yup. Last time people were excited about a socdem mayor was Brandon Johnson and I’ll give you one guess about how that panned out
Zohran and Johnson are very different candidates with very different bases and experience
Does his experience or base change the fundamental power imbalance between an elected politician and the bourgeoisie state? Will he mobilize that base to fight his opposition when necessary? The work you’re putting in is admirable and I respect it
I think charitably, Zohran wants to engage a Red Vienna style policy in good faith. And that was a fairly successful position. But it's hard to see how to do that without mass organisational support from the working classes.
I know what you’re saying, and this is by no means a revolution, but it is monumental progress towards removing the boot from the neck of the working class, should we win.
Generally, the idea here is make a democratic socialist mayoralty not just a one-off thing. We want to keep working class communities invested in community and political projects that actually work for us.
I know what the intention is, and I also know the forces arrayed against you that will undercut and hamstring every effort put forward. Best of luck, I sincerely hope you win