Solidarity National Committee
Posted December 2, 2025
THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS, like the massive “No Kings” marches and rallies throughout the United States, represent a massive push against the Trump regime’s assault on our quality of life —
• against armed and masked men rounding up people in the streets and workplaces,
• against attacks on our schools and cultural institutions,
• against the cuts in funding of scientific inquiry,
• against the elimination of long-standing and much-needed health and safety policies,
• against the vicious gutting of federal jobs,
• against the destruction of life-giving social programs,
• against destructive tariffs that are hurting us all.
That many millions — in the streets and in the voting booths — have joined together throughout our country in such a repudiation constitutes an immense victory for the working-class majority of the United States.
A definite high point has been Zohran Mamdani’s victorious mayoral campaign in New York City, with a program that begins to speak to the needs of the great majority of people in a city they helped build but that has become increasingly unaffordable for them. His campaign’s defense of, and direct appeal to, immigrant communities in a city where one-quarter of its residents were born in other countries was particularly inspiring. An immigrant himself, he spoke meaningfully to the discrimination and humiliation many of its residents have lived. &mbsp;He has been a consistent supporter of Palestinian self-determination, insisting that Israel has the right to exist as a state with equal rights — not a hierarchy of citizenship based on religion or ethnicity.
Revolutionary socialists — including members and supporters of Solidarity, as well as currents we are close to — should wholeheartedly support this victory and join with like-minded activists in and around DSA, whose continued organizing will be absolutely essential to advancing the progressive and affordability agenda embodied in Mamdani’s electoral campaign.
Mamdani defeated a veteran politician from the Democratic Party establishment who was backed by a powerful Republican President — both of whom rely on massive amounts of corporate money, both of whom slung racist insults to defeat him, both of whom are corrupt sexual predators, both of whom support a program that puts corporate profits before the needs of the people. The billionaires and the establishments of both major parties are against the program that inspired so many, that Mamdani promised, and that a majority of New York City voters chose. They will attempt to block, demobilize and coopt that victory.
Mamdani’s campaign also beat back fearmongering Islamophobic assaults, coming not only from rightwing local and national media (New York Post, Fox News and even more hateful outlets) but from more “respectable” sources. Rather than retreating from his Muslim and South Asian identities, Mamdani proudly embraced them while also taking every opportunity to successfully engage with New York’s diverse African American, Jewish and other communities.
Mamdani’s savvy and boldness, combined with the organizational push by New York City DSA, activated 100,000 volunteers to connect personally with millions of people, and his campaign rallies reflected the popular enthusiasm of raised expectations. Despite voters’ disgust with the Democratic Party, they used its ballot line as a tool to repudiate Trump and set a different agenda — one not defined by either wing of the political establishment. Now it is the energy of Mamdani’s 100,000 volunteers, combined with that of the million who elected Mamdani, that can drive forward the affordability program.
We believe all socialists, labor activists, and progressive forces should unite to make this so. Labor educator and historian Eric Blanc has urged the launching a post-election effort through which “huge numbers of New Yorkers … plug into big, united-front campaigns to win free childcare, affordable housing, and free buses by taxing the rich — and to protect our undocumented neighbors from Immigration and Customs Enforcement brutality …” He projects a petition with a million signatures demanding that New York State increase corporate taxes to fund such a program. Neighborhood committees could spring up — petitioning, strategizing, and deepening the movement’s community roots.
An affordability campaign is more than seeing needed services implemented — it asserts the right to shape and even expand them. The city should become a cauldron of experimentation — in an increasing number of ways, deepening democracy and providing a better life for all. In this spirit, New York City unions could play an important role in alliance with community groups. One example: the NYC transit workers union could demand that the city keep the Wall Street transfer tax and bring their special knowledge of the transit system to the free and fast buses campaign.
There is also the challenge of the New York Police Department. While backing away from his remarks during the campaign, in the past Mamdani has characterized the NYPD as “racist” and wrote, “We can’t reform our way out of a racist police system that’s working exactly as designed — as a means of control over Black and brown New Yorkers.” He was absolutely right. Both the NYPD brass and the police officers’ union forcefully resisted modest reforms under mayors Dinkins and De Blasio. Mamdani is likely to face the same. How he handles that resistance will go a long way in shaping his administration. Ensuring the community security that so many New Yorkers want to see, as well as easing strains on the NYPD, will require a smart balance of adequate funding and neighborhood involvement for his proposed Department of Community Safety.
In addition to the inevitable backlash and obstruction from the city’s financial, real estate and other elites — and the likely disapproval of the Democratic New York governor Hochul to enable taxing the rich to fund of some of Mamdani’s programs — there’s the question of how the Trump administration might retaliate. Trump might follow through on his threats to withhold federal dollars from the city, and/or unleash the Gestapo-like ICE raids that have disrupted cities and terrorized communities across the United States. Or possibly, the prospect of confronting an enraged and mobilized populace might hold him back. Either way, organizing and preparation for the threats is critical.
By himself, Mamdani can do little to overcome the powerful schemes of corporate liberalism that are entwined with conservative structures and attitudes inherent among the police. Until working people can build and sustain humane alternatives, the billionaires will maintain their leverage in City Hall, despite the new mayor’s best intentions. The efforts of many social justice organizations and of the neighborhood groups springing up will be essential.
The dedicated struggles, creative efforts, and continuing achievements of New York City’s laboring majority will provide an inspiration for the laboring majority throughout the United States, and beyond.
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