The oligarchy is not invincible

The oligarchy is not invincible
16 lessons to be learned from Zohran Mamdani's victory in the Democratic primary in New York

By Eric Blanc

[This article posted in July 2025 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://zeitschrift-luxemburg.de/artikel/die-oligarchie-ist-nicht-unbesiegbar/.]

After decades of defeats for working people and the left, it felt almost like a dream to witness Zohran Mamdani[1] make history.[2] Sometimes the good guys win. Internalizing the key lessons of this campaign is critical for the struggles ahead, not just in New York City, but across the United States and beyond. Here are some of my takeaways.

Zohran Mamdani's victory is a nationwide political earthquake. A large number of voters have had enough of the Democratic establishment, and there is no good reason why his campaign playbook cannot be widely replicated elsewhere. The old gatekeepers of the Democratic Party are vulnerable, the unpopularity of this leadership group of elite Democrats has brought us Trumpism, and they deserve to be pushed out everywhere.

By persistently pushing for proposals on city affordability, he was able to reach beyond the academically educated base of the left. He won across the city, including in neighborhoods like Sunset Park and Woodhaven, which leaned right toward Trump in 2024. Economic populism is the best weapon for winning back working people and defeating Trumpism. Blame the billionaires, not immigrants or transgender people.

We should always ignore the commentators and political hacks who try to convince us that transformative change is impossible. The best we can do is not chase after some mythical political center, but win the battle of ideas and raise voters' expectations ambitiously.
Billionaires tried to buy this election, and they lost. It turns out that the oligarchy is not invincible.
Experts will try to portray this as purely the result of Cuomo's unpopularity or Mamdani's charisma. That's part of the story, but only part of it.

Beyond the resonance of his policies and his clear message on affordability, he could not have won without the tireless dedication of 50,000 volunteers and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) in New York City and other affiliated organizations. Knocking on 1.5 million doors is an astonishing achievement.

Young people were at the heart of this campaign. On election night, tens of thousands of them had the opportunity to experience the ecstatic feeling of making history through collective organizing. That feeling can be enough to inspire a lifetime of organizing. This youthful social movement has the energy and ambition to make New York social and democratic again.

Social media is extremely important for attracting the attention of broad sections of the electorate, and Mamdani's media team was impressive. But the secret ingredient for good communication is not primarily technical—it is political: you need an authentic message backed by a compelling platform. Mainstream Democrats with no political message for and no roots in the multiethnic working class cannot tweet themselves back into the spotlight. Their message has become empty, Mamdani's compelling.

It is a big deal—with national and international implications—that Cuomo's cynical smears about anti-Semitism fell flat. It turns out that opposition to genocide and recognition of the humanity of Palestinians is not necessarily a vote-breaker. AIPAC[4] should be very worried.

Despite the claims of his opponents, Mamdani is not a dogmatic extremist, but a radical pragmatist. He would not have gotten this far if he had not focused on fundamental economic issues, spoken in understandable language, presented himself as a democrat, abandoned his support for defunding the police[5], and supported Brad Lander[6]. Mamdani refused to abandon his support for democratic socialism or his opposition to the right-wing apartheid state, but performative ultra-left activism and false partisanship (such as for Hamas) were anathema to this campaign.

It took an alliance of liberals and leftists to defeat Cuomo. Much of the credit goes to Brad Lander, who was a man of principle and refused to swing to the left. At the same time, Zohran Mamdani skillfully rejected a widespread leftist tendency to view liberals and liberalism solely as ideological opponents to be fought. He adopted the best parts of the “agenda of abundance” that Lander helped launch in New York, such as participatory budgeting, minimum wages for freelancers, Uber drivers, and riders, strict rules against eviction and housing for the homeless, and his opposition to “white supremacy.” He framed his criticism of Israel in the language of liberal equality rights.

The left cannot defeat the old establishment on its own—let alone the right. And reciprocity works both ways: we cannot just ally ourselves with liberals when we are in the lead. Zohran Mamdani's roots within the organized labor movement were crucial to the legitimacy of his campaign.

The unions that took a risk and stood with workers by supporting him were numerous. Every union that supported Cuomo should be ashamed of its narrow-mindedness. The good news is that they now have a chance to make things right by supporting Mamdani in the general election.

The fight has really only just begun. The establishment Democrats, Trump, and their billionaire donors will do everything in their power to prevent Mamdani from taking office in November or, if that fails, from implementing his agenda. Expect an unprecedented, multi-million-dollar fear campaign to convince New Yorkers that a Mamdani City Hall will bankrupt the city, trigger a crime wave, and persecute Jews.

Faced with claims that his project will lead to urban ruin and chaos, Mamdani can draw on the progressive, technocratic expertise of Landers' team and point to thriving progressive cities across Europe and strong historical successes in the US.

Before New York named an airport after him, the highly successful socialist mayor Fiorello La Guardia was also initially denounced as an unrealistic radical. La Guardia's experience shows that winning office is not enough. When facing such powerful opponents, a great deal of organized grassroots power outside the state was necessary to actually implement his agenda.

The biggest obstacle to moving forward is that Mamdani's electoral success has significantly exceeded the circles of organized socialist and working-class organizations in New York City. It is difficult, essential, and urgently necessary to build broad-based organizations in workplaces and neighborhoods. It is equally important to continue to strengthen organizations such as the DSA and to recruit many people for workplace organizing through EWOC[7]. The reform of the unions by active members must continue, with campaign-style interventions in strategically defined companies. The further development of tenants' unions and organizing in the homes are also central to a vibrant base of resistance.

The DSA's membership is growing. As a result, the organization will be subject to intense scrutiny from Fox News, Trump, and the Democratic establishment. It is time to tighten our sails and make a concerted, nationwide departure from self-marginalizing left-wing radicalism. Members should study and emulate the mass political orientation of the NYC DSA. If this campaign does not fit all your ideological prejudices, perhaps those prejudices are wrong. Or they may be right, but you are not changing the conditions.

The approach must be radical and inclusive.
There will be all kinds of setbacks in the coming months and years. But after this victorious step, it is so much easier to see—and so much easier to feel—that a better world is indeed possible if we fight like crazy for it. The future is unwritten. Let's write it together.

This article first appeared in Labour Politics magazine, http://www.laborpolitics.com/p/zohrans-historic-win-16-takeaways. Translated from American English by Mario Candeias

[1] Zohran Kwame Mamdani was born in the Ugandan capital Kampala. His father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a political scientist specializing in postcolonial studies; his mother, Mira Nair, is a film director. Mamdani has been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America since 2017. In October 2024, he announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City. He positioned himself with a left-wing agenda: he wants to make urban bus transport free and stop rent increases in price-controlled housing. Several fellow candidates and left-wing groups called on voters to support Mamdani as their second choice and to avoid voting for the favorite, Andrew Cuomo. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also publicly endorsed Mamdani. If he wins the election, he would be New York's first Muslim mayor.

[2] For more on the mayoral candidacy, see the article by Neal Meyer from the RLS office in New York: https://rosalux.nyc/de/ein-sozialistischer-buergermeister-fuer-new-york-city/.

[3] Andrew Mark Cuomo is a long-time politician in the Democratic Party. He was governor of New York State from January 1, 2011, until his resignation on August 23, 2021. This year, Cuomo ran in the Democratic Party primary for mayor of New York City—and lost to Zohran Mamdani.

[4] The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a pro-Israel lobby organization in the US with over 100,000 members.

[5] Defund the Police advocates defunding and abolishing the police as it currently functions in the US: as an abusive apparatus of repression that particularly threatens the lives of Black people and minorities, as evidenced by countless killings during police operations. However, this radical position is controversial within the left as a political strategy, despite recognition of the problem. On Mamdani's position, see Nick French, 2025: Zohran Mamdani Is Right on Public Safety, in: Jacobin, June 13, https://jacobin.com/2025/06/mamdani-mayoral-debate-public-safety.

[6] Bradford S. Lander is an American politician, urban planner, and community organizer who has served as the 45th Comptroller of New York City since 2021. As a member of the Democratic Party's Progressive Caucus, Lander was elected to the New York City Council in 2009, where he served for twelve years and later worked as deputy majority leader. His district included parts of Brooklyn.

[7] EWOC - Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee is a grassroots program supporting workers organizing in their workplaces, closely affiliated with the DSA; https://workerorganizing.org/.

Eric Blanc
Eric Blanc is an assistant professor of labor movement studies at Rutgers University. He blogs at Substack Labor Politics and is the author of We Are the Union: How Worker-to-Worker Organizing is Revitalizing Labor and Winning Big, University of California Press, Oakland 2025.

Zohran Mamdani at the Pride Parade on Fifth Avenue in New York City