New York City just elected a progressive, immigrant, Muslim, democratic socialist as its next mayor. Our movements did this.
JVP Action endorsed Zohran on day one of his campaign in October 2024, and we have been mobilizing toward this victory every step of the way. Over the last year, our canvasses sent out over 5,000 people and knocked on 200,000 doors. Now, we continue the fight for a better future for all, from New York City to Palestine.
Our fight is only growing from here — and we need you with us. Will you support our work to defend and elect champions for Palestine and the working class?
Zohran’s campaign was about lifting up and listening to the communities across NYC that are too often ignored and oppressed, including working class, Muslim, Palestinian, Arab, immigrant, Black, Latinx, trans and queer people. Now that Zohran has been elected, it is our job to keep organizing to actually build a New York City for the many, not the few.
Here’s what Zohran had to say about our work in this historic campaign:
“I’ve been so proud to have the support of my friends at Jewish Voice for Peace Action since day one of this campaign. JVP Action has been mobilizing mass support to knock doors across this city, and they’re showing that every New Yorker can unite around our agenda of affordability and safety. This campaign is about creating a NYC for all and demonstrating a politics of consistency. JVP Action is a core part of this fight and the work ahead.” — Zohran Mamdani
It’s no coincidence that JVP Action has been throwing down throughout his entire campaign. We’ve built a years-long relationship with him as part of our work backing electeds who back Palestine — from launching the Not On Our Dime legislation in 2023 to cut the tax-exempt status of groups funding violent Israeli settler groups, to him joining our sister organization JVP’s historic Grand Central Station and Wall Street shutdown protests to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.
As Zohran’s support skyrocketed, mainstream politicians and media tried desperately to torpedo him with blatantly Islamophobic smear campaigns. JVP Action led hundreds of canvasses and launched “Jews for Zohran,” exposing the lie of the false and weaponized allegations of antisemitism he faced over his uncompromising stance on Palestinian humanity.
Together, we showed loudly and clearly that New York Jews support Zohran, not in spite of, but because of his support for Palestinian rights and commitment to ending U.S. complicity in Israel’s apartheid and genocide. We fought back against the racist and Islamophobic smear campaigns run by Andrew Cuomo and his Trump-supporting billionaire backers. And we proved that Palestinian rights are popular.
Onwards,
Beth Miller
Political Director
(Taken from an email sent to me by Jewish Voice for Peace Action. Emphasis original.)
An opportunity for propaganda regardless of how his governance actually goes.
If he’s blocked from succeeding and refuses to try and subvert the system at all, then we explain to people how electoral pathways can’t be undertaken for genuine progress, at least not without a dual power structure being built alongside it.
If he’s successful, than the we need to use the momentum describe how the success was only possible due to the combined effort of the working class, and if we could achieve crumbs with this small victory, than we can take the whole loaf for ourselves with decisive organized collective action.
Use every opportunity at your disposal comrades.
Theres No one left in America to explain that
I think the important conclusion for this is that people in the US are willing to swing radical (to them) left and that should give parties like the PSL hope
We’ll see, his opposition was extremely awful lol
i am skeptical of DSA and Mamdani, but im gonna lib out for 24 hours. he won the election, lets see how much he can deliver. i like socialists who are winners, and mamdani won tonight.
maybe a crypto zionist and ugh…democrat won, but being SOCIALIST (at least in the surface) feels like a slap on elite’s face and that’s good against the techno-fascists
How long until he visits Israel?
I hope this becomes another opportunity for voters to become disillusioned with their system and not another chance to find excuses as to why things didn’t work out when he fails to move the needle.
It is funny to see some of this reactions from the media and the right wingers:
If only!
I won’t forget that he smeared real socialist projects and leaders tho
succdem but he makes Nazis mald so i approve just for the funnies
This is New York’s 9/11
May Allende rest in power.
He’s a socialdemocrat but it shows that USians want more left wing politics. Communists could learn a lot from his campaign
seconds before he sells out like a good social democrat.The new york yankees are socialists!?
:)
I’ll give him this, he is certainly quite charismatic. His victory speech definitely had some parts that those further left than him can build on for agitation and propaganda, as the talking points and the language he uses become more normalized as a result of this victory.
As for how successful he will actually be at governing that remains to be seen. There are a lot of possibilities for sabotage and obstacles to be thrown in his way from both the Republicans and the Democrat establishment. How much power does his position really have in the face of the city’s entrenched power structures?
Plus his policy agenda as far as i can tell right now seems very moderate even for a social democrat. When i hear talking points like a 2% increase in taxes on the rich that just makes me laugh. Even a 20% increase would still be modest, but 2% is almost nothing. I hope some of his other policies are a little more ambitious.
It also remains to be seen how much of an opportunist he will be when it comes to US imperialism. Now that he has won his campaign, will he turn into another AOCIA, or will he choose to be more principled and less of a coward on certain issues than he was during the campaign? Time will tell.
It also remains to be seen how much of an opportunist he will be when it comes to US imperialism. Now that he has won his campaign, will he turn into another AOCIA, or will he choose to be more principled and less of a coward on certain issues than he was during the campaign? Time will tell.
i don’t really understand why people ask this. the difference in their branches, offices, and powers are so vast that comparisons don’t make sense. a civic executive is not at all like congress.
AOC’s shortcomings and capitulations are of words, Mamdani’s will be of deeds.
It’s true that they are very different positions. As mayor he has a much more limited focus and probably won’t engage much with foreign policy at all. Still, opportunism and capitulation to the establishment on one issue only opens the door to more of the same on other issues. I don’t think AOC’s shortcomings are only in rhetoric, they are also reflected in her pro-imperialist voting record.
Yup, AOC always appeared to me as an imperialist. Same with Bernie Sanders. I think Parenti broke with Sanders in the 90s when Sanders voted in favor of Yugoslavia’s bombing campaign.
I think the point is that voting is an act of speech. Mayor’s have executive power.
Bernie 3.0’s success is partly because marxists failed to sufficiently organise around the effective political vacuum created to end palestinian suffering. Those who demonise worker’s states such as Cuba and denigrate those on the ground fighting genocidaires do not have a seat at the table of anti-imperialism.
Or maybe USAmericans as a whole only have maximum an appetite to share the loot of imperialism more equitably and not actually do anything meaningful to end said imperialism.
Places like Kerala can out-organise deadly fascist federal governments, their state apparatus, their sadistic numerous violent goons and relentless media beholden to capital, with signifcantly less resources; puts Western efforts like the above “win” to shame. Could learn a thing or two from the Global South if that exceptionalism wasn’t so ingrained.
Watch this motherfucker emulate the monsters before him. I wonder at that point will USAmericans learn after their apologism fails to produce results or will they then be searching for Bernie 4.0
Or maybe USAmericans as a whole only have maximum an appetite to share the loot of imperialism more equitably and not actually do anything meaningful to end said imperialism.
bingo
Today I listened to one of the glen diesen podcast episode about american economics. I think its good analysis to say the vastest employers in the usa are retail and shipment.
The us is the epitome of imperialism because its citizens dont produce stuff but only ship the stuff made by china et al. They have organized themselves around non industries like marketing, stock trade, private equity, ai, etc.
None of these build houses or machines or tools. The vast majority of those is imported afaik.
This led to manual “skilled” labor which ultimately should be the backbone of any country as it is needed if the house of cards collapses. What this means to me is that the us basically only has clerks, lawyers and postmen, essentially. It is the epitome of a buerocracy.
This imo means that even if we could individualize the problem of marxism not playing a role inside the us at this point, we would be using metaphysics. It is absolutely unthinkable to have the three electricians in the us mount a revolution. The rest is hanging at the tit of imperialism and of the withdrawing government aid.
What marxists in the us (like madeleine templeton or what her name is) and what european marxists are doing is groundwork which doesnt show nationally or internationally, and for good reason.
This ultimately leads to: we should of course criticize but we should keep in mind that there are clear ways to do this, pointed out by those who came before us. I for my part am trying to build up a network of MLs and am already cooperating with other leftists and am running a neighborhood help space to build up that “skilled” labor locally.
Just to give you a reality check: the rest will collapse and there is nothing we will do about that. Millions will die. There is nothing to be done about that and hence why bother? The soc dems have historically stemmed the tide and the marxists have built thhe foundations from below, together with the anarchists, to be fair, and then burst through the ground with huge followings which werent known before.
So yes, shit is bad. Lets work on it. Lets connect our small networks and get shit done.
