Saturday 29 November 2025, by Kay Mann
Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York city mayoral elections has energized the left, enraged Trump (who seems to be trying to coopt him after denouncing him as a “communist” and threatening to cut off federal funding to New York), and stimulated debate on the left regarding independent political action and the use of the Democratic party ballot line.
Mamdani won on a program of radical reforms with an anticapitalist dynamic that spoke directly to issues of affordable housing, transportation, and childcare, and openly identified as a Democratic Socialist, Muslim, pro-Palestinian immigrant. He also defends immigrants at a time of ICE
(Immigration and Customs Enforcement) terror raids and declining public support for Trump. There was tremendous enthusiasm in working class and immigrant neighborhoods for the campaign. Some 104,000 volunteers mobilized to campaign door-to-door. This includes 11,000 members of New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) which endorsed his candidacy. The mass grassroots character of the campaign and its pro-immigrant character made it part of the broad anti-Trump movement that has seen three huge nationwide anti-Trump mobilizations over the last few months. The latest demonstration on October 18 brought out seven million people.
Mamdani ran as the Democratic party candidate after having defeated two discredited politicians in the DP primary Former governor Andrew Cuomo, who was forced out of office following revelations of sexual harassment, ran as an independent in the general election. Current mayor Eric Adams who faced corruption charges, was finally politically bailed out by Trump. In the general election he faced Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa, the well-known vigilante who ran on a platform of hiring 7,000 more cops. Mamdani’s victory was part of a wave of Democratic victories throughout the country, including several DSA members at a time when Trump is sagging in the polls.
While some have presented Mamdani’s victory as an upset, he was favored by all pre-election polls. The upset occurred when he won the DP primary. While Mamdani faced opposition from many Democratic party power holders (Democratic Senate leader Chuck Shumer and former president Barack Obama did not support him), he also benefitted from endorsements from some Democrats including centrist New York governor Kathy Hochul.
Mamdani’s campaign, victory, and prospects for implementing his program face a fundamental contradiction. He won the election on the basis of his progressive program. Having been elected on the DP ticket with DP resources and some endorsements, he will face huge pressure from within the DP to temper his program. Governor Kathy Hochul has already indicated that she would oppose the sharp increases in taxes for the super-rich that Mamdani correctly argues would be necessary to implement his program.
The considerable opposition that will come from the DP establishment, real estate interests, and the billionaires who Mamdani intends to tax to fund his program, points to the necessity of a mass movement to push for implementation of that program, and the grassroots dimension of the campaign points to the potential to build such a mass movement. Mamdani, however, has surrounded himself with advisors from nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and seems to be building a top-down organization, rather than a democratically controlled movement to realize his program.
Independent political action for the working class and its allies
Mamdani’s election will invigorate the debate in DSA and throughout the US left on the efficacy of using the DP ballot line to win office, the so-called “dirty break” as opposed to the “clean break” of running independent socialist campaigns outside of the Democratic party.
Proponents of the clean break argue that the Democratic party is a party of the 1% that is controlled by billionaires and cannot be transformed into a vehicle for socialism. They oppose running or endorsing candidates as Democrats and call for independent socialist campaigns where possible. Most supporters of the dirty break agree that the DP is unreformable and consider use of the Democratic ballot line as a tactic. While DSA and other socialist candidates have won elections like Mamdani has, it is difficult to see how an independent socialist organization can be built with such an orientation.
The political situation in the US today including the growing anti-Trump resistance seen in at least three massive “No Kings!” demonstrations since April 5, polls showing Trump’s loss of support among his own base, and successful campaigns like Mamdani’s, point to the real possibility of building an independent mass socialist movement in the US. But the energy will be absorbed and wasted if socialists run as Democrats.
There is evidence that independent socialist campaigns rooted in the mass movement can win elections today. Last April Alex Brower, co-chair of Milwaukee DSA, won a by-election for a city council seat with endorsements from DSA, the Green Party, and the revolutionary socialist organization Solidarity. He ran an energetic campaign as an open socialist on a radical program including municipalizing the local power company, and support from a small army of DSA and other volunteers to decisively beat a liberal, progressive Democrat. Although this was a non-partisan election, Brower’s victory as an open socialist and the mass democratic character of his campaign indicate that successful mass socialist campaigns can be waged and won. Brower also founded and leads a mass organization called Power to the People that is based in DSA that aims to municipalize the local power company. Although Milwaukee is not New York, and a city council seat is not the mayoralty the combination of mass and electoral anti-capitalist socialist politics seen in the Brower campaign represents the way forward for US socialism.
In their own ways, the Mamdani and Brower campaigns and the growing anti-Trump, anti-ICE movements point to the potential for socialists to attract enthusiastic working class and oppressed community support to contest and win elections and build a vigorous mass socialist movement that can chart a socialist alternative to Trump’s neo-fascism and the Democrat’s neo-liberalism.
27 November 2025
To be published in the December 2025 issue of Inprecor.
Attached documentsmamdani-s-victory-what-way-forward-to-build-the-us_a9286.pdf (PDF - 909.5 KiB)
Extraction PDF [->article9286]
Kay Mann is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point and a member of the Milwaukee branch of Solidarity.
International Viewpoint is published under the responsibility of the Bureau of the Fourth International. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect editorial policy. Articles can be reprinted with acknowledgement, and a live link if possible.
The Trump-Mamdani Show Was Amazing. But Downsides for Progressives Could Turn Out to Be Steep
Norman Solomon
Norman Solomon
November 26, 2025
COMRADES
Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain
Across the political spectrum – with alarm on the right and delight on the left – the display of warmth from President Trump toward Zohran Mamdani on Friday set off shock waves. Trump’s lavish praise of New York’s mayor-elect in the Oval Office was a 180-degree turn from his condemnation of the democratic socialist as “a pure true communist” and “a total nut job.” The stunning about-face made for a great political drama. But what does it portend?
Trump and his MAGA followers are hardly going to forsake their standard mix of bigotry, anti-immigrant mania and other political toxins. Demagoguery fuels the Republican engine – and in the 11 months until the midterm elections, skullduggery to thwart democracy will accelerate rather than slow down.
While countless media outlets have marveled at the appearance of a sudden Trump-Mamdani “bromance,” the spectacle has rekindled hopes that America can become less polarized and find more common ground. But what kind of common ground can – or should – be found with the leader of today’s fascistic GOP?
It’s true that Mamdani has a huge stake in diverting the Trump bull from goring New York. Billions of dollars are at stake in federal aid to the city. And the metropolis would be thrown into a chaotic crisis if Trump goes ahead with his threats to send in federal troops. Mamdani seems to have deftly prevented such repressive actions against his city, at least for a while.
Understandably, Mamdani’s main concern is his upcoming responsibility for New York City and its 8.5 million residents. But important as the Big Apple is, Trump’s draconian and dictatorial orders nationwide are at stake. It’s unclear that the chemistry between the two leaders will do anything at all to help protect immigrants in Chicago or Los Angeles or anywhere else in the country.
The president’s accolades for a leftist certainly confounded the perennial left-bashers at Fox News and many other right-wing outlets. Such discombobulation among pro-MAGA media operatives has been a pleasure to behold. But there’s more than a wisp of wishful thinking in the air from progressives eager to believe that Trump’s effusive statements about Mamdani, an avowed socialist, will help to legitimize socialism for the U.S. public.
Trump’s widely reported and astonishing turnaround about Mamdani might cause some Americans to reconsider their anti-left reflexes. But it’s also plausible that ripple effects of the episode could help to legitimize, in some people’s eyes, Trump’s leadership even while it continues to inflict horrific policies and anti-democratic politics on the United States. Gracious and avuncular performances by despots are nothing new. Neither are cosmetics on the face of a fascist.
A hazard is that the image of Trump as a tolerant and open-minded leader, in convivial discourse with New York’s progressive leader, could undercut the solid accusations that Trump is imposing tyrannical policies on America. Just a day before he met with Mamdani, the president publicly suggested the execution of several Democrats in Congress.
The most publicized few seconds of the Trump-Mamdani session with reporters was when a journalist asked about Mamdani’s past charge that Trump is a fascist. The interchange was widely reported as an amusing moment.
The danger of normalizing autocracy is heightened when the utterly serious appraisal of Trump as a fascist can be recast as a media punchline.
Over the weekend, Mamdani stood his ground during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, pointing out that in the Oval Office he had said “yes” to the reporter’s question about Trump being a fascist. And he added, “Everything that I’ve said in the past, I continue to believe.”
How long Mamdani will remain in Trump’s good graces is anyone’s guess. No doubt the mayor-elect is fully aware that Trump could turn on him with a vengeance. If Trump can do that to one of his most loyal ideological fighters, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, as he did recently, he can certainly do it to Mamdani.
To call Trump “mercurial” is a vast understatement. And yet, in countless ways, with rhetoric and with the power of the presidency, he has been unwavering and consistent – as immigrants being terrorized by ICE agents, or single mothers trying to feed their families, know all too well. Given all the harm his policies are doing every minute, it would be unwise to take seriously Trump’s broken-clock pronouncements that are occasionally accurate and decent.
Democratic socialists don’t need Trump’s approval. We need to defeat his MAGA forces. It’s unclear whether what happened with him and Mamdani in the Oval Office will make that defeat any more likely.
None of this is a criticism of Zohran Mamdani. This is an assessment of how the follow-up to his Oval Office drama with Trump could go sideways.
Trump and Mamdani found each other newly useful last Friday. Only later will we know who was more effectively using whom.
It’s all well and good to laud Mamdani’s extraordinary political talents and inspiring leadership for social justice. At the same time, we should recognize that he has entered into an embrace with a viperous president.
And when a rattlesnake purrs, it’s still a rattlesnake.
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, is published by The New Press.
COMRADES
Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain
Across the political spectrum – with alarm on the right and delight on the left – the display of warmth from President Trump toward Zohran Mamdani on Friday set off shock waves. Trump’s lavish praise of New York’s mayor-elect in the Oval Office was a 180-degree turn from his condemnation of the democratic socialist as “a pure true communist” and “a total nut job.” The stunning about-face made for a great political drama. But what does it portend?
Trump and his MAGA followers are hardly going to forsake their standard mix of bigotry, anti-immigrant mania and other political toxins. Demagoguery fuels the Republican engine – and in the 11 months until the midterm elections, skullduggery to thwart democracy will accelerate rather than slow down.
While countless media outlets have marveled at the appearance of a sudden Trump-Mamdani “bromance,” the spectacle has rekindled hopes that America can become less polarized and find more common ground. But what kind of common ground can – or should – be found with the leader of today’s fascistic GOP?
It’s true that Mamdani has a huge stake in diverting the Trump bull from goring New York. Billions of dollars are at stake in federal aid to the city. And the metropolis would be thrown into a chaotic crisis if Trump goes ahead with his threats to send in federal troops. Mamdani seems to have deftly prevented such repressive actions against his city, at least for a while.
Understandably, Mamdani’s main concern is his upcoming responsibility for New York City and its 8.5 million residents. But important as the Big Apple is, Trump’s draconian and dictatorial orders nationwide are at stake. It’s unclear that the chemistry between the two leaders will do anything at all to help protect immigrants in Chicago or Los Angeles or anywhere else in the country.
The president’s accolades for a leftist certainly confounded the perennial left-bashers at Fox News and many other right-wing outlets. Such discombobulation among pro-MAGA media operatives has been a pleasure to behold. But there’s more than a wisp of wishful thinking in the air from progressives eager to believe that Trump’s effusive statements about Mamdani, an avowed socialist, will help to legitimize socialism for the U.S. public.
Trump’s widely reported and astonishing turnaround about Mamdani might cause some Americans to reconsider their anti-left reflexes. But it’s also plausible that ripple effects of the episode could help to legitimize, in some people’s eyes, Trump’s leadership even while it continues to inflict horrific policies and anti-democratic politics on the United States. Gracious and avuncular performances by despots are nothing new. Neither are cosmetics on the face of a fascist.
A hazard is that the image of Trump as a tolerant and open-minded leader, in convivial discourse with New York’s progressive leader, could undercut the solid accusations that Trump is imposing tyrannical policies on America. Just a day before he met with Mamdani, the president publicly suggested the execution of several Democrats in Congress.
The most publicized few seconds of the Trump-Mamdani session with reporters was when a journalist asked about Mamdani’s past charge that Trump is a fascist. The interchange was widely reported as an amusing moment.
The danger of normalizing autocracy is heightened when the utterly serious appraisal of Trump as a fascist can be recast as a media punchline.
Over the weekend, Mamdani stood his ground during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, pointing out that in the Oval Office he had said “yes” to the reporter’s question about Trump being a fascist. And he added, “Everything that I’ve said in the past, I continue to believe.”
How long Mamdani will remain in Trump’s good graces is anyone’s guess. No doubt the mayor-elect is fully aware that Trump could turn on him with a vengeance. If Trump can do that to one of his most loyal ideological fighters, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, as he did recently, he can certainly do it to Mamdani.
To call Trump “mercurial” is a vast understatement. And yet, in countless ways, with rhetoric and with the power of the presidency, he has been unwavering and consistent – as immigrants being terrorized by ICE agents, or single mothers trying to feed their families, know all too well. Given all the harm his policies are doing every minute, it would be unwise to take seriously Trump’s broken-clock pronouncements that are occasionally accurate and decent.
Democratic socialists don’t need Trump’s approval. We need to defeat his MAGA forces. It’s unclear whether what happened with him and Mamdani in the Oval Office will make that defeat any more likely.
None of this is a criticism of Zohran Mamdani. This is an assessment of how the follow-up to his Oval Office drama with Trump could go sideways.
Trump and Mamdani found each other newly useful last Friday. Only later will we know who was more effectively using whom.
It’s all well and good to laud Mamdani’s extraordinary political talents and inspiring leadership for social justice. At the same time, we should recognize that he has entered into an embrace with a viperous president.
And when a rattlesnake purrs, it’s still a rattlesnake.
Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His latest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, is published by The New Press.
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