It’s been nearly four months since Zohran Mamdani officially became mayor of New York City. When running for mayor, Zohran was focused intensely on an affordability agenda that electrified a massive layer of working-class New Yorkers and inspired working people all over the country and the world. His flagship campaign promises were a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments, fast and free buses, free universal childcare, and city-owned at-cost grocery stores. All of this was to be paid for by taxing the rich, a proposal which was both his most popular among voters and also the terror of the city’s elite.
On Tax Day, in what quickly became his most watched video, Zohran announced he was taxing the rich—specifically, via a property tax on luxury secondary homes owned by non-full-time NYC residents, also known as a pied-à-terre tax. Perhaps surprisingly, he did this with the help of establishment Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, who, during his campaign, insisted she would not tax the rich. But on closer inspection, it’s not so shocking. Former establishment governor and Hochul’s previous ally, Andrew Cuomo, endorsed this policy in 2019, before shutting it down under pressure from the rich. In short, to corporate Democrats, it’s a tolerable concession.
During his campaign, Socialist Alternative wrote that to win his platform, Zohran should be an “organizer-in-chief”—helping to build a mass movement to squeeze concessions from the establishment—not a “negotiator-in-chief.” Zohran is indeed a skillful negotiator, and his relationships with Hochul and other establishment figures, even Donald Trump, may appear to provide him some breathing room and momentum in these first 100-plus days. The improvements to the lives of working New Yorkers thus far are positive. But already, Zohran has come up against serious limits put upon him by the establishment of the Democratic Party, a thoroughly corporate institution. That’s why we have to reiterate our urgent call to start building a mass movement of working people right now.
Accomplishments Of Zohran’s First 100 Days
The bulk of Zohran’s achievements have been a slew of very basic improvements to everyday life in the city that are more clearly within his power as mayor: he’s taken steps towards filling potholes in the streets, fixing bike lanes to make them safer, rolling out rat-proof trash cans, and announcing the first city-owned grocery store, which is slated to open in East Harlem next year. These are all positive moves from his administration, but they fall short of the far-reaching reforms he campaigned on to tackle the affordability crisis that the city faces.
In March, Zohran announced a program called 2-K, which establishes 2,000 free childcare seats for two-year-olds in specifically chosen communities around the city. The program is expected to launch officially in the fall in conjunction with the new school year. Long term, Zohran intends to expand this to children aged two to five all across the city. While clearly very limited in scope now, it will ease the childcare costs of 2,000 low-income families across the city who otherwise could be spending thousands a year on childcare alone. The first two years of this pilot program will be covered by state funding, touted as a sign of partnership between Zohran and Governor Hochul. But beyond these two years, and in order to expand the program fully, much more funding will be needed. Ultimately the only source to fund sorely needed, expanded social services comes from the massive profits of big business.
The “Tax the Rich” campaign, led by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), has been very active, and Socialist Alternative members have been taking part in this organizing work. The movement should be credited, at least in part, with turning up the heat on Hochul to win the pied-à-terre tax, but its main tactics have limitations. The campaign focuses on mobilizing working people to contact their elected officials and ask them to support a tax on the rich, universal childcare, and other reforms. This, in effect, raises the mistaken idea that the establishment parties and politicians are swayed by workers’ appeals more than by their billionaire masters. Call-in campaigns can sometimes exert some pressure, but history shows that the most powerful victories are won when workers mount collective struggles that threaten the status quo, like using the weapon of the strike or organizing mass protests. This kind of escalation will certainly be necessary given that the new tax, estimated to raise $500 million annually, won’t cover the enormous budget deficit—at least $5.4 billion—let alone produce the surplus needed to fund Zohran’s campaign promises.
Lean On The Working Class, Not The Establishment
Facing immense resistance from the super rich, Zohran had two choices when he got into office: either help to build an independent movement based on working-class power or rely on deals and favors with the establishment. He has very clearly chosen the latter, a decision exemplified by his endorsement of Hochul for an additional term as governor, returning the favor after excitedly accepting her endorsement in the mayoral election. Few would contest that this decision was purely pragmatic, aimed at cultivating a relationship with the governor to reduce resistance to his agenda.
This kind of politicking is disorienting and damaging to the workers’ movement—for instance, this decision came on the heels of Hochul’s facilitation of strikebreaking when 15,000 nurses all over the city walked out for a month to fight for safer working conditions for both themselves and their patients. Zohran also made his priorities completely clear when he distanced himself from DSA and the “Tax the Rich” movement by skipping the campaign’s main protests in Albany, telling organizers he didn’t want to antagonize Governor Hochul.
At-home care workers are championing the “No More 24” bill that would end their 24-hour caretaking shifts, which currently only pay them for about twelve hours of labor. The bosses impose these grueling shifts because of the shortage of homecare workers: few in New York can tolerate the low pay and immensely difficult work that is required. These jobs are predominantly taken by women of color, many of whom are immigrants. The women fighting for this bill to pass have been protesting almost nonstop at City Hall, and have now escalated their fight to include a hunger strike.
Just five years ago when NYC taxi workers went on hunger strike, Zohran supported them and even joined the hunger strike as they fought against the predatory system and employers running the taxi business of the city. Zohran has so far commented very little and is offering no support as Hochul moves towards vetoing the bill. It begs the question—where is that fighting energy Zohran once had now? Clearly it’s been compromised by relationship building in the Democratic Party.
Zohran’s endorsement also cut across the progressive run of Antonio Delgado and his running mate India Walton, who previously ran for mayor of Buffalo. Like Zohran, Walton is a member of DSA, making his endorsement of the establishment option even worse. In an op-ed in The Nation Magazine, Zohran explained his endorsement as part of a necessary partnership between the left and establishment wings of the Democratic Party: “At its best, the Democratic Party has been a big tent not because it avoids conflict but because it channels conflict toward progress.” However, for tens of millions of working people across the country, the Democrats have not channeled anything towards progress, but towards war, poverty, and corruption. It is exactly a conflict with the establishment that is necessary. As a first step, the left needs to break from it, not endorse it. His endorsement effectively cut off the run, with Delgado immediately dropping out of the race. With or without Zohran’s blessing, the field is now open for an independent electoral working-class alternative to Hochul’s and the Democrats’ rotten pro-business politics.
Role Of DSA & Building An Independent Movement
DSA was a driving force behind Zohran’s electoral victory, which has led to the doubling of the NYC chapter since November and the organization hitting 100,000 members nationwide. This growth is full of potential, with thousands of new socialists wanting to build a fighting movement against the billionaire class. But unfortunately, so far, NYC-DSA has declined to truly hold Zohran accountable, instead opting to “let him cook” and see what happens while hoping to replicate his success by focusing their attention on more Democratic electoral campaigns.
The approach taken by DSA’s leadership is an abdication of the role that the organization should be playing, particularly as we see the walkbacks Zohran has already made, including on reducing police budget, homeless sweeps, and budget cuts to the public library. However, it is a logical trajectory given DSA’s prioritization of the electoral plane. Across the country, DSA is campaigning for a continuation of the “Zomentum,” with the idea that if enough Zohrans are elected, then reforms will be easier to enact within the existing capitalist system.
This is one important place where Socialist Alternative differs from DSA—we call for a clean break from the Democrats and for a new party of working people, whereas DSA is overwhelmingly focused on “fixing” the Democratic Party—something that just can’t be done given its ties to and reliance on the billionaire class. During Zohran’s campaign, Socialist Alternative warned that his run within the Democratic Party would trap him and the movement behind him, and the only way to challenge the power of Wall Street is through building a mass working-class movement independent from both the Democrats and the Republicans.
DSA still has an important role to play in this, and the “Tax the Rich” campaign shows this potential. This will require broadening the movement further alongside unions and working people looking to fight for Zohran’s platform, fully breaking with the Democrats, running independent socialist candidates, and switching from a strategy of lobbying the Democrats and building their left wing to one that puts the fight against them front and center.
What Next For NYC?
Despite the positive, but limited, reforms that have been announced, the major battles are still ahead of us. A sizable movement from below can push Zohran further to the left through mass action and organization across the city. The space for left-wing and socialist ideas is wide open, particularly in the wake of Trump’s wars on working people both at home and abroad.
As we’ve said, even with the best intentions by an elected working-class representative, “the decisive factor for whether ordinary people win victories or suffer defeats is not who’s in office, but the power of our movement.” The political establishment won’t be satisfied with Zohran’s endorsement of Hochul alone and will continue to demand that the interests of their billionaire backers are prioritized. This raises the urgency of building an independent working-class alternative to the Democratic Party—on the streets, workplaces, campuses, and at the polls.
With this in mind, Socialist Alternative is going all out for May Day 2026. Alongside unions all over the country, we are calling for a day of action and a spreading of the general strike that emerged in the Twin Cities on January 23 in the wake of the all-out assault from ICE. As Trump continues to escalate his aggressions with wildcard attacks and provocations, working people must get organized for a fightback.
Zohran should call for schools and public services to shut down on May 1 to support the organizing of a general strike in New York City. Certainly, he should commit ahead to not retaliate against public sector workers who do go on strike, despite the Taylor Law which makes public sector strikes illegal in New York. An organized fightback would be impossible for the establishment to ignore and could provide a basis for fighting to win the reforms Zohran ran on. Ultimately, we need a movement that goes beyond reforms and lays the groundwork for building a new working-class party of struggle.
