Mamdani Elected

The Working Class Won the Election, not the Democrats

Mamdani Victory

“Standing before you, I think of the words of Jawaharlal Nehru: “A moment comes, but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance.” Tonight, we have stepped out from the old into the new.“ (Zohran Mamdani, victory speech; https://time.com/7331243/watch-zohran-mamdani-victory-speech/)

Over one million New Yorkers cast ballots for Zohran Mamdani in the biggest voter turnout since 1969.¹ They voted for a program that aims to make New York affordable for the 99 percent who can’t afford it: free bus service for all, access to low-cost groceries, and universal childcare. They voted for a movement that stressed working class unity and peace and justice for the Palestinian people. When Mamdani is sworn in on New Years Day 2026, the working class will have a leader with a progressive program.

The media and the Talking Heads are claiming victory for the Democratic Party over the MAGA fascists. But this is not what really happened. Mamdani ran as a Democrat as he had no other viable choice. The working class did not vote for a party, they voted for a program. Mamdani’s victory is a step forward towards an independent third party, a WORKING-CLASS PARTY.

We need this party as political leaders of the Democratic and Republican Parties are determined to stop Mamdani and his working-class program. Trump threatened to withhold $18 billion in federal highway funds and Democratic Senate leader Chuck Shumer refused to endorse Mamdani for Mayor and wouldn’t reveal who he voted for.²These “leaders” represent the 1 percent that own the corporations, banks and factories.

The 1% class of billionaires lined up to support of Mamdani’s opponent Andrew Cuomo.

Bill Ackman, the hedge fund manager and prominent Trump supporter, gave a pro-Cuomo group a total of $1.75m; Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire and three-term former New York mayor, donated a staggering $8.3m to the same Pac. The makeup moguls of the Lauder family backed pro-Cuomo and anti-Mamdani organizations to the tune of $2.6m, while the Tisch family gave $1.2m to stop the young socialist.³

The Democratic Party, who says that it is the “working persons’ party” has a history of betrayal of the working class. This can be seen in the deeds of the last three Democratic Presidents. Biden supported Israel’s genocide in Gaza with billions of dollars in arms and aid. Obama “facilitated the looting of the U.S. Treasury by corporations and big banks following the crash of 2008” while turning “his back on millions of Americans who lost their homes.”⁴ Clinton’s welfare reform bill “threw six million people, many of them single mothers, off the welfare rolls…dumped them on the street without childcare, rent subsidies or Medicaid coverage.”⁵

A political party capable of this treachery is capable of undermining and even attacking the newly elected Mamdani. We must be ready for whatever happens and find ways to gain working class power while building upon the Mamdani victory.

It is clear that the Democratic Party did not beat MAGA. This was a popular upsurge that swept the country. Nobody wants governance to be police terror. Everybody wants to secure real Public Safety, whether it is organizing against ICE terror, killer cops or COVID. The way to measure candidates is how they speak to programmatic issues of concretely guaranteeing the basic needs of everyone. We have moved far beyond being okay when a politician tells us “I feel your pain” and then does nothing.

Mamdani’s victory is a giant step forward. We must build on the unity displayed by the people of New York, unite it with the anti-ICE terror movements all over our country, base ourselves in the struggles for food, housing, education, health care, justice for the Palestinian people and the survival of our planet.

The working class must have their own political party that can lead a revolution and build a world based on cooperation, where everyone has what they need and looks out for each other. If we join together to fight for the common good, we have a beautiful world to win.

We can do this. We must do this.

Footnotes