Zohran Mamdani, mayoral candidate in New York City, has been expressing high hopes of spreading socialism around New York. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has admitted to assisting Mamdani with his platform and having helped him win the primary.
Mamdani tosses out Marxist quotes — control the means of production, altering private property ownership, state-run grocery stores, free transportation — but there is more, or perhaps less, to the current Democratic Socialists, and therefore more, or perhaps less, to Mamdani.
There used to be a clear distinction between socialism and communism. When the Communist Manifesto was released, socialism was an unpopular word, so they called it communism. Now the word communism is not so popular, so they are calling themselves socialists. Most Western countries already have some form of socialist mix: Electric companies and local transportation are often owned by cities or counties rather than individuals. When you are talking about controlling the means of production and manipulating private property, that is 100% communist.
Marx’s most notable sayings have become a sexy lexicon for many young people looking for something more out of politics. Universities have popularized a counterculture with illusions of working systems. What they do not share is exactly what it takes to make it happen, and then what it takes to keep it on the desired utopian path.
Fox News has quoted Daniel Goulden, a DSA leader: “With Zohran, we’re in basically the best possible position to seize state power that we can be in because, you know, we’re like this.” Daniel Goulden has said that a socialist mayor could lead to state power — again, no mention of how to go about doing this.
Without a deeper dive into what Marx and Engels are advocating, those sayings are just vague ramblings voiced in a plethora of contexts.
Converting from a capitalist system to a communist one is impossible, according to Engels’s 1988 preface to the Manifesto. It has been tried and failed. The first requirement for changing a capitalist society requires a deep knowledge of how capitalism works so the society can be dismantled. The DSA website, and just about any communist who speaks out, parrots The Communist Manifesto: “The bourgeoisie [ruling] class oppresses the proletariat [working] class. Therefore, the working class needs to take over from the ruling class.” This set of words is nowhere near a deep understanding, and they generally leave out where the Manifesto says, “Now, it’s time for a revolution.”
The Communist Manifesto sees the revolution as a natural progression as the workers turn against their bosses because of oppression. Once the workers take over as the ruling class, then they will abolish property ownership, abolish inheritance, create a single state-owned bank, and run all communications and transportation, and every person becomes a worker with equal liability. This will create a classless society. With the eradication of class, there is no more oppression.
The DSA website says on its home page that the working class should “run both the economy and civil society.” The main issues supported by the DSA activists are
They flash a little Marxist jargon, but DSA and Mamdani are like any other left-wing group. They do not really want to take on the task or the risk to overthrow anything; they just want to force their ideology on everyone else.
According to New York Times, if Mamdani becomes mayor, it will not give him the authority to make changes where the state has jurisdiction, like raising taxes on the rich. He will not have the authority to empower the worker to take over the means of any kind of production — not even road work.
According to The Communist Manifesto, the working class is the power behind creating a new society, not rich elitists like Mamdani.
What the left do not realize is that they have already lost the worker. The working class have indeed opted for social change. Last November, they voted for Trump and Vance.
Image: Zohran Mamdani. Credit: Bingjiefu He via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
