With the NYC mayoral elections just two months away, we’re talking about one of the most important developments for the Left right now: Zohran Mamdani’s win in the Democratic mayoral primary and his ongoing campaign to win the election in November.

Mamdani’s mostly progressive platform speaks to the aspirations of working-class New Yorkers, and his mayoral primary victory reflects an important progressive shift in a context of right-wing attacks by the Trump administration, revealing broad discontent with an unaffordable city, anger at the Democratic Party establishment, a desire to fight the Far Right, pro-Palestine sentiment, and hunger for new political representation. His win was a rejection of the corrupt, pro-cop mayoralty of Eric Adams, the Zionist lobby, and the racist, multi-million-dollar campaign against him by Andrew Cuomo.

But it’s definitely not without its contradictions and limits, and is functioning to rebuild the Democratic Party — the same capitalist party that’s responsible for building up ICE, funding the genocide in Gaza, and advancing the neoliberal austerity project that created the affordability crisis in the first place.

We’ll talk about what the “Mamdani moment” means for the fight for socialism, the creeping limits of reformism, the dangers of the Democratic Party, and our ideas for the way forward as revolutionary socialists.

Hosts: Emma and Melanie
Producer: Luigi Morris
Music: Griffin Brown

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