Ridgewood Commons (Formerly Woodbine)
585 Woodward, Ridgewood Queens
Panel discussion followed by a Town Hall (with Pizza and Drinks) where we ask – How can workers harness the momentum of the Mamdani Moment to build towards class independence?
Panelists
Olivia Wood | CCNY, Left Voice
David Huyssen | Historian, The New School
Rep from Marxist Unity Group
Zohran Mamdani’s recent nomination as the Democratic party candidate for New York City mayor has galvanized many looking for a leftwing alternative to centrist neoliberalism. He could well become the city’s second democratic socialist executive, after longtime DSA activist David Dinkins (who served from 1990 to 1993), and the most progressive since the New Deal Republican Fiorello La Guardia (who served from 1934 to 1945). This would come just two years after Brandon Johnson’s successful election to the mayoralty of Chicago. But this also poses the question of the broader legacy of municipal socialism and its relation to class power, from Austromarxist Red Vienna to the “sewer socialist” mayors of Milwaukee. While the accomplishments of these earlier examples should be acknowledged, so too must their limits.