Following the recent Democratic primary where Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won it has lead me to asking a major question, should we endorse Democratic Socialists?
First I want to make this absolutely clear, I do not support electoralism and quite frankly I dont think its possible to reform capitalism out of existence.
The goal of supporting of Democratic Socialists is to promote those who would weaken capitalism but more importantly they wake people up to the class war. I hope that with Democratic Socialists gaining popularity it will create the material conditions that promote revolutionary thought.
However I fully understand if many people will strongly disagree as promoting any candidate gives legitimacy to a system of tyranny (to a certain degree). Thats why im asking all of you, I will be reading every comment here and carefully considering all of them.
Rather than endorse people directly, it would help me to know what we stand for.
Then we can compare anyone against those values and see how well they align with us.
(Also helps with checking how well politicians stick to their promises. 2025 Mamdani might score 12 for 14, but what about 2027 Mamdani?)
The only thing really unifying this community is in its Anarchist beliefs with a few left wing libertarians thrown in. Im personally an Anarcho-Syndicalist and I cant really speak directly for anyone else.
i have two minimums: the socialist minimum (the broad front; groups i’d act together with), and the libertarian socialist minimum (groups i’d organise with).
the socialist minimum is:
if you aren’t for the negation of capitalism, private property, nationalism, imperialism and false consciousness: you’re not a socialist; you’re not a comrade.
the libertarian socialist minimum is:
if you aren’t for direct action and free association, or your means don’t match your ends: you’re not an anarchist; you’re not a friend.
i identify with social anarchism because it describes my approach to life, but i’ll broadly advocate for anything matching my libertarian minimum, and more broadly lend (critical) support for anything matching my socialist minimum.
within this frame, i feel that Zohran is a socialist (public utilities, social housing, city-owned grocers, BDS; a focus on improving the material conditions), but the focus on state-mediation (ex. rent control) over dual-power (tenant unions) makes me feel — aside from tugging the Overton window — that he’s more focused on relieving people than empowering them.
I absolutely agree, however as of now Zohran is the only major left wing politician in the US. This alone makes him deserve praise even if his individual policies are flawed. Now I do absolutely agree, he should be empowering workers directly.
My question is do we take the ideological route of dismissing him for reformist that he is or the pragmatic route of endorsing him on the basis of him being a genuine socialist in the largest city in the US
i didn’t have a strong opinion on the matter. just sharing my thoughts re: promoter463’s suggestion.
no, probably not. i think he’s already doing good work; he’s becoming walking agitprop. he ruptured the liberal obsession with (manufactured) polling data. he’s now even an official enemy of the state, so he’s got that going for him.
i don’t know what it means exactly to ‘endorse’ him (letalone in the context of this comm). share memes and articles about him? raise awareness? sure, why not? let’s watch what he does.