source: https://thedispatch.com/article/mamdani-new-york-antisemitism-jewish-community/

Before the latter half of 2025, no one had ever heard of Zohran Mamdani. As a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, Mamdani was someone who was never expected to gain mainstream traction, especially in a country which demonises the very utterance of socialism. 

The concurrent Democratic primary and mayoral election proved a shocking yet uplifting surprise for New York City. Despite the best efforts of the political centre and right to stop him, uniting behind Andrew Cuomo, Mamdani became the mayor of NYC. Even among sceptics, it’s hard to understate how momentous the occasion was. 

For the first time since Bernie Sanders, Mamdani proved that the progressive wing of the Democrats still had fire, even taking back voters who voted Trump in 2024. Proving perhaps that the failing centrist wing of the Democratic Party could be taken over and that socialism is in fact electable in America…

Of course, winning the election(s) was one thing, governing was another. There was no shortage of criticism over Mamdani’s proposed agenda, mostly over doubt over him being able to put the money where his mouth was. 

7 months later, and Mamdani has proven them decisively wrong.

Almost immediately, Mamdani endeavoured to provide justice to working New Yorkers, whom had been unduly exploited by the powers above them. This included obtaining over $8.5 million in compensation from various companies, such as delivery apps and retail businesses, to offset underpayment and shifting schedules on short notice.

Mamdani also began an initiative to improve housing and combat landlords. Among the cost-of-living crisis within NYC, commodified housing is one of the biggest stressors on residents of the city, with poor living conditions often not justifying the extortionate prices. 

Mamdani’s action involved putting $38 million into improving heating in existing public homes, particularly crucial given the cold spell that occurred in February. He’s also organised “rental rip-off” hearings to give tenants the opportunity to speak to the city directly about their negligent landlords. 

From this, he’s begun to fine landlords for gross mismanagement, including a $31 million fineagainst Karam Singh and Rajmattie Persaud, the largest civil penalty in NYC’s history. To top all this off, Mamdani has frozen the rent for over a million rent-stabilised apartments, directly protecting vulnerable renters from further increases in housing costs.

These actions have also come with handling affairs beyond City Hall. Mamdani has worked with New York state governor Kathy Hochul to gradually roll out universal childcare to the city, alleviating the ever-increasing costs of raising families and mitigating the blight of child poverty. 

Mamdani has also been a vocal opponent of ICE, continuing to call for its abolition and advising residents on how to protect themselves from ICE’s officers. Despite being famously hard to please, Mamdani also managed to negotiate with Trump for the release of a Columbia University student unduly detained by ICE. 

This has limited its reach in the city, protecting NYC’s diverse communities from the terror that has gripped other parts of the country.

Even beyond headline policies, Mamdani has shown his fresh approach to politics in smaller yet impactful ways. 

During the blizzard at the start of the year, Mamdani organised temporary snow shovelling roles for $30/hour, double the city’s current minimum wage. Through this and launching a strong public campaign, Mamdani was able to get excess snow cleared from the city at a fast pace. 

Mamdani also smashed the ceiling for dealing with potholes (an issue very familiar even to Brits), getting 100,000 of them filled in his first 100 days in office. Doing even the basics right, which politicians all too often miss, has earned Mamdani respect among New Yorkers.

Despite all these successes however, perhaps Mamdani’s biggest challenge was balancing the books themselves. The deficit left by the previous Adams administration alone was enormous: $12 billion. It is a figure that any Labour leader here would simply resign to as an excuse for cutting spending.

At the hour where critics could’ve been vindicated by the notion of “unaffordable promises”, Mamdani did not back down. This is where he proved the real merit of his socialist credentials; even when crisis hit, he did not abandon his electorate.

On his own, Mamdani skilfully cut needless profiteering out of NYC’s finances, including contracts with exploitative consulting firms, and shutting down an office for cryptocurrencyestablished under Adams. 

It’s hard to argue against the feasibility of this when considering that Mamdani has proven the city more than capable of providing services under its own belt. These savings alone raised $1.77 billion in additional revenue.

Mamdani and his movement also launched a relentless campaign against Kathy Hochul. One of Mamdani’s key promises was to tax the rich, ensuring those who had benefitted the most from the fiscal situation were paying their fair share. Even though Hochul dug in and continually put off taxing the rich, partial concessions were won. She introduced a pied-a-terre tax on secondary properties, circulating idle real estate wealth back into the city’s economy. This raised an additional $500 million. 

Nevertheless, Mamdani fell just short of implementing his full agenda for taxing the rich: hiking taxes on millionaires and increasing corporation tax. Instead, the state government itself funded the rest of the $8 billion shortfall. While it isn’t the most unreasonable of budgetary transfers, given NYC disproportionately pays more taxes to the state than other areas, this still amounted to changing the valves rather than enabling genuine wealth redistribution. 

Of course, this was far better than nothing. With the deficit eliminated, Mamdani can continue to deliver most of his agenda without fear of the pot running dry. Managing the budget was undeniably a major victory for his mayorship, especially in proving that socialists can be fiscally responsible while staying true to their values.

Unfortunately, even among the best of the best, there are fallacies. 

A glaring black stain on Mamdani is his silence over the situation of workers in the care sector. They have continually been demanding the abolishment of 24-hour workdays that being on standby to work for a whole day with no clear rest. 

Having championed for better workers’ rights elsewhere, even joining picket lines, Mamdani’s unwillingness to address this is deeply hypocritical and shameful. This is especially true when you consider that he promised to end the 24-hour workday on his initial campaign. Even after care workers resorted to a hunger strike, Mamdani’s administration has continued to promote the false narrative that these workers “choose” to work 24 hours a day. 

It is possible that Mamdani’s silence on this issue could be part of a backroom deal with Hochul, who he has clearly dealt with extensively. Even so, there must be red lines for political manoeuvres, especially for a self-proclaimed socialist like Mamdani. 

It is completely unjustifiable that such working conditions are overlooked, and in the collective struggle, all workers must be liberated from their oppression. 

This brings us to an important point about how to approach the actions of Mamdani. A sort of MAGA-style cult has been cultivated among some supporters of Mamdani, who can’t help but to blindly praise his administration for only the good it has done. 

When scrolling through comments related to the 24-hour workday, I’ve noticed that some people have gone as far as to call criticism of Mamdani a covert operation by the CIA to stop his success. I need not explain why reducing a very real issue to this is just plain ignorance.

It is true and will remain true that Mamdani is in a very precarious position. As one of if not the first major socialist politician in the 21st Century to be elected to such a prominent position in American politics, he has a once-in-a-lifetime shot to prove that a socialist model can work in the United States. 

In this respect, support for him is understandable. But to take this to the point of replicating the behaviour of Trump’s supporter base destroys what Mamdani truly represents: the mass movement. 

As a politician on their behalf, Mamdani must represent them and their interests as a whole; not act solely like a persona, and certainly not bowing down to capitalist orthodoxy. 

As such, Mamdani must always remain accountable, especially considering that the mass movement itself has worked side-by-side in passing much of his agenda. Put simply, Mamdani’s critics from the left are not trying to tear him down, they are simply ensuring he does his job as intended.

Despite his flaws, Mamdani has done well overall, defying the typical expectations of what an American politician is expected to accomplish. His approval rating remains at an exceptional 43-48%, and his allies in the Democratic Socialists of America have won state assembly and congressional Democratic primaries throughout the city. 

His actions have inspired left-wing movements both in the US and across the world, with the Green Party in the UK hoping to replicate his model for the Greater Manchester mayoralty. 

Being only 7 months into a 4-year term, Mamdani is far from finished with his work. The introduction of publicly-owned grocery stores to combat rising food prices, constructing hundreds of thousands of new affordable homes, and even more, are yet to follow.

Figures like Mamdani will prove the merits of socialist ideology more than smears ever could. A better way does exist, but ulterior interests tied to corporate donors mean other politicians refuse to follow it. 

Socialism by contrast, remains accountable to the people, and the people alone. 

Nevertheless, especially in the face of hesitancy on some issues, the mass movement that elected Mamdani must remain vigilant. It is ultimately their voice and their will which has allowed the big apple to become redder than it ever has before, and they must not lose sight of their power. For the workers, united, will never be defeated.