“In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they (Communists) always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole.” (Communist Manifesto) 

Zohran Mamdani, the recently elected and popular Mayor of New York, is the leader of a diverse coalition that stretches across the city. It was this coalition that elected him and sent Andrew Cuomo into retirement. At the same time he is the (unelected) leader of DSA here. When he speaks, DSA listens. In other words, he wears two political hats, representing two different and overlapping constituencies. In most instances — not least his victorious election campaign — it presents no problems.

But it can. And it did in the recent primary elections in New York in which two DSA members ran against two progressive Democrats. One of the latter was Antonio Espaillet, a Dominican five term member of the House of Representatives, leader of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. 

The other was Antonio Reynoso, who is also Dominican, former community organizer and New York City Council member. Currently Reynoso is the Brooklyn Borough President. He also received the endorsement of much of the city’s labor movement as well as the endorsement of the Working Families Party. 

In addition, Reynoso had the backing of Latitia James, a New Yorker and the popular Attorney General of New York state as well as the revered Lydia Velaquez, a Puerto Rican and a progressive, who is stepping down as the congresswoman in that district. 

Neither candidate was an “establishment” or “corporate” Democrat. To say otherwise is to empty the terms of any meaning and turn them into a specious slur against your opponents no matter what their politics are.

Although early in the primary process, there was an informal understanding that the mayor would support both candidates, who supported him in his successful run for Mayor less than a year ago, things changed in the closing weeks of the campaign when Mamdani swung his support to two members of DSA, … running for those seats. Predictably this surprised and likely angered Espaillet and Reynoso and their supporters in the labor movement and Black and brown communities. 

As it turned out, both DSA candidates won, one narrowly, the other by a bigger margin, thanks to Mamdani’s endorsement and a turnout that skewed toward white, college educated and affluent voters. What is more, it didn’t help that the turnout in both districts was around 17 per cent, with significant sections of the Black and Latino communities not voting. No doubt this gave an advantage to DSA candidates, whose voting constituencies are more likely to vote in off year elections.

Not surprisingly, the outcome left some bitter feelings on the losing side. It caused some fissures in the coalition that elected Momdani, that is, among sections of the labor movement and in the Black and Latino communities. 

How longlasting they are is anybody’s guess at this moment. Only time, the arbiter of many disputes, will tell. Unlike Bernie Sanders who is a longstanding Senator from a small state and secure in his position, Mamdani is a new mayor of a city that is infinitely bigger, infinitely more diverse, and infinitely more complex. 

In these circumstances, the mayor’s success in moving his ambitious agenda forward turns, I would argue, on his success in maintaining, growing, uniting, and mobilizing the heterogeneous coalition that elected him, especially the Black, Latino, and labor communities. But in endorsing his DSA comrades, one has to wonder if he has made an unforced error. Sometimes you can lose by winning.

Let’s hope that isn’t the case and doesn’t come back to bite the popular mayor and the larger movement whose unity and mobilization he will depend on going forward.