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.
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.