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MAMDANI WINS!!!—Now the Hard Work Begins
Any success he achieves as mayor will be due to the strength of the movement that prevailed in the primary and continued to grow for his election in November.
Nov 06, 2025
On November 4, New York City voters delivered a resounding YES vote to elect Zohran Mamdani as mayor of the largest US city. The final results (yet to be certified) gave Mamdani 50.4% of the vote to Andrew Cuomo’s 41.6% and 7.1% for Republican Curtis Sliwa.
To a great extent, the election was over after Mamdani smashed the Democratic Party establishment by trouncing disgraced New York ex-Gov. Cuomo in the June 24 primary: Mamdani 56% to Cuomo 43%
Mamdani’s primary campaign benefited from “Ranked Choice Voting,” which enables candidates to endorse one another in a coalition to eliminate a candidate perceived as a danger to their shared values. In the June primary, five candidates, led by Mamdani, united to defeat the corrupt Cuomo. In particular, the cross endorsement of Mamdani by NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, who is prominent in the Jewish community, helped to deflect attacks accusing Mamdani of anti-Semitism.
The 34-year-old Mamdani projected confidence, discipline, and a sense of humor. When he called for a rent freeze in January, he welcomed the New Year on a Coney Island beach by plunging into the freezing ocean. Mamdani was fully clothed in his signature blue suit and tie! Videos of this stunt went viral. Since then, he has produced hundreds of short, punchy social media posts throughout the primary and final election push.
A winning candidate that calls out our broken, rigged economic system (just like Bernie Sanders) sets the stage for more “paycheck populists” in the 2026 congressional midterms.
The most compelling aspect of Mamdani’s campaign has been his platform's bold specificity. Unlike most candidates who talk in platitudes about values, integrity, and what they are against. Mamdani has put forward very specific policy goals:
- Increase the Minimum Wage to $30 by 2030
- Freeze the Rents
- No Cost Childcare
- Free buses
- City Owned Grocery Stores
Make the Rich Pay!
Mamdani’s platform has been attacked by the elites as fiscally impossible. He has proposed paying for the increased costs of services by raising the corporate tax rate, and levying a 2% tax on the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers; those earning above $1 million per year annually.
While Mamdani’s proposals clearly resonated with New York voters, winning elections takes more than a specific program: It requires a strong organization and cadres out in the field knocking on doors. In Mamdani's case, he had 45,000 volunteers in the primary, with grassroots enthusiasm expanding for the final election to 87,000 volunteers. It’s the largest grassroots campaign in New York City's history. At the core of Mamdani’s support are members of the New York’s Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) chapter. Mamdani has been an active member of the chapter and won his election to the New York Assembly with support from the group.
The labor movement with a few exceptions played it safe in the June primary and supported the traditional Democrat, Cuomo. But Mamdani’s smashing victory caused a quick pivot among NYC’s most powerful labor organizations—Teachers, municipal employees, Teamsters, and service workers. Mamdani’s campaign now lists 22 union endorsements.
As Mamdani’s election began to appear very tenable, the attacks magnified. President Donald Trump and the billionaires have been running a full range of attack ads accusing Mamdani of anti-Semitism for his unflagging support for Gaza and bashing him as naïve and inexperienced because of his populist and “unreasonable socialist” program.
With Mamdani’s victory comes the challenges of governing and delivering on his ambitious platform. While it’s unlikely that New York’s billionaires will all relocate to Texas to avoid higher taxes, it’s very likely that there will be strong political resistance among traditional elected Democrats in New York’s state government, which has purview over NYC taxation and spending decisions. That is why Mamdani has made it clear that the army of campaign volunteers cannot be demobilized. They must remain ready to attack any locally elected state representatives who try to thwart Mamdani’s agenda in the state legislature.
Viva Mamdani! Viva New York
Mamdani’s win stands as an example in the midst of the rising anti-worker, anti-people authoritarianism of New York native Donald Trump. While New Yorkers are generally considered very liberal, the fact that Mamdani’s message of taxing billionaires to make life affordable for the 99% reverberated so well with New York’s struggling working class is an important lesson for other aspiring Democrats. A winning candidate that calls out our broken, rigged economic system (just like Bernie Sanders) sets the stage for more “paycheck populists” in the 2026 congressional midterms.
A second lesson for Democrats is that the mayor of the second-largest Jewish metropolitan area in the world (after Tel Aviv) is an outspoken critic of genocide and a practicing Muslim progressive!
Finally, this election creates an opportunity for unions in NYC to grow. Will Mamdani’s explicit endorsement of labor translate to using his municipal power to reinforce union power? Will New Yorkers see T-shirts inscribed with “Mayor Mamdani Wants You to Join a Union!”? Especially challenging will be if his policies could help bring justice to the enormous number of misclassified workers in the “gig” economy.
Mamdani will have a four-year term as mayor. Every Republican and corporate Democrat will do everything possible to ensure he fails, to discredit his socialist platform. Any success he achieves as mayor will be due to the strength of the movement that prevailed in the primary and continued to grow for his election in November. If that movement stays mobilized, continues to grow, and delivers for New York’s working class, it will be an inspiring political model that our labor movement should support and attempt to replicate in other US metropolitan areas.
This piece originally appeared in the Stansbury Forum blog.
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Journalists' Unions Condemn Condé Nast's Gutting of Teen Vogue
"As the rest of Condé remained silent or hemmed and hawed over atrocities in Gaza, Teen Vogue printed some of the best analysis and reporting on Palestine in the country," said one journalist.
Nov 04, 2025
As praise poured in for Teen Vogue following Condé Nast's Monday announcement that the youth-focused magazine would be folded into Vogue.com and key staffers credited with driving the publication's incisive political coverage were being laid off, unions representing Condé Nast journalists condemned the decision to gut the award-winning magazine.
The consolidation of the two brands "is clearly designed to blunt the award-winning magazine’s insightful journalism at a time when it is needed the most," said Condé United and its parent union, the NewsGuild of New York, in a statement.
Condé Nast announced Monday that Teen Vogue's editor in chief, Versha Sharma, was stepping down. The company said the publication, which ceased its print edition in 2017 and became online-only, would remain “a distinct editorial property, with its own identity and mission," but admirers of the magazine expressed doubt that it would continue its in-depth coverage of reproductive rights, racial justice, and progressive political candidates as the politics team was dissolved.
"I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers on other sections, and today is my last day," said politics editor Lex McMenamin. "To my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue."
The unions also said no reporters or editors would be explicitly covering politics any longer.
Sharma helped push the 22-year-old publication toward political coverage with a focus on human rights and engaging young readers on issues like climate action and Israel's US-backed war in Gaza.
"From interviewing [New York mayoral candidate] Zohran Mamdani on the campaign trail to catching up with Greta Thunberg fresh out of her detention in an Israeli prison to breaking down the lessons that Black Lives Matter taught protestors, Teen Vogue has been considered a platform for young progressives inside the glossy confines of Condé Nast," wrote Danya Issawi at The Cut.
Recent coverage from the magazine included a dispatch from Esraa Abo Qamar, a young woman living in Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, about the Israel Defense Forces' destruction of schools there; an article linking the US government's support for Israel's starvation of people in Gaza to the Trump administration's cuts to federal food assistance; and Jewish protesters demanding that US companies divest from Israel.
The unions said six of its members, "most of whom are BIPOC women or trans," were being laid off, including McMenamin.
They added that Condé Nast's announcement included no acknowledgment of "the coverage that has earned Teen Vogue massive readership and wide praise from across the journalism industry."
"Gone are the incisive and artful depictions of young people from the Asian and Latina women photographers laid off today," said the unions. "Gone, from the lauded politics section, is the work that made possible the blockbuster cover of [billionaire CEO Elon Musk's daughter] Vivian Wilson, one of Condé Nast's top-performing stories of the year, coordinated by the singular trans staffer laid off today."
The journalists added that the publisher's leadership "owes us—and Teen Vogue’s readership—answers" about the decision to slash the boundary-pushing magazine's staff. "We will get those answers. And we fight for our rights as workers with a collective bargaining agreement as we fight for the work we do, and the people we do it for."
Emily Bloch, a journalist at the Philadelphia Inquirer and a former Teen Vogue staffer, said the consolidation of the magazine is likely "more than an absorption and clearly a full shift from the publication’s DNA," and noted that the decision was announced the day before New Yorkers head to the polls to vote for mayor in a nationally-watched, historic election in which Mamdani has been leading in polls.
"Laying off the entire politics team a day before the NYC election is heinous and a knife in the back to a brand that has solidified its importance for youth," said Bloch. "Devastating... It’s been a force for youth culture and politics since [President Donald] Trump’s first term. This is a major loss."
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An Antidote to Despair: Climate and Labor Unite
Wells Fargo Workers United and Stop the Money Pipeline are teaming up to target one corporation that clearly doesn't care about everyday people: Wells Fargo.
Nov 01, 2025
Living in the United States right now, it's easy to feel rage and despair. Corporations and billionaires have amassed so much money and power that popular opinions held by everyday working people are no longer represented by our federal government, and corporations are freer than ever to do what they like.
The results are damning: rising costs of basic needs like healthcare, housing, insurance, and groceries, making them unaffordable. We are faced with increasingly dangerous extreme weather events, endangering our homes, businesses, and loved ones. We are exposed to more pollution and toxins in our air, water, and soil than ever before. On top of it all, our mandated tax dollars are being used to kill and starve children at home and abroad.
Now, we find ourselves asking: How can we possibly influence our government, these corporations, and the billionaire class to do the right thing? Our only choice is to work together: the climate and labor movement uniting to hit these corporations and billionaires where it hurts—their wallets.
Wells Fargo Workers United and Stop the Money Pipeline are teaming up to target one corporation that clearly doesn't care about everyday people: Wells Fargo. In February, despite its rank as the fifth largest funder of fossil fuels in the world in 2024, Wells Fargo publicly dropped its 2030 and 2050 climate goals. Wells Fargo has also been caught union busting, recently allegedly eavesdropping on bargaining. The bank has already faced over 30 Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges, and has been found violating workers’ rights on multiple occasions. Since its founding, Wells Fargo executives have proven that they will prioritize profit over people and the planet.
There’s a magical reality that happens when talking to people about the power they already have to impact a corporation and the world.
We won’t let them get away with it. If enough Wells Fargo workers join the union, they can withhold, or threaten to withhold, their labor, which could cost the company real revenue loss. Workers can then use this leverage to negotiate for higher wages, more staff, and an end to Wells Fargo’s funding of the climate crisis. This the first time that a union is forming at a US bank this large.
We’re seeing real momentum. Already, 28 Wells Fargo branches have voted to unionize and are actively engaging in bargaining. In August, over 30 people from communities facing the brunt of pollution from fossil fuel build-out in the Gulf South visited bank branches in San Francisco to inform workers about the union and Wells Fargo dropping its climate targets.
There’s a magical reality that happens when talking to people about the power they already have to impact a corporation and the world. We’ve seen workers light up when we share more about the support system of workers who feel the same way they do. They lift out of the drudgery of their daily routine, and sparkle with energy as we explore the possibility of change in their workplaces. In a time when so many of us are isolated, the opportunity to come together safely in person and affect real meaningful change can be so fulfilling, and even joyful. We need as many people as possible talking to Wells Fargo workers about the union to build the power we need to win.
This isn’t just about what we’re against, this is about what we fight for: a collective future where all of us can thrive, drink clean water, and breathe clean air; where workers unite to build power for better working conditions and climate policies. Any worker, anywhere, can take action. If you are a union member, or connected to any climate or labor organizing, talk to your leadership to see what you can do to build these bridges.
We won’t deny the challenges before us. It's true, stepping outside of your comfort zone is scary, but this is a space of growth and creativity. To create a better world, we have to do things that challenge ourselves and our status quo. As the saying goes, “Action is the cure for despair.” The only way to effectively protect our world and democracy is to stand together across climate and labor and fight back as one. It’s time that we embrace this moment together.Keep ReadingShow Less
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