In New York’s 149th assembly district, Adam Bojak was victorious in beating out the corporate democratic candidate, Kathy Hoak, and John Deese with 49% of the vote in a three-way primary in a race that proves that social democratic issues are working people’s issues, as one of Bojak’s main slogans was “people before profit “.
India Walton ‘s run for Buffalo mayor in 2019 was the dress rehearsal. The Working Familes’ party’s Western NY slate included both BoJack for State Assembly and Jonathan Rivera for State Senate. Both won, with Rivera having a ten point lead and Bojak finding support even in the Republican-majority town of Hamburg, and also cleaning up very handily in Buffalo’s west side. Bojak’s district includes Hamburg, parts of Lackawanna and parts of Buffalo.
Bojak has been an active progressive on the local scene for many years, especially on tenants’ rights, maintaining that it is important to have people who treat housing as a basic human right have a seat at the table in Albany. He also has spent years calling for the abolition of ICE and for more teeth as far as legislation that would prevent all levels of law enforcement statewide not cooperate with ICE, an agency known for its shady network of concentration camps with an increasing body count, breaking up families and destroying lives.
Similar to the disco anthem, “hallelujah, it’s raining men”, the heavens have ripped open and social democrats are on the march both in New York City, with Zohran Mandani officially being called a kingmaker in NYC politics and with these wins in Western NY, It’s high time!
Claire Valdez, Brad Lander, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Darializa Avila Chevalier
By Sheldon Ranz
After Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani’s historic victory last year as New York City’s first socialist mayor, the pundits were only happy to predict he would get nothing done in office, being hopelessly blocked by centrist political opposition. Not only has Hizzoner made his doubters eat a massive amount of crow over the first six months of his first term, but Tuesday June 23’s primary results represented a major expansion of his coalition when the voters ousted centrist congressional representatives (or turned back such challengers) and replaced them with pro-Palestinian advocates that he endorsed and for which he campaigned mightily:
Former NYC Comptroller Brad Lander’s big win over incumbent Congressman Dan Goldman. Goldman has voted for military aid to Israel consistently despite token verbal criticisms of Netanyahu. Not only has Lander called out Israel for its genocide of Gaza but has embraced the sanctions aspect of BDS and has frequently been arrested protesting ICE abuses. Mamdani and Lander had cross-endorsed each other during the mayoral primary last year. His backing of Lander for this contest was the fruit of that cross-endorsement.
Queens Assemblymember and DSAer Claire Valdez solidly defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso for the retiring Nydia Velazquez’s open seat. Velazquez and a host of establishment Democrats endorsed Reynoso, but his campaign stood no chance against the DSA election machine.
Harlem DSA insurgent Darializa Avila Chevalier edged out five-term incumbent Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In spite of some foolish youthful tweets coming back to shame her later on the campaign, she stayed focused and marshaled her group’s resources effectively.
Mamdani also endorsed a slew of candidates for the State Senate and Assembly, and all but one won. Congrats to prior SDUSA endorsee and new Queens State Senator primary winner Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, who defeated incumbent Jessica Ramos, who infamously endorsed Andrew Cuomo during the mayoral primary last year. New York State now welcomes its first Palestinian American State Senate primary winner, Aber Kawas, from Queens, taking over for the retiring Michael Gianaris. New Assemblymember primary winner from the Upper West Side is attorney Eli Northrup, who backs BDS and leans Democratic Zionist. He defeated a liberal Zionist rabbi in his contest. Eon Huntley took out incumbent Stefan Zinerman from East New York, Brooklyn and Christian Celeste Tate finally ended the real estate advocacy dynasty of the Dilans by defeating Erik Dilan. The elder Dilan, Martin, was defeated in 2018 by SDUSA endorsee Julia Salazar. Samantha Kattan‘s election to the Assembly shores up Mamdani’s growing political influence in Queens, as does the election of Brian Romero, former chief of staff for Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas. Finally, Illapa Sairitupac won the Chinatown Assembly seat abandoned by Grace Lee. If you add in Mamdani’s Assemblymember replacement from Queens, Diane Moreno, that is a net gain of seven socialists in the Assembly and two in the Senate. Not too shabby for a night’s work!
For a genuine progressive to win on Triumphant Tuesday, you had to have an endorsement from Mamdani, DSA or both, the sole exception being Conrad Blackburn, who lost his Assembly race by just 8% up in Harlem with both endorsements in hand. But if you were a progressive hero or heroine with neither endorsement, it was not going to be your night. When SDUSA endorsed former State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou for State Senate recently in her run against Grace Lee, it seemed a no-brainer that Mamdani would endorse Niou since they were both hunger strikers backing the taxicab walkout years ago during the DeBlasio administration and they had maintained a friendship since. And, Lord knows, Niou needed the mayor’s endorsement since all of the establishment Democrats were lined up in support of Grace Lee, a pro-real estate, pro-Israel advocate. So there Niou was, David versus Goliath, but without her Mamdani slingshot, ending up with just 37% of the vote because voters were maybe wondering what she did to piss off their increasingly beloved mayor to the point that he would refuse to endorse her. Maybe we will find out what really happened behind the scenes, but for now, losing a brilliant legislator like Niou to a centrist hack like Lee is a bitter pill to swallow.
Another mysterious mayoral move is his non-endorsement of David Orkin. He is a Queens DSA lawyer who organized chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace in Arizona and is a stalwart anti-Zionist who won his Assemblymember primary. Is Orkin’s opposition to both a Jewish homeland in Israel AND a Jewish State of Israel too much for Mamdani? In any event, the good thing here is that with Orkin and Northrup, Julia Salazar will no longer be the only Jewish legislator in Albany who backs BDS.
Figuring out how to make sense of the endorsements (and non-endorsements) matter, because as has been made quite clear, Mamdani’s endorsements have a powerful impact on the city’s and state’s body politic. The voters go along with his choices because they go along with him. He has earned their trust because of the impressive record of achievement his administration has compiled thus far:
A major campaign promise fulfilled – he established free childcare for 2-year-olds.
A second major campaign promise fulfilled – thanks to his appointments to the Rent Guidelines Board, the Board voted 7–1 for a two-year rent freeze on all rent stabilized apartments in the city, benefitting over one million New Yorkers.
In a related matter, he created a Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants that has already reclaimed over $34 million for renters and forced repairs in more than 6,000 apartments.
SEWER SOCIALISM: He went after junk fees and subscription traps. He filled 100,000 potholes. He invested $50 million in parks, built new bus and bike lanes, and announced new rec centers and youth clinics. He’s even opening a city-owned grocery store to fight food prices.
BALANCING THE BUDGET: Mamdani inherited a $12 billion dollar deficit from his predecessor, the corrupt Eric Adams. Yet, in a short time, he made the deficit vanish with no service cuts or no new taxes on workers. First, he secured $8 billion in new state assistance in exchange for endorsing Hochul for reelection over Bruce Blakeman for Governor and for undermining Antonio Delgado’s intended primary against Hochul. Second, he got the City Council to OK the pied-à-terre tax on second homes valued over $5 million. Third, he found nearly $2 billion in savings by reducing overtime, renegotiating contracts, updating old software, consolidating leases, phasing out unused programs nobody was using and collecting revenue owed to the city. Lastly, he still had enough left over to put $2 billion back into the rainy day fund and $5.2 billion into the Retiree Health Benefit Trust.
There is an increasing awareness of just how toxic Israel is. Mamdani’s approval ratings stayed high even as he became the first mayor to skip the Salute to Israel parade, reversed all of Eric Adams anti-BDS executive orders, and evicted Easy Aerial, a maker of Israeli drones, from the Brooklyn Navy Yards.
The impact of Triumphant Tuesday is already being felt outside the city and the state. These are truly exciting times we live in!
Sheldon Ranz is the Director of Special Projects for Social Democrats USA and the editor of Socialist Currents.
When I was 10 years old, and my father asked me if I wanted to stay up to watch the 8:00 movie.? That 8:00 movie was the 1989 Civil War drama / action film Glory that won an Oscar for Best Actor Denzel Washington, but not for Best Picture, unfortunately! That 1989 film, I can safely say, changed my life radically. After seeing that film and those great performances by Washington, Morgan Freeman and Matthew Broderick, I wanted to learn about the Civil War… However I was a special ed student, and I also had the urge to go to my school library and take every book on the subject, especially the African-American experience.
That is why I attended the 2026 Juneteenth Gala in Buffalo and the fundraiser for the Buffalo Juneteenth committee, Every time I think of the Juneteenth Festival I think of federal troops liberating Galveston, Texas, a remote area of Texas, to remind the so-called good white citizens that the Emancipation Proclamation was passed, and the 13th amendment to the Constitution of the United States was now federal law! But I was there for something more personal. I go to the Juneteenth Gala to honor the old Federal Army troops of the United States Tennessee colored troops, USTC.
When nobody especially white troops in the Union Army would charge the point at any given time, black soldiers in the Union Army would immediately volunteer. The Tennessee colored units United States Army were there… Sadly they say the war took place in Virginia, they also say it went as far north as Gettysburg, but nobody understands the plight of African Americans living in border states where the Emancipation Proclamation unfortunately didn’t apply because it wasn’t in the Deep South. At that time, the Union Army was changing hands several times in border states like Missouri and Tennessee, a Union state during the war even and towards the end. Missouri, however, was a slave state in the Union and the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t apply until the 13th Amendment of the Constitution was passed! When the Confederates took over, they massacred the black civilians and soldiers without any Mercy, including old men, women and children. That is why I honored the border states’ black units during the Civil War because they fought bravely and with very little pay so it makes it analogous to a labor struggle.
Betty Jean Grant was a keynote speaker who invited me with an electronic ticket that was given to me by the Juneteenth committee. She ran for State Assembly and State Senate several times. However, top honors were given to assembly woman Crystal People Stokes by the founding membership of the festival committee. I got a handshake from congressman Timothy Kennedy of Buffalo New York.
Thinking about Juneteenth raises the question, what my hope for the next 50 years would be? That it should be easy to achieve racial equality and economic justice for all people! Let’s celebrate Juneteenth together and continue to remember who fought for those folks that were attending as well as myself as a magnet school kid from the inner city! And those who fought to end what was achieved in Galveston Texas in 1865: freedom, emancipation, justice and ending slavery!
Michael Mottern is First Vice-President of Social Democrats USA.
As part of SDUSA ‘s dual missions of advocacy for the oppressed and working class and as part of educational outreach, the main mission of the Women in Labor caucus will be to help modern day women draw lessons from the great ladies of labor like Mother Jones or Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, strikes like the bread and roses strike after the triangle shirt waist fire, where over 100 women, some of them young girls, lost their lives when they were locked in on the factory floor like slaves during the fire, which spread quickly considering that fabric was the mainstay of the seamstressing work involved — But one example of many labor struggles where women’s work, living conditions and health were at issue or women played a powerful role in whatever respective struggle.
When more and more money is going towards guns and macho militaristic swashbuckling abroad ( not just the middle east but for instance Somalia having been bombed 58 times since Trump took office…why? ) and there are more and more cutbacks that effect not just people’s quality of lives, but their very lives and ability to earn a livelihood, like the millions pitched off Medicaid under trump to pay for his scallywag adventures abroad, none of which benefit the US populace and just contribute to inflation and the quiet part has been out loud : it’s about oil. The only “feminism “ that gets pushed by the Trumps is marry a rich man and your problems are solved, provided the guy isn’t an abusive, predatory jerk. Tighten your corsets, girls! The latest salvo from the Heritage Foundation would have women back in the kitchen…for those who could afford it, and immiserating conditions for most women.
The Women in Labor Caucus stands staunchly against any cuts to any community or government-based programs that have included bettering the quality of life and improving the working and living conditions of all women inclusively and equitably. We seek to stand shoulder to shoulder with all class fighters, both men and women, all sexes and genders, all nationalities, all creeds because no matter what nation or tribe or city on earth one talks about, women compromise half. We would also seek to advocate and energetically push for any reform that is not just a current much needed defense of especially child care and social services on all levels in all states, but would seek more funding and augment services where they should be restored to the levels they were at before they were gutted in the 1990s under Bill and Hillary Clinton. Not only restored but funded so everyone in the US has the basic dignity of a living wage via UBI. And continuing to fight for legislation that is still the bare basics and has been since 1976, the ERA.
The Women in Labor Caucus is also in part a history project, of digging up the past experiences and stories of countless women over the past hundred years who have been active in progressive causes that helped uplift the living conditions and quality of life of the US working class. The saying has always gone traditionally that the rising of the women is the rising of the race or in this case, the human race. Meaning that a rise in the standard of living for women is beneficial for the health of society overall. Also what rings true is that an injury to one woman is an injury to all women in that any woman of any socioeconomic class in some parts of the US still but also in other countries where a woman’s sexual reputation depends on propertied notions such as virtue and chastity.
Just like during the time of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, we live in the new “gilded era “, but with a way lower cultural IQ including on the part of the ruling class. But 10% of US consumers account currently for 50% of consumer spending. The top 1% have as much wealth as the bottom 50% of society. Only 60% of Americans have more than 400 in their bank account and increasingly precarious employment means more and more people are living paycheck to paycheck; if they have a paycheck at all, with the real unemployment rate most likely closer to 10% of the working age population. Inflation in the economy isn’t just “leftist disinformation “, it’s what ordinary men and women feel in their wallet books every day.
If Project 2025 wasn’t bad enough for being the playbook for the likes of Steve Miller and other mole-like creatures from the Heritage Foundation, the Uber conservative brat pack just put out its treatise on what direction it wants the United States to go in their treatment of women. it questions women’s right to vote and posits the only naturally fulfilling role for a woman is as wife and mother. As important as that it is to many women, many women, straight or gay, in increasing numbers across demographics, are choosing to never marry, and increasing numbers of couples are going childless. Not because I don’t think the desire for family formation isn’t there, but when for a basic bedroom, when the average price is $1400 / month nationally, most youth are lucky to make that in a month, transport, food, healthcare etc. not included.
When it comes to issues of social welfare in not just the US but in many countries, women have taken the lead. When the current administration is threatening to turn the clock all the way back to 1900, in 2026, a forum that also fosters women’s leadership is also more important than ever. The mission of the Women in Labor Caucus is half-educational and half-advocacy on any issue that effects women, while drawing from the lessons of the past and applying them to the here and now to build a better future for all. All women are welcome, as are all brothers in struggle who support women’s rights and seek to foster women’s leadership.
Antifa or antifascist, even though it was a core US value since WW II, is something Trump absolutely loathes and is currently classified by this administration’s FBI and Homeland Security department as some kind of amorphous “terrorist “organization. Recently, Trump signed an executive order authorizing a huge swath of funding for a ten-agency center dedicated to specifically identifying and rooting out “domestic terrorism “under the 21st century version of McCarthyism, but this time questioning one of the rudiments of our Constitution, separation of church and state, making even milquetoast liberals suspect. Apparently, the US Left is way more united than Trump thinks it is. He seems to be afraid that somehow, all the social justice and economic equality the Left has traditionally stood for has magically morphed into something like Nelson Mandela ‘s former South African party, the African National Congress (ANC).
In Buffalo, NY, in 1919, there was a quasi-revolt, brief and minor, when compared to the 1932 Bonus Rally that set WWI veterans off so badly that undeniably, they wanted to revolt. In 1932, similar to the Occupy encampment of 2011, assembled a group, the DC Bonus March rally of 1932. It was a group of highly disgruntled “unemployed “soldiers, sailors, farmers and workers who assembled in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Also, there was a similar attempt in Buffalo very briefly: the official rallying cry was all gather round “The Buffalo Soviet”; however, that quickly got put down. As ordered by then-lieutenant colonel, George S. Patton Jr, future hero of the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium during WWII, the Bonus marchers in DC were eventually thwarted by the police. Patton later called the beating down of the Bonus marchers the lowest point of his career.
Occupy 2011 was no different. However, we learned something from 1919 and 1932. The Occupy Encampment, Buffalo, NY, was not only the longest running Occupy, but worked with the city of Buffalo to divest its money from Chase Manhattan Bank to a more local bank, one of them being first Niagara. The lesson learned is that it is better to be more diplomatic and united on common principles of class solidarity, economic justice and fights of Iiberations of all the oppressed, and the steadfastness and consistency in Buffalo Occupy pointed the city in the right direction
In these dark, xenophobic times, even a former MAGA Christian who may have snapped out of the cult by seeing families torn apart in their own neighborhood by ICE would potentially be considered Antifa by Trump and his goons.
We the people are all Antifa! Down with fascism worldwide!
Michael Mottern is First Vice-President of Social Democrats USA.
