I’m just gonna go ahead and post the whole thing here:

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York City mayoral election represents a major political breakthrough. His campaign, which took on the character of a mass movement, energized millions across the city and the country, defied the odds and has sent large sections of the ruling elite into a panic.

Mamdani’s victory reflects the defiant mood of millions of people in New York City and across the country, who want a more combative stance against Trump, a more affordable life for the working class, and are sick and tired of the Democratic Party’s status quo. They want a government that meets the needs and aspirations of the working class, politicians who are ready to fight for the people, and a city where all workers can live with dignity. This is how a 34-year-old democratic socialist hardly known by the public less than a year ago defeated Andrew Cuomo, one of the most recognizable names in New York politics. That this breakthrough has happened in the center of global finance — in the city that has become synonymous with capitalism — is seen as a hopeful and positive development by workers all over the world, who see a long-awaited wind of change from inside the U.S. Empire.

This week, a panicked editorial in the Washington Post called Mamdani’s success “a warning to business friendly Democrats” and admitted that “supporters of free markets” have failed to make a strong case for capitalism. They understand correctly the real significance of Mamdani’s success: it is not principally about him as an individual. Rather, his campaign reflects rising class consciousness, and the fact that the capitalists have lost their political and ideological stranglehold over a whole generation, despite billionaires pouring millions into Cuomo’s campaign.

For decades, the Democrats have been defined by billionaire donors and professional consultants, who have imposed the neoliberal consensus election cycle after cycle. By contrast, Mamdani’s invoked the New Deal liberal policies that defined the Democrats from the 1930s to the 1960s. That affordable rent and food, free buses and child care are considered “radical” is just proof of how far right the ruling class, Democrats and Republicans alike, have moved. For the ruling class, even the minimal economic reforms that Mamdani has proposed have to be crushed; otherwise workers might start demanding more.

Mamdani’s victory now sets the stage for a major showdown between the city and Washington. President Trump endorsed Cuomo and has threatened to withhold federal funds to the city, not to mention the deployment of federal troops and an invasion of ICE agents.

Indeed, the Mamdani administration will face obstacles, threats, and instruments of coercion not just from the right, but from inside the institutions he now leads. Mamdani gave a speech two years ago that correctly expressed the pressures he’s now facing: “As an individual [elected socialist], you simply cannot withstand the coercion, control and consequences” that come from the capitalist political institutions, he explained, unless you have an outside movement and other structures to hold you accountable.

A socialist atop a capitalist municipal government can’t change the capitalist character of the state — especially the racist, abusive NYPD — nor can it resolve the fundamental contradictions of the capitalist system. The city bureaucracy, legislature and Democratic Party machinery will in fact be an obstruction to Mamdani’s progressive reforms. This means they can’t be achieved by pursuing the usual legislative strategy. To win these, it will take a mass movement — the mass participation of the people, organized at every level, to unleash the power of the workers who make New York City run. That’s what will change the relationship of forces and put the real estate developers and corporate elites on their back foot. A people’s movement is needed outside of City Hall for anything positive to come from inside. Simply put, there is no way to fix the many complex issues facing New Yorkers without a mass movement that will directly confront the rule of capital.

The mainstream media has already created a narrative that it will be unrealistic for Mamdani to follow through on his platform. A section of pro-capitalist Democrats and technocrats want to have Mamdani become a “managed failure,” so as to show democratic socialism can’t work.

Mamdani starts at an extreme disadvantage by trying to carry out his program without a mass independent socialist party to rely on. He instead has been orienting towards showing himself to be a team player inside the corporate-dominated Democratic Party, and open to compromise with a large section of corporate elites. Against the threats of capital flight, he has attempted to morally persuade the millionaires and billionaires to stay for the good of the city. He has even offered to keep billionaire heiress Jessica Tisch as the commissioner of the New York Police Department.

Mamdani today released a video saying that he hopes his volunteer base doesn’t stop organizing, and instead makes a “lifelong commitment to the struggle.” We couldn’t agree more. The energy of all the people supporting Mamdani’s win must be channeled into a permanently mobilized mass movement, building independent, working class parties and organizations that will fight against the powers that be, to ensure these reforms become a reality, and to fight for even more.

In the weeks to come, the country’s political scene will become even more dynamic and complex. Much more analysis will be needed about the class character of the Democratic Party, the history of municipal socialism in the United States, the positive and negative lessons of socialists holding office over a capitalist state, and what sort of strategies and alliances can beat back the far-right.

In the face of Trump’s all-out assault on workers, millions of people have already mobilized for some of the largest days of protest in U.S. history and there is a growing popular sentiment calling for a general strike to fight back against these attacks. Mamdani’s victory is another indicator that people want to fight. They are hungry for change and socialism can no longer be cast aside as a fringe current. Rather, socialism is a growing and legitimate force in popular opinion, one that resonates deeply with working-class people searching for real solutions and a new way forward. Now is our time to build a socialist movement.