Peter Lucas worked on the Zohran Mamdani campaign and is a member of Democratic Socialists of America in New York City.
The Democratic Socialists of America ran more than a dozen candidates across three states in electoral primaries yesterday. Ten have proceeded to the general — a strong showing for an electoral project that many fear has been placed on the defensive.
Anthony Quezada is a socialist running for Cook County Board. Jacobin spoke with him about how watching luxury developers overrun his working-class Chicago neighborhood made him a socialist and the need to bring working people together around what unites them.
Robert LeVertis Bell is a socialist, parent, public school teacher, and veteran of the Red for Ed movement. Now he’s seeking to become a state representative to build working-class political power in Kentucky.
Billionaire Howard Schultz returned as CEO of Starbucks to stop worker organizing in his company. But baristas at the New York City Reserve Roastery aren’t budging.
The working-class son of Haitian immigrants, David Alexis cut his teeth organizing fellow Uber drivers. Now he’s running to unseat the “Joe Manchin of New York” and fight for immigrants’ rights, workers’ rights, and a Green New Deal from Albany.
The Sacramento school district is pleading poverty in the face of demands for more student support and a pay raise to keep up with inflation. Teachers and school workers aren’t buying the district’s excuses — and now they’re on strike to change its priorities.
Roughly 350 non-tenure-track and adjunct professors at Howard University, one of the nation’s most important historically black universities, are demanding fairer compensation and better job security. If no agreement is reached by Wednesday, they’ll strike.
In a pro–Bernie Sanders district with a strong union presence, a son of immigrant street vendors seeks election to LA City Council. Hugo Soto-Martinez wants “to create a new society: a world with good union jobs, universal health care, and affordable housing.”
Jessica Mason is a Navy veteran and socialist running for Congress in Texas. In an interview with Jacobin, she discusses the importance of unions, her time in the military, and why both parties “demonize democratic socialism because they are scared of it.”
Paul Prescod is a socialist, teacher, and longtime Jacobin contributor who is running for Pennsylvania state senate. In an interview, Prescod discusses his roots in labor, an agenda for Pennsylvania left elected officials, and why he plans to be an “organizer-in-chief.”
Over 10,000 John Deere workers have voted to authorize a strike, with 99 percent voting yes. “We are making these shareholders billions of dollars while we are fighting for peanuts.”
India Walton is a Democratic Socialists of America–endorsed candidate for mayor in Buffalo, New York. In an interview with Jacobin, she talks about the desperate need for change in the city, what progressive mayors can do, and why it’s time to stop supporting corporate Democrats.
Richie Floyd is a teacher and Democratic Socialists of America member running for city council in St Petersburg, Florida. He also became famous this week in Brazil for his uncanny resemblance to a Brazilian reality TV star. We talked to him about both.
As the legal marijuana industry continues to expand across the United States, unions are expanding with it. We spoke to a weed worker in Chicago who’s in the middle of a union drive at Windy City Cannabis about how low pay, dangerous working conditions under COVID-19, and a lack of “democratic control” on the job led him and his coworkers to organize.
We should all cheer on strikes like the recently ended Hunts Point Teamsters walk off in the Bronx. But there’s no substitute for socialists actually showing up on the picket lines to provide tangible material support and engage with striking workers.
Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic Socialists of America–backed candidate for New York’s state assembly, has officially won his race. His campaign shows us what a serious socialist electoral bid looks like: class-conscious politics, an uncompromising program, and deep face-to-face organizing. There should be many more like it.