By Enrique Larancuent
June 23rd will be remembered as the beginning of a new political cycle that challenged the Democratic Party establishment’s dominance in New York City. Starting from a progressive, pro-immigrant platform focused on addressing the healthcare and housing crises, and positioned to the left of the Democratic Party’s old guard, the emergence of democratic socialists on the electoral scene has had a sweeping impact nationwide. Both liberal and conservative media agree that the advance of the reformist left has been a political earthquake with short- and long-term consequences for local and national politics. Those defeated include the Zionist lobbying organization AIPAC, the far right, and neoliberal politicians.
The political climate in the United States can be summarized as contradictory, marked by advances and setbacks: on the one hand, there is a rise of the far right and neo-fascism. On the other hand, there is significant progressive and left-wing political mobilization in repudiation of immigration raids and the genocide in Gaza. Pro-Palestinian activism has given impetus to the left, while the image of traditional liberalism has suffered a major setback due to the Zionist genocide, given the complicity of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, and most Democratic members of Congress and the Senate voting to arm Israel. This crisis for liberals has greatly benefited sectors of the reformist left, such as the Democratic Socialist of America (DSA), which are increasingly gaining ground within the Democratic Party. The DSA is an organization that attracts left-wing voters but also reformist liberals who have not yet broken with the Democratic Party or the capitalist system. Within DSA, several currents converge: from reformists who push for more class collaboration through the Democratic Party; to sectors that proclaim themselves revolutionary socialists who argue that it is important to organize within DSA which has now become the largest left-wing organization with 100,000 members nationwide.
Defeat of Zionism
The defeats of several pro-Zionist establishment Democratic Party candidates by center-left Democratic candidates such as Brad Lander, an ally of Democratic Socialist Mayor Zohan Mamdani as well as DSA candidates, have set off alarm bells in traditional sectors of the party.catch-allfrom the liberal wing of the United States.
Beyond a simple change of names the result represents a clear electoral shift to the left and consolidates a growing trend: increasing opposition, especially among young people, to Zionism within the Democratic Party’s base. Among the defeated candidates are Dan Goldman, a wealthy Zionist congressman and heir to the Levi Strauss family fortune, who faced Democrat Brad Lander, a liberal Zionist but also a critic of the genocide in Gaza, who supported student encampments and protests in support of the Palestinian people. Also among the defeated candidates were two of Dominican origin supported by Zionist groups who suffered crushing defeats in the primaries: the young politician Antonio Reynoso and Congressman Adriano Espailla, both of whom received money from AIPAC. Espaillat’s defeat was the most unexpected, given his financial and political backing from Zionist groups, the American far-right, and power circles linked to the Dominican right, including the government from Trumpist Dominican President Luis Abinader. Despite the racist campaign against Darializa Ávila Chevalier, also of Dominican origin and a member of DSA, Espaillat failed to stem the tide of a movement demanding a change of course. The racist campaign was denounced by the left and even by the bourgeois press such as the New York Times.
The Zionists lost despite having the support of the union bureaucracy. The defeat of the establishment candidates is also a defeat for that conservative union leadership, complicit with the system. In the November legislative elections, which could become a referendum against Trump’s policies, pro-Palestinian and left-wing candidates will face the right-wing Republican Party machine.
The rise of the reformist left is having a major impact nationally. A week after the political earthquake in New York, in the state of Colorado, the DSA congressional candidate,Melat Kiros, 29, defeated Congresswoman Diana DeGette, ending her 30-year political career with a pro-progressive and progressive speech.
The advance of the DSA is important because it opens a new political space to the left of the Democratic Party and reflects a process of mobilization and organization of a segment of the youth that has become politicized in recent years. But the contradictions of the DSA and its candidates cannot be overlooked. First, because the strategy of using the Democratic Party to nominate democratic socialist candidates ends up rehabilitating the image of an imperialist and genocidal party such as the Democratic Party. Furthermore, DSA candidates operating within the Democratic Party have historically been inconsistent with the Palestinian cause when they call for a vote for [the DSA]. politicians like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who supported the genocide of the Palestinian people, or they directly vote for “defensive weaponry” for Israel, as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have done. Second, because the Democratic Party has never been a social-democratic or working-class party; rather, it has taken advantage of the weakness of the left to attract progressive sectors that then end up capitulating to class collaboration and the imposition of anti-worker and pro-imperialist policies at the risk of being marginalized and excluded from the party apparatus.
If the DSA wants to build a political alternative to the Democratic Party, the correct thing to do would be to call for a break and build an organization independent of the two parties of the American imperialist bourgeoisie.
DSA and the new generations must take into account that the electoral strategy with the Democratic Party has limitations and has been tested for decades without success in achieving political change at the national level. The experience of the progressive candidacy of the late Reverend and African-American activist Jesse Jackson in the 1980s within the Democratic Party ended in defeat for many sectors of the left that joined with the goal of influencing and changing the direction of the party.
El ascenso de Zohran Mamdani
Following the victory of the Democratic Socialists, Zohran Mamdani has emerged as a key political player and central strategist within New York politics and the Democratic establishment itself. His consolidation of power has not been without pragmatism. In an effort to maintain governability and send a signal of appeasement, Mamdani has opted for a conciliatory tone and has not removed the New York Police Commissioner–a figure openly aligned with Zionism– from her post.
While President Donald Trump’s popularity is declining, Mamdani’s is rising as he implements programs aimed at alleviating the effects of the economic crisis on impoverished and exploited sectors of society. Recently, the Mamdani administration scored a victory against landlords and building owners by implementing a two-year rent freeze.
Democratic establishment counter-offensive
As expected, the DSA’s advance has unleashed a fierce counter-offensive from the party’s conservative wing. Old-guard figures like Clintonist strategist James Carville along with several senators, have launched an attack to try to curb the influence of the left.
The pressure is coming from different fronts: conservative politicians like Democratic Senator John Fetterman —increasingly aligned with Trumpism and a fanatic supporter of Israel— have openly urged socialists to leave the Democratic ranks and found their own political party.
Other sectors of establishment Democrats have opted for the ideological path. Following their defeat in the primary elections, a group of Democratic members of Congress released a manifesto reaffirming the strictly capitalist nature of the Democratic Party and repudiating any socialist program.
Generational divide
The DSA’s electoral success is not an overnight phenomenon. The Democratic Socialists’ electoral advance stems from a profound political and generational rupture within the Democratic base regarding the White House’s foreign policy, particularly its historical relationship with Israel.
This political shift within the Democratic electorate is the result of decades of pro-Palestinian activism on university campuses, recent student encampments, and widespread condemnation among young voters of the genocide in Gaza. The defeat of traditional figures is symptomatic of an electoral base no longer willing to sign blank checks. But that is not enough: those sectors within the DSA that identify as revolutionary and socialist must seize this political momentum and strive for a break with the party. It is urgent to build a left-wing political alternative that fights not only in the electoral arena, but above all in the streets, on university campuses and in the workplace. These processes are already underway, as evidenced by the struggle against ICE and against Zionist genocide. Now is the time to fight for a national organizational expression for this movement, which is currently channeled electorally by the DSA, breaking with the Democratic Party so that it no longer remains the “graveyard of social movements.”
Originally published in the Socialist Workers’ Movement (MST-Dominican Republic) web site.