Reformism Meets Reality with Zohran’s Transparent Betrayal

Zohran Mamdani endorses billionaire pawn Kathy Hochul’s reelection bid, confirming fears of the opportunist rot within the New York City mayor’s office.

In an abrupt and confusing decision, Mayor Zohran Mamdani sent the reformist left spiraling for answers when he announced his endorsement of the billionaire henchman Kathy Hochul for governor of New York. Such an early decision was met with bewilderment from those who saw Zohran as the spearhead that would break the Democratic establishment and use his power to make waves for the progressive cause.

Zohran announced his endorsement in The Nation magazine.

Many democratic socialists who idolize Zohran rushed to his defense, saying it was actually a calculated compromise. But for others, this was a confirmation or an ‘I told you so’ that Zohran would inevitably amalgamate with the Democrat establishment. This divisive issue reveals the gash within DSA, forming between the New York City members who are more reformist and the more radical national membership. Regardless of how members are justifying it, no one is particularly happy with the choice, with one member from the Queens chapter saying, “leadership and the chapter was incredibly upset on the decision.”

The timing of the endorsement is also suspiciously one day after Hochul’s challenger, Antonio Delgado, chose activist India Walton as his running mate, offering a serious progressive challenge to her centrist-at-best administration. In 2024, when the then-Mayor Eric Adams was federally charged with bribery, conspiracy, and soliciting illegal foreign donations, Delgado publicly called for his resignation, against the opinion of Hochul, who defended the corrupt mayor. Delgado is technically still Hochul’s lieutenant governor, but since the incident, Hochul has effectively revoked his responsibilities, to which he announced he will run against her. Though Delgado is not particularly radical, he has consistently based his platform on grassroots and anti-corporate principles. The addition of India Walton made for a possible revenge story. Walton won a major upset in the 2021 Buffalo Mayoral primary against the corrupt Byron Brown administration, backed by Andrew Cuomo and Hochul. When she won the nomination, Hochul, out of pettiness, ego, and probably racism, refused to shake her hand. The Democratic convention then rigged the general election against Walton by bribing the Republican candidate to drop out, changing the election rules to get Byron Brown a special ballot line, and using public resources to support his campaign.

Despite a decent start, Delgado’s campaign failed to reach the requirement of 15,000 petition signatures or the 25% of delegate support to get an automatic placement on the ballot. Alternatively, Delgado could’ve got an endorsement from the Working Families Party, but it did not materialize. Zohran’s choice put a knife right through the heart of Delgado’s challenge, which could’ve gained a massive boost with his support. At the very least, Zohran could’ve cynically used the challenger as leverage against Hochul to extract concessions. On February 10th, with no options left, Delgado dropped out of the race.

In another laughable moment, it was announced on February 12th that Zohran would go back on his promise to expand rental assistance. The program called CityFHEPS was supposed to increase its current number of 65,000 households by 47,000. The plan was already passed by the City Council and upheld in court before his reversal. The new version of the program was estimated to cost $3.4 billion annually, but critics say that is an extreme overestimate.

On February 13th, in even more outrageous fashion, it was reported that Zohran would not be attending a fairly large ‘Tax the Rich’ rally in Albany happening later this month. The organizers of the event were told directly by Zohran that he won’t attend because “he wants to maintain a strong relationship with Governor Kathy Hochul.” In a moment when the ultra-wealthy are ransacking the working-class by forcing dirt wages and inflating the cost of essential goods, this balk is a damning indictment of Zohran’s priorities. For Zohran, a charismatic and popular leader, to so easily give in to Hochul, a lying corporate snake, displays just how pathetic the reformist path to socialism is.

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Last November, when Zohran won a massive victory against the repulsive creep Andrew Cuomo for the second time, I framed the first quarter of my article as triumphant, that a grassroots candidate had finally beaten a dynasty politician backed by millions in corporate bribes. However, I hedged that optimism in the latter three-quarters, being skeptical that one, Zohran would even be able to deliver on his agenda, and two, that he was even dedicated to challenging the establishment. I still think this was fair to express some degree of hope. But more importantly, doubt, especially since all Zohran gave us at the time was promises and rhetoric.

Right after the election, though, Zohran was already revealing where his true sympathies lie. The most damning sign was when Zohran reappointed Jessica Tisch, daughter of the multi-billionaire ultra-Zionist James Tisch, who implemented over $3 billion of surveillance technology in the city, helped brutalize pro-Palestine student protestors, and whose family funded Cuomo’s campaign against him with $1.3 million.

Zohran also downplayed an incident in January of this year when the NYPD shot Jabez Chakraborty, a young man who was having a mental health crisis, bureaucratically calling it an “officer-involved shooting” and parroting the police’s narrative that the officer had no other choice but to shoot to kill. Zohran went so far as to say he is “grateful to the first responders who put themselves on the line to keep our communities safe,” even though they were the sole reason for the outburst and escalation. Since Zohran has at least advocated that Chakraborty should not be charged for attempted assault, but has not recanted that cops should not have even been at the call in the first place.

So it’s fair to say that, despite my deferred judgement for Zohran and the more than generous benefit of the doubt I gave to look past the disgusting support for the NYPD… I was still far too bullish. By endorsing Hochul, Zohran has abandoned any hope of ‘building a movement’ as he proclaimed in both his victory speeches last year.

Let’s recall who we’re talking about. It should absolutely not be a secret that Hochul has been bought by mountains of billionaire donations. In 2023, she received over $9.1 million from real estate interests, $3.9 million from Wall Street and finance interests, and $2.5 million in direct donations from 51 individual billionaires, including many Republicans like fossil fuel baron John Catsimatidis. Hochul also enthusiastically supports Israel, its illegal settlements, and its genocide that has killed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. She has gone out of her way to prevent Hunter College from hiring a Palestinian studies professor. She randomly paused the surprisingly positive congestion pricing that would help fund the metro system to appease the cries of the wealthy. In 2024, she killed an anti–money-laundering bill targeted at corrupt landlords. In her first budget in 2023, which was deemed her ‘austerity budget,’ she refused dozens of progressive compromises, increased private over public school funding, rolled back bail reform, and rejected tenant protections. In that same budget, she tried to push a change to gut climate regulations, but luckily failed.

Ironically, one of the few good things Hochul did was break a strike. She crushed the prison guard strike last year and fired 2,000 pigs who walked off the job to defend their colleagues who ruthlessly beat a man named Robert Brooks to death. But let’s not forget her abysmal record on labor. Hochul refused to support LIRR rail workers last September and blamed the union for being ‘unrealistic.’ In 2023, she sided with Wall Street to veto a bill that would ban non-compete clauses. In January of this year, over 15,000 nurses went on strike in New York State, and instead of supporting them, Hochul sided with the hospitals, quite literally leaving them out in the cold.

Zohran Mamdani speaking out of one side of his mouth in support of striking NYCNA workers — AP Photo

And why not wait? Why the rush to endorse now? Surely he knew that doing this at the same time as a major nurses’ strike was a horrible look.

It is not hyperbole at all to say that Zohran’s endorsement spat in the face of those nurses. But not only them; he has also left behind everyone across the state who is in desperate need of a universal healthcare program. He’s saying that it is fine that our minimum wage won’t increase. He’s saying that taxing the hell out of the rich and punishing greed doesn’t matter. He’s saying that it’s fine that our governor allows fascist ICE gangs to terrorize people. He’s saying that it’s fine, our governor is letting fossil fuel companies and crypto data centers destroy the planet. Most of all, he’s indicating that he will be operating firmly within the establishment, with us on the outside. Zohran is saying it is not our movement.

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In November, I said that Zohran had two choices: “relentlessly fight the establishment and risk failing your agenda, or align with the establishment and make compromises, only to pass a watered-down version of your plan.” In the most obvious fashion, Zohran has chosen the latter without a second thought. I think the Liberation Caucus described it even better, saying Zohran is “being bent into the shape of bourgeois governance.”

That’s exactly what is happening. There is no such thing as changing the capitalist system from the inside. Structurally, it is not designed to change; it is designed to protect profit. That is the clear reason why trying to make changes counter to that, like making food cheaper, making healthcare more accessible, or raising wages, takes monumental effort or painful compromises. When you have a government that gives you the illusion of choice between two capitalist parties, that is a system you need to destroy, not pretend you can reform. Regardless, we don’t have time to spend the next 50 years desperately trying to fix the unfixable; fascism is rising, and there is no one coming to save us.

The second Zohran decided not to disturb the status quo in the police department, he officially gave up. Precisely because, where does power come from in politics? It’s the mayor who wields the power, but who enforces it? The police. By allowing them to operate as they want, Zohran is severely limiting his options. Outright saying you are going to initiate police reform is dangerous; the last thing you’d want is a strike, which is why dismantling the police must be covert. First, gradually apply pressure, creatively negotiate, use the worst cops as scapegoats, and leverage public discontent to wear down the department’s power structure. Then, by simultaneously using your resources to build an alternative, community-based defense force, a radical mayor could address this problem. Assuming that can be implemented, it opens up tons of possibilities, like dumping fines on abusive corporations, arresting slumlords, and just stopping evictions to force rents down.

Many are in denial, saying this endorsement is a ‘strategic compromise,’ which completely falls apart because Zohran is not getting anything out of it; in fact, he is giving up all his political leverage. Even Hasan Piker, with only an elementary understanding of political analysis, admits this is a strategic disaster. Though he says “there is no guarantee,” I would correct and say we can be certain that Kathy Hochul will completely cease pretending to be progressive the second she wins in June.

The only reason she aligned herself with Zohran (something she did at the very last minute) is that he was going to be mayor and she was up for reelection. Hochul was extremely unpopular. The only reason she is at a meager 49% approval rating today in a 60-40 blue state is because Zohran naively believed she wasn’t a corporate snake and allowed her to share in his victory. The only person to thank for this revival is Zohran, who, on October 27th, watched as his crowd booed and heckled “Tax the rich!” at Hochul as she bumbled through an uncharismatic, tiresome speech. It isn’t an accident.

Zohran is not even hiding this betrayal. Defending the Democratic Party in a moment when they are actively enabling fascism is vile. Hopelessly trying to remold a party that deployed all its resources against you, battered you with racist attacks, labeled you a terrorist, and berated you for months straight for the crime of opposing Israel’s genocide is a strategy so unbelievably moronic that it has to be on purpose.

Why would you want this system to work in the first place? When capitalism ‘works’ like it’s supposed to, it produces nothing but oppression for the working class and misery for the innocent people across the world subjected to imperialist domination. Is that success to Zohran Mamdani?

Seriously? What transformation? What change? Kathy Hochul does not believe in transformation or change. She believes in austerity. And she has governed that way for the past four fucking years.

Even if Hochul, who has all the leverage, is willing to make compromises and help Zohran after she wins, those compromises will mean he will have to water down his already modest plans. Zohran and his team can’t seriously be ignorant enough not to realize that allowing a progressive challenger to apply pressure on Hochul would benefit him?

It’s important to ask yourself if this was inevitable. Were all of his promises completely empty? Based on his very limited vision of ‘municipal socialism’ that the Social Democrat writers at Jacobin flatter so much, all he advocated was clawing back certain basic social services; it was never remotely radical in the first place. Certainly, it was nothing that could confidently bear the name ‘socialist.’ What other conclusion can we come to then? Was it all pandering to the left to leverage the kinetic energy of their political frustration in the wake of Trump’s fascist regime? We should see the obvious pattern developing: just as the Democrats use the left as a scapegoat, ‘progressives’ use them as a doormat. The difference is that the left should know better by now after how many opportunists have delivered us failure and betrayal.

This situation is especially embarrassing for New York City DSA. In this one moment, DSA’s prime success story has just endorsed a horrible politician who has fought tooth and nail against every working-class policy the organization has been fighting for. To think about all those who spend combined tens of thousands of man-hours canvassing and organizing for better healthcare, labor, anti-corruption, police reform, and better democracy, all to get spat in the face. It’s a colossal embarrassment. The New York City chapter makes up the bulk of the reformists in the DSA and has been the bloc holding back radical change in the national committee for some time. No question that they are the exact people defending this endorsement to justify their focus on getting Democrats in office.

With all the effort expended to pull off such an upset, one would think DSA would have some strings attached to their generous and unflinching support? Zohran was a DSA member, he was ‘their’ candidate that ‘they ran’ after all. Nope. The organization that put all its eggs in one basket to get Zohran elected is guaranteed nothing from him now that he is in office. He doesn’t even have to come to meetings! There are no binding post-endorsement conditions for ongoing accountability, just the expectation, but not the obligation, of elected members to align with the organization’s principles and strategy. Ideally, a ‘democratic’ socialist in power would consult the socialist organization’s general body to vote on important decisions. Based on discussions with the involved DSA members, they confirmed that Zohran did not contact the organization for its opinion, ask the steering committee to vote, or seek input on the decision to endorse Hochul.

Should there be any lesson to be learned, it’s that any rational left organization absolutely must have binding agreements should they endorse and give resources to a candidate. Then, there must be mechanisms to hold elected members accountable once they are in office. What is the point of spending all this time and effort building a grassroots organization if an opportunist can use you? Again, Liberation Caucus perfectly phrased it, “Do you want DSA to be a lobbying group within the decaying Democratic Party? Or do you want the DSA to forge a new system entirely?” I’d go even further to say that DSA is less than a lobbying group; they aren’t even getting anything out of the deal. In fact, this might be pushing the organization closer to fracturing. Now that this campaign has brought more reformists into the party, which has recently driven membership past 100,000, a resolution to break with the Democratic Party, along with other urgent tasks, will only be harder to pass.

We need to stop putting our faith in politicians. We need to stop celebrating when they clear the lowest bar. We need to stop the hero worship and look inward at the working class for inspiration. We need to realize that this system will not be reformed from the inside when even the most promising people get swallowed by the establishment machine. From Bernie’s conceding to Biden, to AOC lying to our face, to now Zohran backtracking, it’s time for a new, far more radical strategy. I will restate what I said in November:

“This is the limit of reformism. Zohran has given people immense hope, but he will not achieve what we need to actually make a better society. It’s the difference between freezing rent and abolishing rent.”

We will not achieve victory over the establishment, the corrupt lobbyists, the fascist thugs, the MAGA freaks, and the capitalist leeches by voting in opportunists who immediately abandon the fight and compromise with the class enemy. If Zohran does not have the spine to build a movement, we have to. Our task is to awaken the sleeping giant— the working masses— to wage the class struggle, to wield power, and finally to defeat the capitalist parasites.

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