Emma W, New York, NY
I was heading uptown on the 1 train. The doors opened at a station on the Upper West Side and in stepped Zohran Mamdani, flanked by an assistant and a bunch of security.
He was standing right next to me, so I introduced myself. He smiled and nodded when I told him I supported his program, and would love to see it implemented.
Then I said, “I’d love to see you break with the Democratic Party and run as an independent working-class candidate. Have you ever considered doing that?”
His smile faltered. All he said was, “Well, I have to make my own decisions.”
“I really think we need our own party that isn’t for the billionaires.” I continue talking, and he’s back to nodding—and not answering.
Meanwhile, his assistant is giving me the dirtiest look on the planet. Eventually, she physically put her arm between him and me, so I stopped talking to him, because I didn’t want to make a scene on the crowded train. People in the car started to realize who had gotten on and began snapping selfies with him.
Every bit of the interaction—from the smiling and the nodding to the evasive non-answer he gave me—was typical “politician” behavior.
There are a lot of videos on social media that show Zohran talking to people in town hall meetings or out on the street. Often, they disagree with him. Some are very angry with him, but he always manages to find common ground and disarm them.
Sure, maybe some of that’s staged. But I doubt that’s the only reason Zohran acted differently here. I think it’s because he doesn’t have a ready-made answer to this decisive question.
There’s majority support for a third party, or even a workers’ party. There’s a general hatred for the Democrats, Republicans, and the Epstein class. But it remains an amorphous sentiment.
There’s no other organized tendency besides the RCA putting forward the need for class independence. So right now, it’s not really a question people like Zohran have to contend with. But that will change as the class struggle develops and we build up the forces of communism.