By John Wojcik\People’s World
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
NEW YORK—Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the New York primary resulted from an uprising of voters inspired by his message that the largest and most expensive city in the nation can be turned into an affordable place for the besieged working class to live comfortably.
They were inspired by a message that the preconditions for this huge shift exist and that the people have only to unite and organize to force it to come into existence.
One of the initial reactions from the mainstream press and from a variety of lawmakers beholden to corporate interests is that he is making promises that he cannot keep. A brief look at some of his major positions shows, however, that this is entirely false.
Among his most popular proposals are initiating free bus service, freezing rents on rent “stabilized” apartments, setting up city-owned grocery stores, and establishing free child care. Even his proposal to build 200,000 affordable housing units, seemingly out of reach because of the huge expense involved, is actually out of reach to a profit-hungry real estate industry, but not to a city government determined to do the right thing.
To begin with, not all of his proposals are actually new. They have, in fact, been done before. High on that list is the freezing of rents, which was done several times by former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Freezing of rents is…READ MORE…
