Democratic socialism is having a resurgence. A wave of primary victories this year has come on the heels of Zohran Mamdani’s electric campaign for New York City Mayor, all driven by mass frustration at the cost-of-living crisis, corporate power, a future of imperialist war and climate disaster, and outrage at the genocide in Palestine.
The cruelty and incompetence of Trump alongside the establishment Democrats’ impotence has turned many voters away from both. The bar has been set so low that just carrying out the basic functions of government earns praise.
It’s no wonder then that there’s wide appeal for democratic socialist candidates who support universal healthcare, ending the genocide, stopping climate change, and other reforms that would improve workers’ lives. But is democratic socialism an approach that can win the world we need?
What Is Democratic Socialism?
Democratic socialism was popularized in the US by Bernie Sanders’ first presidential campaign, defining it as building “an economy that works for all of us, not just the billionaires.” Calling for a “political revolution against the billionaire class,” but also pointing to FDR’s New Deal, he campaigned to tax the rich, for Medicare For All, a $15/hour minimum wage, and free public college. The echo was enormous. Bernie garnered more votes, more volunteers, and more grassroots donations for a self-described socialist than any other in US history.
Alongside the rise of the right and a race to the bottom, this campaign paved the way for more democratic socialists running for office over the following decade. Socialism is now supported by a record-high 43%, and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) became the largest socialist organization in US history. While there is a range of political opinion in this “big tent” organization, at its core, democratic socialism as it’s understood today represents a fight to reduce class and social inequality, raise workers’ living and working conditions, and defend democratic norms—but without aiming beyond capitalism.
Zohran Mamdani, New York’s democratic socialist mayor, has managed to deliver on some modest gains that working people are genuinely excited for, like a rent freeze on rent-controlled apartments, partial funding for 2-K childcare, or filling potholes and plowing snowy roads. Mamdani’s approach has been called “sewer socialism,” a reference to 20th-century socialist mayors of Milwaukee who prioritized municipal infrastructure improvements over broader social change. In his brand of socialism—and that of other democratic socialist politicians—change is made behind closed doors, where there’s no need for organizing mass, working-class movements.
After his election victory, Mamdani set up an organization called Our Time to ostensibly focus activism behind his policy goals. But after just seven months and virtually no consistent public activity, it is now being shut down. Mamdani has instead traded endorsements, watered down proposals, or focused on public relations efforts to avoid open fights with the Democratic establishment. The gains he’s won are real, but they’re close to the best you can get with this strategy—still a far cry from the more far-reaching demands he ran on and disconnected from building the mass movements needed to change the system.
Democratic socialism is often seen as pragmatic. It accepts the bounds of capitalism—market forces, courts, conventional lawmaking—and aims to reform the system. But without a strategy to end capitalism as a whole, democratic socialism can’t even win many of the things it sets out to, let alone stop the crises that are baked into this system. For instance, under capitalism, the big banks will never cancel the nearly $2 trillion in student debt. The apparent pragmatism of democratic socialists is also connected to the choice of nearly all of them to run within the corporate Democratic Party. A party should serve as a political backbone, but for any socialist, the Democratic Party will be an undermining force.
Democratic socialism has inspired and raised expectations. But how can we win what it can’t?
Reform Or Revolution
When revolutionary socialists talk about socialism, we are not just talking about expanding social safety nets or taxing the rich (although those are good starts). We are talking about who holds power in society. We support struggles for pro-worker reforms, in part because by fighting for and winning concessions from the bosses, workers become aware of our collective power. But our goal is a totally new society, where workers—not the capitalist class—run society democratically for the needs of people and the planet, free from exploitation and oppression.
The working class would need to take major industries, banks, ports, and natural resources under democratic public ownership. Democratic economic planning, as opposed to regulated capitalist markets, would eliminate the boom and bust cycle, which disrupts growth. It would also ensure society’s resources are put to effective use, not hoarded as capitalist profits. This would be based on a structure of workers’ and community councils and shaped by making economic administration a simple enough accounting effort that any worker could do their part.
But no capitalist class has ever allowed a socialist government to regulate away their power over the working class. When financial pressure and propaganda prove insufficient, they use the police and the military to get rid of socialist opposition. Their state is not neutral, but a tool of class oppression. In Chile in 1973, democratic socialist president Salvador Allende was overthrown in a US-backed coup for trying to pass reforms and nationalize industry, for example. To achieve socialism, revolution is necessary: the working class needs to overthrow the capitalist state and build our own workers’ democracy in its place. This requires forging a class-conscious, organized mass movement of the working class, a key task of revolutionary socialists today.
All of our activity—in the workplace, in the streets, in elected office—is done in service of building this movement. Politically, it must be organized independently of the two corporate parties. We campaign for a workers’ party, funded by grassroots donations with participatory structures, to combine the power of workers’ movements and elected office. Within this, we would call for such a party to take up a socialist program and fight for revolutionary change. Winning a revolution, not just elections, requires a revolutionary party that can direct the energy of the masses to take power.
But, capitalism is a world system and must be defeated globally. Revolutions and movements can spread quickly across borders, but if workers took power in one country alone, they would eventually be isolated and crushed by surrounding capitalist countries. Revolutionary socialism is therefore internationalist: a socialist society can only be built on the basis of international working-class revolutions.
The Fight We Need Today
Democratic socialist politicians are giving voice to voters’ desire to fight the establishment, and that’s an important step forward. But to win the broad-reaching reforms they ran on, it will take mass movements and working-class organization to break the resistance of the bosses—taking a page from revolutionaries. From the role revolutionary socialists played in unions, strikes, and unemployed organizing in the 1930s, to struggles led by SAlt in Seattle to win one of the first $15/hour minimum wage laws and the Amazon Tax, revolutionaries have always been the best fighters for reforms. But while we fight for the best possible conditions for the working class under capitalism, we use those struggles to build revolutionary organization and consciousness.
Unfortunately, democratic socialist politicians don’t take this up. More fundamentally they share no outlook to end capitalism, which is ultimately what’s necessary. To fight the rise of the right, the threat of imperialist wars, economic despair, and climate catastrophe, trying to reform a thoroughly broken system isn’t enough—we need revolutionary socialism and an international revolutionary organization rooted in the global working class.