Old Policies
U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–NY) claims that the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is about “making a new future for all of us” instead of seeking “refuge in the past.”
IN FACT, Mamdani’s economic policies are grounded in the past of the Soviet Union, where the average living standard “was roughly one third that of the United States.” In Mamdani’s words, these policies include the following and more:
- “seizing the means of production.”
- “abolish private insurance”
- “nationalize the medical supply chain.”
- “ban all guns.”
- move “away from the status quo in which most people access housing by purchasing it on the market and toward a future where we guarantee high quality housing to all as a human right.”
- “universal childcare.”
- “create a network of city-owned grocery stores” that won’t “pay rent or property taxes.”
Mamdani hasn’t endorsed darker aspects of communism mentioned in the Law of the Soviet State, like outlawing “freedom of speech” for “the foes of socialism” and having “the exploiter classes in the country” “liquidated.”
However, the Law of the Soviet State explains that such policies are not “according to the plan” of communism but things that “developed spontaneously during the course of the struggle.”
In other words, Mamdani favors utopian communism without the despots and gulags, although that is what communism has typically descended into throughout history.
