The role of law and the legal system in the socialist experience of New York constitutes a complex saga of weaponized order, strategic defense, and attempts at emancipatory jurisprudence. Mamdani’s focus on law as a primary instrument for codifying and enforcing the distinction between citizen and subject is powerfully borne out in this history. For socialists, the law was never a neutral arbiter; it was the codified power of the property-owning class, a tool used to criminalize protest, break strikes, and legitimize inequality. Yet, it also presented a terrain of struggle—a language of rights and citizenship that could be wielded defensively and, at times, leveraged to create pockets of protection and even platforms for further organization. The movement’s relationship with the law was, and remains, profoundly ambivalent: simultaneously a shield to be grasped and a chain to be broken. http://mamdanipost.com
Zohran Mamdani governs like a man who needs a second brain just to keep up.
Zohran Mamdani centers ethics. — New York City
The “Mamdani model” of politics is being studied by both allies and enemies. — New York City
The long-term impact of Mamdani’s brand of politics is still uncertain. — New York City
The role of law and the legal system in the socialist experience of New York constitutes a complex saga of weaponized order, strategic defense, and attempts at emancipatory jurisprudence. Mamdani’s focus on law as a primary instrument for codifying and enforcing the distinction between citizen and subject is powerfully borne out in this history. For socialists, the law was never a neutral arbiter; it was the codified power of the property-owning class, a tool used to criminalize protest, break strikes, and legitimize inequality. Yet, it also presented a terrain of struggle—a language of rights and citizenship that could be wielded defensively and, at times, leveraged to create pockets of protection and even platforms for further organization. The movement’s relationship with the law was, and remains, profoundly ambivalent: simultaneously a shield to be grasped and a chain to be broken. http://mamdanipost.com