The Big Apple is home to 384,500 millionaires, 818 centimillionaires, and 66 billionaires. It is home to Wall Street and major world corporations like BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup. Nevertheless, over 350,000 New Yorkers are unhoused, 2.02 million live in poverty, and 12 percent lack health insurance. The contrast is jarring.

The iconic Manhattan skyline is known worldwide — but it was built by workers, none of them as famous. Workers laid down the bridges connecting the five boroughs. They keep the city fed, the streets clean, and the power on. Workers built and run one of the world’s largest subway systems, and during the pandemic, they kept the city alive. Despite all this, New York’s workers still cannot make ends meet, much less thrive.

Wages and Jobs

Today, the minimum wage in NYC is $16.50 an hour, but a single adult needs $28.04 an hour just to survive. The wage to sustain a family of four is $50.98 an hour. Mamdani’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $30 an hour, tied to inflation, echoes demands from the Amazon Labor Union and other rank-and-file organizers. This demand is coupled with lowering other expenses like childcare, health care, and rent.

A shortcoming is the timeline. Under his proposal, the minimum wage would rise to $20 in 2027, $23.50 in 2028, $27 in 2029, and reach $30 only in 2030. By 2027, given inflation and economic instability, $20 will fall short of what workers need. The crisis is urgent — we cannot wait years.

At the same time, jobs are getting harder to find. In July 2025, unemployment was at 4.8 percent (not including those who stop looking for jobs). Among young workers, the unemployment rate is much worse: a staggering 13.2 percent. Even for those with jobs, one paycheck is not enough. Many workers survive by taking second jobs or working 10 or more hours a day, while others remain jobless.

These two problems — too much work for some, no work for others — could be solved easily: by dividing the available work among everyone without a loss in pay. This would allow everyone to work and everyone to work less. But Mamdani is making no such proposal.

Gigs and Migration

Workers also face the threat of automation and AI, used by bosses to slash jobs and wages. But it doesn’t have to be that way. As the United Auto Workers have put it, labor’s answer to automation is fewer hours and more pay. A shorter workweek or shorter workdays with full wages means more time for families, communities, and creativity.

We reject the new forms of exploitation by digital platforms that strip away basic labor rights. We don’t need precarious, under-the-table jobs or full-time workers classified as freelancers. All workers deserve permanent contracts, protections, and dignity.

These inequalities hit undocumented immigrants hardest. The 560,000 undocumented workers in NYC face some of the worst exploitation, without any protections. We demand full legalization and equal rights for all undocumented workers in NYC and across the United States.

Enthusiasm

The enthusiasm for Mamdani stems from people’s hope for a break with the neoliberal status quo. His campaign centers on demands for affordable housing, food, health care, education, and free buses. It also stands out nationally by opposing U.S. militarism and defending Palestine against the genocide. But Mamdani is running as part of the Democratic Party — the very party that executed the neoliberal offensive alongside the Republican Party. Working within a party of oligarchs places strong pressure on Mamdani’s agenda, and he has already begun meeting with Democratic leaders and big capitalists. This is a warning sign.

The Democratic Party has governed New York City for decades, and its record is clear: they govern for the rich. Bill de Blasio and Eric Adams continued the politics of inequality, policing, and real estate giveaways. Nationally, the Democrats are losing ground — shedding 4.5 million registered voters from 2020 to 2024, even as Republicans grow stronger. If we tie our fate to a party that has betrayed workers repeatedly, it will only lead to demoralization, paving the way for the Far Right in NYC.

NYC Is a Union Town

New York remains a union stronghold. Last year, 19.8 percent of the city’s workers were union members, nearly double the national average. Yet corporations resist organizing campaigns, bust unions, and refuse to negotiate contracts. Even high-profile drives at Amazon and Starbucks have been met with stonewalling.

We need to end limits on the right to unionize and strike. Every worker must have full rights to a fighting union. This means repealing all unjust laws that limit these rights, banning all union-busting tactics, and enforcing deadlines so bosses cannot drag out contract talks for years. We must eliminate the Taylor Law, which bans public-sector workers from striking. This isn’t just about our working conditions — in order to defend immigrants and fight back against Trump’s growing authoritarianism, it is essential that public-sector workers like teachers, healthcare workers, and transit workers can strike.

Zohran’s campaign has been endorsed by a powerful bloc of unions, including DC 37, UAW Region 9, the Hotel Gaming and Trades Council, NYSNA, 32BJ SEIU, the NYC Central Labor Council, IATSE Local 161, PSC-CUNY, Local 372, SEIU CIR, Teamsters Local 804, and the United Federation of Teachers. Together, they represent hundreds of thousands of workers in NYC. The power is in the workplaces, schools, neighborhoods, and streets, not in backroom meetings with politicians. The path forward is not waiting for reforms — it is in mobilizing, striking, holding democratic assemblies, and organizing to win.

Class Independence

Instead of looking to politicians aligned with the parties of capital for solutions, we need to look to each other and recognize our collective power. Since we make the city run, we also have the power to make it stop — and to impose our demands on the ruling class.

To truly end inequality in New York, we must reorganize from the bottom up. We need a fighting plan that places the needs of the many above the profits of the few. Workers did not create this crisis. Corporations, banks, and landlords did. Big business will never accept a serious challenge to their profits and their state, and they will put all their efforts into defeating us. That’s why we can’t trust Mamdani or other Democratic Party politicians to bring about the changes we need — we must organize independently as the working class.

Instead of the Democratic Party, we need a party that fights this system. Our goal cannot be the illusion of democratizing a system based on maximizing profits. Instead, we aim for a new, socialist society democratically run by the working class and oppressed people.

It’s them or us.