Thread by @thestustustudio

🧵 DSA Co-Chair Hails Zohran Mamdani as “Generational Talent” and Blueprint for Socialist Power in America

At the Socialism 2025 conference, Democratic Socialists of America Co-Chair Ashik Siddique painted a sweeping vision for the future — one built around Zohran Mamdani’s rise from DSA’s ranks to the brink of becoming New York City’s mayor.

Siddique called Mamdani “a unique generational talent” and said his campaign proves the DSA can “have people like Zohran all over the country.” He openly embraced naming “class enemies” and promised that with Mamdani in office, socialists could “confront capital where it matters” in America’s wealthiest city.

The DSA leader credited Mamdani’s win to years of post-Bernie DSA organizing, strong union support, and the group’s coordinated “socialists in office” blocs nationwide. He called the primary victory “the biggest thing for the socialist left in the past century,” praising Mamdani as an “organizer in office” who joins strikes, hunger fasts, and direct actions.

“We are trying to build the party and in many ways, we’re already doing it.”

Not the wildest thread you will read today but a revealing look at how DSA built its power and where it plans to take it next.

DSA Co-Chair Ashik Siddique laid out the group’s strategy for using the Democratic Party as a launching pad for an independent socialist party.

Siddique said DSA is a “big tent” that includes members who want to reform Democrats, those calling for a clean break, and others pursuing a “dirty break” using the party’s ballot line until they are forced out.

He described the prevailing “party surrogate model” as running DSA candidates under the Democratic label while building the infrastructure for a future socialist party. Representing the DSA’s Groundwork Caucus, Siddique made the goal explicit: “We are trying to build the party, and in many ways we’re already doing it.”

It is important to understand that Siddique is the DSA’s respectable frontman, the buttoned up figure they present so attention drifts away from members calling to abolish the family or boasting that New York City is flying people in for trans healthcare and footing the bill.

It is an open admission that the DSA’s long game is to hollow out the Democratic Party from the inside until it is ready to replace it or compete against it directly, which, as you will hear later, is exactly what they do in deep blue areas.

Siddique dismissed both major U.S. parties as hollow “funding networks” for competing sectors of capital and claimed the DSA is already building a true party infrastructure to replace them.

Quoting Jacobin publisher Bhaskar Sunkara, Siddique said the United States has a “no party system” where Democrats and Republicans lack membership structures or internal democracy.

“It’s just which sector of capital pours more money into politics."

By contrast, Siddique boasted that DSA has grown to more than 80,000 dues-paying members, making it the largest socialist organization in decades, with an independent funding base and internal decision-making. Through what he called the “party surrogate model,” the group is building the functions of a political party while still running candidates on the Democratic ballot line.

Siddique hailed Zohran Mamdani’s Democratic primary victory for New York City mayor as the most significant achievement for the socialist movement in the last hundred years.

“In many ways, it’s the biggest thing for the socialist left in the past century,” Siddique said, framing Mamdani as “meaningfully different” from past New York leaders. He said the campaign reflects the type of party DSA is building, one prepared to govern the nation’s largest and wealthiest city.

Siddique contrasted Mamdani’s ascent with what he called the Democratic Party’s national failures, pointing to Kamala Harris’s loss to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 defeat as proof Democrats “did not map any real alternative.” He credited Bernie Sanders’ run for inspiring “millions” and fueling DSA’s rapid growth.

Siddique described the turning point after Bernie Sanders’ campaign when members embraced a new identity and mission.

“What do we do after Bernie? I guess we’re socialists now. What does that mean?”

Many entered DSA by simply backing candidates who supported policies like Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and social housing, but quickly learned that electing individuals with a good platform wasn’t enough without a strong mass base and organized pressure.

From 2017 to 2020, DSA chapters experimented with local endorsements and campaign tactics, refining a model that combines “strong field campaigns” with ongoing organizing once candidates are in office.

Siddique said that strategy has produced “hundreds” of DSA members in state and local office nationwide, with coordinated “socialists in office” blocs in cities like New York, Minneapolis–St. Paul, Los Angeles, and Portland working directly with DSA chapters to advance their program.

Siddique credited Zohran Mamdani’s rise to the mayoral race with his years as part of a tightly organized “socialists in office” bloc in the New York State Assembly.

Siddique described how DSA spent years targeting entrenched Democrats, including those enabled by former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who blocked left wing legislation. Through coordinated campaigns, primary challenges, and alliances with community groups, DSA grew its ranks to nine socialists in office, giving the organization the ability to “operate like a party in New York State.”

He pointed to the Build Public Renewables Act as the most ambitious Green New Deal style state law in the country and a model DSA helped make possible. Siddique said Mamdani’s campaign also reflects DSA’s push to prioritize labor organizers as candidates, citing UAW Region 9A’s early endorsement and the election of UAW organizer Claire Valdez.

“Different threads of organizing can come together,” Siddique said, “not just in electoral power but with labor power.”