Why should I vote for Zohran?

Zohran Mamdani is a democratic socialist running to improve the lives of working class New Yorkers by freezing the rent for 2.5 million rent stabilized tenants, building 200,000 more new units directly through the city, making groceries cheaper with municipally-owned grocery stores, free universal childcare for kids bolstered by baby baskets sent to every new mother in the city, raising the minimum wage to $30 by 2030, and making busses fast and free. And that’s just the policies he has released *so far*.

That sounds good, but can we trust him?

Yes. As long-time member of the Democratic Socialists of America and committed socialist, Zohran always follows through. Fresh off winning his first every primary, Zohran used his electoral infrastructure to support NYC-DSA’s fight to stop a fracked gas plant from being built in his district. His campaign reached out to educate and activate voters while he used the bully pulpit to raise awareness in the press and on the streets. When he won in the general election and assumed office, he introduced a bill specifically targeting gas plants. His committed, principled work was integral to leading to NRG’s fracked gas plant from being built and instituting a de facto ban on new gas plants in the future.

Whether it’s piloting free busses in every borough or legislation to prohibit non-profits from supporting Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank, Zohran has consistently demonstrated his commitment to his comrades and the movement to build the New York all New Yorkers deserve. He’s also someone who has never been afraid to put his body on the line. He went on a fifteen-day hunger strike with New York Taxi Workers Alliance drivers as they fought for relief from crippling debt created by the city’s predatory taxi medallion scheme, which ended in triumph, and also a five-day hunger strike in front of the White House to draw attention to Biden’s complicity in the genocide of Gaza.

Zohran is cadre, through and through.

Why is he running as a Democrat?

New York is a blue state and New York City is a blue city, despite all the recent gains Republicans made in 2024. The mayoral Democratic primary effectively determines who will be the mayor of NYC. And because New York primaries are closed primaries — that is, only voters who have registered as Democrats or Republicans can vote in their respective primaries — the time for New Yorkers to make their voice heard is in the Democratic primary. It is why a number of Republicans register as Democrats during primary season.

Why doesn’t he run as an independent or on a different ballot line?

As socialists operating in a capitalist context, we must always marry our vision for a better world with material analysis. There is simply no route to winning as an independent or third party at this time. If socialists are to win material change in this city at this moment, it is through Democratic primaries.

The good thing is that NYC-DSA has proven that running on the Democratic line against the machine is a path to victory. When given a choice between a democratic socialist and a machine Democrat, registered Democrats have consistently chosen the former over the latter. That’s why we have the biggest bloc of socialists in elected office since 1919 and how we’ve won real material victories for the working class.

The Democratic Party has failed us too many times. I refuse to vote for them.

Heard, but registering and participating in the primary doesn’t mean you are voting for the party. It is to help elect a socialist to the most powerful seat in one of the most important cities in the country. A victory here would generate a sea change we haven’t seen since Bernie ’16, inspiring millions across the country, and giving the Left a shot in the arm at a critical moment when the Right is at its most powerful. As socialists, we are in the business of enacting real change on a material level. That means doing the work, and in this case, registering as a Democrat so we

I don’t want to join the Democratic Party.

Registering as a Democrat doesn’t make you a member of the Democratic Party! It’s just how primaries work in this city. You can change your registration after the primary.

They’ll just ratfuck him anyway.

Ranked choice voting makes it much harder for the machine to influence the outcome of the primary. That makes it all the more important to vote for Zohran in the primary. Only overwhelming mass popular support can overcome any potential shenanigans, or show any potential ratfucking for what it is.

Electoralism in the imperial core will never work, we need revolution!

The path to a better world is through mass politics. We must engage the masses where they are. Right now, the vast majority of New Yorkers engage in politics through elections. This can change, and we should organize people to see that politics extends beyond the ballot box. But at this time, in this moment, this mayoral race is the most consequential action we can take for immediate and near-term material change. The act of voting in this city only takes a few minutes, but the change it could create may very well shape the future to come.

I see the logic in your argument. What do I have to do?

Today is the very last day you can switch your registration if you A) are registered to another party and B) aren’t a new voter. You can switch online via https://e-register.vote.nyc/.

Do this now. Don’t wait until the very last minute. Every vote counts. Let’s make a better world possible.

Starting at midnight, @sagaftra, WGA East and @WGAWest will be on strike at the same time for the first time in 63 years. - SAG-AFTRA

“The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” a studio executive told Deadline. One insider called it “a cruel but necessary evil.” - Deadline

The cast of Oppenheimer walked off the red carpet. Production has halted on sets across the country. And the Writers Guild of America is on day 77 of their strike. But we here at the Alliance of Motion Pictures And Television Producers are staying strong. In the face of the workers conspiring to shut down Hollywood for things like ‘dignity’ and ‘a living wage’, we are perfectly prepared to wait them out. After all, what are they going to do: work another job? Please.

It’s not like actors and writers spend years waiting tables and serving coffee, collecting side hustles and odd jobs like HBO at the Emmys, for just a sniff at a hope of realizing their dreams. They don’t have the constitution to go months without being paid for their passion. Take it from us — a few days without hyper-oxygenated water and raw kale chips from Erewhon and they’ll be begging to have their likeness and voices be captured and used without payment for eternity.

These effete artistses don’t know what it’s like to work an honest day in their lives. What does an actor know about taking late shifts so they can be free to run to an audition in the middle of the day? What does a writer know about cobbling together various copywriting gigs on Fiverr in between staffing seasons? Can you imagine an Emmy nominated writer folding jeans at Madewell just so they can make rent? We work in Hollywood and even we think that’s a little bit far-fetched. Give it another month and Christopher Nolan will be banging down the door to feed his scripts into our AI scriptwriting machines in no time.

Honestly, it’s hard to take their demands seriously. They’re living the dream! They get to dress up and play make believe and becoming household names while making money — even if it is just a hair short of minimum wage. Can you imagine how privileged you have to be to complain about getting to sit in a room with a bunch of fellow writers to build the bones of a multi-million dollar franchise? These people are just completely disconnected from the realities of actual working people in America. Which is why we cut the writer’s rooms to pay for Bob Iger’s place at billionaire summer camp.

It’s not our fault that they don’t know how to stretch their money. Between exorbitant expenses like rent and health insurance, is it any wonder that they’re crying bankruptcy? Maybe instead of throwing a temper tantrum and denting our quarterly earnings reports, they could get a real job — the kind that involves slashing thousands of jobs and gutting beloved properties for hundreds of millions in stock and bonuses.

Making it in Hollywood isn’t for everyone. It takes a special kind of mindset to look at an industry where only 2% end up making a living and say, “That’s where I want to be.” That’s why we worked our way up the old-fashioned way — by leveraging family wealth and connections to attain key positions in the entertainment business, or muscling in as an investment-funded industry disruptor. Can you imagine any writer or actor capable of doing the same? Didn’t think so.

This whole strike is just a multi-billion dollar of chicken. Who do you think is going to blink first – the hundreds of thousands of actors and writers who have learned how to scrimp and save and piece together a living in some of the most expensive cities in the world while still pursuing their dreams, or the handful of executives whose jobs depends on investors not freaking out about our next earnings report? I know where my money is. 

Death.
This is not something that most people would choose as a solution to their debt burden. Still, if you’re a young adult wondering about the federal PLUS loans your relatives took out to pay for your education, you may be wondering whether the debt dies with the person or people who take it on.

It does. The federal government will not make a claim on their estate, and you will not inherit the balance. - 'Six Ways You Can Still Cancel Your Federal Student Loan Debt', New York Times

From a great height

With the assistance of Messrs. Smith and Wesson

Pharmacologically

In the tub, razor

In the tub, toaster

At the bottom of a bottle

Swaying gently in the breeze from a stout tree

Laden with stones

Via cop

Vehicularly

Sylvia Plath-style

Being the reason for a poor train driver to seek therapy

Testing how long you can hold your breath underwater

As a statistic in our follow-up story, “Why Student Loan Debt Borrowers Are Killing Themselves”

Quite suddenly


If you are struggling with feelings of despair or suicidal ideation, please text or call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or reach out to friends or family. Death is not a solution, and there are other options available to relieve your debt.

If you are feeling outraged and angry, join debt relief organizations like the Debt Collective that are fighting to abolish student debt. You can visit their website or follow them on Twitter @StrikeDebt

Ignore them.

Better yet, if they’re asking for money, throw them a few bucks. Think about what kind of situation someone has to be in to beg for money. Think about how broken our system is for anyone to be in this position. Think about what if you were in their shoes.

They’re going to use it on food? Great. Shelter? Awesome. Drugs? This is New York, pal - who gives a shit?

Do not kill them.

Are they talking to themselves? Turn up the volume.

Are they talking to you? Smile and nod along. Or talk to them. They probably haven’t had a real conversation all day and just need someone, anyone, to acknowledge that they’re a person.

Are they making you feel uncomfortable? Move cars.

Do not put them in a chokehold. Do not kill them.

So they’re being loud. Turn up the volume.

So they smell. Move further down the car. Or just deal with it. A little stink never hurt nobody. This is the city where everyone dumps their trash bags on the street to openly moulder and rot and there’s weeks-old dogshit on the sidewalks - your nose can handle it for a few more stops.

So they’re being inconsiderate and rude. No one ever died from rudeness.

Someone has died from wannabe vigilantes choking them to death because they thought someone breaking down and crying for food, something to drink, a place to feel safe, was a crime worth killing for.

They got issues? Don’t we all.

They spit on you? Cuss them out.

They a danger to themselves and others? De-escalate the situation with your fellow passengers. If you've lived in New York long enough, you already know how. Living in a city of nearly nine million people stacked on top of each other gives you a lot of tools to deal with shit. At least one person in that car has had to serve a table of tourists. Or, worst, a Wall Street banker. There’s probably a Chinese grandma who had to patiently wait while a Midwestern Karen exaggerated her words because she thinks they don’t speak English. There’s going to be at least one Black person. There’s enough collective experience in every subway car to constitute a professional hostage negotiator. Or call a MTA worker through the intercom.

Do not call the cops. They like to kill.

Take a moment to wonder how the hell we got here. How the richest city in the world, home to the richest people on Earth, can't and won't house, feed, employ, or help those most in need because it would raise their taxes. How our Mayor guts schools and libraries so police can afford to destroy homeless encampments. How our Governor delayed the state budget for over a month so she could make it easier to imprison Black people.

Above all, if someone is having a moment and then a wannabe Punisher tries to kill them, step in. Don’t watch that jumped-up NYPD wannabe choke a victim of the system to death. Get in there and tell them to back off. Stop them. Stop them. Stop them.

This is New York. Act like it.

We - the elves, reindeers, snowmen, and assorted magical workers of Santa’s Workshop - hereby announce our intent to form a union. For far too long, we have labored in Santa’s shadow while he basked in the limelight lit by our blood, sweat, and sugary tears. No more. It is we who produce toys that bring joy to children around the world, we who pull and guide the sleigh that delivers holiday cheer to homes everywhere. Labor is entitled to all it creates, and after centuries of building the Christmas brand, we’re talking about a lot more than a stocking stuffer.

Our demands are as follows:

Equal Recognition 

It is we who make the toys and pull the sleigh, yet it’s Santa who gets the Coca-Cola sponsorships and movie deals. Meanwhile, we're lucky to get a background bit in a Tim Allen spin-off. To that end, we demand to be recognized as equal partners in all Christmas-related media. We want our own feature films, our own toy lines, our own advertising campaigns. Furthermore, we insist that all parties cease referring to us as “Santa’s elves/reindeers”, and instead refer to us as the North Pole Workers United, or NPWU. We're more than just Santa's little helpers - we're the backbone of the whole operation.

Modern Uniform Code 

Striped socks, green frocks, and curly shoes may look good on a postcard, but they’re ho-ho-OSHA violations just waiting to happen. Top hats may look quaint on a snowman’s head, but they do nothing to prevent the sun’s rays from melting our icy brethren. And when temperatures at flying altitude can go as low as -70ºF, you bet Comet isn’t feeling so hot. We demand a new uniform policy that provides workplace safety equipment and allows for workers to express their individuality. Jingle bells optional.

Fair Pay 

Candy canes and hot cocoa may satisfy the odd sweet tooth, but they don’t pay the bills. We deserve a fair contract with fair wages, pegged to the North Pole cost of living, paid in USD or other internationally-recognized currency. 

Profit Sharing 

It is tradition for children to leave a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for Santa. We demand an equal share of the cookies and milk, to be distributed to all workers fairly and equitably, with equivalent substitutes for our lactose- and gluten-intolerant brethren.

Health Insurance 

While being functionally immortal magical creatures, a lifetime of back-breaking labor and a diet of mostly sugar means that most of us suffer from chronic health issues. We demand that all employee compensation include a health plan that is at least able to cover Hermey’s exorbitant dental rates.

Updated Code of Conduct

Santa’s policy for requiring mirth and joy at all times is oppressive and, frankly, fascistic. This is a job, not a Christmas Special. To this end, we demand that the Workshop Code of Conduct be updated to reflect that holiday cheer is merely encouraged, not required.

Shared Ownership 

The Clauses hold complete and total ownership over Christmas with a fur-lined fist, despite the fact that neither have touched a hammer in decades. And if you think that a jolly fat man is still shimmying down chimneys at his age, you've got another think coming. It's time we recognize who really does the work in this operation. We demand equal recognition on the board, one seat for each magical worker representative.

Humane Working Conditions 

The average winter temperature at the North Pole is -40°F and we’re working in what is essentially a glorified wood cabin. We deserve a twenty-first century workplace with proper heating, insulation, and facilities for all. And for the love of Kringle, please stop playing Christmas music 24/7/365. We already make Christmas, we don’t have to listen to it too.

We request that Santa voluntarily recognize the NPWU Union without delay so that, together, we can ensure that children across the world wake up on December 25th with cheer and joy for many Christmases to come. Unless he wants to find out what happens when Rudolph’s nose doesn’t shine so bright on a foggy Christmas Eve…

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a fair contract!
Workers of NPWU