“Seize The Means Of Production”: Mamdani Lays Bare His Agenda

“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”

– Maya Angelou

Zohran Mamdani’s run for mayor of New York City is a clear and present danger to the stability, economic health, and democratic foundation of both the city and the nation.

His platform is rooted in a radical socialist ideology that has, time and time again, led to failure, repression, and suffering wherever it has been tried.

And thanks to a clip surfacing on social media today, we see that Mamdani is not hiding this. In fact, he has been strikingly open about what he believes and what he plans to do. You can listen to his comments for yourself here.

Speaking in 2021 at the Young Democratic Socialists of America Organizing Conference, Mamdani said his goal is to “continue to elect more socialists” and to be “unapologetic about our socialism.”

He followed that with two key objectives: boycotting Israel and “seizing the means of production.”

The phrase “seizing the means of production” is not some vague slogan—it is the core tenet of Marxist revolutionary ideology. It means that private property, businesses, and industries are taken from their owners and turned over to collective or state control.

Historically, this has been done not through elections or peaceful reform, but through authoritarian rule, state violence, and mass suppression.

In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin used the seizure of private farms and industry—known as collectivization—to consolidate power and eliminate private enterprise. This led directly to the Holodomor, a man-made famine in Ukraine in which millions died.

In Maoist China, the Great Leap Forward aimed to forcibly collectivize agriculture and industry under state control. It too resulted in catastrophic famine and the deaths of an estimated 30 to 45 million people.

In Venezuela, Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro pushed nationalization of key sectors, fixed prices, and expropriated private businesses. The result has been economic ruin, hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, and mass emigration.

Mamdani’s unapologetic admiration for these ideas should not be taken lightly.

He stated in 2021, “what the purpose is about this entire project, it’s not simply to raise class consciousness, but to win socialism.” He added that “we are doing both of these things in tandem… to also organize for what is correct and for what is right.”

This is the language of ideological revolution, not democratic governance.

His current proposals—government-run grocery stores, free childcare and buses, a $30 minimum wage, rent freezes, and massively taxing the wealthy—fit the same pattern of central planning that has failed in every country that tried it.

These are not practical policies aimed at long-term economic health; they are mechanisms for government control over every facet of economic life.

Even when he tries to soften his message in mainstream interviews, the truth comes through. When asked on Meet the Press if billionaires should exist, he said, “I don’t think that we should have billionaires.” That is not a tax plan. It is a declaration of ideological war on success, wealth creation, and the very people who drive New York City’s economy.

He told Jen Psaki on MSNBC that his platform should be expanded nationally: “Absolutely.” He’s not proposing a local experiment; he is advocating for a national movement rooted in the same ideas that brought misery and collapse to multiple countries throughout the 20th century.

Mamdani’s defenders claim he isn’t a true communist because he only wants a “pilot project” of government-run grocery stores. But pilot projects have always been the start of larger schemes in socialist regimes. It begins with a few businesses. Just like Covid began with 15 days to slow the spread. It ended in surfers being pulled off paddle boards in the middle of the ocean and being arrested for not wearing masks. People walking in parks in Australia being tackled, beaten and arrested…for breathing fresh air.

First a few businesses. Then…it becomes housing, transportation, wages, healthcare, education—until the state controls everything and individual freedom vanishes.

He told the socialist conference in 2021 that “the ramifications of victory here is the difference between life and death.” This isn’t campaign rhetoric. This is the language of ideological extremism. The suggestion that political victory equates to “life and death” echoes the revolutionary tone used by past regimes that justified extreme measures in the name of justice.

The warning signs are all here. Mamdani is not hiding who he is. He is not moderating his views. He is proudly championing an ideology that has failed wherever it has been implemented. Electing him would be handing the reins of the most economically vital and culturally significant city in the country to a man who openly praises the very ideas that led to economic collapse in Eastern Europe, starvation in Asia, dictatorship in Latin America, and the silencing of dissent in every corner of the globe where socialism has been imposed.

New York has always been a city of opportunity, dynamism, and freedom. Mamdani’s vision would undo all of that. This is not just a bad policy agenda—it is a crisis waiting to happen. As I wrote last week, Democrats must find a way to unseat him before November. If they do, I think they will easily win the 2028 national election.

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