In a salute to the recent election of Bowdoin College’s most famous socialist alum as mayor of America’s largest city, a group of the storied school’s students has formed a new political organization.
The group – called Bowdoin College Socialists – says it agrees with Democrat Socialists of America’s characterization of Zohran Mamdani’s NYC’s mayoral election as “the biggest electoral victory for the socialist movement in the last century.”
Bowdoin College Socialists said they see his victory as a way to help them to promote a “pathway for thoughtful engagement.”
Mamdani, who graduated from the school in 2014, used his time at the state’s most elite college to accuse the school of promoting white supremacy.
During his undergrad years at the school, he formed a group of Students for Justice in Palestine, arguing that the institution was too pro-Israel.
(Bowdoin administrators earlier this year revoked the Students for Justice in Palestine’s charter following a student encampment – contending it violated school policy requiring protests not to disrupt daily operations – in a move some students decried as designed to unfairly silence their criticism of Israel.)
Mamdani’s radical political activism at Bowdoin included supporting the American Studies Association’s academic boycott of Israeli institutions, a topic he addressed in articles he wrote for the student newspaper, The Bowdoin Orient.
But the new socialist organization says it rejects Jews’ widespread beliefs that New York City’s first Muslim mayor is an anti-Israeli racist despite the fact he began spouting such sentiments while himself a Bowdoin student.
“We very strongly disagree with those characterizations,” spokesman Finley Rhys, class of 2028, told The Maine Wire. “We think that he supports a fair application of human dignity and rights around the world.”
If Mamdani were racist, he wouldn’t have “won both the primary and general election,” Rhys added.
Mamdani, meanwhile, came under fire Thursday from Jewish leaders who accused him of failing to tamp down a recent pro-Palestinian rally outside an orthodox New York City synagogue.
He issued a 50-word statement after the protest that “discouraged” the violent anti-Semitic language used by the protesters.
But then he notably criticized the synagogue for hosting a pro-Israeli event in the first place.
The new Bowdoin socialist group, which indicates it believes that campus socialists are currently underrepresented, may be facing the same political balancing act as their hero.
In announcing its formation, the group indicates it believes that campus socialists don’t have adequate channels for expressing their political views.
It quoted an Axios-Generation Lab survey that last month found that 67 percent of college students hold positive or neutral views of socialism, compared to 40 percent for capitalism.
The group also pointed to a recent Gallup poll finding that among Democrats, favorable views of socialism (66 percent) now exceed favorable views of capitalism (42 percent).
“Bowdoin Socialists fill a distinct gap in campus political life,” the group said. “Existing political organizations like the Bowdoin Democrats and Bowdoin Conservatives focus on partisan affiliation and electoralism. Our organization will center on political economy and theory: questions about work, ownership, economic systems, and class that cut across party lines.”
“Bowdoin Socialists is open to anyone interested in exploring socialist ideas, history, and political economy,” the group added. “Our purpose is educational and community-building: we will host speakers, facilitate discussions, and support student-led projects that deepen understanding of socialist thought and its relevance to contemporary issues such as labor, inequality, housing, and climate.”
The organization says that its “structure and mission” have yet to be outlined.
“We will host speakers, organize open programming, and incubate student projects,” the group said. “The organization’s leadership is to be determined.”
