{
"type": "rich",
"version": "1.0",
"provider_name": "Action Network",
"provider_url": "https://actionnetwork.org",
"html": "",
"author_name": "NYC-DSA Citywide Political Education Committee",
"author_url": "https://actionnetwork.org/groups/wg-citywide-poli-ed",
"title": "NYC DSA Academy: Red New York",
"thumbnail_url": "https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/forms/photos/000/830/469/normal/open-uri20260726-2264099-1agvvlw",
"description": "Deadline for Applications: September 8, 2026 - Note: Course is in-person only. Red New York: A History of the Left in America's Most Radical City Instructors: Steve Fraser and Josh Freeman Dates: Tuesdays, 7–9pm • September 15, 22, October 6, 20, November 3, 2026 Location: DSA Office 14 Jefferson Street, NY, NY 10002 Course cost: $35 DSA members / $45 nonmembers Course Description New York City has long been known as a hot-bed of radicalism, as America’s “Red City.” Zohran Mamdani’s election is the latest confirmation of that perception. This course will examine the city’s left-wing history, exploring the political and cultural manifestations of its insurgent character and what that might suggest about our current moment. The course will tackle some large questions: Why has New York been a pre-eminent center of radicalism? What has been the relationship between the city’s immigrant demography and its radical past? How has New York’s history of cultural dissent and inventiveness been linked to its revolutionary political movements? Has the city’s radicalism shifted with respect to the evolution of capitalism? What has been the relationship between socialist revolution and reform in the shaping of Red New York. Times have changed in many ways between when 19th century radicals electrified the life of New York City and Zohran's recent victory. But there are lessons to be learned and questions that confronted the left of yesteryear that continue to face us today. Red New York will try to engage the city's past, in part, in order to bring that wisdom to the prospects and dilemmas we must deal with today. Red New York will consist of five sessions: The first session will meet for one hour. The subsequent sessions will meet for two hours. Session 1 will provide some measure of why New York has earned its reputation as the country’s Red City. It will introduce for class discussion the largest questions about the city’s radicalism that the rest of the sessions will explore in greater detail. Although the chronology of the course begins in the Gilded Age during the late 19th century, in this first session we will examine how the democratic heritage bequeathed by the American Revolution continued to inform New York’s radicalism far into the future. Session 2 will examine the movements of the Gilded Age: the Henry George mayoralty campaign of 1886, District Assembly 49 of the Knights of Labor (the largest in the country), the anarchist movement, the Irish Land League, the Social Gospel, among others. Was anti-capitalist resistance in this period socialist in its perspective? Why was the question of land so important to left-wing movements in the era? Session 3 will concentrate on the heyday of socialism in the city: The Socialist Party, the IWW, Black radicalism in Harlem, Greenwich Village cultural radicalism, the uprisings of garment workers, and circles of Progressive reform. The “labor question” dominates the era and we will try to understand its connection to the cultural rebellion against conventional middle-class values. Session 4 will examine the Popular Front of the 1930s and 40s. The city’s Communist Party was the largest in the nation. New York’s CIO unions were among the most radical. Popular Front groups, like the National Negro Congress and the American Student Union, were rooted in the city. Left institutions ranged from summer camps to fraternal organizations to educational groups like the Jefferson School. The cultural imprint of the Popular Front was seen throughout New York. What was the relationship between the left-wing Popular Front and the transformation of the city under Mayor LaGuardia? What happened to socialism? Session 5 will explore the shift from labor-centered left-wing politics to radicalism more focused on war, race, and gender. Postwar repression decimated the Communist Party, but the Popular Front vision continued to influence the city’s economy and political life through the 1960s. Then the limits of liberalism led to new radical movements, including the anti-war movement, student uprisings at Columbia and CUNY, the Black Panthers, the Young Lords, Stonewall, and the feminist movement. What was the role of anti-capitalism in this era’s radicalism? Why did it subside? What is the relationship of DSA to this history? Instructor Biographies Steve Fraser is an historian of American capitalism and labor and author of The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power. Joshua Freeman is an historian of labor and of New York City. He is the author of a number of books, including Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II and a forthcoming history of garden apartments.",
"url": "https://actionnetwork.org/forms/nyc-dsa-academy-red-new-york"
}