Milwaukee socialism

Jacobin - Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was a Socialist Party stronghold for much of the first half of the twentieth century. Socialists there built a strong presence in the labor movement and city council and held the mayor’s office for nearly forty years between 1910 and 1960.

The Milwaukee socialists’ focus on good governance and municipal policy achievements like clean water earned them the ire of some fellow socialists, who derisively dubbed them “sewer socialists.” Yet New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has cited them as an inspiration for his own administration, and, as Jacobin contributor Eric Blanc argued in an essay for Catalyst earlier this year, the sewer socialists’ pragmatic approach to building working-class power has much to teach the Left today.

David Griscom recently interviewed Blanc for The Jacobin Show about his research on the Milwaukee socialists, discussing their strategy and potential takeaways for Mayor Mamdani and American socialists in the current moment. You can watch the full interview here.