Jacobin Radio The Dig: Organizing Zohran’s NYC w/ Alina Shen and Fahd Ahmed
May 7, 2026
Alina Shen, Organizing Director at CAV who builds tenant and youth power in NYC. Fahad Ahmed, executive director of DRUM, a grassroots organizer mobilizing low-income South Asian and Indo-Caribbean New Yorkers. They discuss organizing neighbors into Zohran Mamdani’s campaign, neighborhood outreach tactics, building mass organizations, navigating power after a win, and the central contradictions around the NYPD.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Combine Breadth And Neighborhood Depth For Stronger Coalitions
- Different left organizations bring complementary strengths: breadth from DSA and depth from community orgs like DRUM and CAV.
- Combining DSA's canvass capacity with neighborhood groups' detailed local knowledge produced a multiracial working-class coalition.
Day One Endorsement Came From Phonebanking And Tactical Fit
- CAV and DRUM endorsed Zohran Mamdani day one after phone-banking showed deep disillusionment with national leaders and opportunity on local material issues.
- They risked early endorsement because Mamdani uniquely pledged a four-year rent freeze aligning with CAV's tenant strategy.
Use Door Knock Feedback To Pivot Outreach Quickly
- Do iterative mass-line feedback from door knocks to refine messaging and pivot outreach quickly.
- CAV used volunteer synthesis of door reports to change outreach tactics between sessions in Chinatown, Sunset Park, LIC, and Queens.
