Jacobin Radio: Sewer Socialism w/ Eric Blanc

Suzi talks with historian Eric Blanc about a timely chapter in American socialist history: the rise — and limits — of Milwaukee’s “sewer socialists.” His article, “Socialists in City Hall? A New Look at Sewer Socialism in Wisconsin,” reexamines this often-disparaged experiment in municipal socialism at a moment when New York prepares for Zohran Mamdani’s administration. Mamdani’s victory — built on years of organizing in immigrant and working-class neighborhoods — reopens the question of whether socialists can not only win, but govern in America’s most unequal cities.

A century ago, Milwaukee elected socialist mayors who delivered clean, efficient, working-class governance — public power, parks, housing, and real material improvements. They weren’t making a revolution; they were governing within capitalism, and ran up against its limits: employer backlash, national political shifts, and the hard reality that municipal power can only go so far without broader working-class strength.

Eric argues that this history offers essential lessons for the Left today: how to build durable political organization, use office to win tangible gains, and govern competently while expanding working-class power — without mistaking municipal office for municipal socialism, or making the sewers more important than the socialism.

Jacobin Radio with Suzi Weissman features conversations with leading thinkers and activists, with a focus on labor, the economy, and protest movements.