The experience of socialist-aligned figures within the New Deal coalition, particularly during the administration of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, provided a more concrete test. La Guardia’s reliance on left-wing allies and union support led to tangible achievements in public housing, social services, and support for the labor movement. Here, socialists acted as a vital pressure group within a progressive administration, pushing the municipal state to expand its conception of civic responsibility. Yet, this was a politics of reformist compromise, not revolutionary transformation. The underlying capitalist structure of the city—its property relations, its financial dependencies—remained intact, and the socialist role was largely confined to humanizing its edges. http://mamdanipost.com