Overview
PolitiFact, a so-called “fact checker,” claims it is “false” that New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont are “communists.” PolitiFact also alleges that calling them communists is “a red scare tactic.”
PolitiFact’s article, written by Ella Moore and Amy Sherman, relies heavily on the opinions of “experts” and is bereft of primary sources on the doctrines of communism. It also downplays and ignores pivotal statements of Mamdani and Sanders.
The actual facts of this matter show that the defining positions of Mamdani and Sanders accord with key elements of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, the Soviet Constitution, and the official Law of the Soviet State.
This is important because communism is notoriously associated with widespread poverty and the trampling of rights assured by the U.S. Constitution.
“Communism” & “Democratic Socialism”
Mamdani and Sanders reject the label “communist” and differentiate themselves as “democratic socialists,” a narrative that PolitiFact uncritically repeats.
That argument falls apart in light of the fact that the Law of the Soviet State (1938) refers to the USSR as a “socialist democracy” more than 40 times.
Likewise, a Harvard University Press book about communism explains that “the Russian Social Democrats, better known to history as the Bolsheviks, decided in November 1917 to call themselves ‘Communists’.”
The word “Bolshevik” literally means “one of the majority,” and Bolsheviks were members of the “Russian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party.”
In short, Communists’ descriptions of themselves as members of a “socialist democracy,” “Social Democrats,” and “Social-Democratic” are virtually identical to Mamdani’s and Sanders’ descriptions of themselves as “democratic socialists.”
Given that the meaning of words can differ over time and place, this doesn’t constitute proof that Mamdani and Sanders are communists, but the verbal distinction they draw between “communism” and “democratic socialism” is tenuous.
Democracy & Government Control
PolitiFact claims that, unlike communists, Mamdani “hasn’t called for eliminating democracy” and doesn’t favor “government takeover of private property and control of industry.”
Contrary to the notion that communism opposes democracy, the Communist Manifesto calls for winning “the battle of democracy” so that government controls all “communication,” “property,” “transport,” “factories,” “credit,” and “agriculture.”
In perfect accord with that goal, Mamdani is a self-described “proud member” of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which calls for using “democracy” to “collectively own the key economic drivers that dominate our lives, such as energy production and transportation.”
Mamdani isn’t merely a run-of-the mill DSA member but delivered the keynote speech at their 2023 National Convention.
Leaving no doubt about his view of democracy, Mamdani stated during a 2021 DSA conference that “the end goal” is “seizing the means of production,” which “we firmly believe in.” He also urged his colleagues to not abandon this issue and other positions that are “correct” and “right” even though “we do not have” a “groundswell of popular support” for them “at this very moment.”
Although Sanders has been praised by a New York Times Magazine contributor for “almost single-handedly” spurring the membership and political “boom” of DSA, he isn’t a member of the group and said in 2015 during his first run for president, “I don’t believe government should own the means of production.”
But back in the 1980s before he was elected to national office, Sanders proposed using politics (i.e., democracy) to achieve “public ownership of significant parts of the economy.”
And back in 1970s, Sanders explicitly and repeatedly called for government to seize large sectors of the economy, including “banks and major industries,” “gigantic” energy companies like “Exxon,” “drug companies,” “private electric companies without compensation to the banks and wealthy stockholders who own the vast majority of stock in these companies,” and all “the major means of production.”
In stark contrast to Marx, Mamdani, and pre-national Sanders, the founders of the U.S. explicitly rejected “a pure democracy” where a majority can seize private property and use the power of government to do most anything they want. Conversely, the Soviets demanded this and approvingly called it “the dictatorship of the proletariat, a new Soviet democracy for all the toilers.”
James Madison, the “father of the Constitution” and primary author of the Bill of Rights, emphasized in the Federalist Papers that “such democracies” are “incompatible with personal security” and have “been as short in their lives, as they have been violent in their deaths.”
That is why Madison stated near the outset of the Constitutional Convention that their mission was to “frame a republican system” of government to protect the rights of individuals from the will of the majority. In accord with this principle, the founders created a democratic constitutional republic with strong checks on the power of government in order to “guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part.”
The Law of the Soviet State scorns that system as “bourgeois democracy” and claims that “Soviet democracy and the Soviet state are a million times more democratic than the most democratic bourgeois republic.”
That was pure propaganda because all of the actual power in the Soviet Union was in the hands of a few elites, However, the point remains that communism and democracy aren’t mutually exclusive, and democracy can be used in totalitarian ways that have been embraced by Mamdani and Sanders.
Small Business
PolitiFact claims that Mamdani’s positions are “not akin to communism” since he “does not call for getting rid of private ownership” and because “one of the goals included on his website is to ‘make it faster, easier, and cheaper to start and run a business’.”
Here again, PolitiFact displays a weak understanding of communism and distorts the views of Mamdani.
First, the Soviet Constitution “permits the small private economy of individual peasants and handicraftsmen based on their personal labour.”
Second, the full context of Mamdani’s quote cited by PolitiFact shows that it only applies to “small businesses,” similar to the Soviet Constitution.
Healthcare
There is no daylight between Mamdani, Sanders, and the Soviet Constitution on the issue of healthcare.
Mamdani has written, “We need to abolish private insurance, institute single-payer & nationalize the medical supply chain immediately.”
Likewise, Sanders has incessantly called for “Medicare for All—not some, or a few, or most” but “ALL.”
Sanders has also asserted dozens of times that “healthcare” is a “right,” a claim which is rooted in the Soviet Constitution, which declares a “right” to “medical” care.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Constitution, which Sanders swore to uphold, doesn’t specify or countenance even a single social program, much less call them “rights.” Instead, it recognizes inalienable rights that shall not be infringed like “life,” “liberty,” and “freedom of speech.”
Moreover, what Sanders and the Soviets call a “right to healthcare” is actually an entitlement to get in line for services that government rations through “waiting lists, gatekeeping, and limiting individuals’ choices,” as documented in the Encyclopedia of Health Economics.
Sanders alleges that “every other major country recognizes” healthcare as a “right,” which is far from true. And even among nations that do so, they ultimately derived this doctrine from the Soviet Union, which was the “first country in the world to provide health services to the entire population as a public service paid from the state treasury.”
Banning Guns
Spurning the right to keep and bear arms in the U.S. Constitution, Mamdani posted to X in 2022, “We need to ban all guns.”
That position is further to the left of the Soviet Union, which had very strict gun control but not a total ban. Per a 1973 Library of Congress report, “acquisition and possession of firearms in the Soviet Union are subject to severe restrictions and limitations imposed by the State.”
Landlords and Capitalists
The Soviet Constitution praises the “overthrow of the landlords and capitalists” and declares that “the bulk of the dwelling houses in the cities and industrial localities, are state property.”
Likewise, DSA calls for overthrowing the “capitalist class,” and Mamdani starred in a 2021 video for the Gravel Institute in which he called for the full government takeover of housing. In this video, he stated:
We’re facing an unprecedented wave of evictions and foreclosures that will crash straight into millions of struggling families across the country. …
At the root of all of this suffering is that the fact that in this country, housing is treated as a commodity, not a right. …
If we want to end the housing crisis, the solution has to be moving toward the full de-commodification of housing. In other words, moving away from the status quo in which most people access housing by purchasing it on the market and toward a future where we guarantee high quality housing to all as a human right.
Tempering that position in his mayoral race, Mamdani’s campaign website says that “he will immediately freeze the rent for all stabilized tenants” while forcing landlords to make more repairs. If they don’t do this and demonstrate “consistent neglect for their tenants,” Mamdani promises to “take control of their properties” in the “most extreme cases.”
Food
The Soviet Constitution mandates “public enterprises in collective farms and cooperative organizations,” and the Law of the Soviet State explains that the “Soviets began to control the activity of various organs concerned with food supply and to employ revolutionary measures (of confiscation and requisition) in the struggle with speculation, and so forth.”
Likewise, Mamdani says that he “will create a network of city-owned grocery stores” that won’t “pay rent or property taxes.” This will provide them with a competitive advantage that could drive out private supermarkets, especially since grocery store profit margins averaged only 1% to 3% during 2018 to 2023.
Childcare
The Soviet Constitution guarantees “a wide network” of “nurseries and kindergartens.”
Likewise, Sanders calls for “universal childcare and pre-kindergarten,” and Mamdani says that he “will implement free childcare for every New Yorker aged 6 weeks to 5 years.”
This enables government to indoctrinate children from the cradle, as was done in the Soviet Union.
Transportation
The Soviet Constitution declares that “rail, water and air transport” are all the property of government.
Taking that a step further, Mamdani’s campaign website says that “he’ll permanently eliminate the fare on every city bus.” In other words, he also wants to socialize the demand, not just the supply.
32-Hour Workweek
The Soviet Constitution declares a “right” to “the reduction of the working day to seven hours.”
Similarly, Sanders has proposed legislation to mandate “a 32-hour workweek with no loss of pay” and says this “is not a radical idea.”
Paid Maternity & Sick Leave
The Soviet Constitution declares a “right” to “pre-maternity and maternity leave with full pay and the “right to maintenance” in “the case of sickness.”
Likewise, Sanders wants government to provide workers with “at least twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave” “after a new birth, to care for a sick loved one, or if they themselves are ill.”
Sanders alleges this will only cost workers “$1.61 a week,” a claim reminiscent of President Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 promise that “hospital insurance” (i.e., Medicare Part A) would cost “no more than $1 a month” per worker.
Adjusted for inflation, $1 in 1964 equals $10 in 2025, but the Medicare payroll tax is now unlimited and costs workers 2.9% of their wages up $200,000/year and 3.8% thereafter. Workers who earn $1 million/year pay about $3,000/month for this tax.
Paid Vacations
The Soviet Constitution declared a “right” to “annual vacations with full pay.”
Likewise, Sanders wants government to “guarantee all workers” “paid vacation.”
Retirement
The Soviet Constitution declares a “right” to “maintenance in old age.”
Likewise, Sanders says that government should grant everyone the “right to a secure retirement.”
Higher Education
The Soviet Constitution declares a “right” to “education” that is “ensured by universal, compulsory elementary education; by education, including higher education, being free of charge; by the system of state stipends for the overwhelming majority of students in the universities and colleges.”
Likewise, Sanders says that “public education for all—from childcare and pre-kindergarten through college” should be a “right.”
Conclusion
Beyond the broad affinity of Mamdani and Sanders for communist policies, they are also quick to impugn the U.S. and its largely free market economy, even though it provides the highest average standard of living in the world.
For example, Sanders condemns the U.S. for allegedly having “the highest rate of childhood poverty of nearly any major country on earth.” In reality, Sanders is using misleading data, and even the poorest 20% of people in the U.S. consume more goods and services than the national averages for all people in most affluent countries.
Conversely, the nation that provided the exemplar for much of Sanders’ and Mamdani’s agenda was wracked by poverty. As documented in the academic serial work Quality of Life in the Soviet Union, the “living standard” there in 1976 “was roughly one third that of the United States.”
Mamdani and Sanders haven’t endorsed darker aspects of communism mentioned in the Law of the Soviet State, like “depriving the bourgeoisie” of the ability to vote, outlawing “freedom of speech” for “the foes of socialism,” and having “the exploiter classes in the country” “liquidated.”
However, the Law of the Soviet State explains that such policies are not “according to the plan” of communism and are “not a matter of the proletarian dictatorship in general” but things that “developed spontaneously during the course of the struggle.”
Sanders said something very similar after he traveled to the Soviet Union in 1988 for a diplomatic trip/honeymoon. In the wake of this, he held a press conference in which he praised and critiqued various aspects of the Soviet Union while making this telling comment:
At least some of the people that we met, from some of their lips, I was very impressed by their desire to become a democratic society and move fully into some of their early visions of their revolution—what their revolution was about in 1917.
They understand in many ways that they have had an abysmal history since then, and they want to go back to some of their early visions, and we certainly wish them well in that.
In summary, Sanders is in favor of utopian communism without the despots and gulags, although that is what communism has typically descended into throughout history.
Only by twisting and ignoring the doctrines of communism and the words of Mamdani and Sanders can PolitiFact conclusively assert that they are not communists. Instead, the facts are clear that Mamdani and Sanders have embraced many fundamental aspects of communism detailed in the Communist Manifesto, the Soviet Constitution, and the Law of the Soviet State.
James D. Agresti is the president of Just Facts, a research and educational institute dedicated to publishing facts about public policies and teaching research skills.
