The leaders of America’s socialist movement are calling for rent strikes, denouncing capitalism and pillorying the rich. Some of them are doing it from private beach clubs, luxury cars and million-dollar homes.
Grace Ryan, a 25-year-old chocolate heiress and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was lambasted recently on social media for promoting the DSA’s principles while also posting photos from a lifestyle that appears far more comfortable than anyone in the proletariat.
Ms. Ryan, a New York University graduate, canvassed for socialist Brad Lander’s successful congressional primary win in New York City’s 7th District. She posted on social media about visiting the beach club in Montauk, New York, and shared several images of herself relaxing at her family’s lake house.
In one photo, she’s sitting aboard a luxury pontoon boat wearing a $400 Ralph Lauren sweater. In another snap, she’s cuddling her black Labrador retriever mix next to a $100,000 GMC Hummer EV.
“Certified Marie Antoinette moment,” one poster remarked on social media.
Ms. Ryan actually describes herself as a “LuLu Lenin,” and she’s just one of the DSA figures who come from affluent families that help them survive New York City’s brutally high cost of living.
“The organization is quite culturally affluent, with many members coming from the professional-managerial class,” said former DSA member Jake Altman. “Prominent leading members clearly come from well-to-do backgrounds and attended elite schools. In this way, they look a lot more like radical student groups from the 1960s and 1970s. Yes, they tend to live in a privileged bubble where their ideology is supported and affirmed by their peers.”
He warned in the Free Press last month that many socialists “really do believe a revolution will liberate the world from capitalism, all while enjoying chic coffee shops.”
They are led by New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a DSA star who also grew up privileged. He lived well-off in Uganda and South Africa before moving to New York City, where he attended the posh and pricey private Bank Street School. At that time, his dad taught at Columbia University and his mother produced Hollywood films.
New York City DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo resides in a $1.5 million, 2,400-square-foot row house in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood that his wealthy father, an engineer who built his company’s fortune with big clients including AT&T, purchased for him and his brother.
Like Ms. Ryan, Mr. Gordillo doesn’t appear to be employed outside of his work for the DSA. His X handle is @uniongustavo, a nod to his time in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ electrical-construction apprenticeship program.
The IBEW said they dropped him from the program after he failed to show up or pay dues.
Another of New York City’s rising socialist stars is Tracy Rosenthal, daughter of four-time Grammy-winning music producer Steve Rosenthal, whose Manhattan studio recorded music from David Bowie, Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, Coldplay and other major talents.
Ms. Rosenthal has walked the red carpet with her dad at the Grammys. She is now leading a years-long tenant rent strike in her building after spotting cockroaches in her Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment and discovering the landlord had exceeded the limit of rental units allowed.
The author of “Abolish Rent,” Ms. Rosenthal serves informally as a rent adviser to Mayor Zohran Mamdani. She appeared alongside him at a City Hall event in May to call for holding “bad landlords” accountable.
Ms. Rosenthal owes more than $100,000 in back rent and is being sued by U.S. Bank, which recently purchased the building and accused her and other non-paying tenants of squatting.
The night of Mr. Mamdani’s shock Democratic primary victory, Ms. Rosenthal posted on her now-locked X account: “Death to America long life New York City!!!!”
Socialist-Marxist influencer Hasan Piker, who hails from a wealthy Turkish family, has an estimated worth of $8 million to $10 million. He lives in a $2.7 million home in West Hollywood and drives a Porsche while railing online against capitalism and enthusiastically backing his fellow socialists’ goal of impoverishing the White middle class.
He defends his monied existence, telling Al Jazeera that he no longer runs ads on his popular livestreams, which he said provide his revenue.
Mr. Piker described himself as “a class traitor,” who can “present an alternative” to capitalism that will help as many people as possible. Mr. Piker said he would rather be a rich socialist “than a broke boy defending capitalism.”
Ms. Ryan, who lives in a rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn, is also unapologetic about her affluence.
“Everyone’s trying to dunk on me for being a progressive from a privileged background but like have y’all never heard of noblesse oblige? I have a moral obligation to use my advantages to help those who are struggling,” she posted last week.
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.