Jacobin Radio: Sewer Socialism w/ Eric Blanc

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

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4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

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Summary

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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Jacobin Radio. I'm Susie Wiseman.
0:19.0	Today we turn to a forgotten but suddenly very relevant chapter
0:22.7	in American socialist history, the sewer socialists of Milwaukee. For decades in the early
0:28.3	20th century, Milwaukee elected socialist mayors and city councilors who built a reputation for
0:34.2	clean government, public ownership, and delivering real material gains for working
0:38.5	people, municipal power, public parks, housing, and infrastructure that actually worked. Their legacy
0:45.1	has often been disparaged or misunderstood, dismissed as technocratic or overly cautious. But a new
0:51.5	article by historian Eric Blanc argues that the Milwaukee Socialists
0:55.9	offer crucial lessons for today's left, especially right now in New York City, where
1:00.4	Zaraan, Mamdani's breakthrough victory has opened the door to a democratic socialist
1:05.9	governing in one of the most powerful cities in the world. Eric Blanc joins me to unpack the history behind
1:12.6	the sewer socialists, what they accomplished, what ultimately constrained them and what lessons
1:17.8	their experience holds for contemporary socialist elected officials, from building durable
1:22.9	working class institutions to governing competently and confronting the structural limits of municipal
1:29.2	power.
1:29.9	Stay tuned as we dig into a history that speaks directly to the political moment we're
1:34.5	entering today when our program returns in just a moment. Support for Jacobin Radio comes from the Regrettable Century podcast.
1:55.0	The history of socialism is a history of experiments that were inspiring and heroic, but could not take hold, spread,
2:02.1	and prevail. Capital still dominates the world and our lives. Regrettable Century explores
2:07.7	what we can learn from the high and low points of the worker movement and what we can do
2:12.2	in the face of today's contradictions and crises. Listen to the regrettable century wherever you get your podcasts.
2:21.5	Welcome back. I'm Susie Wiseman. Today we're looking at a piece of American socialist history
	...

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