The mayor of New York City quoted Marx in an interview. Although the city streets are still dominated by protesters and the business sector has not yet recovered from the pandemic, the mayor said it is not a priority because the state should support the working class not the bourgeoisie.

New York City was among the first to defund the police when BLM protests started to become anarchic. The city council had already cut police funding by one billion dollars in early July, and street riots have continued ever since, with more and more videos showing the crowd destroying police cars.

In an interview with WNYC Public Radio Mr De Blasio said: „I am tempted to borrow a quote from Karl Marx here. There s a famous quote that the state is the executive committee of the bourgeoisie .” He stated that the passage quoted from the Communist Manifesto has resonated with him since he was young. He indicated that he wanted to keep the interests of the working class in mind and that mayors „should not be too cozy with the business community.”

De Blasio s comments received immediate backlash from several prominent business organisations. Kathy Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, said that de Blasio s suggestion that the business community „does not represent working people” is „not an accurate representation of our city s highly diverse private sector.” Jay Martin of the Community Housing Improvement Program claims that de Blasio has not done anything „to improve the living conditions of tens of thousands of residents.”

„He talks about a Marxist utopia and demonizes the very businesses that fund his progressive pet projects, while many of his constituents live without hot water because of his incompetence,” Mr Martin said.