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Time Magazine
a day ago
- Business
- Time Magazine
The Socialist Mayor Who Came 100 Years Before Zohran Mamdani
A young charismatic socialist politician runs for mayor in New York on a platform of lowering costs and improving quality of life for its lower classes. He challenges the corruption of the incumbent administration, eschews the mainstream media, and mobilizes voters alienated by both the Republican and Democratic establishment. He promises affordable transit and city-run groceries, scoring a shocking victory and becoming a national icon. That might sound like what has played out in New York City over the last month, as Zohran Mamdani has become a political sensation since winning the Democratic mayoral primary. But it's actually the story of what happened in Schenectady in 1911, when voters elected George Lunn mayor, a post he'd go on to hold for four terms. Over a century divides these two political stories. Yet, the history of Lunn's career offers pointers for how Democratic Socialist Mamdani can harness his political skills and newfound celebrity to make sustainable change, overcome attacks from the political opposition, and have a long, successful career. In 1911, Schenectady was one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S.; from 1900 to 1910, its population had increased nearly 130%, from 31,682 to 72,826. Like so many cities across the northeast and Midwest, this boom stemmed from rapid industrialization, most especially the growth of General Electric. G.E.'s hunger for labor, along with the needs of the American Locomotive Company, the city's other main employer, drew thousands to Schenectady, most notably and visibly working-class immigrants from Italy and Poland. Schenectady was a bustling, vibrant small city, but it was also bursting at the seams—the city's growth had outpaced its housing stock, its school system, its streets and sewers, and its 19th century administrative structure. The city's working-class residents found it difficult to afford transportation on streetcars and lived in crowded and unhealthy neighborhoods with no access to parks or playgrounds. Amid the rapid growth, politically connected businessmen couldn't resist the temptation to line the pockets of local politicians to ensure that they would profit from public contracts for building roads and schools. Read More: Zohran Mamdani's Upset Is a Seismic Moment for the Left Enter Lunn, a young Protestant minister who grew up in Iowa and Nebraska where he was imbued with a sympathy for the common people from the populist teachings of William Jennings Bryan. Lunn traveled east to do graduate work in economics and theology and was called to the elite First Reformed Church in Schenectady in 1904. The dynamic and popular preacher discomfited many in his parish with his increasingly pointed critiques of inequities and corruption in the city. In 1909, he resigned, and started his own working-class congregation and weekly newspaper—and increasingly found an affinity with the city's small but vocal Socialist Party. Socialism was on the march, it seemed. Hundreds of party members had been elected to city and state offices across the country, and a Socialist administration had just started running Milwaukee. While a critique of the capitalist system infused their messaging, these Socialists also aimed to provide public services and reduce the cost of living for working-class urban Americans. Their success inspired Lunn. In 1911, he declared himself the Socialist candidate for Mayor, with an ambitious platform. Lunn promised to provide low-cost necessities—groceries, coal, and ice for the pre-electric era iceboxes—by starting city-run businesses to compete with private merchants who exploited their poor customers. Additionally, he pledged to run an efficient, professional, and honest government in contrast to the corruption rife in both the Democratic and Republican parties in Schenectady City and County. In a four-way race (Democratic, Republican, Progressive, and Socialist), Lunn prevailed, bringing with him a Socialist majority on the City Council. One of his working-class supporters told a reporter, 'People got mighty sick of voting for Republicans and Democrats when it was a heads I win, tails you lose proposition.' This voter remarked that people wondered why the gap 'between the pay envelope and the grocer's and butcher's bills' was getting so tight. Lunn's message was attractive because he 'had a way of kind of harnessing words to ideas that had been running around loose in a lot of folks' minds.' Lunn, in his campaign, promised to 'go on, step by step… and demonstrate that we are fit to rule.' And so he did. The most 'socialist' parts of the new mayor's agenda never came to full fruition; local businesses challenged the city-run ice and grocery stores he launched and courts found them to be illegal. The city-run ice store shut down, while the grocery store became a co-op and then collapsed. Yet, undaunted, Lunn's 'sewer socialism' succeeded in other ways. After a court fight, the city-run coal dealership he created was reorganized as a quasi-private enterprise. It sold coal below the cost charged by local dealers and, in doing so, may have forced them to lower their prices. Among Lunn's other achievements, the city built a more robust public health system that led to a decrease in infant mortality, expanded the school system and provided free textbooks for students, created a Municipal Employment Bureau to undercut the exploitation of recent immigrants by private employment agents, and constructed a network of city parks that persists to this day. Lunn also rid the city of the 850 privies still fouling its soil and the Mohawk River by completing a long-stalled sewer system. Residents who opposed the extension had obtained an injunction to prevent the city from cutting down a tree in the way of excavation. Lunn went out with an axe, cut it down himself, paid a fine, and the pipe went in. Despite his socialist ideology, Lunn also won praise from business interests, including the management of G.E., for his emphasis on administrative efficiency. He reorganized city government, implemented a transparent bidding process for city contracts, and appointed a number of non-Socialists to important administrative posts. Even though economics were his focus, Lunn didn't shy away from the culture war issues of the day. He fervently supported women's suffrage, which at the time had had a losing track record in New York State. Read More: How Zohran Mamdani Plans to Fix New York City's Housing Crisis Despite his robust platform, however, Lunn's flavor of socialism disappointed his more radical colleagues, including a young Walter Lippmann. Before becoming one of the preeminent political commentators of the mid-20th century, Lippmann was a hair-on-fire Socialist, who came as a young Harvard grad to work as Lunn's personal secretary. He left after four months, disappointed with the decidedly non-radical flavor of the mayor's socialism: 'I have often thought of the slashing articles the Socialists in Schenectady would write about the present administration if they weren't responsible for the administration,' he griped. Lunn's moderation wasn't enough to placate Schenectady's more conservative political powers either. The other three parties formed a fusion ticket in 1913 to try to beat Lunn. They succeeded, in part because the mayor was distracted by affairs beyond Schenectady—most especially his arrest at a rally for strikers affiliated with the radical International Workers of the World union in nearby Little Falls. But the opposition couldn't wipe out Lunn's charisma or his accomplishments in improving the quality of life in the city through 'good' government. That enabled Lunn to return to the mayor's office again in 1915. But he was soon ejected from the local Socialist Party for refusing to allow the Party to dictate appointments to city jobs. Lunn then rebranded himself as a progressive Democrat. He went on to serve a term in Congress, two more terms as Mayor, a stint as Lieutenant Governor under Al Smith, and then, finally, 17 years as the head of New York State's Public Service Commission. He retired in 1942. What lessons can Mamdani learn from Lunn's successes and failures should he win the general election campaign in New York City? He's hoping to run a vastly larger and more complex political, economic, and social entity than the Schenectady that Lunn led. Even so, Lunn's career makes clear the importance of making a tangible difference in residents' lives. Lunn's brand of reform disrupted the corrupt and complacent, empowered talent without regard to political allegiance, and relentlessly focused on the common good of his constituents. His track record in Schenectady produced visible, tangible achievements, and even his failures, such as the city-run ice business, nonetheless signaled where Lunn's values lay in ways that resonated with working class voters. Like Lunn, Mamdani will undoubtedly come under attack from the opposition, but if he can harness his considerable charisma and communication skills to make people's lives better, he too can overcome them and leave a lasting mark. Andrew Morris is professor and chair of the Department of History at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.
BBC News
22-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
Spelthorne litter pickers get King's Award for Voluntary Service
A Surrey litter picking group has been presented with an "MBE for charities" to mark its work to keep the community Litter Pickers was formed in 2020 with the aim of keeping the borough clean through volunteer events across the group has now been honoured with the King's Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award given to volunteer groups in the Lunn, co-founder of the group, said receiving the award was "really special" and had spurred them on to continue their work. She added: "The group has really made a difference. I think everyone is really delighted that we have been recognised even though what we do is not glamorous."Receiving the award was absolutely amazing. It was a really big achievement and everybody feels it." Formed during the Covid-19 pandemic, Ms Lunn added that the group now includes volunteers ranging from five years old to group carries out a monthly litter pick across the area as well as encouraging volunteers to do their own work in their own added that, since forming, the group has led efforts to clean up Spelthorne, including getting a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) for the area to tackle littered nitrous oxide pickers from the group collected the award at a ceremony at Spelthorne Borough Council on Tuesday, 15 award was first created in 2002 as the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service to celebrate the Golden King's Award is equivalent to an MBE for Majesty's Lord Lieutenant of Surrey Michael More-Molyneux, who presented the award, said: "It was a pleasure to present this award to the Spelthorne Litter Pickers."They carry out fantastic voluntary work in Spelthorne and fully deserve our thanks and the recognition that comes with this award."
BBC News
20-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
Bradford Cathedral loom to weave tapestry of city's story
Visitors to Bradford Cathedral are to get the chance to use a loom to help weave a tapestry celebrating the city's textile tapestry will be created for the Weaving Stories project, which is part of Bradford 2025 UK City of "regardless of skill or experience" could have a go on the loom and there would be guidance in several languages about how to weave, a spokesperson for the project added that it was "about more than preserving history, it's about bringing people together". The Rev Canon Ned Lunn, canon for intercultural mission and the arts at Bradford Cathedral, said it was "really important as this year's UK City of Culture to place ourselves as the storytellers of the city, to be able to remind people of the length of the story, not just the industry."One of the major things of the UK's City of Culture is to look for legacy, and we are wanting to create a legacy piece, a tapestry which is made by the people of Bradford for the people of Bradford." The more intricate parts of the tapestry were expected to be completed by a small group of volunteers with experience in embroidery, stitching or textile work, the spokesperson for the project members of the West Riding Stone Carving Association would create stone weights to help support the completed tapestry, each carved with words and phrases taken from the stories which had been project would be run in partnership with Haworth Scouring and the Bradford Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers, who had sourced and spun the wool that would be used to create the tapestry, the spokesperson individuals and community groups were also invited to contribute to a "sound tapestry" which would form a collection of recorded voices and Canon Lunn said: "By taking part, you will help safeguard an at-risk heritage craft, learn new skills, and build lasting connections with one of Bradford's most significant cultural spaces."The tapestry project is expected to get under way at Bradford Cathedral on 10 May, and the finished piece will go on display there next February. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
15-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
Rotherham 'mum to many' celebrates 50 years of fostering
A dedicated foster carer has marked a milestone after caring for more than 200 children over the past five Lunn, 80, who was recognised for her services to fostering with an MBE in 2019, was celebrated at a special event held at Rotherham Town Lunn, from North Anston, said she had been taken to the event to celebrate "under false pretences" and could not believe it was organised in her honour."It was a complete and utter shock," she told the BBC, "I think if anyone had pushed me, I would have dropped to the floor." Mrs Lunn was told the event last week was an award ceremony for a friend but spotted friends, family and foster children from the past and present when she arrived."I just didn't know what to do, my legs went to jelly," she said."I get quite emotional when I think about it. It was an absolutely fantastic afternoon." 'Amazing' Mrs Lunn was presented with a gift by Rotherham's mayor on behalf of the borough and many shared stories of how "Auntie Christine" had shaped their lives, the Local Democracy Reporting Service those was Jane, the first child Mrs Lunn fostered, who spent six weeks in her care as a said: "She's just amazing with what she does. "I'm a parent-of-three and it's hard work so to keep on doing what she's doing at her age, it's the next level."Mrs Lunn's fostering journey began with her late husband Peter in 1975, when their daughter was just date, Mrs Lunn has looked after more than 250 children, and said it was "seeing the happy outcomes" that kept her going. Rotherham councillor Victoria Cusworth said: "There is nothing I can say that will come close to demonstrating the gratitude we owe Christine for her dedication to children and young people, but the world is simply a much better place because of her."Mrs Lunn, who received the BBC's Make a Difference Carers Award in 2023, said she was still not ready to retire."I feel so lucky to have been able to carry on this long," she said."I just wish I was 20 years younger and I had 20 years to do."Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How one startup coordinates your payments
This story was originally published on Payments Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Payments Dive newsletter. Payment orchestration firm Gr4vy was founded in 2021 amid the global pandemic, with merchants around the world scrambling to adjust to sales that had rushed fully online, virtually overnight. In this rapid migration to digital and massive new volume online, many retailers found their payment systems lacking, Gr4vy's founder and chief executive, John Lunn, said in an April 3 interview. The company's cloud-based platform supports some 400 alternative payment types, along with anti-fraud and other software tools, he said. Gr4vy (pronounced like the sauce) has about 50 employees in 14 countries, all of whom work remotely. The company, which calls Silicon Valley home, has raised about $27 million and is funding its growth through sales, aiming to avoid further fundraising. Gr4vy isn't profitable yet, Lunn said, declining to specify when the company may achieve that. Gr4y's orchestration tools are used for commerce globally across a variety of industries, including at Grammarly, the San Francisco-based software company; Event Cinemas, an Australian movie theater chain; Corendon Airlines, a Turkish leisure carrier; Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that oversees Wikipedia; and Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycle, which adopted Gr4vy's platform last month. A U.K. native and former PayPal Holdings executive, Lunn was previously at payments service provider CyberSource, which Visa acquired in 2010. He also worked on launching PayPal's venture capital investment operation and has advised companies in the payments industry. Lest you're curious why Gr4vy carries a '4' in its name, in lieu of the vowel, the reason concerns a cash-strapped startup's need to conserve funds. 'The domain gravy (dot-com) with an A in it was $1.5 million. The domain gravy with a four in it was $5,' Lunn said. Editor's note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. JOHN LUNN: We're a technology layer that sits between mainly retailers and the rest of the financial ecosystem when it comes to payments. There's lots of payment service providers (PSPs) out there, anti-fraud companies and payment choices. The traditional way for a retailer to interact is to connect to one or many of those and then manage all of those connections and repayments they need to go through. They usually will build a payments team that manages those connections, manages that technology and that software. What Gr4vy does is provide a piece of technology that steps in and gives you all of that functionality, so your head of payments and your team can essentially move faster because they're not having to build and maintain everything with custom code. They didn't have a choice before. It's very similar to other stories in technology. You probably connected to one PSP to start with, when you were small, and then as you grew, you added more functionality. So maybe you connected to something like a Stripe, and then six months later you go and add PayPal. Then you maybe add a firm, and then you go global, and you need to do that. Traditionally, companies have grown organically by just adding more and more of those connectors. And accordingly, their payments teams have got bigger and bigger, and you've got some companies now that (have) nothing to do with payments, but have 300 plus payment people, payment teams, because they had to grow this group organically from that setup. As I spent a lot of time talking to retailers, and I realized you're all building the same thing, you're all building independently with custom code. This makes no sense. Let's build a tool that does this. We work with them as partners. We'll sit above the PSP or gateways. The gateways themselves will be the ones who are connecting to the acquirers, and the acquirers will be connecting to the Visas or Mastercards. So, we're higher in the process when it comes to motion integration. As we've grown, those schemes have become increasingly more interested in Gr4vy because they now say, 'Look, I could create this new product, and I could go to every PSP in the world and launch it, or I could go to Gr4vy, which is connected up to most of those PSPs, and launch it, and then I get access to those merchants and all those PSPs.' Most U.S. retailers are going to need to process cards, right? They need to accept cards because that's what consumers want. We will make it easier for them to integrate other payment types as well. Things like open banking in Europe or pay-by-bank in Australia. We support over 400 different alternative payment types. So, yes, we make it easy as a merchant to add other things, to give the consumer choice, perhaps to give them pricing advantages. But we can't solve the problem of how much acquirers are charging for Visa or Mastercard transactions or Amex or whoever else, because that's between them and their acquirers. We don't touch the money. We're a technology event. Usually, when a merchant comes to talk to us, it's because something has happened with their status quo that makes them reconsider what they've got. When we started Gr4vy four years ago, I talked to a venture capitalist who said, 'In North America, most retailers are single acquirer. They have one acquirer. That's it. Why would anyone need Gr4vy?' If you saw the stats that came out recently, 60% of North American merchants are considering having a second acquirer right now. So, we've seen that trend change very rapidly over the last few years, where just having one source for everything is changing now. Merchants have realized having two not only increases your chance to get a successful authorization, it gives you increased negotiating power, gives you the ability to optimize, etc, etc. What we've seen is that fundamental change among North America merchants, where they've realized that having more than one is a good thing, and it gives us more choice and more power. This is a huge market, in my view. I was at MAG (Merchant Advisory Group) conference earlier in the year and on stage a very senior member of MAG said that every merchant here will be using orchestration in the next five years. I think the market is ginormous. I think you have specialization in orchestration. I don't think there's going to be one winner. I think you're going to end up with a similar situation you have today, where there's some orchestrations that specialize in SMB (small-medium business). There's orchestrators that specialize in enterprise-large merchant. There's going to be some specific to travel and airlines, some are specific to gambling and gaming. I mean, it's a huge, huge market, but yeah, we have competition. We have people doing similar things in different ways. But my largest source of competition is the in-house team who wants to keep on doing it the way they did it. That's my biggest competition. A lot of people call themselves orchestrators. The term has been slightly co-opted in that it got very trendy, very quickly. A lot of companies decided they did payment orchestration when they weren't really doing anything different than they've ever done in the past. The difference between us, where we do pure-play payment orchestration, is what we do in infrastructure — give control to the merchant — is very different than a gateway that has connections to multiple payment types. They'll call themselves an orchestrator because they can do Visa, Mastercard, Affirm and PayPal. That, in our view, is not orchestration. That is a gateway. But it sounds better in your marketing message to call yourself an orchestrator. There's a small (group), maybe 11 or 12 globally, payment orchestrators that do what we would call pure-play payment orchestration. We have got two main parts of the business. We have very, very large retailers, merchants, and that's kind of where we sit. We work with the larger end of the industry that have the harder problems to solve, and we've designed a platform to be very flexible and work for that particular segment. So, we would see ourselves sitting in the large, midsize enterprise space. The second side of our business is we actually serve platforms who serve merchants. We're working with other payment service providers. We're working with (independent sales organizations), we're working with software platforms and people who want to get into the payment business to provide them with infrastructure so they can do that. At the moment, it's early days, but I think the chances of us making it to IPO and not being acquired are pretty slim, because we're becoming increasingly that sort of important piece on the chess board. Sign in to access your portfolio
