Retrieving the revolutionary spirit of Abbie Hoffman, the New School for Social Research launched a new fall course, LSOC 3109 – How to Steal. Taught by Harvard-trained sociologist Cresa Pugh the course couldn’t come at a more opportune time as New York City prepares to elect its first openly Socialist mayor, Zohran Kwame Mamdani.

“Students will critically examine what it means to steal—from whom, for whom, and why—through site visits and fieldwork in places where capital is hoarded and value is contested: corporate storefronts, grocery chains, museums, libraries, banks, and cultural institutions. We will ask: Is it possible to steal back what was already stolen?”

New York City voters are betting yes, and New School is ready to show the way. Once hizzoner succeeds in defunding the police, emptying the jails, legalizing shoplifting, eliminating evictions, supporting squatters’ rights, and turning the Big Apple into a workers’ paradise, courses like this will prepare New School’s graduates with critical socialist skills.

“Readings will span critical theory, political economy, abolitionist thought, and radical histories of expropriation and redistribution. Students will produce field journals, collective mappings, and speculative strategies for redistributing wealth, knowledge, and beauty.” 

As the city spirals into a grand experiment in what Professor Pugh calls imaginative justice, New School grads—armed with their field journals and righteous indignation—will be ready to storm the barricades of bourgeois property. Grab your popcorn and enjoy the show as they liberate New York from the shackles of capitalist morality, serving as the vanguard of the revolution to come.