NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Mayor Bill de Blasio quoted communist thinker Karl Marx during an interview on Friday morning.
De Blasio cited the quote during an appearance on The Brian Lehrer Show, when asked about his rocky history with Wall Street and if that makes it difficult for him to work with business leaders on an economic recovery.
“Look, there’s an underlying truth in the fact that my focus has not been on the business community and the elites,” de Blasio said. “And bluntly, I mean my predecessor certainly focused that way and many mayors have. I think that’s unfortunately—I think this is a profound problem, and I’m tempted to borrow a quote from Karl Marx here when he says—”
“They’ll love that on Wall Street,” Lehrer interjected.
“Yes, they will,” the mayor laughed.
“There’s a famous quote that, ‘The state is the executive committee of the bourgeoisie.’ And I use it openly to say, ‘No.’ I actually read that when I was a young person. I said, ‘Well, no, that’s not the way it’s supposed to be.’”
The Marx quote de Blasio appeared to be citing is: “The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.”
“The business community matters,” de Blasio added. “We need to work with the business community. We will work with the business community. But the city government represents the people, represents working people. And, you know, mayors should not be too cozy with the business community. Governors should not be too cozy with the business community.”
The mayor continued: “There are more and more people in the business community, to be fair, who are seeing the problems and the inequalities and are actually starting to speak up about it more.”
“But a lot of folks have just sort of hit a wall when I say guys, ‘You’re going to have to pay more in taxes and we’re going to have policies that favor working people more,’” de Blasio said.