Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

The American media, big and small, left and right, are unanimous in noting the historic importance of the victory of Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old Muslim Democratic Socialist of Indian origin, who fights for workers, migrants, the poor, the excluded and the Palestinians, and who only became an American in 2018 after living in Uganda and South Africa. And they are also unanimous in seeing him as the next mayor of New York, given his clear victory over the Democratic establishment heavyweight, ex-mayor and ex-governor of New York Andrew Cuomo. And to think that Zohran Mamdani, unknown to the general public, won with 43.5% of the vote in an election marked by a historic turnout, even though the polls last February gave him just… 1% of the preferences of New York Democrats!

So how could such a miracle have happened, especially as Mamdani was up against the Democratic Establishment supported by North American big business and, under the radar, even by Trumpism? The answer is well known and has already been widely discussed and analysed in the United States: Mamdani’s ‘surreal’ victory was achieved thanks to the 50,000 volunteers (!) who worked hard for his candidacy for months, mobilizing the poor and excluded in New York’s underprivileged neighborhoods, who traditionally abstain or even vote for Trump. The lesson of this historic victory for those at the bottom, as headlined by The Nation, is eloquent: ’ A Democratic dynasty was shattered. Bill Clinton and Jim Clyburn could not save Cuomo. Michael Bloomberg’s millions could not save Cuomo. An endless barrage of furious advertising on the television and radio for weeks on end could not save Cuomo. The New York Times editorial board could not save Cuomo. One city died last night, and another was born.’ [1].

However, even 50,000 volunteers would not be enough to produce such a ‘miracle’ if they did not have a radical program to defend, capable of speaking to the hearts but also to the minds of those on the ground. So, to better understand what Zohran Mamdani’s campaign was like, let’s give the floor to one of these volunteers, the socialist, fighting trade unionist and New York underground train driver John Ferretti, interviewed by John Reimann before Mamdani’s victory: ’ I’m campaigning for him because his victory would be a stake through the heart of the business, the corrupt business associated Democratic Party leadership in New York City, in New York state, it would be a reordering of political priorities in favor of centering the working class and its needs and fighting for free childcare, Fighting for free busses that are fast and safe, fighting for a city where you have city run grocery stores that actually lower the price of groceries. And I think that Mamdani does the most effective job that I have ever seen of any mainstream political candidate running for office of of explaining socialism concretely in terms of people’s lived experiences ’. Because ‘He proposed some of the measures he went on to fight for: a minimum wage of $30 an hour, free childcare, free buses, etc., and a Department of Public Safety that did not criminalise the homeless or those with mental health problems’. [2]

And Ferretti goes on to explain that Mamdani ’ is launching a campaign that’s very heavy on policy, very heavy on advanced ideas that working class people often don’t get to discuss and think about but he does so in a concrete, relatable way that workers can understand. So like when he goes to rallies, he can start his slogans and people finish the slogans. You know, we’re going to freeze the rent, we’re going to provide free childcare, like people understand through the slogans in a concrete way, how this connects to their life and their interests” (...) ‘with a movement behind him, like the one we’re seeing in the streets right now, and also with every provocation from the Trump regime, it adds fuel and fire to the mass movement that we’re just seeing start to erupt, and I think it has a base with much more class consciousness than, for example, previous generations of struggle, like, even George Floyd’s movement.’.’

But John Ferretti goes further, tackling the thorniest political issue that has always plagued the American left, that of the third major party, the American Workers Party. So, he says, ’ I think that Mamdani would probably be in favor of a Labor Party. I mean, Mamdani is openly hostile and rejects the Democratic Party and the role that it’s played in abandoning workers over many, many decades. Um, he is not a Democrat. He is a Democratic socialist. He is. He does not he never introduces himself as a Democrat. He always introduces himself as a Democratic socialist, and he has basically said that Cuomo was funded by the same billionaires that put Donald Trump back in power!’

The 130 days leading up to the November elections for mayor of New York will see everything ultra-rich, reactionary, racist, obscurantist and establishment (both Democrat and Republican) in the US mobilized to the hilt, together with the panicked Zionist lobby Lobby
Lobbies A lobby is an entity organized to represent and defend the interests of a specific group by exerting pressure or influence on persons or institutions that hold power. Lobbying consists in conducting actions aimed at influencing, directly or indirectly, the drafting, application or interpretation of legislative measures, standards, regulations and more generally any intervention or decision by the Public Authorities. , to prevent ‘catastrophe’ by blocking Zohran Mamdani’s path. Jacobin has already informed us that one of the pillars of Trumpism, ‘Billionaire Bill Ackman and his rich friends want someone, anyone, to bring down Zohran Mamdani” [3], promising to invest hundreds of millions of dollars. But, barring Mamdani’s assassination (the FBI is already investigating the threats to his life), no one and nothing seems able to stop this great young speaker with breathtaking charisma, an expert on Africa and a former composer of rap and hip-hop music, who speaks to New Yorkers of Asian origin in Hindi and Urdu, and has no qualms about going on hunger strikes lasting several days with striking New York taxi drivers, or leading demonstrations in support of the martyred Palestinians in Gaza. Already actively supported by the third candidate in the primaries (11.5% of the vote) and above all by a huge and growing grassroots movement, Mamdani will no doubt be supported even by the trade union bureaucracies that preferred... Cuomo, but which are now feeling the asphyxiating pressure of their workers’ base.

It’s no coincidence that no one in the United States is hiding the fact that the person who should be most afraid of what’s happening in New York is Trump himself, a Trump who was quick to declare that Zohran Mamdani... ‘is a 100% communist lunatic’! Because what is certain is that the impact of the victory of the Mamdani “phenomenon” goes far beyond New York and even the United States. As Daniel Falcone so aptly put it on Counterpunch, ’ Mamdani’s bid for New York City mayor exemplified how international solidarity, racial identity, and transnational justice can energize a municipal campaign in direct confrontation with Cuomo’s establishment-backed approach. Operating simultaneously at the city, state, national and global levels of analysis, Mamdani’s insurgency showed how local governance has become an important place for world politics.’. [4] In fact, was it not Zohran Mamdani who made the slogan “Globalize Intifada’ both the emblem of his campaign and the battle cry of his political and social struggle?