Socialist Core, IWU-FI sympathizers in the US
In a historic election, Zohran Mamdani, an activist and member of the reformist left-wing organization Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), became the youngest mayor of New York City in the last 100 years last night at just 34 years of age. His victory, bolstered by the youth vote, was overwhelming with more than one million votes, 50.4% of the vote, beating former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo (41.6%), who ran as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, and Republican Curtis Sliwa (7.1%) by a wide margin.
In his speech after the election victory was announced, Mamdani quoted union leader and socialist Eugene Debs and Indian nationalist Jawaharlal Nehru. He saluted New York’s working class, particularly those of immigrant origin, recalling that it is a city built by immigrants that will now be governed by an immigrant. He referred to Cuomo as a representative of politics at the service of a privileged minority and distanced himself from the cynicism of conventional American politics, heralding a new political era.
Looking ahead to his term as mayor, which will begin in January 2026, he reaffirmed his promise to make the city more accessible to its people by tackling the high cost of living through measures such as rent freezes, free buses, and universal access to daycare. He spoke of hiring more teachers and reducing bureaucratic spending. He also made defiant statements against oligarchy and authoritarianism, which he associated with President Trump. He promised to tackle tax evasion by the wealthy, like Trump, and to defend unionization. He openly campaigned as a democratic socialist and praised the work of more than 100,000 volunteers who participated in his campaign. Union support was fundamental to his victory.
Mamdani’s victory is an important defeat for the Right and Zionism. Mamdani overcame the fear campaign that portrayed him as an “Islamic communist” through thousands of coordinated messages, including videos made with artificial intelligence and similar resources. Mamdani overcame opposition from billionaires such as Elon Musk, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, fanatical Zionist businessman Bill Ackman, and President Trump himself, who called for a last-minute vote for Cuomo.
Despite pressure from the Zionist establishment within the Democratic Party, attempting to pressure Mamdani to retract his support for the Palestinian people and his rejection of Zionist apartheid and genocide in Gaza, Mamdani refused to condemn slogans such as Mamdani refused to condemn slogans such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” or “globalize the intifada,” and went so far as to declare that as mayor he would order Netanyahu’s arrest if he visited New York.
The Palestinian cause has created a major rift between the Democratic base which overwhelmingly rejects Zionist genocide, and the Democratic Party leadership, which supports Israel. Even left-leaning liberals such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez have voted in favor of sending “defensive” weapons to Israel in the midst of genocide.
New York’s Jewish community is the largest outside Israel, with more than two million people. Despite the campaign that slandered Mamdani as “anti-Semitic,” numerous anti-Zionist Jewish activists participated in his campaign, and according to a CNN poll, 33% of Jewish voters voted for Mamdani, representing a resounding failure for Zionist organizations such as the ADL, which campaigned against Mamdani.
Starting January 1, The Big Apple will have its first Muslim mayor. Mamdani managed to defeat the family dynasty represented by former Governor Cuomo and the silent sabotage of the Democratic Party leadership. All of the above represents not only a generational change but also an advance of the center-left in polarized US politics, displacing the old right-wing Democratic guard with its affinity for neoliberal programs. Trump has threatened to attack Mamdani’s administration, withholding economic resources and even militarizing the city, so popular organization and mobilization will be decisive in confronting and defeating the threats of the far-right president.
Mamdani presents himself as a figure of political renewal in the very financial center of US capitalism. His electoral platform mobilized a large segment of the youth and working class by addressing the main social problems afflicting the city: the high cost of living, the lack of affordable housing, high food prices, and the poor and expensive public transportation system.
His victory is also in some ways a reflection of the advance of the pro-Palestinian movement, with its camps and mobilizations against genocide, as well as resistance and rejection of Trump’s racist mass deportations. During the campaign, Cuomo launched repeated racist attacks and promoted Islamophobia, attempting to discredit Mamdani because of his origins, but failed.
The victory of Mamdani, who openly declares himself a socialist, is a striking development that shows that there is no unilateral advance of the Trumpist right in the US, but rather growing polarization. The greatest contradiction lies in the fact that Mamdani challenges the Democratic establishment but has, for the time being, fought the electoral battle from within that party, which helps to breathe life into an apparatus that for decades has been known as “the graveyard of social movements.”
In a country where anti-communist propaganda and racist anti-immigrant and Islamophobic rhetoric are commonplace, and were used to saturation point in the campaign against Mamdani, his overwhelming victory represents an unusual event that could boost the advancement of democratic, left-wing, and socialist projects in other parts of the country. The challenge remains to channel this youthful and working-class momentum and enthusiasm into building an independent left-wing organization, outside the liberal Democratic Party.
At Socialist Core and the IWU-FI, we believe that it would be a major step forward for the DSA to leave the Democratic Party in order to build a large independent left-wing and working-class party. Mamdani’s victory and his prestige would be a great contribution to this perspective.
Now, the Democratic Party and the defeated capitalists will redouble their efforts to achieve through negotiations what they could not achieve in the elections, pressuring Mamdani to abandon the most progressive aspects of his reform program, such as financing social programs with taxes on the rich.
Even before becoming mayor, Mamdani had been softening his political positions, for example by abandoning the idea of reducing the police budget. It will be up to popular organization and mobilization not only to confront Trumpist threats to turn New York into a city under siege, but also to prevent further capitulations by Mamdani. It is very important to stand with young people and workers in the face of this great challenge, while continuing to point out the need to build our own political organization to consolidate a genuine strategy for political, economic, and social change: an independent party of the Left and the working-class.
Socialist Core, IWU-FI sympathizers in the US
6/11/2025
