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| Zohran Mamdani speaking after his victory in the 2025 New York City Mayoral election. Source: Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung |
In
the words of Eugene V. Debs, quoted by Mamdani in his victory speech: "I can
see the dawn of a better day for humanity.”
Zohran Mamdani is now the New York
City Mayor-Elect. On New Year’s Day in 2026, he will be sworn in as the 111th
Mayor of New York City. Zohran will be many things. In New York he will be the
first Indian-American mayor, the first Ugandan-American mayor, the first
Millennial mayor, the first Muslim mayor, the youngest mayor in New York City
since 1892, but most importantly, he is a Democratic Socialist.
This highlights an important aspect of electoral politics. It’s typical for Socialists to be cynical of electoralism and for good reasons. Democracy in a Liberal framework is often performed in the framework of Capitalism, a system in which Socialists are opposed to by definition. The system will always try to hamper a truly progressive voice because it seeks to protect its own interests. Nowhere is this a bigger reality than in the United States of America, and especially in New York City, sometimes named the Capital of Capitalism for its position as a global commerce hub.
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| Wall Street, Manhattan, New York City. Source: Wikipedia |
The
Democratic Party holds great prominence in this city, but only because the
Democratic Party holds to the ideologies of Liberalism. The politics of "progress" in an economic system designed to support the billionaire class. New
York holds one of the major centres of wealth in the United States, second only
to Silicon Valley, with its biggest asset along Wall Street in Manhattan’s
financial district. The rich run American politics in general, and New York
politics in particular. It is New York City where we find dynasties like the
Cuomo Family and the birth of billionaire playboys like Donald Trump. And the billionaire
class of New York City has affected the city’s political apparatus for years,
especially in the Democratic Party.
As a result of the high concentration
of wealth, many New Yorkers encounter an enormous wealth disparity problem. In
2019, the most expensive home sale in American history took place in Manhattan,
where a 2,200 m2 penthouse apartment was sold for over $230 million,
bought by a hedge fund manager. The cost of living is significantly higher than
the national average by 132%, with United Way reporting that in 2021, 1 in 2 NYC households were living without incomes that could effectively cover basic needslike food, housing, healthcare and transportation.
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| NYPD officers attacking BLM protesters with police cruisers. Source: Global News article from May 30th, 2020 |
In addition to this, New York City
faces issues regarding racism and police brutality, with the New York City
Police Department (NYPD), the largest and oldest police department in the
country, holding a long history and reputation of institutional corruption,
misconduct, discrimination by race, gender and religion, and authoritarian
brutality. According to the New York Times, more than sixty videos during the George Floyd Protests showed NYPD officers attacking protesters often without cause. Some of these featured kettling (a crowd control tactic in which
officers move in large cordons to contain protesters within a limited area),
removing COVID masks from protesters, pepper spraying, and even vehicular
manslaughter when police vehicles were driven into crowds. The city’sDepartment of Investigation later concluded that the NYPD used excessive force.
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| Independent candidate Andrew Cuomo at a campaign rally on the eve of his electoral defeat. Source: The New York Times |
Where does this leave the recent
Mayoral election and the victory of Zohran Mamdani? Mamdani faced an uphill
battle. First he had to win the Democratic Party primary as a candidate from
the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) against many billionaire backed
candidates such as Andrew Cuomo, a former New York State Governor who resigned in disgrace following sexual harassment scandals. When Mamdani won the primary, Andrew
Cuomo, unable to accept defeat, continued to run as an Independent candidate. Cuomo
ran on status quo centrist politics, name recognition from being a member of a
political dynasty (his father Mario Cuomo was Secretary of State for New York from
1975 to ’78, then Lieutenant Governor until ’82, and the 52nd
Governor from ’83 to ’94), and fearmongering about Mamdani’s Muslim identity, and
his Socialist and Anti-Genocide positions.
Meanwhile, Mamdani ran on a platform
of affordability. He argued for rent control, debt relief for taxi medallion owners, expanding tenet protections, creating a Social Housing Development Agency to build 200K affordable units in ten years, among many other positions. These are not radical policies by
Socialist standards, but they are radical for the standards of American politics.
As a result, the billionaire class backed Cuomo, as did many in the political
establishment, from centrist Democrats such as Michael Bloomberg and outgoing NYC mayor Eric Adams to Republicans such as George Santos and Ronald Lauder, billionaires
like Bob Ackman, the co-founder of Airbnb, Jeff Blau, Elon Musk, and even President Trump
and Stephen Miller. Mamdani received plenty of support from Progressive
Democrats, but little to no support from Establishment Democrats, with Hakeem Jeffries and Kamala Harris endorsing relatively late and hesitantly, and others such as Chuck Schumer,
Nancy Pelosi, etc., remaining silent.
Nonetheless, he won the election,
and now New York City will be run by a Democratic Socialist Mayor. This sends a
message that young people and workers are not willing to accept status quo
Liberalism, nor are we willing to suffer any longer from the contradictory conditions
of Capitalism. It shows we want candidates who listen to the people, not the
billionaires and CEOs.
Canadians right now are facing a
troubling time. Our affordability crisis continues to rise and the Liberals and
Conservatives continue to serve the interests of the rich and the bourgeoisie. As
of right now, the Liberals attempt to pass a budget focused on, in the words of
Prime Minister Mark Carney, “austerity and investment.” Meanwhile, the New
Democratic Party, Canada’s Social Democratic and Socialist party, is unable to
mount an effective defense due to a neutered caucus, having lost worker votes
to the Conservative Party and progressive votes to the Liberal Party, and trying
to strategize in a leadership race. It is in our best interest to look at Mamdani’s
victory as a hopeful opportunity to normalize Socialist values in the Canadian
political environment against corporate greed and oligarchy, and against
investment in genocide. We need to be in touch with the marginalized and refuse
to bow to the whims of the Laurentian elite and the oil industry. We need to ensure
we tackle affordability, class war, the environment, and representation.
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| NDP Leadership candidates from left to right: Rob Ashton, Tanille Johnston, Avi Lewis, Heather McPherson MP, and Tony McQuail. Source: CBC |
Each NDP leadership candidate communicates
a willingness to do so, with frontrunners Heather McPherson and Rob Ashton
focusing their campaigns on affordability and the working class, Tony McQuail
focusing on the environmental harm of Capitalism, Tanille Johnston highlighting
the need for Indigenous and youth representation, and Avi Lewis on the need for
economic realignment from Capitalism. Neither will necessarily become Prime Minister, but they
will rebuild the party if they continue to focus on these issues. The question is if Canadian Leftists are willing to
organize against the interests of Capital and work to fight austerity. Mamdani
has shown that Socialists can win elections on Socialist policies. We do not
need to capitulate or compromise our principles to win votes, we simply need to
be willing to stand firm in the face of the billionaire class and be unyielding
in our fight against them.
The working class is the backbone of
our societies. And though people like Danielle Smith, Doug Ford, Francois
Legault, Pierre Poilievre, and Mark Carney would seek to suppress the workers, they
cannot change this reality. We have received hope in the form of Mamdani’s win,
even if he doesn’t achieve all his goals. What matters is that we must channel
that hope into action and work to change our society. To transform Canada into
a new society, that stands against all of Fascism, whether it’s at home, or
from DC, Moscow, Beijing, Tel Aviv, and New Delhi. Mamdani pointed to the simple
fact that the only way to truly defeat Fascism and Trump, is to change and
destroy the very conditions that created it and allowed it to rise. If they can
do so in a city like New York, home of American Capitalism, there is no reason
to believe we cannot do it in Canada.
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| Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of an independent India, ancestral homeland of Zohran Mamdani. Source: Britannica |
This article began with an
invocation of Mamdani quoting a Socialist, and it shall end with one. Mamdani
quoted in his victory speech the words of former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. “A moment comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old
to the new, when an age ends and when the soul of a nation long suppressed
finds utterance.”
Canada has an opportunity and a
question to ask. Are we going to continue to live in the shadow of the old, or
step into the light of the new.
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