Young, intelligent, talented, energetic, handsome, charismatic, a very good speaker, a hard worker, a skilled communicator, and so on. The media in our countries are not wrong when they attribute all these virtues to Zohran Mamdani. Zohran is all of these things. But, on the other hand, they are seriously mistaken when they attribute Mamdani’s electoral triumphs solely to these virtues: first in the Democratic Party primaries last June, and then in the New York mayoral elections a few days ago, on 4 November. For, as Mamdani himself keeps repeating, these successive electoral triumphs are attributable to an unprecedented mass movement: namely the 50,000 volunteers who worked on his primary campaign,(1) and the 104,000 volunteers who worked on his final campaign, which saw him defeat Cuomo, first as a Democrat, then as an Independent, and finally as the candidate of both the Democratic and Republican establishments, supported by the cream of American billionaires!

In other words, our mainstream media forget to mention the essential, what is probably Mamdani’s most important virtue: his ability to inspire, galvanise, politicise and organise tens of thousands of young people around a mobilising programme, in a movement that is unparalleled not only in the United States but perhaps in the whole world! Tens of thousands of young people of all ethnic backgrounds, reflecting the multicultural melting pot of New York’s population: African Americans, Jews, Chinese, Japanese, Arabs, Indians and Europeans, who worked tirelessly, criss-crossing the city for months on end and visiting more than three million homes of their fellow citizens! Tens of thousands of young volunteers did not just appear out of nowhere, as many of them were already organised in trade unions, community groups and, of course, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), to which Zohran declared to belong throughout his campaign.

However, it must be noted that Mamdani too did not fall from the sky, as suggested by the mainstream media in our countries, as well as – unfortunately – by several voices and other left-wing ‘sensibilities’, ‘forgetting’ to repeat what Mamdani keeps saying: that he owes a lot to Bernie Sanders and the huge youth movement he inspired during his two presidential campaigns. A movement which, according to him, politicised him before radicalising and shaping him, as it did thousands of other young Americans who are now part of the core group of 700 activists who effectively lead the movement of 104,000 volunteers for Mamdani! It was alongside the tireless Bernie Sanders that Mamdani often campaigned before closing his campaign triumphantly with his big rally in Queens. To ignore the importance and contribution of Bernie Sanders to Mamdani’s victories is to fail to understand what is currently happening in American society and on the American left…

But beware: Zohran is not simply a clone of Bernie; he is more like his spiritual son, who nevertheless goes much further than his old mentor. For example, on what is probably the most critical issue of the emancipation from the Democratic Party. Despite his often harsh criticism of the party and the distance he has kept from it, Bernie Sanders has never taken the decisive step of cutting ties with it and declaring himself in favour of creating a third party, that of American workers. Mamdani, on the other hand, has already campaigned as a member of the DSA (and “he does not apologize for that”), and seems willing to give serious consideration to this prospect, especially as he is currently creating a balance of power that is otherwise favourable to the creation of this third workers’ party.

It is no coincidence that, like Bernie Sanders, Mamdani addresses workers and the working class as a priority, and that the core of his programme responds to some of their most pressing needs: fast and free transport, a rent freeze, a minimum wage of $30 an hour, universal and free municipal childcare, low-cost municipal grocery stores, not to mention his intention to finance all this by taxing the super-rich and corporations. Of course, there were those on the left, but also on the… right, who turned up their noses at Mamdani’s flagship measures, finding them too… reformist or social democratic. Others criticised Mamdani for saying nothing about revolution. In reality, there are no measures that are ‘reformist’ or “revolutionary” in themselves, and Mamdani’s programme is as ‘reformist’ as that of Lenin and his Bolsheviks, who took power in 1917, promising bread, peace and land to those who work it.

The third, and probably most important, ‘oversight’ by the media and various ‘analysts’ on the right and left concerns the political context of Mamdani’s election. This context means that his programme, and above all his emergence on the American political scene at the head of an unprecedented mass movement, make Mamdani, in the eyes of his compatriots, not only the embodiment of popular resistance to Trumpism, but also the hope for a more democratic, united and just society, a society of those from below. The consequence is that Mamdani has become Trump’s main enemy, the one who directly challenges his omnipotence, something that no one else has wanted or been able to do until now! And we must admit that Trump is not wrong when he sees Mamdani as the greatest threat to both his dictatorial ambitions and the power of his billionaire friends.

So, what is at stake is not so much Mamdani’s ability to manage New York and implement his programme, as claimed by our media, -which seem to ignore the real situation and Trump’s extreme brutality-, because he simply will not have time to do all that. On the other hand, what is on the agenda right now is his ability to successfully confront the offensive that Trump is already preparing in order to break and eliminate as quickly as possible the person who, rightly, represents the greatest threat to him and his libertarian and fascist acolytes. For it would be completely illusory to believe that someone like Trump, who has fanatically applied the adage ‘the best defence is attack’ throughout his life, could now become more conciliatory and opt for anything other than a harsh and frontal attack on Mamdani and his popular movement!

This is why the Trump-Mamdani confrontation is already looming on the horizon, and why it has become inevitable. And given that it will take place at the very heart of the capitalist and imperialist monster, it goes without saying that its unfolding will shake everyone and its outcome will influence and shape the present and future of all humanity. All the more reason for us not to simply follow events. For it is high time that those from below take a leaf out of the book of those at the top, who are joining forces and coordinating their efforts to bring about the nightmarish world of their dreams. So it is up to all of us to join forces and take action alongside this other America that refuses to admit defeat and is already fighting courageously against the greatest existential threat ever faced by the human race…

Note

1. See Zohran Mamdani : A young Muslim socialist at the head of a mass movement, triumphing over the Democratic establishment in New York!: https://www.cadtm.org/Zohran-Mamdani-A-young-Muslim-socialist-at-the-head-of-a-mass-movement

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