Mamdani as Mayor here ♦ Honduras Elections here ♦
Mamdani as Mayor: Let’s Not Be Fooled Again
Zohran Kwame Mamdani, a Uganda-born, South Asian, Muslim man, was elected mayor of New York City. Perhaps the most diverse and famous city in America.
From the beginning of his campaign as a Democratic Socialist, he was targeted by Islamophobic hatred. Some claimed New Yorkers have forgotten about 9/11. They warned that Sharia Law would befall New York and that Jewish people should fear for their lives.
Mamdani’s sympathy for Palestine shook Democrats and Republicans alike. Many claimed that is what brought him so much support. Zionists use this to portray him as antisemitic, which seems to be a consistently failing argument.
A large crowd of people throughout the USA supported him for his promises to make NYC affordable. With about 20% of New Yorkers on food stamps, his promises of subsidized childcare, government-owned grocery stores, stricter rent control, and higher rent forgiveness, appealed to many.
Nine of us, communists and friends, discussed this over dinner recently. There were different opinions.
Some saw Mamdani’s win as a beacon of hope as we cope with ongoing fascist takeovers worldwide. There were celebrations across the globe. As a reminder that on a local level, there are still possibilities for improvement in living conditions.
However, comrades mentioned that we have seen his type before. Charismatic, appealing to marginalized groups. Obama, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (AOC), Sanders. They all were quick to turn on those who supported their campaigns and hoped to benefit from their promises. They trapped many young activists into the Democratic Party.
According to an anti-war comrade veteran, Obama ended up crushing many people’s hope and trust in electoral politics. While he touted himself to be a man of principle, who values peace and civility, he authorized 542 drone strikes and provided an 87% increase of funding to ICE.
Later, I and many younger comrades fell for AOC. I recall, back in high school, claiming I couldn’t wait to vote for her as president. What a naive mindset I find that now! After we’ve watched her “two-side” a genocide and vote against her fellow progressives (Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar).
Some of us concluded that while we can be excited that New York City may see reforms that make life more affordable, now that Mamdani will take office, we must keep him accountable to his promises. If he plans to take his career in politics further, he must prove himself a man of the people.
Identity politics have blinded people in the past and none of us are immune to bias. So it’s important that we investigate Mamdani’s actions and ensure he upholds his promises.
We can’t be blinded by one “win.” We must take it as fuel to fight for a better life for all of us, where we can all live free of systemic bias, of the violence necessary to fuel the capitalist machine.
At the end of the day, this is no more or less a step in the right direction than a reason to continue the work of re-educating westerners on communism and socialism to destigmatize the ideology.
—Sunflower
Honduras: No Electoral Process Will Free Us from Capitalism
The recent presidential elections in Honduras constitute a threatening political scenario for the working class without borders. The Honduran masses suffer the same onslaught as many others in the region. This is in the face of Trump’s foreign “policy” based on consolidating his control at the continental level. It is based on extortion, coercion, and threats typical of an imperialist/expansionist state.
This international logic is expressed in what happened in Argentina with the “democratic” imposition of Javier Milei. And in threats to blockade against Cuba and sanctions against Brazil, Colombia, Mexico. And intervention in Venezuela. Because these governments express, at least in their discourse, an anti-imperialist sense. Although limited to the “North” leaving out any reference to China and Russia.
Brazenly, days before the elections, Trump pardons former President Juan Orlando Hernández, convicted by the New York Court for drug trafficking crimes. Imperialist strategy to legitimize his National Party, whose candidate Nasry Asfura represents the ultra-right and narco-dictatorship of Honduras. And in the face of a possible victory of the other right-wing candidate Nasralla, Trump publicly warns the Honduran people that they will suffer “hell to pay” if Asfura does not win.
Political-economic and ideological elements intervene in this scenario. There is a whole machinery orchestrated by the elites who historically have economic control as an employers’ bloc. They subject the working class to misery, repression, persecution, and torture.
The church and the media also play a decisive role. They systematically unleash an ideological bombardment. It’s an anti-communist narrative, in defense of supposed “democratic/conservative values” against the government of the Liberty and Refoundation Party. This self-styled democratic socialist party’s candidate Rixi Moncada is electorally diminishing to third place.
There is social discontent because this government does not guarantee the conditions to satisfy basic economic needs. It promotes erroneous policies far from the interests of the working class.
In a climate of 50% abstention from voting, the population that has voted for right-wing governments is conditioned to be part of this game of democracies. They make believe that “choosing” is analogous to sovereignty. But it only implies validating the bosses’ bloc and feeding narco-dictatorial, corrupt, patriarchal, and colonialist capitalism.
It is urgent to learn from this adverse and complex context. To build tools for a critical reading and historical memory, through debate and dialectical reflection.
It is really disconcerting that the “new” governments of the “left” – as in Honduras – do not learn from the consequences of the mistakes made by counterpart governments. This further enhances the ideological, military, and political-economic power of imperialism at the international level.
Capitalism will fall only with the strengthening of alliances free of any trace of inequality and discrimination!
No practice, no system, such as the electoral systems of the so-called “democracies,” will ever be an option for liberation and justice, much less for revolution!
—Comrade activist in Costa Rica