Yesterday, Zohran Mamdani took oath as the Mayor of New York in an abandoned subway station beneath its City Hall by placing his hand on a centuries-old copy of Quran: <https://youtu.be/gcMJM4t8ND8>. Mamdani has many firsts to his credit. Yesterday, he added yet another two.
Not for nothing, the eventual election of this virtual dark horse as the Mayor of the most populous city of the United States and, arguably, the most eminent of the global metropolises that also hosts the UN Headquarters has caused a splash worldwide. Just not for his colour and creed but also for the bold assertion of his "democratic socialist" ideology. His surprising rise to fame and a position of global importance has rekindled new hopes among large sections of the Left world over and also triggered a bitter debate over the authenticity of his Left/Socialist identity that he's wearing on his sleeve, so to say. The following piece is a highly remarkable and very insightful contribution to that debate. Incidentally, it starts with a very interesting observation on George Soros -- a name not-too-unfamiliar even to the lay Indian public. Thanks to the ruling Hindu Right and its drum-beaters and their relentless tirades against the Indian National Congress -- by all means the principal opposition party today. (As far as India is concerned, Mamdani has Indian roots -- both his parents were born Indians -- which he sort of highlighted while in the process of marking out his ideological location during his victory speech by quoting a legendary line from a legendary speech of the illustrious first Prime Minister of India on the floor of Indian Parliament (also at midnight) -- on the hugely momentous occasion of India gaining national independence. More recently, he also chose to flag the utterly egregious case of long incarceration of perhaps the most celebrated political prisoner of India in the recent years.) Sukla [image: Sanders Mamdani Starbucks] *When a certain left participates in the far right's campaign against Mamdani* * By Yorgos Mitralias* Where to begin and where to end? In our countries, many people on the left seem to ignore what everyone else knows, north and south, east and west. That all over the world, the far right, neo-fascists, and neo-Nazis lose their minds just hearing the name George Soros. That many of them have declared that the 95-year-old speculator Soros is their number one enemy and the main subversive of capitalism. That Netanyahu has declared war on him, calling him the sworn enemy of Zionism and Israel, and the financier of Palestinian “terrorists.” That Trump accuses Soros of having “caused great damage to the country” and of ‘paying’ “extreme left-wing psychopaths,” whether they be students in solidarity with Palestinians, citizens involved in solidarity movements with migrants, or other movements such as Black Lives Matter, No Kings, etc. That Netanyahu and Trump are following through on their accusations with lawsuits (“*for terrorism*”!) and other repressive/punitive measures against Soros and his organizations... But it's not just the Trump-Netanyahu duo. In fact, the cream of the crop of the nascent Brown International is railing against Soros, accusing him of destroying their countries and undermining “Western civilization” and its “values.” Let's name a few of them: first, Netanyahu and Israel's “best friend,” Hungary's Orban, who went so far as to pass a law called... “Stop Soros,” while covering Budapest with posters reproducing the most extreme anti-Semitic clichés, featuring Soros pulling the strings of an international (obviously Jewish) conspiracy. Then there is Britain's Farage, who calls Soros “*the greatest danger facing the entire Western world*”, Italy's Salvini, who accuses Soros of “wanting to fill Europe with immigrants he considers his slaves,” France's Le Pen, who calls him “*the enemy of France*,” Spain's Francoists in Vox, who accuse Soros of financing the Catalan independence movement, India's Modi, who considers him “*India's number one enemy*,” and Musk, who sees Soros behind the campaign against his Tesla cars. And, of course, Putin, who was the first to take action against him, calling him a “*threat to the foundations of Russia's constitutional order and national security*”. The far-right's obsession with Soros is endless, and the list of relevant examples could fill entire pages... which we do not have at our disposal. We therefore close this chapter by recalling that the Greek far right, led by Golden Dawn, has always had a favorite pastime of denouncing Soros, whom it readily describes as “pro-Skopje” (i.e., pro-Republic of Macedonia), as wanting to destroy Greece. Not to mention Greece's neighbor Erdogan, who attributes a similar diabolical plan to Soros, with the difference that in his case, Soros, who “*sends his men all over the world to divide and dismember nations*,” finances and directs his Turkish opponents... Given that the far right's fabrication of lies and other extravagant slanders against Soros has a long history of nearly 30 years and is a well-oiled machine in every respect, it is not surprising that its latest “product” is the invention and dissemination of “information” that Soros is behind the election of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. This is not surprising for one simple reason: because Mamdani is the bane and number one opponent of Trump, but also of the entire far-right establishment, and must therefore be discredited and crushed! And for that, what could be more convenient and easy than resorting for the umpteenth time to the tried and tested recipe that Soros the Satanic is behind all the opponents of the far right. The rest, i.e., the maximum dissemination of “revelations” that seek to portray Mamdani as a mere straw man for Soros, is handled by the army of large and very large media outlets controlled by the international far right around the world... This is not surprising, for the simple reason that the North American and international far right is, in this case, only doing its job. But what is the job of these left-wingers, or rather who are they working for when they rush to adopt (often word for word!) and spread the incredible slander that Mamdani, who denounces his opponents for being financed by billionaires, is himself financed by a billionaire, Soros! And all this without the slightest proof, but solely on the basis of “it is said,” “we hear,” and “rumor has it.” And at the same time, with obvious relief and satisfaction at the demystification of the supposedly virtuous and irreproachable Mamdani, who sows democratic and social innovations that are not to their liking... In reality, this is not surprising either. This seemingly paradoxical convergence and alliance did not come out of nowhere. It has roots and a (infamous) past. For example, a few years ago, when a certain left wing launched a series of slanderous attacks against *Greta Thunberg*, with “arguments” and “revelations” coming directly from Trump's far-right entourage. At the time, we contented ourselves with revealing—with names and addresses—the American far-right inspirers, organizers, and financiers of this despicable campaign against Greta, (1) while deliberately avoiding mentioning the people on the left who reproduced, and some continue to reproduce, these monstrous slanders in our countries. But today, we can no longer do the same. Today, the situation is completely different and much more critical, and the stakes are much higher, with an international far right that has skyrocketed to become an existential threat to humanity and the planet. And its primary target is Zohran Mamdani, who, in the eyes of millions of his compatriots and citizens around the world, embodies the main hope for massive resistance and counterattack by those from below, at the very heart of the neo-fascist beast, in the United States of America of the apprentice dictator Donald Trump! To call a spade a spade, the current smear campaign against Mamdani, led by a certain left wing that borrows its “arguments” from the American and international far right, is neither fortuitous nor occasional. In reality, it is the latest link in the chain of this lamentable “convergence” that has been observed for years, and it is based on* the selective affinities that exist and are reinforced over time between this left and the international far right of our time. *Selective affinities and often identical positions on issues and events of absolutely crucial importance, such as the climate catastrophe that both the far right and “a certain left” categorically deny, even calling it “the greatest scam of imperialism” for some and simply “the greatest scam” for others, in the words of Trump himself. The root cause of this identical position is plain to see: the far right and this “left” serve the interests of big capital and the regimes that have tied their fate to fossil fuels, in the West for some and in the East for others. And this is the deep and very material reason why both the far right and this left hate Greta and her youth movement with a passion... which returns the favor! As a result, both sides share roughly the same positions on crucial issues such as Russia's war against Ukraine. In this conflict, both sides are siding with the aggressor Putin against the Ukrainian people, who are being mercilessly attacked and bombed, and from whom they are demanding territorial and other concessions in the name of... peace. Just as they both sided with the dictator Assad against the Syrian people in revolt, some of these leftists even went so far as to demonstrate—in the center of Athens—in favor of the man who is rightly considered the most bloodthirsty tyrant of our time. The common denominator of all these cynical and immoral de facto alliances is the contempt that both sides show for human rights and democratic freedoms. This is hardly surprising for the far right, which has a tradition of violating the most basic individual and collective rights. But what a surprise and disappointment to see people on the left, with whom we have often had the opportunity to fight together to defend these fundamental rights in our own countries, stubbornly closing their eyes, remaining silent, and refusing to offer their support, for example to Russian citizens sentenced to long prison terms for criticizing Putin's war or attempting to form a union in their workplace... We will stop here, because we see that this convergence and de facto alliance between these—very strange—leftists and the international far right is already leading some of them to follow the example of their leader, Germany's Sahra Wagenknecht, and take the decisive step that distances them definitively from the left and pushes them into the arms of the far right. They can only provoke nausea. And also anger. As for Mamdani himself, and those who would like to see him betray his promises and his mass movement, we have no choice but to offer them a small glimpse of what he is doing not before, but now, after his electoral triumph. We therefore offer them the following video, which presents some of Zohran Mamdani's daily actions as the elected mayor of New York. Let those whose hearts truly beat on the left enjoy it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTWxRrcJrTI *Notes* *1. * *La haine contre Greta : voici ceux, avec nom et adresse, qui la financent ! * * : * https://www.cadtm.org/La-haine-contre-Greta-voici-ceux-avec-nom-et-adresse-qui-la-financent *Translated from Greek* Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/greenyouth/CACEsOZg%2B2h2NrgdbGZrR6uOzJBRpCmYAP_M_n-My11ePOZRr%3DQ%40mail.gmail.com.
