(MENAFN- The Arabian Post)

By Nitya Chakraborty

The historic victory of the Democratic socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani in New York mayoral elections on November 4 night is acting as a big booster, not only to the left wingers in the Democratic Party belonging to the Bernie Sanders group, but also to the left parties in Europe and Latin America. The poll campaign in New York got such worldwide attraction that many left parties of Europe and Latin America sent their leaders to witness the campaign as also to interact with the firebrand 34 year old leader Zohran Mamdani.

The lessons are that the programme which touches the people matters and there should be no dilution of the fight against anti-immigrants chants of the ruling Right. Mamdani said that I am a Muslim, I am a socialist and I never hide it. The Mamdani victory also showed how a broad coalition can be built covering class, race and gender and that can do wonders if that is accompanied by the perfect digital communication strategy. Mamdani's campaign achieved that leading to his success.

Turning to Europe, the Mamdani victory on the basis of his programme is a massive moral booster for Left in Britain, France and Germany. In Britain, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana are leading the split away group from the ruling Labour Party, temporarily named Your Party. Already, the Party has got 50,000 members and even the conservative British papers are saying that Your Party is not a fluke, it has the potential to throw real challenge to the Labour Party and pose itself as the rival to Nicole Farage's far right Reform Party also which is on a surge in the recent elections.

Corbyn is planning to hold the first conference of his Party soon and his programme will be on Marxist lines. Mamdani's victory in the global capitalism's biggest seat New York on the basis of an anti-capitalist programme has made Corbyn and Zarah more confident in going ahead with their Left programme. Similarly for Germany, the Left Party Die Linke, the party of former communists sent its leaders to New York to interact with Mamdani and his group DSA. The Die Linke has 64 members in the Bundestag. They performed quite well in the last general elections. The Mamdani victory has further enthused the party leadership to go ahead with its programme on affordable housing and wage hike.

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In France, the French Left is preparing for the 2027 presidential elections. President Emanuel Macron will not be contesting. The United People's Front has forced the present Prime Minister to suspend new pension reforms introduced by Macron and now, the fragile ministry is functioning, though at any time, the ministry may fall. The far left France Unbowed, the French Communist Party and the Socialist Party are quite excited at the Left success on the other side of Atlantic. The optimism of another Popular Front victory like 1940's in 1927 Presidential elections, is coming back. In Spain, Austria and Portugal, the Communist Party and its close allies can get mileage from Mamdani victory as the programme has many things in common.

In Latin America, the immediate test is in Chile on November 16 when the Presidential elections are held. Chile is ruled by a Left wing President Gabriel Boric. This time the Presidential candidate is a veteran Communist Party woman leader who has been elected as a nominee for the ruling Left Front. In Chile, the right and the far right forces are quite strong. The election fever has picked up. The Mamdani victory is sure to help the Communist presidential candidate. In Venezuela, President Maduro is under threat from Trump. There is a talk of regime change on the plea of US hunt for drug lords in Venezuelan territory which President Maduro has denied. The November 4 results were defeat for Trump in the referendum against him. Will he still resort to strong arm tactics in Latin America?

Turning back to the American political scene post Mamdani victory, there is a big talk in the U.S. media about Mamdani emerging as a national leader. Bernie Sanders is 83 while Mamdani is 34. Another young leader of the Democratic Party Saikat Chakraborty, also a high tech engineer of Indian origin, belonging to a partition affected family with roots in Kolkata, is creating waves in California. Saikat, a protégé of Bernie Sanders has declared that he would contest for the Congress in the California seat presently held by senior most leader of the Democratic Party Nancy Pelosi who is 85. Pelosi has not yet said that she would be retiring but Saikat says that he will be contesting irrespective of Pelosi decision. A graduate from Harvard, Saikat has been working with Bernie Sanders for the last 15 years.

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Left wing magazine Jacobin which has been supporting Mamdani since his announcement to contest the Mayoral election says that Mamdani is the true heir of Bernie Sanders in terms of his ideology as also his style of communication. He is a product of the post-Bernie millennial Left. He was deeply involved in its main organization, the Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) for years before he ran for office.

As Jacobin says“One of Bernie's greatest strengths as a left-wing communicator has always been that, while he unapologetically holds straight-down-the-line progressive positions on social policy issues, he's relentlessly focused on broadly appealing calls for universalist economic redistribution. Wake him up in the middle of the night, and the first words out of his mouth might well be,“This is the only major country on earth that doesn't guarantee health care as a right.”

Bernie's success in almost single-handedly redrawing the map of American politics to make room for a robust left can't be disentangled from this approach, which allows him to separate himself somewhat from the day-to-day ebbs and flows of the culture war. He correctly understands Trumpism as a grave authoritarian threat to liberal-democratic norms and sides with mainstream Democrats when he needs to, but he's become the most popular politician in the country in part by maintaining a certain distance from regular Democratic Party.

But all these are speculations about future. Zohran Mamdani will take over as the Mayor of New York on Januaryn1, 2026. The budget of NYC is US$ 112 billion out of which 25 per cent comes from federal support. This means this 25 per cent or US $28 billion will be decided by Trump. He may impose conditions. So the task of Mamdani is stupendous. He has to move with caution. Everyone will look at his performance and that will decide his future trajectory in the turbulent American politics. (IPA Service )

The article Zohran Mamdani's Victory As New York Mayor Has Given A Big Boost To Global Left appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).

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