by WorldTribune Staff, June 30, 2025 Real World News
“No, I am not a communist,” he says. Politifact agrees that characterizations of the man poised to be the next mayor of New York City are wrong.
“Mamdani’s platform is not akin to communism, a system of government which calls for government takeover of private property and control of industry,” the not necessarily objective Politifact stated as fact.
In June of 2021, speaking at the Young Democratic Socialists of America Organizing Conference, a young leftist who in November 2020 knocked off a four-term incumbent to win a seat in the New York State Assembly, told the crowd his goal was to “continue to elect more socialists” and to be “unapologetic about our socialism.”
Then, the socialist listed two key goals: Boycotting Israel and “seizing the means of production.”
The classic communist concept came from the mouth of Zohran Mamdani, who many had assumed was just another leftist NYC Democrat.
“Seizing the means of production” means that workers will rise up, take power from their “bosses,” and lay claim to the property and industry of those bosses and owners.
“Part of that concept is to eradicate the bourgeoisie, or the middle class, by taking what is theirs and giving it to the lower classes. Historically, this has not been done peacefully but with violence, as in Maoist China, Soviet Russia, behind the Iron Block in Eastern Europe, Cuba, Chile, and other locations where communism and socialism have been implemented,” Libby Emmons wrote for The Post Millennial on June 30.
Mamdani, 26 at the time, went on to tell the young socialists gathered at the 2021 conference: “What the purpose is about this entire project, it’s not simply to raise class consciousness, but to win socialism. And obviously raising class consciousness is a critical part of that, but making sure that we have candidates that both understand that and are willing to put that forward at every which moment that they have, at every which opportunity that they’re given.”
“We have to continue to elect more socialists, and we have to ensure that we are unapologetic about our socialism. There are also other issues that we firmly believe in, whether it’s BDS, right, or whether it’s the end goal of seizing the means of production, where we do not have the same level of support at this very moment,” he went on.
“And what I want to say is that it is critical, the way that we organize, the way that we set up our, you know, set up our work and our priorities, that we do not leave any one issue for the other, that we do not meet a moment and only look at what people are ready for, but that we are doing both of these things in tandem, because it is critical for us to both meet people where they’re at and to also organize for what is correct and for what is right, and to ensure that over time, we can bring people to that issue,” he continued.
“The ramifications of victory here is the difference between life and death for so many of our brothers and sisters and family beyond the binary across this borough of Queens. It’s the difference between having cash bail anymore. It’s the difference between having sex work being decriminalized. And with every battle that we fight as socialists, we need to remember what the stakes are and ground ourselves in them and why those stakes are important and critical to us as individuals,” Mamdani told the crowd.
President Donald Trump said the Democrat nominee for New York City mayor is a “pure communist” who needs to “do the right thing” or face the consequences.
“Trump and his administration have been relatively happy with their relationship with Mayor Adams, who got his federal indictment dismissed by the Department of Justice in exchange for compliance with immigration enforcement efforts,” Matthew Rice wrote for The New York Sun on June 29. “The president says that if Mamdani prevails in November, then he needs to accept the administration’s deportation plans, as well.”
“He’s a communist. I think it’s very bad for New York. I don’t know that he’s gonna get in. … But he’s a communist and he’s a pure communist. I think he admits it,” Trump told Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“I can’t imagine it, but let’s say this: If he does get in, I’m gonna be president and he’s gonna have to do the right thing or they’re not getting any money,” Trump said. “He’s gotta do the right thing. It’s shocking … I mean, he’s a communist who’s gonna be mayor of New York. So, I was very surprised.”
Trump made clear that whoever wins — including Adams, who is running as an independent, or Andrew Cuomo, who is also mulling a general election run — needs to comply with his policy aims.
“I can tell you this — whoever is mayor of New York is going to have to behave themselves or the federal government is coming down very tough on them financially,” Trump said.
These words should be terrifying to anyone who knows what they mean: he’s not talking about billionaires, he’s talking about ending social mobility, which is bedrock to these United States.
— Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) June 30, 2025
Mamdani told MSNBC host Jen Psaki that he believes his socialist platform should be picked up by Democrats nationally and spread across the country. “I think ultimately, this is a campaign about inequality,” he told her.
When Psaki asked, “You are a proud democratic socialist. Do you think that is a platform that would work for other candidates running in other parts of the country?”
Mamdani replied, “Absolutely.”
Psaki: “You are a proud democratic socialist. Do you think that is a platform that would work for other candidates running in other parts of the country?”
Zohran Mamdani: “Absolutely.”
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 26, 2025
In 2021, communist Mamdani publicly called for ‘seizing the means of production’ added by Editor Two on June 30, 2025
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