What does it mean for a leftist Muslim to approach the presidency of the New York municipality? | policy

Zahran Mamdani’s victory in the preliminary elections of the Democratic Party in New York is a milestone in American politics. This victory, which was achieved by a member of the state’s legislative assembly of Ugandan and Indian, confirmed what was formed for years for years: the emergence of a new policy led by the working -class immigrants, based on organization and solidarity and severe criticism of inequality.

Mamdani’s campaign focused on freezing rents, comprehensive child care, public transport, and green infrastructure, and was able to mobilize multi -ethnic coalitions throughout the city all over the city.

His victory was a shining rejection of the influence of companies and local corruption, and a strong embodiment of a policy that stems from immigrants linked to global conflicts for justice.

This current is not limited to New York. In Congress, Ilhan Omar – the former refugee, security guard, and daughter of Somali immigrants – played a pivotal role in drawing the features of this new left. Rachida Talab, the first American woman of Palestinian origin, joined her.

Tibet, Omar and Mandani represented a political trend that was formed by their personal experiences or their ancestors in instability, austerity, and repression in the global south, and not only because of the inequality in America. They have emerged as general faces for this broader direction. They are politicians of immigrant backgrounds who are the backbone of a rising and rebellious democraticar.

This, of course, is not the shape that Donald Trump was imagining to immigrate.

In October 2019, the US President, Donald Trump, spoke in an electoral gathering in Minneapolis- which includes a large Somali community represented by Ilhan Omar- using the traditional right speech, warned Trump that immigrants and refugees change the United States for the worst.

The meaning was clear: an implicit appeal to its eligibility “to make America a great again”, especially from the working and middle class, who hold immigration responsible for the country’s decline.

This was an introduction to what has now become common from collective, illegal and often violent deportations for thousands of people from Latin America, Africa and Asia. According to Trump’s novel, immigration from “dirty states” is responsible for crime, economic stagnation and misuse of public resources. But he did not mention that many Somalis in Minneapolis fled from violence in which American foreign policy contributed or worsened.

However, to some extent, Trump was right: immigrants and their children change American political life, but not the way he was afraid. Just a year after Trump’s speech, the first labor strikes against Amazon’s exploiter practices erupted in the outskirts of Minneapolis, led by Somali immigrants.

These protests had a role in reviving a new national labor movement, which extended from one warehouse to other factories and companies in various sectors.

Therefore, Mamdani’s victory in the preliminary elections for the position of mayor is of great importance. Besides characters like Omar, he embodies a new type of leadership: a rooted leadership in the living experience, driven by popular organization, and is able to convert complex policies into direct and clear demands of justice.

His campaign focused on economic dignity, the rights of tenants, childcare, adaptation to the climate, and the imposition of wealthy taxes. All are demands that stem from the true reality of the life of the working class.

Let us take African immigrants as an example, a society to which Mamdani and Omar belongs: there are now nearly 2.1 million sub -Saharan African immigrants in the United States, representing about 5 % of the total population born abroad. The talk is often focused on their academic and vocational success; It is a novel for which elites are promoted in communities. But it hides a different reality: low entry, fragile functions, and poverty rates higher than the rest of the migrants.

However, from this particular labor rule generates a new policy: a policy capable of reshaping the Democratic Party from its roots.

As the founder of the “African Country” website, I spent about fifteen years to track how Africans restore democracy despite the pressures of neoliberalism, tyranny, and militarization. Whoever “finished SARS” in Nigeria, and “Walk to Work” in Uganda, to the Arab Spring and “drop the fees” in South Africa, African activists gave bold critical visions of injustice. These movements have affected global struggles, and are clearly evident in their intersection with the “Black Life Movement”.

Many African immigrants in America are inspired by these traditions. Mamdani has organized with New York taxi drivers to counter debt burdens. As for Omar, I cleaned the offices and worked in the assembly lines. Both of them built his political career by listening to and organizing marginalized societies.

In a country that still suffers from the legacy of hatred for foreigners during the Trump era, and from inequality, these new leaders offer a bright alternative. They build bridges of solidarity through divisions- between immigrants and the people of the country, between Muslims and non-Muslims, between Americans of African origin and the new expatriates from Africa, and between the children of immigrants from other countries- not on the basis of cultural melting, but rather on the basis of the common struggle.

As the political theorist Korea Robin noted recently, Mamdani is a “happy warrior” similar to Franklin Roosevelt: smart, realistic, and does not fear the real debate. Being a Muslim and of South Asian origins increases his symbolism in a city and a nation that has reshaped their features. It embodies a fundamental democratic future: a future that conservatives cannot contain or understand.