Socialist Rhetoric, Capitalist Reality: Why Mamdani’s Victory Won’t Transform the System

By Nathan Richardson*

The June 2025 Democratic primary in New York shocked many on the U.S. left. Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed socialist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), defeated former governor Andrew Cuomo to secure the party’s nomination for mayor. Supporters quickly declared the result a major breakthrough for the socialist movement. However, this development is less a victory than it is a reflection of a broader contradiction facing the U.S. left: the attempt to reconcile socialist rhetoric with participation in a party fundamentally loyal to capital.

The KKE condemns the latest escalation of aggression and blockade against Cuba by the US

Statement by the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE

With a new despicable memorandum signed by US President Donald Trump, the US administration has further intensified its measures of barbaric imperialist blockade and efforts to undermine Cuba. This is a continuation of the same policy pursued by the first Trump administration and maintained in its entirety by the Biden administration. Their declared aim is to cause economic suffocation to the Cuban people and to support the actions of counterrevolutionary groups in overthrowing the achievements of the Cuban people and the Revolution itself.

The Mamdani Moment and the Crisis of the “Left”

On June 24, 2025, Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. His defeat of the Democratic Party old guard Andrew Cuomo has been hailed as a victory for socialism in America. Social media has been flooded with celebration. DSA apparatchiks are gloating. The only real victory was for the illusion that the system can be reformed.

Mamdani is a gifted politician. He has spoken courageously on Palestine, organized tenants and workers into his voting base, and has roots in the popular sectors. However, he is still a part of the machinery of the Democratic Party: a party of landlords, war profiteers, billionaires, the ruling capitalist class. 

The KKE and its revolutionary action are a thorn in the side of all kinds of anti-communists

Comment by the International Relations Section of the CC of the KKE:

The ongoing struggle of the KKE and the mass mobilizations currently taking place in Greece, in which the KKE and KNE are playing a leading role, have placed all kinds of anti-communists in a very difficult position. Supporters of Greece’s greater involvement in the war, alongside Israel and the USA, accuse the KKE of supporting ‘the mullahs’, the ‘theocratic regime’ of Iran,  ‘terrorists’ and even ‘conservatism’ through its stance. They also claim that it it ‘fosters anti-Semitism’ because it supports the just struggle of the Palestinian people, who are being massacred by the murderous state of Israel.

Joint statement of Communist and Workers Parties: The future of Iran can only be determined by its people without any external interference

Joint statement of the Communist and Workers Parties: Oppose the war against Iran and call for an immediate ceasefire and regional peace

Following the unilateral and undeclared military attack unleashed against Iran on Friday 13 June 2025 by the criminal Netanyahu government, we witnessed on Sunday 22 June the military aggression of US imperialism against Iran, bombing the nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan.

Iranian and US Communists condemn bombing of Iran

In a statement issued today, Sunday 22 June 2025, the Central Committee of the Tudeh Party of Iran, condemns the military attack of the United States against the Islamic Republic. The statement reads:

Dear compatriots!

In the first hour of Sunday, the first of Tir 1404 [June 22, 2025], based on published reports, American fighter jets and the naval fleet of this country bombed three nuclear sites in Iran in Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, and thus, together with Netanyahu’s criminal regime, officially entered the war against Iran.

Joint Statement of Communist and Workers’ Parties on the US attack on Iran

Joint Statement of Communist and Workers’ Parties

The struggle of the people against imperialism must be strengthened!

The Communist and Workers’ Parties signing this Joint Statement strongly condemn the US attack on Iran, which escalates the military offensive already launched by Israel.

After Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the USA and its allies are now shedding the blood of yet another country in the Middle East. This imperialist aggression is plunging people into war across a wider region and threatening to destroy humanity as a whole.

KKE's leader Koutsoumbas calls Greek government to end "all military cooperation with Israel"

"The developments in our region are critical! The murderous state of Israel, with its attack against Iran and backed by the USA, NATO, and the EU, has lit the fuse of war, with the danger of escalation across the entire region clearly visible," said the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), Dimitris Koutsoumbas, on Monday.   

 

Furthermore, the General Secretary added: 

 

Communist Party of Mexico expresses solidarity with the protesting workers and migrants in Los Angeles

In a statement, the Communist Party of Mexico (PCM) expresses its solidarity with the protesting migrant workers in the United States and particularly in Los Angeles. 

"The Communist Party of Mexico expresses its solidarity with the multinational working class of the United States, which faces the anti-immigrant policies promoted by the North American state, both by the Republican and Democratic parties, as demonstrated by the mass deportations under the governments of Bush, Obama, and Biden, and which are now intensifying in Trump's second term.

Communist Workers’ Platform USA: Statement on the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles

Source: The Associated Press

In a statement on the current violent clashes in Los Angeles, the Communist Workers’ Platform USA (CWPUSA) stresses out:

Driven by deep convictions on the safety of their fellow working class members, hundreds of protestors made the courageous decision to directly confront ICE agents. ICE has been a weapon of terror wielded by the ruling class against the workers of this country. Brutalizing migrant workers and breaking up families, Democratic and Republican governments alike have set these dogs on migrant workers. The anger of large sectors of the population with the policies of different managers of capital is growing. 

Are there good and bad imperialists?

Article by Dimitris Xekalakis*, originally published in Rizospastis, Organ of the CC of the KKE, on Saturday 3/5/2025. Translated by idcommunism.com

Are there good and bad imperialists?

The situation and the developments following Trump's rise to power and the realignment of alliances that is taking place in the camps of imperialism seem to have caused embarrassment and confusion among those who insist on identifying imperialist policy only with the US, cultivating the perception that "capitalist Russia will save us." 

Reflections on the US Communist Movement: William Z. Foster’s History of the CPUSA

A highly interesting and informative article published in "New Worker", the official publication of the Communist Workers’ Platform of the USA (CWPUSA):

Introduction

The communist movement in the US is in a dire state. The working class in the US finds itself without a genuine Communist Party, as the historical Party has mutated into, at best, a social-democratic mass organization. 

Partisans for Peace: On the 80th anniversary of Italy's liberation - Against rearmament and imperialist war

On April 25th, 1945, the National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy (CLNAI) declared a general uprising in all territories still occupied by fascist forces. The partisan troops, with the communists at the forefront, liberated the main cities of Northern Italy and put an end to more than twenty years of fascist oppression. 

Eighty years after those events, the Communist Front of Italy, with the support of the Front of Communist Youth, is launching a popular mobilization for April 25th, reviving the slogan "Partisans for Peace" against imperialist war and historical revisionism regarding Italy's war of liberation.

Trade wars and tariffs are the normality of capitalism

Article originally published in Rizospastis, Organ of the CC of the KKE, on Thursday 10/4/2025. Translated by Nikos Mottas.

The fairy tales about a "peaceful" redistribution of the world, which flared up with Trump's election, the bargaining over Ukraine, and the ceasefire in the Middle East, have collapsed with a blast. Those who try to whitewash the imperialists with such lies and hide their irreconcilable rivalries under the carpet are shamelessly provoking the people.

What is "ReArm Europe"? Multi-tool of warfare against the peoples

The EU has announced the “ReArm Europe” program worth 800 billion euros, signalling a rapid increase in its war spending.

It is thus reinforcing the war economy strategy and armaments of the previous period, escalating its involvement in the imperialist war in Ukraine. Its aim is to play a leading role on the Ukrainian front in conditions of heightened Euro-Atlantic antagonisms and US-Russian bargaining.

KKE on Trump-Putin call: Imperialist peace and arrangements are the other side of imperialist war

In a statement issued on Wednesday 19 March, the Press Office of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) refers to the recent call between U.S President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin concerning the situation in Ukraine. The statement (here in Greek) reads:

“The drumbeats about a ceasefire in the 3-year imperialist war in Ukraine, between the US, NATO, EU and capitalist Russia, cannot overshadow the real facts and the painful reality of the continuation of the war that tortures the peoples of Ukraine and Russia, as well as the dangers for other peoples.

No to the rearmament of Europe: Statement on the imperialist war in Ukraine and the EU’s arms race

Joint statement from the Communist Front Political Bureau and the Front of Communist Youth National Secretariat on the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine:

1. Three years after the escalation of the war in Ukraine between the Russian Federation and the US-EU-NATO Euro-Atlantic alliance, the conditions under which peace talks or cease-fire negotiations are presented once again demonstrate that this war has nothing to do with the “defense of European values” and democratic freedoms, nor with the alleged “anti-fascist” values that are instrumentally invoked by both factions. 

Rizospastis: The bargaining for Ukraine's mineral wealth exposes the imperialist pretexts

The daily newspaper “Rizospastis”, the organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece, refers on its front page of 26 February 2025 to the developments around the imperialist war in Ukraine and states in its headline: “The bargaining for mineral wealth exposes the imperialist pretexts”.

The article goes on to say that “The US-NATO-EU propaganda in defence of ‘democracy’ and ‘Western values’ is collapsing like a house of cards. The role of the ND government is exposed, as well as that of the social-democratic parties (PASOK, SYRIZA) and others who support the country’s involvement in the war. The positions of the KKE are confirmed”.

Government of the Capitalists, by Elon Musk, for some Capitalists

U.S. capitalism is in economic decay. The disintegration of the capitalist republic follows. This article explains the class nature of U.S. "democracy" and its decay, which has accelerated under president Trump. We republish it here because other capitalist parliamentary regimes share the same class nature, and they, too, are in palpable decay. —  IDC.

Abraham Lincoln gave fame to the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Donald Trump had not been president again for two weeks when the U.S. took big steps to a government of the capitalist class, by Elon Musk, for some capitalists. This regime has already increased the suffering of the people, but it also moves us closer to revolutionary overthrow of capitalism.

KKE: The peoples are witnessing a re-division of the world which can never be done peacefully

On Sunday 16 February the European Communist Action (ECA) held a teleconference under the theme "On the three years of imperialist war in Ukraine. The struggle of the communists against the EU, its war economy and the involvement of the bourgeois governments in imperialist wars".  

 

In his introductory speech, Giorgos Marinos, member of the Politburo of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), stressed the following: