00:00Greetings to everybody from the South, Telesur English, thank you for having me on this platform
00:08and to speak about these historic elections that are happening in New York City right now, my hometown, my home city.
00:15It's a pleasure to have you with us. So tell us, to begin with, what is the background of these elections
00:19that are taking place in New York and in other states of the country? What's the story coming to this election day?
00:25Yeah, so there, as far as New York City, there are various elections happening throughout the country, municipal elections.
00:34There's also elections happening in the cities of Minnesota and Seattle for their mayorships,
00:40and as well as a referendum out in California and governor elections out in New Jersey.
00:48But here in New York City, we are right now at a precedent moment in our history.
00:56We are right now in the process of an election, a very historic election, an election that has shocked the nation nationwide,
01:07and I think globally as well.
01:09I think it has to do with the candidates that we have, precisely one, Zora Mamdani,
01:16who is the 34-year-old assembly person from the Queens District that he is running as a Democratic Socialist,
01:26but under the Democratic Party line, which he was able to successfully win during the primary elections in June,
01:34where he defeated ex-governor of the Democratic Party, Andrew Cuomo, who right now is still running, but in the independent line.
01:43But what we see right now in New York City is very high energy, very, I guess, like electrifying energy amongst the youth,
01:52amongst different generations, seeing how this election is an election that's going to determine the destiny of New York City,
02:01but also the rest of the country, because New York City is one of the big major cities of the United States.
02:07It's a city that influences U.S. culture, but also world culture as well, because, you know, we think about it.
02:13We have the United Nations here. We have a very diverse city.
02:18So we're going to see how these results end up at the end of the day at 9 p.m.
02:24Let's stay on New York City.
02:26As you were saying, New York, this candidate that is running for a Democrat party, even though he's a Democrat Socialist,
02:32he has seen a lot of backlash coming from the right in general.
02:35Why is it that this candidate is facing so much pressure from the right against his policies?
02:40We have also seen him condemning the genocide that took place in Gaza.
02:45So what's the policy here, and what is the impact that this victory, you already mentioned some of it,
02:50what's the impact that it could have, the domino effect that it could have in other Democrat states?
02:53Right. So the candidate, Zora Mandani, who is the Ugandan-born Assembly member, who's a Muslim, Democratic Socialist,
03:05I think a lot of the backlash that has come from the far right of the MAGA movement,
03:10but as well as from the established Democrats like Andrew Cuomo and other figures who are funded by the AIPAC lobby,
03:20the Israeli lobby, it has to do with many factors.
03:23I think one of them has to do with the proposal that Mandani is giving for the working class in New York City
03:30that his campaign, he's running on an affordability campaign,
03:35because in New York City, like the rest of the country in the world, we're having an affordability crisis.
03:40People don't have the means to live a livable life when it comes to their housing,
03:45when it comes to the way they travel, when it comes to child care,
03:49and he's running on that. He's running on wanting to freeze the rent to help out a lot of New Yorkers
03:55that live in rent-stabilized apartments, not get their rent increase.
03:58He's running on wanting to make buses free, the transit free,
04:03and he's running as well as to make child care affordable for many New Yorkers who have children.
04:12And a lot of this could be possible because New York City's GDP is more than other countries.
04:17New York City has a GDP of a gross domestic product of over $1. trillion.
04:23So a lot of this stuff could be funded and possible because people ask,
04:27where is the money going to come from?
04:28But as well as his solidarity with the immigrant community,
04:34when it comes to ICE, the federal agency that right now is harassing and terrorizing immigrant groups
04:43from around the world following the Trump policy of doing the mass deportations,
04:48Mamdani has said that he will be in solidarity with the immigrant community
04:53and make sure to exert this thing that we call sanctuary city laws
04:59that prohibits ICE from working in collaboration with the NYPD, with the police department,
05:06that unfortunately the mayor that's in power right now, Eric Adams,
05:09is allowing ICE to work with the police department
05:12because Matt Adams has become a puppet to the Trump administration.
05:16But I think also, and I think a clear other part of this,
05:20it has to do with his faith as a Muslim, but also as his pro-Palestine stance.
05:30I feel, and what we've seen in New York is that him getting attacked,
05:36like these Islamophobic attacks, due to him being a Muslim,
05:42and also his stance on Palestine with them trying to make a comparison
05:46between the tragedies of 9-11 with him, as well as trying to make him out to be a Hamas sympathizer
05:56to his pro-Palestine stance to scare the Jewish faction of New Yorkers in New York City.
06:03But what we have seen as well as, a lot of it hasn't worked.
06:06I think because New York City is a very diverse city,
06:09and we have seen what occurred to our Muslim brothers and sisters post-9-11,
06:16where a lot of them were the victims of racist and prejudiced attacks during that time.
06:23And I think New Yorkers want to stand on the right side of history,
06:28those that support the candidate Zora Mamdani,
06:31as well as people understanding that there is a genocide happening in Palestine, in Gaza.
06:37And Mamdani, with his stance that he's had to take,
06:42as far as him speaking against the genocide,
06:46yet being in favor of a two-state solution,
06:50but also talking about exerting United Nations laws
06:56in case he becomes the mayor of New York
06:58to arrest the genocidal prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,
07:03who says a lot about a candidate who's running for one of the biggest positions,
07:08one of the biggest mayorships in the city, in the country, which is New York City.
07:14So I think we are seeing the true face of when it comes to the far right,
07:22but also the established Democrats attacking Mamdani due to his faith.
07:29But we will see what's going to happen,
07:32what's going to be the results during tonight's elections at 9 p.m.
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