00:00Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Gracie Mansion, or as we call it here, the People's House.
00:06It is truly an enormous privilege to welcome Prime Minister Sanchez, Prime Minister Motley, President Costa,
00:15and so many leaders devoted to the work of building a more free, a more just, a more equal world.
00:22And thank you to all who have traveled far away to be with us, whether that is Brooklyn or whether
00:30that is Spain.
00:32We also want to thank our brother Patrick Gaspard for moderating, and thank you to the Global Progress Foundation for
00:40supporting today's event.
00:42As I have looked forward to this morning, I have returned to the words of a man who I know
00:47is a hero to many here, Federico Garcia Lorca.
00:52Cordoba, far and lonely, Black Pony, full moon, and olives in my pocket, although I know the roads, I'll never
01:01reach Cordoba.
01:03When Garcia Lorca published Ryder's Song nearly 90 years ago, the world, just as it is now, was in a
01:11moment of immense darkness and upheaval.
01:14Fascism crept across Europe, here in New York, where Garcia Lorca had found a deep resonance between the African-American
01:22poetry of Harlem and the flamenco of his native Spain.
01:26Isolationism was the prevailing movement of the day.
01:29Our nation had been scarred by conflict and suffering.
01:32In 1937, we did not see ourselves as interconnected, but safer the more separate we were.
01:39In Spain, as the Civil War raged, Franco's forces of repression perpetrated atrocities against those they deemed to be too
01:48left-wing.
01:49A year before Ryder's Song was published, Garcia Lorca was killed by Franco's men, executed by a firing squad.
01:56He was right.
01:57He never reached Cordoba.
01:59Garcia Lorca never concealed his beliefs.
02:02He believed too deeply in the possibility of a better world.
02:06Today, nine decades later, those of us in this room hold the power to make that vision a reality.
02:14We can carry our movement for equality and justice to further horizons than we ever thought possible.
02:20The full moon guides our path, and we too know the roads.
02:24I'm so proud to be joined by Prime Minister Sanchez and Motley, two champions of working people, two leaders who
02:31have restored faith and democracy across the world.
02:34And I want to take a moment to speak about the lessons we can learn from their leadership, the victories
02:39we can emulate, the material improvements to people's lives that we can deliver.
02:43Eight years ago, when Prime Minister Sanchez took office, the Spanish minimum wage sat at 735 euros per month, or
02:52roughly $868.
02:55Eight years and eight increases later, the Spanish minimum wage is now 1,221 euros per month, or roughly $1
03:04,400, a 61% increase.
03:14And standing here before you this morning, in a city that is both the wealthiest in the history of the
03:21world, and also one where one in four are living in poverty,
03:25I think of the words that Prime Minister Sanchez shared as he announced the latest wage increase.
03:30It sends a very clear and powerful message to millions of people.
03:35Their work matters, their effort matters, and their dignity matters.
03:41That commitment to the dignity of working people guides each of us here this morning, and it has guided Prime
03:47Minister Sanchez's work.
03:48We saw it when Spain expended parental leave to new parents.
03:52We saw it when his administration banned gay conversion therapy and paid tribute to the victims of Franco's reign of
03:58terror.
03:58And we surely saw that commitment when Prime Minister Sanchez demanded that universalism be extended to the Palestinian people from
04:06whom it has so long been withheld.
04:15I would give you credit for the World Cup, but I have to keep going.
04:21But Prime Minister Sanchez is not the only head of state here who has held that commitment.
04:26Look no further than Barbados and Prime Minister Motley for proof of how leaders can weave dignity into the lives
04:34of working people.
04:35Here in New York, a city on the water and surrounded by the water, we know all too well how
04:41the climate crisis disproportionately hurts those who cannot afford homes outside of floodplains
04:46or air conditioning that makes stifling heat tolerable.
04:49And yet, if we are fluent in a language of action and urgency around this very crisis, so much of
04:56that is only thanks to Prime Minister Motley's clarity.
04:58When she laid out a plan to plant more than one million trees, when she called for financing to small
05:04island states vulnerable to worse storms and higher seas,
05:07when she demanded that the United Nations answer the question, who will stand up in the name of all those
05:13who have died because of the climate crisis,
05:15that was a demand for dignity heard across this planet and in the very halls of power that so often
05:22determine the future of that same planet.
05:25Prime Minister Motley is proof that not only does dignity matter, but also that dignity has a political constituency.
05:31Just ask the Barbadians who have elected her in landslide victory after landslide victory after landslide victory of what they
05:39think of the work that she has led.
05:41Here in New York, we are striving to bring dignity into the lives of every New Yorker, not just those
05:46who can afford to buy it.
05:48Whether it is our landmark policy to deliver universal child care to every two-year-old across the five boroughs,
05:54our historic wins on behalf of the delivery workers exploited by their corporate employers,
06:00or our unwavering advocacy on behalf of tenants mistreated by bad landlords,
06:04we believe that dignity not only matters, city government can, must, and will work tirelessly to deliver it.
06:13After all, the work of dignity is not just the work of improving the lives of those we serve.
06:18It is the work also of demonstrating the power a movement can hold when it is not constrained by any
06:25one city or any one country,
06:27when it understands that the challenges we face are in fact global challenges that cannot only be considered together,
06:35but that must be solved together so that democracy can deliver on the change that it has long promised.
06:41It is truly a privilege to be able to learn from one another, emulate each other's successes,
06:47and develop strategies that imitate the great progress those in this room have achieved.
06:52That is not only how we know the roads before us, it is how we also ensure that one day
06:58we too can reach Cordoba.
07:00Thank you.
