00:00Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Gracie Mansion, or as we call it here, the People's House.
00:07It is truly an enormous privilege to welcome Prime Minister Sanchez, Prime Minister Motley,
00:15President Costa, and so many leaders devoted to the work of building a more free, a more just,
00:22a more equal world. And thank you to all who have traveled far away to be with us,
00:29whether that is Brooklyn or whether that is Spain. We also want to thank our brother Patrick
00:36Gaspard for moderating, and thank you to the Global Progress Foundation for supporting today's
00:42event. As I have looked forward to this morning, I have returned to the words of a man who I
00:48know
00:48is a hero to many here, Federico Garcia Lorca. Cordoba, far and lonely, black pony, full moon,
00:57and olives in my pocket. Although I know the roads, I'll never reach Cordoba.
01:04When Garcia Lorca published Ryder's Song nearly 90 years ago, the world, just as it is now,
01:11was in a moment of immense darkness and upheaval. Fascism crept across Europe. Here in New York,
01:19where Garcia Lorca had found a deep resonance between the African-American poetry of Harlem
01:24and the flamenco of his native Spain, isolationism was the prevailing movement of the day.
01:29Our nation had been scarred by conflict and suffering. In 1937, we did not see ourselves
01:36as interconnected, but safer the more separate we were. In Spain, as the Civil War raged,
01:44Franco's forces of repression perpetrated atrocities against those they deemed to be
01:48two-left-wing. A year before Ryder's Song was published, Garcia Lorca was killed by Franco's men,
01:55executed by a firing squad. He was right. He never reached Cordoba.
02:00Garcia Lorca never concealed his beliefs. He believed too deeply in the possibility of a better world.
02:07Today, nine decades later, those of us in this room hold the power to make that vision
02:13a reality. We can carry our movement for equality and justice to further horizons than we ever thought
02:20possible. The full moon guides our path, and we too know the roads. I'm so proud to be joined by
02:27Prime Minister Sanchez and Motley, two champions of working people, two leaders who have restored
02:32faith in democracy across the world. And I want to take a moment to speak about the lessons we can
02:38learn from their leadership, the victories we can emulate, the material improvements to people's lives
02:43that we can deliver. Eight years ago, when Prime Minister Sanchez took office, the Spanish minimum wage
02:50sat at 735 euros per month, or roughly $868. Eight years and eight increases later, the Spanish minimum wage
03:00is now 1,221 euros per month, or roughly $1,400, a 61% increase.
03:15And standing here before you this morning, in a city that is both the wealthiest in the history of the
03:22world
03:22and also one where one in four are living in poverty, I think of the words that Prime Minister Sanchez
03:28has shared as he announced the latest wage increase. It sends a very clear and powerful message to
03:35millions of people. Their work matters, their effort matters, and their dignity matters.
03:42That commitment to the dignity of working people guides each of us here this morning, and it has guided
03:48Prime Minister Sanchez's work. We saw it when Spain expended parental leave to new parents. We saw it when his
03:54administration banned gay conversion therapy and paid tribute to the victims of Franco's reign of
03:59terror. And we surely saw that commitment when Prime Minister Sanchez demanded that universalism be
04:04extended to the Palestinian people from whom it has so long been withheld.
04:16I 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.
04:27Look no further than Barbados and Prime Minister Motley for proof of how leaders can weave dignity into the
04:35lives of working people. Here in New York, a city on the water and surrounded by the water, we know
04:41all
04:41too well how the climate crisis disproportionately hurts those who cannot afford homes outside of flood
04:47plants, or air conditioning that makes stifling heat tolerable. And yet, if we are fluent in a language
04:53of action and urgency around this very crisis, so much of that is only thanks to Prime Minister Motley's clarity.
04:59When she laid out a plan to plant more than one million trees, when she called for financing,
05:04to small island states vulnerable to worse storms and higher seas, when she demanded that the United
05:10Nations answer the question, who will stand up in the name of all those who have died because of the
05:15climate crisis, that was a demand for dignity heard across this planet and in the very halls of power
05:23that so often determine the future of that same planet. Prime Minister Motley is proof that not only does
05:28dignity matter, but also that dignity has a political constituency. Just ask the Barbadians who have
05:34elected her in landslide victory after landslide victory after landslide victory of what they
05:39think of the work that she has led. Here in New York, we are striving to bring dignity into the
05:45lives of
05:45every New Yorker, not just those who can afford to buy it. Whether it is our landmark policy to deliver
05:51universal child care to every two-year-old across the five boroughs, our historic wins on behalf of the
05:58delivery workers exploited by their corporate employers, or our unwavering advocacy on behalf
06:03of tenants mistreated by bad landlords, we believe that dignity not only matters, city government can,
06:09must, and will work tirelessly to deliver it. After all, the work of dignity is not just the work of
06:17improving the lives of those we serve. It is the work also of demonstrating the power a movement can hold
06:24when it is not constrained by any one city or any one country, when it understands that the challenges
06:30we face are in fact global challenges that cannot only be considered together, but that must be solved
06:37together so that democracy can deliver on the change that it has long promised. It is truly a privilege
06:43to be able to learn from one another, emulate each other's successes, and develop strategies that
06:50imitate the great progress those in this room have achieved. That is not only how we know the roads
06:55before us, it is how we also ensure that one day we too can reach Cordoba. Thank you.
