Archive for the ‘Zohran Mamdani’ Category
“Progressive parties and civil society groups should jointly campaign to force the Government to drop the annual St. Patrick Day’s visit to the White House” – No Irish grovelling in Washington DC on March 17 2026 – Michael Taft’s Call is Spot On
Michael Taft, a researcher employed by the SIPTU trade union makes a very good proposal.
The President of the USA is backing reactionary genocidal actors in many parts of the globe – Ukraine, Palestine – and threatening the people of Iran, Venezuela, and Greenland – the list is growing.
Notes on the Front
Commentary on Irish Political Economy by Michael Taft, researcher for SIPTU
Abandon Paddy’s Day
January 12, 2026
Progressive parties and civil society groups should jointly campaign to force the Government to drop the annual St. Patrick Day’s visit to the White House. There is almost nothing to gain from such a visit and it can only perpetuate what Eoin Burke-Kennedy describes as the ‘Fawning, sycophantic, obsequious [and] “strategic self-emasculation’ approach to the US Administration pursued by Europe and Ireland.
How do you deal with a Head of State who says:
“I don’t need international law . . . [the only limit to my power] is my morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.’
In the last year the US bombed Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Somalia, Venezuela, Syria and Nigeria. It has threatened to invade or annex Panama, Canada, Mexico, Columbia, Cuba and Greenland. It armed the Israeli government’s genocidal attacks on Gaza.
It has withdrawn from 66 international organisations (a full list is here), including vital climate change bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Trump Administration’s ‘2025 National Security Strategy’ made clear the current US government’s intention to interfere in European democracies. As the Brookings Institute put it:
‘The document points to the “patriotic European parties”—a reference to the hard right as represented by France’s National Rally, the United Kingdom’s Reform party, and the Alternative for Germany—as America’s real allies in Europe. Its stated goal of “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations” amounts to a policy of constitutional regime change . . . it is the language of tyranny.’
Indeed, Trump’s document directly references Ireland, stating:
‘America is, understandably, sentimentally attached to . . . Britain and Ireland. The character of these countries is also strategically important . . . we want to work with aligned countries that want to restore their former greatness.’
And it just so happens that Steven Bannon, an important Trump ally and MAGA organiser, is already in Ireland:
‘I’m spending a ton of time behind the scenes on the Irish situation to help form an Irish national party , , , [Ireland is] going to have an Irish Maga, and we’re going to have an Irish Trump. That’s all going to come together. That country is right on the edge thanks to mass migration.’
And it so happens that the US Ambassador attended a recent far-right conference in Meath.
Trashing international law, bombing countries and threatening others, pursuing ‘constitutional regime change’ throughout Europe and Ireland: does this deserve a bowl of shamrock?
Humiliation Redux
It’s not as if the Irish Government is ignorant of what could be in store for them on St. Patrick’s Day. Remember the humiliation it received last year. The Taoiseach received an invitation to the White House late in the day (only 12 days’ notice) and it wasn’t even for St. Patrick’s Day. Of course, the President might have been too busy to meet with the Taoiseach. But Trump and Elon Musk had time to meet Conor McGregor on the day, despite the fact that McGregor had been found guilty of rape by a High Court civil jury.
So why would Trump meet McGregor on St Patrick’s Day rather than the elected representative of the Irish people? According to The Times:
‘The Trump family have deepened their business connections with Conor McGregor with the promise of a $23 million investment in one of the form MMA fighter’s business ventures . . . MMA Inc., an American listed martial arts training company . . . Last September Donald Trump Jr. was announced as a “strategic advisor” to the company.’
The Irish Government will have to come up with something special to compete for the US President’s attention.
What’s the Point?
It is difficult to understand what can be achieved with a visit to the White House on St. Patrick’s Day – that’s if the Irish Government even gets an invitation. There is little political influence Ireland can exert given that Trump has scant regard for international opinion (especially European opinion), never mind international law. If anything, a shamrock-as-usual approach is likely to feed Trump’s belief he can act with little blowback. And it is highly unlikely the Taoiseach would sit down in the Oval Office with the US President and, in front of the cameras, lecture him about a rules-based world order.
There is the foreign investment angle; namely, that Ireland needs to maintain inward US investment and, therefore, refusing to meet the US President could stem the flow of US investment. This doesn’t stand up. Over the St. Patrick’s day holiday, Irish Ministers and representatives can continue to meet with American CEOs, as they have done in the past, based on the work of Irish civil servants in US consulates around the country.
Indeed, Ireland might even get some quiet kudos from American CEOs. Trump has made it his business to humiliate CEOs who are reduced to bringing gifts of gold to the White House. The IDA reports that US companies are so cowed by the Trump administration that they don’t release information on investments and job creation here for fear of retribution from Washington. Ireland provides something that Trump derides – consistency and stability. A bowl of shamrock will not impact this dynamic.
A Coalition to Stop the Visit
According to the Minister for Foreign Affairs:
“Where we see challenging behaviour, we have to call it out, and unfortunately there’s been a lot of that from the US . . . So we will always use our voice, however small it might seem”.
What’s the best way to call out ‘challenging behaviour’? Refusing to visit the White House over the St. Patrick’s Day period. This would be a clear statement that Ireland opposes Trump’s arbitrary, chaotic foreign policy; a clear statement of support for a rules-based international order; a rejection of Trump’s ethno-nationalist portrayal of Europe (‘civilisational erasure’); and a determination to stop American nativist ideologues interfering in Irish and European democracy.
The parties that made up the ‘Connolly coalition’ should come together, with civil society organisations, to campaign against a St. Patrick’s Day visit to the White House – putting forward the arguments, mobilising public opinion and showing the power of progressive cooperation on a key foreign affairs event.
However, it is unlikely the Irish Government will concede. So the opposition parties should plan out an alternative St. Patrick’s Day visit with the participation of opposition party leaders and representatives along with civil society activists. This could include solidarity visits to cities that are under siege: Minneapolis, Chicago and Portland. The party representatives could meet with social constituencies that are struggling under Trump’s rule – in particular, the US trade union movement.
Indeed, there could be an alternative ceremony complete with a bowl of shamrocks Why not hold it in New York City and give the bowl to the newly elected Mayor, Zohran Mamdami? The symbolism would be profound, popular and progressive.
And, without interfering in US electoral politics, if the opposition to a White House visit provokes those sections of Irish America who previously supported Trump to re-think their political support – then we will have done the world a service.
That is how you make even a small voice speak loudly.
Link :
Some Extra Context :
Zohran Mamdani stuns Democratic establishment in New York mayor race
Early results point to upset win for the leftwing candidate over former governor Andrew Cuomo
From the Financial Times :
Zohran Mamdani, the leftwing Democrat feared by Wall Street, is on course to win the party’s mayoral primary for New York City, sending shockwaves across US politics. Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has called for higher taxes on the rich and assailed US support for Israel in Gaza, stunned Andrew Cuomo, the former governor of New York state, in the Democratic primary race on Tuesday. His success will reverberate across Wall Street and among the billionaire donors, including hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who backed his rival. It will also intensify the debate among Democrats as they seek a convincing political strategy to take on Donald Trump.
“Tonight, we made history,” Mamdani told hundreds of jubilant supporters in Queens on Tuesday night. “I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City. “When we no longer believe in our democracy, it only becomes easier for people like Donald Trump to convince us of his worth, for billionaires to convince us that they must always lead,” he said. New York leans towards Democrats, and Mamdani’s victory gives the 33-year-old a major advantage in the election this year to replace Eric Adams as the city’s mayor — one of the most powerful positions in US domestic politics. Cuomo conceded defeat late on Tuesday in a contest that was widely seen as a referendum on the future of the party. “Tonight was not our night, tonight. It was Assemblyman Mamdani’s night,” Cuomo told supporters at a post-election party, adding that he had called Mamdani to congratulate him. Unofficial results on Tuesday night showed Mamdani with a seven-point lead over Cuomo, with more than 90 per cent of the vote counted.
The final result will depend on the tally in the city’s ranked-choice system, which allows people to pick up to five candidates in order of preference. The winner will be officially declared on July 1, at the earliest, after all other candidates’ votes have been reallocated.
Following Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election, the Democrats have been riven between a progressive wing exemplified by New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and moderates such as Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, who has praised Trump. Mamdani ran his campaign on a pledge to make life more affordable for New Yorkers, whose cost of living has soared since the Covid-19 pandemic. If elected, he says he will raise taxes on the rich to fund free buses and childcare, as well as city-owned grocery stores. The progressive candidate tapped into a groundswell of support among younger voters — an electoral strategy that will be studied by Democrats nationally as they try to win back youthful voters who backed Trump in November. “In the words of Nelson Mandela: it always seems impossible until it’s done,” Mamdani said on X following the result. Ocasio-Cortez, who has tapped into a similar voter base, congratulated Mamdani on Tuesday night, saying in a social media post, “billionaires and lobbyists poured millions against you and our public finance system. And you won.”
Link :
Zohran Mamdani likely to be 2025 New York mayor
Left-wing activists in the USA respond :
Sherry J Wolf :
Zohran’s win is a rebuke to the Democratic Party’s disastrous and reactionary playbook since Clinton ‘92: in the face of the Right, move to the center which disgusts everyone and has led to further rightward drift. My comrades who’ve worked tirelessly to get Zohran elected are wary of the Dems, but believe—wrongly, in my opinion—that the Dem ballot line can be used by the Left to burrow from within. The NYC left is not yet prepared for how viciously and relentlessly the wealthy and powerful of that party will go after Zohran to co-opt and undermine him—whatever works. The left in NYC is not yet building the movement infrastructure to hold any left candidate accountable to resist pulls to the right and cooptation, as we’ve seen with AOC locally and Bernie nationally. We have a lot to learn from Chicago’s experience where the left also elected its mayor with a stronger labor left but similar movement and political deficits.
I’m happy Zohran won because of what it says about the possibility for building support for a progressive vision, but we’re surrounded by land mines without a map out or broad acknowledgement that there won’t be heroes to save us, that without organizing and mass movements and democratic structures of dissent to create pressure and accountability, the electoral wins will be elusive.
Ashley Smith :
In the face of an all out attack by the NYC ruling class and the worst Zionist slanders, racism, and anti communism, a Muslim pro-Palestine socialist just won the Democratic Primary and is now frontrunner for Mayor of New York. Whatever happens next, this is a sign of the profound radicalization to the left among the multiracial working class of this country on every single issue, including and especially Palestine. Our task now is to build the mass class and social struggles to push back against the rulers of the system that will pull out every trick in the book to block, neutralize, and co-opt Mamdani. We also must hold him accountable to the movements that made his victory possible. Celebrate, understand the powerful forces arrayed against us, and prepare to organize, demonstrate, and strike to overcome those obstacles and make Mamdani’s promises a reality.
Tania Vyhovsky, State Senator, Vermont :
Zohran ran a brilliant campaign and truly acknowledged the suffering of the many. His win is not only a referendum on the elitist dem establishment but a testament that a better world is possible and when you give people something to vote for they will vote. Turnout was huge in this election by US standards. People are sick and tired of being shamed and fear mongered into voting for the lesser of two evils. Mamdani gave New Yorkers something to believe in and he gave them and all of us hope for a better future. The democratic establishment will likely learn nothing from this but like Bernie in 2016 this may galvanize a whole wave of people who again believe in the power of a movement for a better tomorrow. This is governing from the ground up, governing for the people and it has to be the future if the United States is going to defeat fascism.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 