Mamdani Begins to Implement Communism

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The Communist Twelver Shi’ite mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, made a major announcement on Tuesday: he is beginning to implement the Marxist seizure of property in New York City.

He did not, of course, state that in so many words. As Marxists always do, he couched his plans in the language of social justice, claiming that he was striking out against bad landlords and providing an opportunity for all New Yorkers to live in decent, fairly-priced housing. And as is always the case with Marxist promises, Mamdani’s big announcement was an obvious and flagrant lie to cover up for his seizure of private property, not so much on behalf of the city government as for the benefit of his far-left cronies.

Mamdani announced that he was going to seize rental properties from landlords who have not maintained them properly, and hand over ownership not to the city government, but to supposedly impartial players and fair dealers such as “community land trusts” and “non-profits.”

“For buildings that have suffered chronic neglect,” Mamdani announced proudly, “we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards. Stewards that include community land trusts, non-profits, or even the tenants themselves.”

Anyone who has been paying attention to Mamdani’s rapid rise could have seen this coming. Intifada on the Hudson: The Selling of Zohran Mamdani details how he has made socialized housing a centerpiece of his program ever since he entered politics. “People often ask,” he wrote on December 3, 2020, “what socialists mean when we say we want to ‘decommodify’ housing. Basically, we want to move away from a situation where most people access housing by purchasing it on the market & toward a situation where the state guarantees high-quality housing to all.”

The plan he unveiled Tuesday would move toward that, but the state wouldn’t own the housing; non-profits would own the housing, which means that he will be giving the properties over to his friends to give them a secure source of funding in order to help the far-left consolidate its power over the city.

New York City Council member Vickie Paladino, one of Mamdani’s most vociferous and insightful critics, explains: “The properties will then be turned over to nonprofits. This is no small detail. This is in fact the whole point. The idea here is to build up Zohran’s DSA-connected nonprofits with a multibillion-dollar portfolio of hard assets — New York City real estate. This portfolio could theoretically reach into the hundreds of billions or even the trillions, depending on how aggressive they get. Now these highly political nonprofits would become the new land barons of New York, complete with all the political clout, leverage, and reach that goes along with it. It would be a true nightmare scenario.”

This sounds as if Mamdani’s housing plan will be a great leap forward for securing socialist hegemony over New York City for the indefinite future, and making the once-great city into a base from which the same principles are applied elsewhere, until there are no more capitalists to plunder.

Many observers have noted how Mamdani has been much more ostentatious and open about his commitment to Islam since he has been in office than he ever was while he was campaigning. Some have even suggested that he isn’t really a Communist at all, but was merely using the left to get into power, and once securely in power, will cut them loose after the fashion of the Ayatollah Khomeini, who entered into a coalition with Iranian Marxists in order to gain their help in overthrowing the shah, but betrayed, imprisoned, and killed them once he was in power.

Mamdani, however, appears to be both a convinced Marxist and a devout Muslim. There is no real contradiction here; certainly Karl Marx himself made atheism a cornerstone of his secular religion, but Communism has always found a ready partner in Islam. This is because they have a deep kinship: both are authoritarian, totalitarian systems that impose draconian punishments for dissidents. Both deny the freedom of speech and other indispensable elements of a free society.

Also, once his Marxist comrades control New York City’s housing market, who will get the housing? Not political undesirables, i.e., patriots. Instead, Muslim migrants, including an unknowable number of criminals and jihadis, and others who will help the leftist/Islamic alliance stay in power, will receive preferment.

It will all work wonderfully — until, that is, Mamdani and his friends run out of other people’s money, and the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. But they will be bringing a great deal more down with them.

Photo credit: Bingjiefu He at Wikimedia Commons.