New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has invoked the legacy of Irish socialist James Connolly in recent speeches around St. Patrick’s Day. A member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani linked Connolly’s ideals to labor rights and self-determination. Congressional candidate Claire Valdez highlighted Connolly’s past organizing in New York.
Zohran Mamdani, newly elected mayor of New York City, opened his November election-night victory speech with a quote from socialist Eugene Debs: “The sun may have set over our city this evening, but as Eugene Debs once said: ‘I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity.’” This signaled his commitment to democratic socialist politics, drawing cheers from supporters including members of New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America movement (NYC-DSA). Mamdani referenced Debs’ Socialist Party history of electing officials to support the working class. Shortly before St. Patrick’s Day, Mamdani attended a luncheon hosted by the James Connolly Irish American Labor Coalition. He quoted Connolly, executed by British forces 110 years ago after the 1916 Easter Rising: “The cause of labor is the cause of Ireland and the cause of Ireland is that cause of labor.” When asked about Connolly’s vision of a united Ireland, Mamdani initially replied cautiously: “I gotta be honest, I haven’t thought enough on that question.” On St. Patrick’s Day, he elaborated: “as someone who believes deeply in the principle of self-determination…I think that should also be extended to the Irish.” This was seen as support for a referendum on reuniting Northern Ireland with the Republic, as called for by Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald for the end of the decade. In a St. Patrick’s Day video, Mamdani praised Irish solidarity with anti-colonial struggles in Africa, against apartheid in South Africa, and for Palestinian freedom. He noted the British Empire honed colonial exploitation in Ireland’s plantations and highlighted resistance led by Connolly and Patrick Pearse. Claire Valdez, a United Auto Workers organizer, New York state legislator, NYC-DSA activist, and Mamdani-backed candidate for Congress in New York’s Seventh Congressional District, recalled Connolly’s July 1910 speech in Greenpoint at Manhattan Ave and Huron Street, titled ‘Socialism in Ireland and the United States.’ Over 1,000 workers attended, as reported in The New York Call. Connolly had emigrated to New York in 1903, edited The Harp newspaper, and organized with the IWW. Valdez stated: “Connolly understood that Irish liberation and working-class liberation were the same struggle.”
