By Bazona B. Bado
NYC Africans in partnership with NYC Women’s club has organized a public forum with a theme focused on “progressive socialists – the new page.”
Three speakers, Tandia Bakary, Dr. Amanda Ota, and Karanja Gaçuça as well as the moderator Mamadou Drame discussed the theme with the audience.
After Zohran Mamdani won the mayoral election to be the New York City mayor, time is coming for New York city Africans to keep the conversation, and more importantly to dig into the ideology that bring Mamdani in power: the progressive socialism.
The panelists agreed that socialism is not communism even though both share common root: Progressive socialism is defined as “a political ideology that merges the economic focus of socialism with the social reform emphasis of progressivism, aiming for economic justice and social progress.”
However, communism is “a more extreme form of socialism that seeks to create a classless society where all property is publicly owned, and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.”
For the panelists, “progressive socialism is not a handout of free stuffs as some people think; it is about addressing people’s needs, and equal distribution of resources.”
New York city Africans want to keep supporting Mayor elected Mamdani to fulfil his agenda, pushing him to accomplish his progressist policies, continuing with the dialogue and addressing the issues that happen in the community, and keeping alive the movement.