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