New York Communities for Change, which honored Mamdani at its latest fundraising gala, says targets are ‘Wanted for Anti-Zohran Electioneering’
A left-wing activist group with extensive ties to Zohran Mamdani is behind a series of “WANTED” posters targeting New York City business leaders, many of whom are Jewish or supporters of Israel.
New York Communities for Change (NYCC) launched an initiative last week called the Department of Class Solidarity, billed as a “war room of the working class.” The group’s website includes links to a database of “nearly 1,000 billionaires in our United States” meant to “arm the working class with the knowledge we need to defeat them.” The website also features detailed dossiers on billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
Mamdani lists NYCC on the endorsements page on his campaign website and attended the group’s annual fundraising gala on April 24, where tickets sold for upwards of $50,000. Mamdani, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, appeared with the group at an event last month with other “day one” supporters of his campaign.
Perhaps the most jarring aspect of the NYCC initiative is a series of posters featuring mugshot-style photos of Mamdani critics like New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, hedge fund executive Bill Ackman, and cosmetics tycoon William Lauder. The posters say the targets are “Wanted for Anti-Zohran Electioneering” and cite their donations to a super PAC supporting Mamdani challenger Andrew Cuomo.
It is unclear if Mamdani condones the posters or other rhetoric from the NYCC initiative. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The inflammatory rhetoric could raise new questions for Mamdani, who has faced criticism over his refusal to condemn calls for violence. Mamdani has defended the anti-Semitic slogan “Globalize the intifada,” widely considered a call to commit violence against Jews, as “a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights.”
In June, Mamdani led a crowd in a chant of “Free Palestine,” the same slogan allegedly shouted by Elias Rodriguez, the left-wing activist who murdered two Israeli diplomats outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., in May. Egyptian national Mohamed Soliman, who injured 12 members of a pro-Israel group in a firebombing in Boulder, Colo., in June, also shouted “Free Palestine” during the attack.
And some of Mamdani’s closest allies have embraced left-wing violence. Julian Gerson, the Mamdani campaign’s director of writing, lionized Luigi Mangione, who allegedly assassinated UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson in New York City in December.
Though NYCC is going after New York’s wealthiest residents, the group has received its fair share of billionaire funding over the years.
FWD.us, the social justice nonprofit of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, donated $165,000 to NYCC in 2022 and 2023. The philanthropy of Google founder Eric Schmidt gave $950,000 to NYCC’s sister organization, the New York Communities Organizing Fund, in 2022 and 2023, tax records show.
The Department of Class Solidarity lists both Zuckerberg and Schmidt in its billionaires database.
NYCC and the Department of Class Solidarity did not respond to requests for comment.
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