Zohran Mamdani

On the 1 January 2026 Zohran Mamdani takes office as New York’s first ever Democratic Socialist Mayor. Bryn Griffiths of the Labour Left Podcast sat down with Professor Theodore Hamm to ask him how Zohran got elected and to consider what will happen next.

To help us answer these questions, about possibly the biggest success of the international left in 2025, Bryn interviewed Professor Theodore Hamm, aka Ted, the Chair of Journalism at New York’s St Joseph’s University. He writes for the New York City based Indypendent, Jacobin and most importantly of all he’s just published the book Run Zohran Run!

Ted Hamm and OR Books spotted Zohran Mamdani’s potential before he made his breakthrough in the Democratic Primary in the summer of 2025. So, Ted, based in New York, had exclusive Access to Zohran before he became an international celebrity. He also spoke to many Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) activists about their amazing campaign.

In the interview we speak about Zohran’s background and political evolution.

We consider how the DSA’s success was based on an approach to coalition building and clear campaigning objectives that the whole of the international left would do well to learn from.

Inevitably Zohran’s campaign, like Corbyn’s Labour Leadership in the United Kingdom, was subject to vicious and unjust smears of antisemitism. But this time the smears didn’t work because Zohran’s campaign was what Rachel Shabi, a previous Labour Left Podcast guest, called in her recent Substack The Mamdani Masterclass on Antisemitism. The podcast takes an in depth look at how Zohran held his ground and what lessons the international left can learn from his example.

It will not be lost on our English readers that a democratic socialist seizing office in a major western city is not without precedent. In the podcast we look at the Ken Livingstone precedent and how, as John McDonnell put it when he appeared on the podcast, elected socialists must see themselves as both In and Against the State. What could Zohran learn from the Greater London Council? What should Zohran expect from Trump and how might he resist the inevitable attacks?

2025 has been a good year for the Labour Left Podcast. Our largest number of viewers and listeners is still on You Tube but you can now subscribe to watch us on Substack and we are of course on every podcast site you can think of. Spotify tell me that our listeners in the podcast audio format are on the up. In 2025 the podcast audience was up 999% and we have 1.8k new listeners. Reassuringly for a long form podcast Spotify tell me that subscribers listen to the Labour Left Podcast for longer than 92% of other shows. During 2025 we added a video format choice for our Spotify subscribers and they tell me that the show was in the top 10% of videos on Spotify.

You can watch the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts Audible, Substack and listen to it on Spotify You can even ask Alexa to play the Labour Left Podcast. If your favourite podcast site isn’t listed, just search for the Labour Left Podcast.

If you subscribe you can catch up on our 20 plus episodes back catalogue. The top episode of 2025 was the former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. Other big hits have included Andrew Fisher the man behind the 2017 manifesto For the Many and not the Few and Rachel Shabi the author of The Truth Behind Antisemitism.

Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive.

Bryn hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast. You can find all the episodes of the podcast or if you prefer audio platforms (for example Amazon, Audible Spotify, Apple etc,) go to your favourite podcast provider and just search for the Labour Left Podcast.

You can purchase Ted Hamm’s excellent book Run Zohran Runat OR Books for the reduced price of £12 at orbooks.com.

In the latest edition of the Labour Left Podcast Bryn Griffiths talks to Mark Perryman the editor of the best book on Keir Starmer so far, The Starmer Symptom.

Mark comes from a different political place to me so I really looked forward to our discussion. In the 1980s I was supporting Tony Benn alongside Jeremy Corbyn and selling Brighton Labour Briefing in my local Labour Party. Meanwhile Mark was a member of the Communist Party and part of the Marxism Today team which was occasionally unimpressed by those of us on the Labour Left.

Historically Mark Perryman came from what was called the soft left so it was always going to be interesting to see how far our paths have converged in the face of the Starmer-McSweeney axis. Previously I had interviewed Neal Lawson of Compass and the brains behind the new soft left grouping Mainstream and concluded that ‘The hard left and the soft left are talking again’ so the signs were good.

When Labour Hub published its first Labour Left Podcast episode two years ago with Liz Davies as our guest, we set ourselves the big task of considering the all-important strategic question of how does the Left and in particular the Labour Left make a comeback? It is this strategic question which dominates the podcast.

We start by discussing the role that Marxism Today played in the 1980s during the period of Thatcherism. Mark states in his book that ‘my front is popular’ so I press him on what exactly that statement means to him. What flows is a valuable discussion about coalition building. Key to the discussion is the concept of pluralism.

I like to draw upon Antonio Gramsci’s ideas. So, Mark reveals the thinking behind the title of the book.

Having grappled with the concepts that underpin Mark’s thinking we get down to the daunting task of applying them to today. So, prepare for wide ranging discussion where we consider how we should understand Labour’s sandcastle majority? How can we beat Reform? What’s Labour like according to Morgan McSweeney?

A common theme amongst those of us that criticised Marxism Today was that it was great on the diagnosis of the new challenges we faced; but not so good on the prescription of what we should do about the challenges so effectively described. In the interview I challenge The Starmer Symptom on exactly the same grounds. So, much of the interview is taken up with pushing Mark to set out his strategy to win. Along the way we discuss the launch of Mainstream, economic policy, responding to the Deputy Leadership contest, proportional representation and more.

By the end of the podcast, you will appreciate that Mark Perryman is always up for a robust debate so why don’t you invite him to speak at your local Labour Party political education meeting? Mark would be delighted to come and discuss his essay ‘Testing the limits of Labourism’ and he will share 50% of the book sales on the day to help fund the event. If you are interested mail him at Mark@Perrymanemails.net for a booking.

I don’t usually tell you in advance who the Labour Left Podcast class hero of the month is going to be but given Mark’s choice I feel I must. Mark chose our wonderful late comrade Mike Marqusee. I loved the discussion that ensued. If like me you knew and admired Mike, I am sure you’ll enjoy the nomination which occurs at the end of the episode.

Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive.

Bryn hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast. You can find all the episodes of the podcast here or if you prefer audio platforms (for example Amazon, Audible Spotify, Apple etc,) go to your favourite podcast provider and just search for the Labour Left Podcast.

Mike Phipps of Labour Hub previously reviewed Mark Perryman’s The Starmer Symptom and you can find the review here.

In the Labour Conference 2025 Labour Left Podcast edition Bryn Griffiths speaks to the Labour left leader John McDonnell of the Socialist Campaign Group.

The in-depth interview with John explores what thinking lies behind his decades of socialist activity. It arguably gives us the deepest understanding yet of John’s political practice as a truly organic intellectual.

We start by talking about his podcast A People’s History which echoes the themes of a previous Labour Left Podcast with Prof Harvey J Kaye. We then discuss a range of socialist authors such as Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Ernest Mandel and Ralph Miliband.

The figure that keeps coming up again and again in the interview is the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci. It’s fascinating to hear how John’s political practice draws upon concepts such as the war of position and the organic intellectual. I think you’ll conclude that Fergal Kinney, the Tribune culture editor, was spot on when he dubbed John the “Gramscian back-bencher”.

John McDonnell is known for his excellent work on Ireland. So, we talk about his role in the dialogue with Sinn Fein in the 1980s and he take up Geoff Bell’s call for truth and conciliation based on the actions of the British state in the Troubles.

Keeping on the subject of the British State we have a fascinating discussion about George Osborne’s recent podcast where he referred to Chris Mullin’s 1980s book A Very British Coup. We find out what light the left’s erstwhile ally Reg Race threw upon the murky goings on in the Parliamentary Labour Party. What would the British establishment and Parliamentary Labour Party have done if Jeremy Corbyn had got those few extra votes and got us over the line in 2017? John has the answers.

As you would expect the interview then gets contemporary. John talks about Gaza and Atlanticism; considers the kind of Left we need; expands upon his argument that Labour faces an existential threat; gives his view on PR; pronounces on the Mandelson scandal; and, laments the paucity of choice in the Deputy Leadership campaign.

Finally, John comes up with an inspirational Class Hero of the Month and leaves us with a great reading list to get stuck into.

Next up in our October episode will be Mark Perryman the editor of the excellent new book the Starmer Symptom. Hit subscribe on YouTube, Substack or your favourite podcast platform.

You can watch the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Audible , Substack and listen to it on Spotify. You can even ask Alexa to play the Labour Left Podcast. If your favourite podcast site isn’t listed, just search for the Labour Left Podcast.

Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive. Bryn hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast.

In the latest episode of the Labour Left Podcast Bryn Griffiths speaks to the prominent socialist feminist Lynne Segal.

Veteran socialists will remember the huge impact that Beyond the Fragments, published in 1979 and co-authored by Lynne Segal and her socialist sisters Hilary Wainright and Sheila Rowbotham, had upon us. Many of us would count the book amongst those which politically formed us. So, what Lynne has to say on the current political situation is of huge interest.

Making Trouble, the title of the podcast, comes from Lynne’s book of the same title in 2007. So, the podcast starts with a look back at the trouble Lynne was making back in the 1970s and 1980s.

Last year was the forty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Beyond the Fragments and as Lynne points out its ideas and the challenging problems it was grappling with are still as relevant today as the day it was written.

Ash Sarkar, of Novara Media, has recently published Minority Rule - Adventures in the Culture War to grapple with the challenges of inter-sectionality, identity politics and the culture war. The terms may have changed but a quick re-read of Beyond the Fragments confirms that she is re-treading the path of the socialist feminists who went before her. Lynne gives her views on the new publication.

Back in 1979 Lynne and the Beyond the Fragments authors cast a critical eye over the internal workings of the British left. Today, we have a surplus of left projects: our own - the organisations of the labour left such as Momentum and Labour Hub; an emergent green left around Polanski’s leadership challenge; and, those embarking on the unenviable task of starting yet another new left party from scratch. All three of these projects in their different ways are trying to move ‘beyond the fragments’. Lynne drawing upon the ideas of the seminal book asks: what kind of left organisation do we need and how can we avoid our historic failures?

The interview moves on to tackle contemporary issues. Lynne certainly doesn’t duck the difficult ones as there’s a big focus on supporting trans-rights and consideration of her enthusiastic involvement in the pro-Palestinian Jewish Bloc.

On trans rights Lynne grapples with the relationship between today’s trans rights disputes within the feminist movement and the earlier debates between socialist feminists on the one side and the radical or cultural feminists on the other. She also touches on sex positive feminism and seeks to answer the question – why does the trans rights’ debate differ so much between the United States and the United Kingdom?

The podcast looks at the formation and politics of Jews for Justice for Palestine. Finally, we look at the need for boycott, divestment and sanctions as a means to secure a Palestine state. But are we aiming for a two state or single state solution?

You can watch the podcast on YouTube, Apple Podcasts here, Audible here and listen to it on Spotify here If your favourite podcast site isn’t listed, just search for the Labour Left Podcast.

Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive.

Bryn hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast. You can find all the episodes of the podcast here or if you prefer audio platforms (for example Amazon, Audible Spotify, Apple etc,) go to your favourite podcast provider and just search for the Labour Left Podcast

In the latest episode of the Labour Left Podcast Bryn Griffiths speaks to Richard Burgon, the Secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs, on the theme of the class struggle in Parliament and the historical role of the Labour Left.

The podcast frames Richard Burgon’s politics with the title of the late Eric Heffer MP’s fine book The Class Struggle in Parliament written in 1973.

The interview starts with Bryn Griffiths, the podcast host, congratulating Richard on Leeds United’s recent promotion to the Premiership. A discussion that immediately segways into praise for football historian Anthony Clavane’s A Yorkshire Strategy a football history book. Clavane’s book is one of the best pieces of writing about how over thirty year’s Yorkshire’s Northern voters were left behind so it’s an excellent launch pad for a discussion about the future of the Labour Left.

The first part of the podcast looks at the making of Richard Burgon’s political thinking and the huge debt he owes to Tony Benn. The podcast reflects on Westminster University’s recent seminar on the Benn legacy. It’s fitting that a key figure of Labour’s socialist wing should place himself in this historical context.

Before getting stuck into more contemporary material the podcast reflects on recent historical events surrounding the elections in 2017, 2019 and last year in 2014.

Each episode of the Labour Left Podcast ends with the class hero of the month feature. The idea is that the guest introduces the listener to a figure in their life that has had a big influence on their political thinking. Richard chooses Dennis Skinner, the former MP for Bolsover 1970 to 2019. A discussion ensues about Skinner’s role in the Clay Cross Council rent struggle in 1972 and the great miners’ strike of 1984-85.

If you are enjoying the podcast please subscribe on YouTube or your favourite podcast platform so you never miss a future episode. If you like what the Labour Left Podcast is trying to achieve, please help us to get the podcast in front of more people by sharing, following, liking, rating and commenting on every episode you watch.

If you’re new to the Labour Left Podcast, please take a look at our back catalogue as there are lots of episodes to interest students of modern history. The last episode looked at Ireland since the 1970s with historian Geoff Bell; Previous episodes have included Prof Harvey J Kaye on the legacy of the Communist Historians; Prof Corinne Fowler, talking about her book Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain; Andrew Fisher telling the story behind For the Many Not the Few Labour’s 2017 manifesto; Jeremy Gilbert, a Prof of Cultural and Political Theory, a champion of Gramsci, talking about Thatcherism; Mike Jackson, co-founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, on the Great 1984-85 Miners’ Strike; political activist Liz Davies telling her story as the dissenter within Blair’s New Labour; Rachel Garnham, a current co-Chair of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy looking back at the history of the fight for democracy in the British Labour Party; and finally myself telling the story of Brighton Labour Briefing, a local Bennite magazine in the 1980s.

Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive.

Bryn hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast. You can find all the episodes of the podcast on You Tube or if you prefer audio platforms (for example Amazon, Audible Spotify, Apple etc,) go to your favourite podcast provider and just search for the Labour Left Podcast.

Geoff Bell Labour for Irish Unity on the Labour Left Podcast

The Fight For a United Ireland

Geoff Bell is an outstanding historian of the troubles; but more than that he has many decades of experience as an Irish activist in Britain fighting for a united Ireland. His most famous book, published in 1976, and reprinted five times is the Protestants of Ulster. More recently he has published Hesitant Comrades and The Twilight of Unionism. He is an organic intellectual in the truly Gramscian sense of the term.

The podcast will give socialists an excellent grounding in modern Irish history and along the way you’ll hear stories of minding Vanessa Redgrave, fighting in the Bogside alongside Bernadette Devlin, carrying Eamon McCann’s megaphone, Kinnock trying to torpedo Geoff’s Channel Four Documentary and being followed by police spies whilst driving Gerry Adams.

Geoff explained in Michael Farrell’s Twenty Years On, published in 1988, that during the events in Derry of the late sixties and early seventies he “gained a political education the like of which few contemporary European Socialists have had the privilege of receiving”. In this episode of the Labour Left Podcast, you find out why.

Towards the end of the podcast Geoff talks about what could be the final stages of the struggle for Irish Unity. Geoff ends by setting British socialists some important tasks to help make sure that both Geoff and myself get to see a United Ireland in our lifetimes.

If you’re new to the Labour Left Podcast, please take a look at our back catalogue. Previous episodes have included Rachel Shabi talking about her book The Truth About Antisemitism; Bernard Regan author of The Balfour Declaration: Empire, the Mandate and Resistance in Palestine; Prof Harvey J Kaye on the legacy of the Communist Historians; Prof Corinne Fowler, talking about her book Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain; Andrew Fisher telling the story behind For the Many Not the Few Labour’s 2017 manifesto; Jeremy Gilbert, a Prof of Cultural and Political Theory, a champion of Gramsci, talking about Thatcherism; Mike Phipps, author of Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow, taking a long term look at the Labour Left; Mike Jackson, co-founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, on the Great 1984-85 Miners’ Strike; political activist Liz Davies telling her story as the dissenter within Blair’s New Labour; Rachel Garnham, a current co-Chair of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy looking back at the history of the fight for democracy in the British Labour Party; and finally myself telling the story of Brighton Labour Briefing, a local Bennite magazine of the 1980s.

If you enjoy the podcast please subscribe on YouTube or your favourite podcast platform so you never miss a future episode. If you like what the Labour Left Podcast is trying to achieve, please help us to get the podcast in front of more people by sharing, following, liking, rating and commenting on every episode you watch.

Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive.

Bryn hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast. You can find all the episodes on YouTube or if you prefer audio platforms (for example Amazon, Audible Spotify, Apple etc,) go to your favourite podcast provider and just search for the Labour Left Podcast.

#Ireland #GeoffBell #UnitedIreland #TroopsOut #SinnFein #Republican #IrishUnity #Palestine #BernadetteDevlin #GerryAdams #LabourLeftPodcast #LabourCommitteeonIreland #Unionism #UnitedIreland #Loyalism #Bloody Sunday

Since the 1980s, the Labour left has been divided by a split between its hard and soft wings. In the light of the Labour right’s new and brutal ascendancy, is it time for the two sides to think the unthinkable and at least have a conversation? Bryn Griffiths, the presenter of the Labour Left Podcast sits down with Neal Lawson, of Compass, to ask: has the time come to try and heal some of the old wounds and work together?

In 1981 the Labour left split asunder when Neil Kinnock abstained during Tony Benn’s bid for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party and delivered a wafer-thin victory to Dennis Healey, an Atlanticist of the Labour right. As a result, the Tribune Group split between the Bennite Socialist Campaign Group and leadership loyalists. The fighting got worse when the local government left split over the need for councillors to join the miners, at the time of their historic, year-long strike, and open up a second front over ratecapping to defeat Margaret Thatcher, the neoliberal Conservative Prime Minister.

Our conversation got off to a wobbly start when we discovered that we both played prominent roles in Labour Students in the early 1980s where the left in-fighting was at its bloodiest. But, surprisingly, what comes over throughout the podcast is a clear-headed determination to get over our old wounds and focus on the struggle today to save the very essence of the Labour Party.

We discussed how the ‘playground bullies’ in Labour HQ had tried to expel Neal. It certainly felt at this point of the discussion that our enemies’ enemy might possibly become a nice new friend. Have a listen and see what you think.

During the course of the podcast, we discuss the political culture which Keir Starmer and his Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney have established within Labour and ask is it a culture fit for Government? We are both enthusiastic advocates of proportional representation so we had a robust debate about how we secure the prize and what role Liberal Democrats might play. Looking in our rear-view mirror, we discussed what Labour should learn from Corbynism and the 2017 General Election campaign. We of course discuss Gaza and the Labour Right’s Atlanticism.

As the interview unfolded, we found lots to agree about so we discussed what organisational form a pluralist Labour Left might take and what we need to do to get there.

Regardless of whether you’re reading this article as someone who comes from the soft left or the hard left of the Labour Party, I think you might be pleasantly surprised about how the discussion unfolds. If you feel delighted or provoked from either side of the historic divide, the pages of Labour Hub are open to you to explain why.

If you’re on the right of the Labour Party the podcast might make you uncomfortable. Your behaviour over Gaza, the capping of third child benefits, the winter fuel allowance and now disability benefits cuts are breaking up your internal Labour Party alliances and we’re beginning to see new ones form. The podcast demonstrates the opportunities before us and we’re serious.

We trust that you will find the latest Labour Left Podcast an invaluable resource. If you do, please help us get the episode to more people by sharing, following, liking, rating and commenting on it wherever you see it.

You can get the podcast on YouTube, Substack, Apple Podcasts and Audible. In fact, you can listen to it on all good podcast sites just search for the Labour Left Podcast.

Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is the Vice-Chair of Momentum and sits on the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive. Bryn hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast.