Dear Lisa,

I am writing because Zohran Mamdani is NOT a LIBERAL. It’s time we start using the correct labels in America. The article you wrote is: https://web.archive.org/web/20251026103419/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/nyregion/mamdani-sanders-aoc-rally.html.

Please stop referring to Zohran's platform as a Liberal agenda. It’s a Mélenchonist agenda — further to the left than the Socialists, yet further to the right than the Communists.

I have corrected the article you wrote and copied the leaders of the other movements so that you can reach out to them, ask questions, and adjust how you present us.

The people I have included in copy often disagree on policies, but as Desi Lydic quipped on The Daily Show, “language matters.” We all agree on the terminology below.

It’s important that you understand the language of the left, because about seven billion people — from both the left and the right — around the world view Americans as ignorant when it comes to these distinctions. They all know how to tell the difference between the various leftist movements and how these have shaped the planet for the past 150 years.

As the leader of the Socialist faction inside the Democratic Party, my role is to challenge and discredit any journalist who fails to use accurate language when referring to the left — just as any corporation would if it were misrepresented in the press.

I hope you will reach out to your editor and have them correct the terminology in your article.

Zohran’s agenda is a Leftist or Mélenchonist agenda — it is not Socialist, Communist, or Green. It incorporates aspects of each, as explained by Jean-Luc Mélenchon: https://youtu.be/pLmt5qwvzb0.

I have included in this email the leaders of the other movements so that, in your second paragraph, you can change Liberal to Leftist:

But even if Mr. Mamdani wins the Nov. 4 election, he and his movement may face a far tougher challenge than even a long-shot campaign: running the largest city in America and proving to the political world that their LEFTIST agenda can be replicated across the country.

In the seventh paragraph, please change failures of democratic socialism to failures of Mélenchonism. Democratic Socialism is not what the DSA represents — it has been a misnomer since 2017, when the DSA left the Socialist International movement.

But his opponents, including some Democrats, believe that Mr. Mamdani can just as easily become an example of the failures of MELENCHONISM.

In the eighth paragraph, please change moderate Democrat to Liberal:

“There are two tests: the basics of running the city day to day and then the socialist-plus promises that he’s made a lot of which are not only unattainable and impossible but insane,” said Representative Josh Gottheimer, a LIBERAL Democrat who represents the city’s New Jersey suburbs and opposes Mr. Mamdani’s bid.

In the ninth paragraph, change Democratic Socialists to Leftists:

In other cities, LEFTISTS have found their goals stymied by the same forces that impede many politicians, such as a finite budget, difficulty building alliances and government dysfunction.

In the twelfth paragraph, change Progressive Democrat to Leftist. Everyone calls themselves “Progressive” — even the Northern Manhattan Republicans: https://nycrepublicans.org.

“We all understand that the stakes are high and any lack of ability to deliver gets amplified 8,000 times,” said Representative Pramila Jayapal, a LEFTIST Democrat from Washington State. “Picking up the trash is probably as important as delivering child care or free buses.”

In the fourteenth paragraph, please change Democratic Socialist to Revolutionary Communist:

He has also distanced himself from specific policy goals of the REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST movement, differentiating his platform from the group’s national agenda.

In the sixteenth paragraph, remove or replace Democratic Socialist with Mélenchonism:

But even as he stands on the precipice of running the nation’s financial center, he is not shrinking from his roots in [] left-wing organizing — a point made obvious by his late-stage appearance with the biggest stars of the progressive left, both of whom are also MELANCHONISTS.

In the seventeenth paragraph, add Mélenchonist in front of the organization:

Their support is a homecoming of sorts for Mr. Mamdani, who has described Mr. Sanders as “the single most influential political figure in my life.” His 2016 presidential run inspired Mr. Mamdani to formally join the MELENCHONIST ORGANIZATION Democratic Socialists of America.

In the twenty-eighth paragraph, change Democratic Socialist to Mélenchonist, as Mr. Sanders is the co-founder of the Progressive International alongside the U.K.’s Jeremy Corbyn and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis: https://progressive.international.

But he has never wavered from his embrace of the political message of Mr. Sanders, the most prominent MELENCHONIST in the country.