ALEXANDRIA IS THE PATH TO TRAVEL TOWARD FULL FREEDOM

A Fraternal Call to Sanders, Mamdani, and AOC from the Global South

By Joan Prim
March 15, 2026

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I. INTRODUCTION: THE HISTORIC MOMENT AND ITS MEANING

Comrades, friends, fellow travelers:

Today, March 15, 2026, I write these words not as someone who lectures from a distance, but as one who has traveled a long road of struggles, errors, lessons, and hopes. I write from the tradition of the PRT, that current of the Global South that learned to drink from Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, and Mao without submitting to any international, with theoretical independence and roots in our own land.

And I write to tell you something that perhaps you already sense but that the heat of daily battle prevents you from formulating clearly: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not just another politician. She is the first step toward something the United States has never known and that the world urgently needs.

I do not exaggerate. Let us examine the facts with the coldness the moment demands, but also with the warmth that history requires.

II. WHAT YOU REPRESENT: THE FIRST STEP TOWARD NORTH AMERICAN SOCIALISM

When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks of "material gains for the working class," when Bernie Sanders denounces the billionaires who "have it all" while the people survive on crumbs, when Zohran Mamdani promises from the New York City mayoralty to "freeze rents and make public transportation free," they are doing something that transcends their own intentions.

They are building the antechamber of socialism in the United States.

Let me explain. In China, Mao did not come to power overnight. There were decades of accumulating forces, of building consciousness, of small victories that seemed insignificant but that accumulated enough energy to transform an ancient civilization. The same occurred in Russia, in Cuba, in Vietnam.

What you are doing today in the United States is exactly that: accumulating forces.

Every time AOC denounces that the war against Iran is a smokescreen to hide the Epstein files, she is speaking a truth the system prefers to hide. Every time Sanders tours the country with the "Fighting Oligarchy" rally filling stadiums, he is demonstrating that a people hungry for justice exists and is ready to organize. Every time Mamdani governs New York as a "democratic socialist" with concrete policies that improve people's lives, he is showing that another world is possible here and now.

That is not reformism. That is grassroots work. That is building the material and subjective conditions for a deeper transformation.

III. THE EXPERIENCE OF THE GLOBAL SOUTH: WHAT WE LEARNED SO YOU DON'T STUMBLE

From Our America, we have traveled this path with successes and errors. Kirchnerism in Argentina, Lulismo in Brazil, the Bolivian process, Cuban resistance: all have been attempts to build something different within a hostile order.

And we have learned lessons that today I want to share with you fraternally:

First lesson: The enemy is not the American people. The enemy is the oligarchy that hijacks institutions, that bombs countries to hide its corruption, that condemns the working class to precarity while billionaires travel to space. When AOC says that "the fight against authoritarianism requires material gains for working people," she is pointing to the correct enemy.

Second lesson: You are not alone. The Global South watches attentively what happens in the United States. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has said it clearly: Latin America is not "land to be conquered" and dialogue between the Americas is possible if there is mutual respect. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum faces pressure from Trump but maintains her humanitarian support for Cuba, defending sovereignty and solidarity. There are forces in our region that accompany you, not because we expect you to "save us," but because we understand that the struggle is one and the same.

Third lesson: What you call "democratic socialism" in the United States is not the Marxist socialism known in other latitudes. It is something different, adapted to the concrete conditions of your country. And that is fine. Mao taught that revolution is not exported, it is cooked in the pot of each people. What you are cooking is the antechamber, the first course of a banquet that will take generations.

Fourth lesson: Do not make our mistakes. Do not let yourselves be caught in sectarian disputes. Do not allow "ideological purity" to paralyze you. The PRT learned that theoretical independence is fundamental, but also that sectarianism isolates and destroys. You have the historic opportunity to build a broad front that goes beyond labels. When Thomas Massie, a Republican, joins AOC to limit the president's war powers, that is not betrayal: it is taking advantage of the enemy's contradictions.

IV. WHAT IT MEANS "TO BE THE FIRST STEP"

Alexandria, Bernie, Zohran: listen to me carefully.

What you are building is not socialism in its full form. It is something we could call "North American transitional socialism" or, if you prefer, "the necessary antechamber."

It is, saving distances, what Maoism was for China before 1949: accumulation of forces, building consciousness, creation of parallel institutions, practical demonstration that another way of organizing society is possible.

When Mamdani freezes rents in New York, he is demonstrating that housing can be a right and not a commodity.
When AOC pushes the "Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act," she is demonstrating that home care workers deserve dignity and a living wage.
When Sanders speaks of taxing billionaires, he is demonstrating that wealth can be redistributed.

Each of these measures, by itself, is not the revolution. But all of them together create the fertile ground where revolution can germinate.

President Petro expressed it clearly: "We have arrived at a world where capitalism is showing its end. Its end is not peaceful. It seems submerged in bombs, violence, and the climate crisis." In that context, every voice that denounces wars, every policy that protects the most vulnerable, every government that demonstrates that it is possible to govern for the majorities, is a brick in the construction of the new world.

V. A DIRECT CALL: WHAT WE EXPECT FROM YOU

From the Global South, from Our America, from the tradition of those who have fought all our lives for the dignity of peoples, we tell you:

To Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: You are not "a bourgeois politician." You are a working-class woman by origin, daughter of immigrants, who arrived in Washington waiting tables and today is the clearest voice against war and corruption. Your role in denouncing the Epstein files, your courage to say that Trump bombs Iran to hide his crimes, your defense of home care workers: that is not reformism, that is consciousness-building. Continue on this path. Do not let the establishment domesticate you. You can be for the United States what Mao was for China: not the leader who completes the revolution, but the one who makes it possible.

To Bernie Sanders: You have dedicated your life to this struggle. You have seen how the system coopts, wears down, diverts. But you have also seen how ideas that seemed impossible decades ago today are common sense for millions of young people. Your "Fighting Oligarchy" tour is not a farewell, it is a sowing. The stadiums filled to capacity are proof that the people are ready to hear uncomfortable truths.

To Zohran Mamdani: You are hope made government. From the New York City mayoralty, you have the opportunity to demonstrate that democratic socialism can govern the empire's most important city. Freeze rents, make transportation free, defend immigrants. Every concrete policy will be an irrefutable argument against those who say "there is no alternative." The world watches your administration. Do not disappoint.

To all three: understand your place in history. You are not alone. The Global South accompanies you, not as spectators but as fellow travelers. President Petro has offered dialogue and denounced interventionism. President Sheinbaum resists Trump's pressures to maintain solidarity with Cuba. There are forces throughout the world that see in you a hope.

VI. WHAT IT MEANS "TO BE A STRATEGIC ALLY OF THE EAST"

We do not ask you to become what you are not. We do not ask you to abandon your convictions. We ask you to understand the global correlation of forces.

The world is moving toward multipolarity. China, Russia, the BRICS, the Global South, are building alternatives to the unipolar order that for decades has plundered our peoples. You, from the United States, have the historic opportunity to be the bridge between the American people and the rest of the world.

When AOC says in Munich that the hypocrisy of the "rules-based order" is a vulnerability, she is saying what Global South leaders have been denouncing for decades.
When she denounces that unilateral sanctions punish civilian populations, she is saying what Cuba and Venezuela suffer firsthand.
When she questions belligerence with China and Taiwan, she is saying what Beijing defends in all international forums.

This is not coincidence. It is objective convergence of interests.

A government led by AOC, with the support of Sanders and Mamdani, would be a government that:

• Prioritizes diplomacy over bombs.

• Lifts sanctions that suffocate peoples.

• Dialogues with the Global South as equals.

• Competes with China economically, not militarily.

• Recognizes that the unipolar order is over.

That is not "being a puppet of the East." It is being a strategic ally of peace and multipolarity. It is understanding that the enemy is not China or Russia, but the oligarchy that needs wars to survive.

VII. THE QUESTION OF CLASS: WHY YOU ARE NOT "BOURGEOIS"

I have heard some comrades, trapped in rigid schemas, say that AOC is "a bourgeois politician." Allow me to disagree respectfully but firmly.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez worked as a waitress to help her family while paying for her studies. Her mother also worked in precarious jobs. Her father died of cancer, and she has spoken of how the healthcare system left them bankrupt. That class experience is not erased by a seat in Congress.

The same with Sanders, who comes from a working-class Jewish family and has dedicated his life to the struggle. With Mamdani, son of immigrants, raised in New York, who today governs for those who never had a voice.

They are not "bourgeois by adoption." They are workers who reached positions of power and are using that power to serve their class of origin.

Do they have contradictions? Of course. Do they make mistakes? Without a doubt. Are they revolutionaries in the classical sense? No. But in concrete politics, the question is not what label they put on themselves, but whom their policies objectively serve.

And the evidence is clear: they serve workers, immigrants, youth, women, the peoples of the Global South who suffer wars and sanctions.

VIII. PLACING AOC TO THE LEFT OF SHEINBAUM: A CONSTRUCTIVE COMPARISON

President Claudia Sheinbaum faces a complex situation: governing Mexico under constant pressure from Trump, with a faction of her own party demanding unconditional support for Cuba, and the need to protect the Mexican economy. Her government has had to make compromises, sometimes yielding to Washington to avoid reprisals.

AOC, in contrast, does not have that direct executive responsibility. She can be more radical in her positions because she does not face the same pressures. But that does not make her "better" or "worse." It makes her complementary.

While Sheinbaum resists from government with pragmatism, AOC can point to the horizon with clarity. While Mexico negotiates with Trump to protect its economy, AOC denounces wars and sanctions from Congress. While the Global South builds alternatives, AOC can be the voice inside the empire that says: "This path leads nowhere."

That division of labor in the anti-imperialist struggle is not a weakness. It is a strength. It is proof that the front is broad and diverse.

IX. WHAT YOU CAN ACHIEVE: A SUCCESSFUL GOVERNMENT

Let us imagine for a moment that in 2028 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reaches the presidency of the United States. This is not a fantasy: polls place her as the second favorite, her base grows, her voice resonates.

What could that mean?

• An end to wars of aggression. Troop withdrawals. Diplomacy as the primary tool.

• Lifting of criminal sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela, Iran.

• Respectful dialogue with China, recognizing that Taiwan is China's internal affair.

• Domestic policies that reduce inequality: taxing billionaires, living wage, affordable housing.

• Reconstruction of global alliances based on respect, not imposition.

None of that is full socialism. All of that is better than what exists now. And every improvement creates conditions for the next struggle.

The success of a progressive government in the United States will not be measured by how fast it advances toward communism, but by how much it improves people's lives and how much it reduces the empire's capacity for aggression. If you achieve that, you will have fulfilled your historic role.

X. FINAL WORDS: THE PATH TOWARD FULL FREEDOM

Comrades, friends, fellow travelers:

Full freedom will not arrive tomorrow. It will not arrive with an election, nor with a government, nor even with a revolution. Full freedom is a historic process that will take generations.

But every step counts. Every battle won creates conditions for the next. Every consciousness that awakens is a soldier for the struggle. Every policy that improves people's lives is an irrefutable argument against those who say "there is no alternative."

You, Alexandria, Bernie, Zohran, are today the protagonists of that first step. Not because you are perfect, but because you are in the right place at the right time. Because you have the courage to say what others silence. Because you have the clarity to point to the true enemy.

From the Global South, from Our America, from the tradition of the PRT that learned to synthesize the best of revolutionary currents without submitting to any, we tell you:

Keep going. Do not stop. Do not let yourselves be domesticated. Do not lose sight of whom you serve.

The world to come will be multipolar or it will not be. The freedom we seek will be collective or it will not be. The peace we yearn for will be with justice or it will not be.

You are part of that construction. Perhaps the most unexpected part, perhaps the most improbable. But history is full of improbable figures who changed its course.

We trust in you. We accompany you. And when you look toward the South, know that entire peoples observe you with hope, not waiting for you to "save us," but knowing that your struggle is also our struggle.

Forward, always forward!

Until dignity becomes custom!

Until full freedom is possible!

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Joan Prim
March 15, 2026