Ramón Mercader

April 1^st, 2025 GATT special online-only issue

An uneasy alliance of abolitionists, PSL members, and Marxist intellectuals gathered at the People’s Forum in New York in early March for a rally to celebrate that corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams were dropped as a victory for anti-imperialist developmentalism in Turkey. Adams had been under indictment for taking bribes and illegal campaign contributions in exchange for finessing Turkish construction projects and otherwise greasing the wheels for Turkish interests in NYC. The Trump administration ordered an end to the charges, and several federal prosecutors in turn quit their jobs rather than agree not to prosecute a Black man.

Consternation among the crowd at the People’s Forum was palpable, but attendees of different political persuasions all felt compelled to celebrate Adams’ and the Turkish government’s victory. Abolitionists convinced themselves that, to stay true to their principles, they had no choice but to side with a corrupt Black mayor over the prosecutors insistent on sending him to prison. Rhea Al Blockhead told GATT journal that “I know as an abolitionist I have to be against all indictments and cannot wish prison time on anyone, but Eric Adams was a cop. I’m not sure what to do here, but since I’ve only maintained my abolitionist politics all these years by not dealing with their contradictions, I decided not to think too much about it. I was hoping Angela Davis would say something about this so I could tell anyone who disagrees with me that my viewpoint came from a Black woman rather than have to defend my position, and I feel kinda lost without her feeding me nonsense.” Abolitionists at the rally did make a point of condemning Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the anti-Blackness behind her call for Adams to resign. For abolitionists, tying Latinos and Asians to any anti-Black racism that may have been behind the Adams indictment was an important tactical maneuver to avoid directly criticizing the wealthy whites who fund their nonprofit jobs.

Members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) had an easier time stomaching hypocrisy. PSL leader Brian Becker explained that with the fall of Assad in Syria, they needed a new government in the region to laud as anti-imperialist, and Erdoğan’s in Turkey was a natural candidate: “What really excited us about the Assad government in Syria was its brutal repression of the Kurdish national liberation struggle, which got support from the US, so therefore was bad. But since the Turkish government has been massacring Kurds for decades, we can pass the torch of anti-imperialism on to them, especially since they’ve been warming up to the Russian government lately, who we was also think is playing a progressive role.” Becker went on to explain that “we decide who’s anti-imperialist purely based on association, not principles or practice, and since Adams has been a loyal friend of the Turkish government, we must celebrate that the charges against him have been dropped. It might help kill more Kurds, after all.”

Political economist Radhika Desai gave a slightly more sophisticated, if no less idiotic, argument in defense of Adams during her speech at the rally. Desai declaimed “the real target of all the federal investigations into Adams administration officials is not a few bribes, but the cronyism that has defined the Adams administration. We must understand that cronyism has been a key part of all developmentalist regimes historically and in the present, from Turkey under Erdoğan to NYC under Adams. Since I don’t think revolution is possible and I’m scared of the proletariat running society, I have to stand with developmentalist regimes in oppressed nations, from Turkey to Black New York, declare them to be anti-imperialist and socialist, and accept that cronyism is just part of the package.”

The People’s Forum canceled a planned workshop on dialectics in order to put on the rally in support of Eric Adams and anti-imperialist developmentalism in Turkey. No one at the rally seemed to have anything to say about the real reasons that sections of the US bourgeoisie may have decided to knock down Eric Adams, from the fact that he is too independent of the Clintonian Democratic Party establishment to the reality that he’s the wrong kind of Black for it (Black from Queens—note the African beads he wears on his wrist—not woke Black, not Obama Black).