Exclusive | Mamdani's, AOC's DSA comrades call for 'ending US empire,' mourn ayatollah's 'extrajudicial' killing

Mayor Mamdani’s comrades in the Democratic Socialists of America called for “ending the US empire” and mourned the “extrajudicial killing of the supreme leader” during a mass call this week that slammed the US strikes in Iran.“This isn’t going to end with a rally or a vote,” warned Ahmed Husain, a DSA leader on the party’s National Political Committee, to the nearly 1,000 people who tuned in to Wednesday night’s “Hands Off Iran” video call.“This is going to end with a mass movement to put an end to the war machine,” he vowed during the call, which started with a remake of Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” protest song.“We have to create a real cost for the warmongers.”Husain — an immigrant from Bahrain who has in the past raged on social media about destroying the “decaying fascist American empire” and that “Israel never had the right to exist” — called on his comrades to step up.“I’m not going to lie, I don’t think the movement is where it needs to be at right now to stop this war,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s your neighbor, your co-worker, your dad, your mom, your job is to get them to act.“The DSA needs to act on every single front.”The call borrowed from the same playbook the DSA used during its Venezuela mass call after dictator Nicolas Maduro’s capture.On Wednesday, speakers framed Iran’s bloody 1979 revolution, which put Ayatollah Khomeini in power and took 66 Americans hostage, as “throwing off American and Israeli influence.”“There are many people who are in deep mourning,” said Isabella Javidan, a speaker from the National Iranian American Council, about last week’s attack that took out Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Even before the meeting, the party was being blasted for the event’s ad, which prominently features the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran.“Featuring the flag of the regime tha...