On July 16, 2018 Amy Goodman interviewed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau at New York University in New York City. Ocasio-Cortez and Colau discussed their personal trajectories, the opportunities for social movements to run candidates for elected office, the limitations that arise once within those institutions and the urgent need to challenge the status quo definition of what is possible.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the New York Democratic congressional candidate whose recent primary victory upended 10-term incumbent Representative Joe Crowley, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House. Ocasio-Cortez ran a progressive grassroots campaign as a Democratic Socialist advocating for “Medicare for All” and the abolition of ICE .
Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau Ballano was elected under the citizen platform Barcelona en Comu and is the first woman to hold the office. Prior to her election, Colau was famously photographed being dragged away by riot police protesting a bank that had refused to negotiate with an evicted family.