Bernie Sanders Delivers Fiery May Day Speech Slamming Trump In Philadelphia, PA

Forbes Breaking News

On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) delivered a speech at a May Day Rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Philadelphia!

00:07Let me thank all of you for coming out this afternoon.

00:17Let me thank Danny Bowder and the Philadelphia AFL-CIO.

00:23And let me thank all those who have spoken and will be speaking in a few moments.

00:33Brothers and sisters, what we are celebrating today, in May Day, is in a sense a sacred holiday.

00:46And all over our country, workers are coming out demanding justice.

00:53And all over the world, in dozens of countries, workers are standing up to oligarchy

01:01and demanding a world in which all people have a decent standard of living.

01:07Today, we remember the struggles and the sacrifices of workers for hundreds of years

01:24who have stood up to powerful, special interests to create a better world.

01:30And today, today, we thank our brothers and sisters in the trade union movement for continuing that struggle.

01:46May Day, as you know, was established way back in 1886.

01:53And workers then stood up to their very powerful forces and said,

01:59You know what? We don't want to be slaves.

02:01We don't want to work 60, 70 hours a week.

02:05We want an eight-hour day.

02:08And throughout our history, workers stood up and they said,

02:18You know what? Children should not be working in factories or in the fields.

02:24They should be in good schools.

02:30And throughout the years, workers said,

02:32We don't want our brothers and sisters dying in factories.

02:37We want safe working conditions.

02:44And workers in the trade union said that when people work more than 40 hours a week,

02:51as so many millions in our country do,

02:53they deserve and must have time and a half.

02:57And as a result of the struggles of the trade union movement,

03:05we have come a long way, not quite far enough,

03:08to end discrimination so that all people have an opportunity for a decent job,

03:14no matter what the color of their skin, where they were born,

03:19or their sexual orientation.

03:21And when we think about history, I want you all to remember the fact that we have a social security system today,

03:36which guarantees benefits to our older people and disabled,

03:41did not happen by accident.

03:44The trade union movement made it happen.

03:47And the fact that senior citizens today through Medicare can get the health care they need,

03:59did not happen by accident.

04:02Trade union workers made it happen.

04:05And today, the fact that millions of lower income people and elderly people in nursing homes

04:17get supported by Medicaid did not happen by accident.

04:21The trade union movement made it happen.

04:24So my point is, is that because of the trade union movement,

04:32this country has come a long way over the last 150 years.

04:39But let me tell you something that you're not going to see in corporate media,

04:45and something that you're not going to hear much about on the halls of Congress.

04:51And that is that while we have accomplished much, we still have an enormously important road forward,

05:01if we're going to create an economy that works for all of us, not just a few.

05:07So let us be clear and lay it out on the table.

05:15In the year 2025 in America, we are now living in an oligarchic form of society.

05:24Never before in our history have so few had so much wealth,

05:35while so many Americans are struggling.

05:38Never before have so few had so much political power.

05:52While millions of Americans no longer vote, millions of others have given up on democracy.

06:00Because they look at government and they say,

06:03government is owned by billionaires.

06:06You are not representing us.

06:09You know, a few years ago, when I talked about oligarchy,

06:16people were saying, oh, what is Bernie talking about?

06:19Well, Donald Trump has made it very clear what we are talking about when we talk about oligarchy.

06:27Oligarchy is a president who, when he gets inaugurated, he doesn't hide it,

06:39right behind him are the three wealthiest people in America,

06:45Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg.

06:52And right behind them are 13 other billionaires who he has appointed to head major government agencies.

07:05I think all of us remember, all of us remember that when Abraham Lincoln was in Gettysburg,

07:18right here in Pennsylvania, and he looked out at a battlefield,

07:23where a few days before 20,000 Union soldiers had died or been wounded.

07:32And he looked out and he said, our vision for the future of America is a government of the people,

07:42by the people, and for the people.

07:54Well, what everyone knows is that today we have a government of the billionaire class,

08:03by the billionaire class, and for the billionaire class,

08:08and we will not allow that to continue.

08:13And let me be very clear, these oligarchs, these billionaires are not nice people.

08:26They are incredibly greedy people.

08:31You might think, you might think that somebody who has 10 or 20 billion dollars might be content.

08:40Might think that's enough.

08:42Not these guys.

08:44They want it all.

08:50And they are prepared to destroy Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, nutrition programs

08:59in order to get more tax breaks for themselves.

09:08So today, brothers and sisters, we tell these greedy oligarchs,

09:14this country belongs to all of us, not the billionaire class.

09:20And let me tell you what else that is going on in our country today.

09:35Today, in the richest country in the history of the world,

09:4060% of our people are living paycheck to paycheck.

09:46I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck.

09:54Many of you are living paycheck to paycheck.

09:58Millions of people should not and will not live paycheck to paycheck

10:03in the richest country in the history of the world.

10:07Today, in America, one man, Elon Musk, owns more wealth than the bottom 52% of American households.

10:28Today, in America, working class people live seven years shorter lives than the rich.

10:41Today, in America, the top 1% now owns more wealth than the bottom 93%.

10:53CEOs make 350 times more than the average worker.

11:04And here is something that we don't talk about enough.

11:07And it tells us why the American people are furious.

11:12Today, the average worker in America, despite a huge explosion in technology and worker productivity,

11:23that average worker is earning less money per week in inflation accounted for dollars

11:32that he or she did 52 years ago.

11:41So it's not hard to understand what's happened.

11:44Over the last 50 years, the very richest people in this country have become much richer,

11:53while 800,000 people today sleep out on the street, and the average worker struggles.

12:02So let me tell you something.

12:04I have gone all over this country, as some of you may know.

12:14And what I am proud to tell you is the American people, by the millions, are saying no to oligarchy.

12:27No to Trump's authoritarianism.

12:32No to Trump's kleptocracy.

12:35And no to tax breaks for billionaires.

12:42And I'm here in Pennsylvania to tell any member of the Pennsylvania delegation

12:49that if they vote for tax breaks for billionaires and cut Medicaid, nutrition, and education,

12:57we are going to throw them out of their jobs.

13:10But brothers and sisters, our job right now, in my view, is twofold.

13:15First, we have got to fight Trump every single day.

13:24But secondly, we need to have a vision as to where our country goes in the future.

13:34And here is the bottom line, and I say that to my Democratic colleagues in the Congress.

13:41Stop defending the status quo economically.

13:45An economy in which the rich get richer and working people struggle should not be defended.

14:02So there are a number of things that we have got to keep our eyes on.

14:06And understand, please, you are living in the richest country in the history of the world.

14:12It is not a radical idea.

14:15It is not utopian to say that every man, woman, and child can and should have a decent standard of living.

14:27And at the top of the list of what we have got to do is to end a corrupt campaign finance system.

14:41A system that allows billionaires in both political parties to control the political process and our economy.

14:59Brothers and sisters, democracy is about one person, one vote, not billionaires buying elections.

15:11And if we're going to deal with the massive income and wealth inequality that currently exists,

15:18we're going to not give the rich tax breaks.

15:22We're going to demand that the billionaires and their corporations start paying their fair share of taxism.

15:34And if we're going to build the movement that we need to take power in this country,

15:40we need to grow the trade union movement in this country.

15:48Right now, there are millions of workers who want to join unions.

15:54They're unable to do so because of the illegal behavior of corporations.

16:02And that's why we're going to pass the PRO Act.

16:06And if workers, a majority of workers sign a union card, they're going to belong to a union.

16:16Brothers and sisters, we need to raise the minimum wage in this country to a living wage.

16:26No worker, no worker working 40 hours a week should live in poverty.

16:36And brothers and sisters, if we're going to compete in the global economy,

16:41we need the best educated workforce in the world.

16:48And that is making not only our public colleges and universities

16:55tuition free.

16:58It means paying our teachers a wage that they deserve.

17:08There is no reason why we should not be having the best public education in the world

17:16and the best childcare system in the world.

17:22Now, our Republican colleagues, or some of them, want to cut Social Security.

17:35Twenty-two percent, if you can believe this, of seniors in this country

17:40are trying to get by on 15,000 a year or less.

17:44Can't afford to heat their homes, pay for their prescription drugs.

17:48We're not going to cut Social Security.

17:51Brothers and sisters together, we're going to expand Social Security benefits

17:58by lifting the cap on taxable incomes.

18:03And let me tell you something else.

18:05I am old enough to remember something called a defined benefit pension plan.

18:13You know what that is?

18:15I know it's a radical idea to the younger people.

18:18Once upon a time, when workers worked at a decent job, when they retired,

18:25they had a strong, defined pension plan.

18:29We've got to bring that back.

18:34People who worked their whole lives should be able to retire with dignity.

18:40Brothers and sisters, we are the only major country on Earth

18:46not to guarantee health care to all as a human right.

18:53Eighty-five million are uninsured or underinsured,

18:57and we spend twice as much per capita on health care as the people of any other major country.

19:05The function of health care is not to make insurance companies and drug companies rich.

19:12It's to provide health care to all.

19:15Together, we're going to pass Medicare for All single-payer program.

19:20Donald Trump may think that climate change is a hoax.

19:31You and I know that it is an existential threat.

19:35We can create millions of good-paying union jobs

19:41by transforming our energy system into energy efficiency and sustainable energy.

19:48And brothers and sisters, instead of spending a trillion dollars a year on the military,

19:59instead of giving billions of dollars to Netanyahu

20:03and its horrific war against the people of Gaza,

20:07we can cut military spending and build five million units of low-income,

20:17and affordable housing.

20:24Now, I'm not going to tell you that the struggle in front of us is easy.

20:29The oligarchs own the economy.

20:32They own the media.

20:34They own the political process.

20:36That's the reality.

20:38And I may not have a PhD in mathematics, but there is one thing I do understand.

20:45That if we do not allow Trump and his friends to divide us up by the color of our skin,

20:54or where we were born, or our sexual orientation,

20:59if we stand together around a progressive agenda,

21:07if we start electing candidates who work for us and not the billionaire class,

21:17if we think big and not small, brothers and sisters,

21:24there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

21:27Let's go out. Let's do it. Let's transform the country.

21:32Thank you all very much.

21:33Thank you all very much.

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