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