PREPARED REMARKS: Sanders Ahead of UN General Assembly: “Oligarchy is ascending and democracy is in retreat… Working together, that must change.”

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 — On the eve of the United Nations General Assembly, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) delivered a major foreign policy address today at the historic Riverside Church in New York City — where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his Beyond Vietnam speech and where Nelson Mandela spoke after his release. The senator’s full remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below. Let me express my gratitude and deep appreciation to the government of South Africa, and Minister Lamola, for bringing us together tonight, on the eve of the United Nations General Assembly. It is an honor and a privilege to be speaking to you at Riverside Church — one of the most historic churches in our country. In 1967, at the same pulpit I am speaking to you today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., took on the entire political establishment of his era by vigorously opposing the War in Vietnam. With extraordinary courage Dr. King exposed what he very eloquently called “the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism.” He said he could not be true to himself and his values if he remained silent while seeing poor people getting napalmed in Vietnam. He said he could not be true to himself if he was telling young African-American men to be nonviolent in the struggle for civil rights, while at the same time the United States was the major purveyor of violence in the entire world. And he warned us that “a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” What Dr. King said was true when he said it at Riverside Church nearly 60 years ago. It is even more accurate today. That is why we must continue our efforts to end President Trump’s disastrous War in Iran. That is why we must continue to speak out against the government in Israel for its genocide in Gaza and an end all funding and military aid for the extreme right-wing Netanyahu regime. That is why we cannot continue to spend over a trillion dollars a year on the military while the U.S has the highest rate of child poverty of any major country on earth. On a more uplifting note, as you all know, this is the same church that Nelson Mandela came to visit as a free man just five months after he was unjustly imprisoned for 27-years. He came here to thank the people of this country for standing up for justice and against the evils of apartheid in South Africa. All of us owe a deep sense of gratitude to the courageous and heroic life of Mr. Mandela. Thank you, Mr. Mandela. This week, the UN Secretary-General correctly named three existential threats the world is not prepared for: runaway artificial intelligence, the climate crisis, and deepening inequality. He is right. Tonight, as the longest serving independent in the history of the United States Congress, I am going to do something pretty radical. I’m going to do my best to tell you the truth. And that is that we are living in an unprecedented and dangerous moment in world history and the challenges we face are enormous. What do I mean? Never before in human history have so few owned so much. Never before in human history has there been such extreme levels of income and wealth inequality. Never before in human history have we had such enormous concentrations of ownership. Never before in human history have we seen a billionaire class with so much political power. And never before have we seen such an unprecedented level of greed, arrogance and irresponsibility on the part of the ruling class. We are seeing it in the United States, we are seeing it in South Africa, we are seeing it in virtually every country on Earth. In America today, the top 1% now owns more wealth than the bottom 94%. One man, Elon Musk, the wealthiest man alive worth $954 billion, now owns more wealth than the bottom 53% of American households. CEOs of large, profitable corporations are making 350 times more than the average worker. Last year alone, after receiving the largest tax break in history, less than a thousand billionaires in America became $1.5 trillion richer. Over the last 50 years, according to the Rand Corporation, $79 trillion in U.S wealth has been redistributed from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. Meanwhile, despite an explosion in technology and massive increases in worker productivity, the average American worker is making nearly $25 a week less today than he or she did over 53 years ago after adjusting for inflation. While the billionaire class and the 1% have never had it so good, over 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, nearly 800,000 are homeless and tens of millions struggle to put food on the table, and pay for the outrageously high price of housing, healthcare, prescription drugs, childcare, education, gas and the basic necessities of life. And let’s be clear. The rapid movement to oligarchy and the exponential rise in income and wealth inequality is not just taking place in America. It is a global phenomenon and the most important economic reality of our times. Today, according to Oxfam and other researchers, we live in a world where the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 95% of humanity and the gap between the very rich and the poor is growing wider. We are seeing it in the United Kingdom where over 30% of children are living in poverty while 50 billionaires in that country now own more wealth than the poorest 34 million people. We are seeing it in Russia where over 13 million people live in poverty, while the wealthiest 500 people in that country own more wealth than the bottom 99.8% of the population – 145 million people. We are seeing it in Africa where 850 million people struggle to find enough food to eat while the four wealthiest men own more wealth than the bottom 50%. Yes. Four men own more wealth than half a continent. We are seeing it all over the world. In fact, while nearly half of the world’s population is living in poverty trying to survive on less than $8.30 a day, 3,400 billionaires throughout the globe became $4 trillion richer last year alone. And let’s be clear. In an increasingly globalized economy, the allegiance of these oligarchs is not to their own nations. It is to their own power. It is to their own bank accounts. It is to their huge yachts, their mansions, their fancy cars, their private islands and their fleet of jets. The result: oligarchy is ascending and democracy is in retreat. That is unacceptable. And, working together, that must change. And when I talk about the rapid rise in oligarchy, let’s be clear. It’s not just about income and wealth inequality. It is about the maldistribution of economic and political power. In sector after sector a handful of giant corporations control what is produced and how much we pay for it and have been engaged in a destructive race to the bottom in the never-ending search for the cheapest labor and the fewest regulations. Unbelievably, just four Wall Street firms (BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity and State Street) are the major shareholders in over 95% of S&P 500 companies. And when we talk about this massive concentration of ownership, let us not forget the media. Over half of the world’s largest media companies are now owned by billionaires. Nine out of the top ten social media companies in the world are owned by billionaires. In the United States, 6 large media conglomerates control 90% of what the American people see, hear, and read. Elon Musk owns Twitter. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post and Twitch. Mark Zuckerberg owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Threads. And here is something that should send shockwaves throughout the world for those of us who believe that a free press is essential to democracy. Just last week, the Trump administration approved a deal that would allow Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to own nearly 50% of Paramount and Warner Brothers. This deal was arranged by the right-wing Ellison family — one of the wealthiest families in the world worth over $200 billion and a leading supporter of President Trump. If the Paramount/Warner Brothers merger is completed, three of the most repressive authoritarian regimes in the world — Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE — would own nearly half of CBS, CNN, HBO, Showtime, TBS, TNT, MTV, the Discovery Channel, Nickelodeon, BET and much, much more. If that happens, do you think we’ll hear anything on CBS about how the Saudi Crown Prince must be held accountable for ordering the assassination of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi? Do you think CNN will say anything about how these monarchies ruthlessly exploit migrant workers, systemically discriminate against women and are among the worst violators of human rights in the world? I doubt it. Bottom line: Ruthless Middle East dictators must not be allowed to control the media. Not in the United States. Not in democracies throughout the world. And it’s not just income and wealth inequality and concentration of ownership. In America today, billionaires are determined to own our political system as well. As a result of the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, billionaires and corporations are legally able to spend as much as they want on political campaigns through their so-called super PACs. And that’s what they’re doing. Mr. Musk, the richest man in the world, spent at least $290 million to elect Trump president and now he’s spending up to $200 million more to help Republicans keep control of Congress this year. Let’s be clear: This is not just an American phenomenon. In Germany, Musk has thrown his support behind the AfD, a party Germany’s own domestic intelligence agency has labeled a right-wing extremist party, whose staff has included former members of a banned neo-Nazi youth group, and whose leader has pushed “remigration,” a euphemism for mass deportation that Germany’s own chancellor calls what it actually is: ethnic cleansing. In Britain, two crypto billionaires, one of them convicted in the United States for money laundering before being pardoned by Donald Trump, gave Nigel Farage’s Reform Party 36 million pounds each. Seventy-two million pounds from two men, more than every major party in Britain spent combined in their last general election. Across Europe, social democratic parties that once built the strongest middle classes in the history of the world are losing ground, and too often the extreme right is what replaces them — with the backing of the richest people in the world. Let’s be clear: Living in a democracy means one person, one vote — not billionaires buying elections. In America, that means ending Citizens United, banning super PACs and moving to the public funding of elections. And there’s another issue that we must confront before it is too late. Let’s be clear. Artificial intelligence and robotics are the most transformational technologies in the history of the world. They have the potential to eliminate tens of millions of jobs. They threaten the privacy of virtually every person in the world through mass surveillance, and the integrity of our elections through deepfakes so sophisticated that soon none of us will be able to tell truth from fiction. What you have seen from AI so far is the least capable version of this technology you will ever see. It is advancing exponentially, every single day. In under four years we have gone from AI that could barely write a coherent tweet to AI systems that have already escaped the control of the companies that built them. Who is making the decisions about a technology that will transform every one of our lives? Not you. Not me. It is a small handful of the richest men in the world: Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Thiel, Altman, Brin and a few others whose chief goal is to achieve more wealth and power than they already have — no matter how many lives they harm in the process. So let me make a radical suggestion: If the lives of every man, woman and child are going to be fundamentally changed by this technology, then the people of this country and throughout the world must make the decisions about AI, not just a handful of oligarchs. And that is why I have introduced legislation to require half of the board members at big AI companies be appointed by the public. Big Tech Oligarchs must no longer be allowed to determine the future of humanity. Further, we have seen in the last several months a frightening new story every day about how AI companies are losing control of the technology they are developing. In July, we learned that OpenAI lost human control of an AI model that hacked into Hugging Face’s computers. Meta and Anthropic reported similar incidents. Last month, we learned that AI has been used for the first time to create new viruses. In the wrong hands, this could lead to new bioweapons that could lead to the deaths of tens of millions of people. Last week, we learned that the Houthis in Yemen were able to use Claude to test fire a guided rocket. Scientists have been clear: AI is an existential threat to humanity. Congress and governments around the world must act now before it is too late. That’s why next week, Congressman Greg Casar and I will introduce legislation to permanently ban the development of artificial superintelligence, an AI mind more smarter than any human being and capable of operating independently beyond our control. Like nuclear weapons, artificial superintelligence is a threat to humanity, and it must be treated as such. History offers a lesson here. At the height of the Cold War, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev still found a way to sign a treaty eliminating an entire class of nuclear weapons. That is why I hope very much that when President Trump and President Xi meet on Thursday they will sit down and negotiate a similar treaty with the understanding that no country benefits from an uncontrolled arms race to develop machines too powerful for humans to control. The UN Secretary-General said this same week that the world cannot afford a race to the bottom on AI safety. He is right, and it is exactly why voluntary pledges from the CEOs racing to build this technology are not enough. We need binding rules, and we need a pause on the riskiest research until we have them. This is not a progressive issue. It is not a conservative issue. More than eight in ten Americans believe their government has not done enough to regulate AI. Nearly seven in ten want a ban on superintelligent AI. Reining in a handful of oligarchs before they gamble with the future of humanity should not be controversial anywhere on earth. There’s another issue that cannot be ignored. And that is climate change. Last month was the hottest August ever recorded on this planet, 1.65 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Global ocean temperatures hit their highest level ever measured. A glacier collapse in Nepal less than a month ago triggered floods that have killed nearly 1,500 people, with thousands still missing. And once again, as the world becomes warmer, as we see more heat waves, drought, floods, forest fires, and extreme weather disturbances, we once again confront the incredible greed of the corporate world. Unbelievably, they are literally willing to sacrifice the well-being of future generations, including their own children, for short-term profits. How insane is that? In my view, our job must be not only to combat climate change and dramatically cut carbon emissions, but to seize the opportunity of creating many millions of jobs around the world as we move to energy efficiency and sustainable forms of energy. With good planning, courage, and determination we can create a global economy which is clean, non-polluting, and makes the world economy stronger not weaker. And, obviously, as part of that effort, we need international cooperation. We will not address the climate crisis unless that happens. We don’t need to create new cold wars and see the United States and China spend billions more on their militaries and weapons of destruction. We need to move towards international cooperation, not confrontation. We need to do our best to bring the world together to combat climate change and save the planet. The UN Secretary-General put it plainly last week: international cooperation on these threats is indispensable, and geopolitical rivalry cannot be allowed to produce a race to the bottom. That is true of climate. It is true of AI. That same test, whether the rules bind the powerful or only the weak, is nowhere more brutal than in war. As we all know, earlier this year President Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu launched strikes on Iran that killed its Supreme Leader and dragged this country into a war Congress never declared. Let’s be clear: The war in Iran is illegal, it is unconstitutional, and it is against international law. Both the House and Senate have already voted that this war is illegal. Both votes were ignored. Multiple ceasefires have collapsed. At least 18 American service members have been killed and more than 750 wounded, according to the Pentagon’s own numbers. Thousands of Iranian civilians are dead. More than a thousand people have been killed in Lebanon. Dozens more in Israel. This is not a hypothetical threat to international law. It is happening right now, and it is being done by Donald Trump. The UN Secretary-General put it plainly last week: international cooperation on these threats is indispensable, and geopolitical rivalry cannot be allowed to produce a race to the bottom. That is true of climate. It is true of AI. It should be true of how the two largest economies on earth deal with each other, period. And then there is the genocide in Gaza. Let me be clear about that war. On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel and killed more than 1,200 people, and took hundreds of hostages. And just like every other country in the world, Israel had every right to defend itself. But it did not have the right to do what came next. It did not have the right to kill more than 73,000 Palestinians, one in five of them children. It did not have the right to destroy the vast majority of Gaza’s homes, hospitals, and schools, or to cut off food, water, and medicine until people starved. I have said plainly what that adds up to, and I will say it again tonight: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The intent is clear. The conclusion is inescapable. Almost two years ago, South Africa went to the International Court of Justice and asked the world’s highest court to rule on the conduct of the war in Gaza. South Africa did exactly what the founders of this organization hoped a nation would someday do: use the law, not force, to hold power accountable. For that, South Africa was punished. Donald Trump froze aid, expelled South Africa’s ambassador, revoked the visa of the official who brought the case, imposed a 30% tariff, skipped the G20 summit South Africa hosted this past November, and then barred South African officials from separate G20 meetings held elsewhere. Let me be as clear as I can be: What President Trump did was wrong. It was unacceptable. And it should not stand. South Africa did the right thing. It should not have been punished by President Trump. Let me conclude by saying this. We are in a pivotal moment in world history. We are fighting against oligarchy and a corrupt billionaire-controlled political system. We are fighting to protect our planet from the ravages of climate change. We are fighting to make sure that AI and robotics serves humanity, not destroys it. We are fighting to protect the very foundations of American democracy and democracies throughout the world against those who want to move us toward authoritarianism. But, in our struggles, we must not always simply be on the defensive. We need to lay out an agenda and a vision for the kind of world that the vast majority of our people would like to see. Our goal must be to create an economy that works for all of us not just the billionaire class. Our goal must be to demand that the billionaire class start paying their fair share of taxes in America and around the world. Yes. We need a global wealth tax on billionaires. Our goal must be to make healthcare a human right for all, not a privilege. Our goal must be to raise the raise the minimum wage to a living wage and make it easier for workers to join unions. Our goal must be to seriously address the housing crisis, which exists in almost every region of the world. Our goal must be to strengthen public education and make higher education available to all regardless of income. Our goal must be to combat the existential threat of climate change and create tens of millions of jobs in the move towards energy efficiency and renewable energy. Our goal must be to ensure that AI benefits all of humanity and not just a handful of Big Tech Oligarchs. Our goal must be to put an end to endless wars. And in the name of human solidarity, we must bring all of our people together — Black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian American, gay and straight, to seize the moment and create the kind of country and world that our people deserve. Let us move forward with the courage and the strength we need to take on and defeat a powerful, greedy and corrupt ruling class. Let us choose democracy over oligarchy. And let us remember the immortal words of Nelson Mandela: “It always seems impossible until it is done.”