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Bernie Sanders: “People Are Sick and Tired of the Status Quo. People Want Change.”

Exclusive: Read the text of a major foreign policy address delivered by the independent senator at Riverside Church.

Bernie Sanders speaking in Brooklyn on June 18, 2026.

On Monday night, as political leaders from around the world came to New York City for the 81st annual United Nations General Assembly, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) delivered the keynote address at “We Shall Not Be Moved,” an event at the city’s historic Riverside Church held in celebration of the UN Charter. In the speech, Sanders spoke about the military-industrial complex, the global oligarchy, artificial intelligence, and more.Below, read the text of the speech, which Sanders shared exclusively with The Nation.

It is a true honor and a privilege for me to be speaking here at this extraordinary and historic Riverside Church.

This, as many of you know, is the church that Nelson Mandela came to visit as a free man, just five months after he was released from prison, having served 27 years. He came here to thank the people of the United States for standing up for justice against the evils of apartheid in South Africa.

The courage and historic life of Mr. Mandela inspired millions and millions of people all over the world. His life and legacy will never be forgotten. 

As I think all of you also know, in 1967, at this very same pulpit that I am honored to be speaking from tonight, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made clear his vigorous opposition to the War in Vietnam—a war that was based on lies. A war of horrific destruction for the people of Asia, and for 59,000 young Americans who went abroad and never came home.

In his remarks, with extraordinary courage, Dr. King exposed what he very eloquently called “the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism.”

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 nearly 60 years ago, and it is even truer today, as our country, the United States of America, is now spending over $1 trillion a year on the military while some 800,000 Americans are homeless, 85 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, and millions of people cannot afford the basic necessities of life. 

This business of spending more and more on the military and turning backs on working families and the poor is not just happening, tragically, here in the United States—it’s happening all over the world, where we are seeing increased military budgets while the needs of people living in desperation are ignored.

So not just in the United States, but all over the world, we are moving in the wrong direction, and our job is to turn that around.

Instead of producing more bombs and weapons and seeing the military-industrial complex enjoy huge profits, governments throughout the world need to come together to feed the children, take care of the vulnerable and protect our planet from the ravages of climate change.

That is why we must continue and accelerate our efforts to end President Trump’s disastrous war in Iran which is now spreading throughout the region.

That is why we must continue to speak out against the extremist government in Israel and the genocide they have committed in Gaza, and why we in the United States must end all military aid to the Netanyahu government.

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That is why we must rally and work with grassroots activists in Russia to put an end to Putin’s disastrous war in Ukraine—which has led to the deaths of some 500,000 Russian soldiers, as well as mass destruction and loss of life in Ukraine.

And that is why we must denounce the United Arab Emirates’ continued financial and military support of the RSF as it wages a campaign of genocide and destruction in Sudan’s civil war.

Last week, the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, correctly named three existential threats that the world currently faces. He talked about runaway artificial intelligence, he talked about the climate crisis, and he talked about deepening inequality. 

In my view, he is absolutely right.

But before we get into those issues, let me once again state the obvious, and that is that in a world of growing tension, growing militarism, more and more hatred, more and more destruction, the United Nations, as an institution, is more important today than it has ever been.

As we all know, the UN was born out of the horrors of World War II—a war in which 60 million people died, a war which caused unimaginable destruction in Europe and Asia and elsewhere, and a war that led to the unleashing of the first nuclear weapons.

To their credit, the leaders of the world at that time looked around them and saw the concentration camps, saw the destruction, saw the mass death, and they understood that international conflicts and differences of opinion........

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