On Monday, the South African delegation to the United Nations, in collaboration with Progressive International and the Hague Group, hosted an event in honor of the U.N. Charter at the historic Riverside Church in New York City, less than a day before the U.N. General Assembly convened for its 81st annual session. We play excerpts of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’s address at the event, in which he denounced the military-industrial complex fueling the U.S. war on Iran, Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the UAE-backed RSF paramilitary in Sudan, called for the end of corporate oligarchy and wealth inequality in the United States and warned about the risks of the unchecked buildup of artificial intelligence.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: 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 a trillion dollars 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.