Thread by @BlackSocialists

Next time a hard leftist tells you that @BernieSanders isn’t a real Socialist, here’s an extensive Twitter thread outlining his history that you can share with them (with sources, courtesy of Reddit user /u/Rvb321).

1) While attending the University of Chicago, Sanders was a member of the Young People's Socialist League, and he discusses his reasons for joining it in this interview:

2) Sanders began his political career as a member of a socialist party in Vermont called the Liberty Union Party: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_U…

Here is their platform: libertyunionparty.org/?page_id=5

3) In 1979, Sanders wrote an article for the Vermont Vanguard Press arguing that the television industry should be publically owned: sevendaysvt.com/vermont/social…

4) Sanders also put out a short documentary in 1979 about American Socialist, Eugene Debs:

5) In 1980, Sanders became very involved in the Socialist Workers Party: sevendaysvt.com/vermont/changi…

6) This article from 1982 discussing Bernie's election as Mayor of Burlington is worth your time: csmonitor.com/1982/0910/0910…

7) The image below shows Sanders speaking at a 1983 meeting of the Socialist Party USA, and this WNYC piece provides some context for what he says (it features clips from the speech itself as well): wnyc.org/story/speech-1…

8) As the mayor of Burlington, Sanders hung a soviet flag in his office in honor of Burlington's sister city, Yuroslavl: github.com/ConfuddledPeng…

9) In this speech from the 1985 Progressive Entrepreneurship Forum, Sanders talks about worker alienation, the need for people to see themselves in their work, and the necessity of worker ownership:

10) In this 1985 interview, Sanders can be seen defending the gains of the Cuban Revolution:

He even expressed excitement about the revolution in Cuba (see attached video).

11) In 1969, Sanders wrote an article entitled “Cuba: The Other Side of The Story” where he argues that the mainstream media was distorting what was really going on in Cuba: documentcloud.org/documents/2725…

12) Here is a video of Sanders introducing Noam Chomsky at Burlington City Hall, where Chomsky gives a speech about US foreign policy. Sanders discusses his opposition to US foreign policy in Latin America specifically:

13) Sanders even sent letters to Ronald Reagan expressing his opposition to US support of the Contras in Nicaragua:

14) Sanders gave an address as mayor about US imperialism in Latin America:

15) This video includes Sanders (on a panel with others) discussing observations about the Soviet Union after a trip there in 1988:

16) In 1991, Sanders spoke with @DemSocialists about how, in the short-term, he believes the US should catch up with the rest of the world in terms of Social Democratic policies, but that our long-term goal should be Worker Control of the economy:

17) Here is a 1998 C-SPAN interview where Sanders talks about class:

18) In 2007, Bernie Sanders advocated for Employee Ownership in the US Congress:

19) Here is a speech that Sanders gave that is very similar to the one he gave at the Progressive Entrepreneurship Forum:

20) Sanders advocated for worker cooperatives in point 3 of his 12-point economic plan: huffingtonpost.com/rep-bernie-san…

21) Sanders doubled down on his views on Cuba (and the rest of Latin America) on Democracy Now! shortly after the death of Fidel Castro:

22) Sanders denied his status as a Capitalist on CNN during the 2016 primary:

23) This 2015 Guardian interview where Sanders discusses the impact that the moving of the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles had on his politics is worth reading: theguardian.com/sport/2015/oct…

24) This 2016 Jacobin article explores Bernie’s roots in America's rich Socialist tradition: jacobinmag.com/2016/04/bernie…

25) In this Reddit AMA from a few years ago, Sanders clearly places an emphasis on worker control.

26) Sanders and his fellow Vermont senator recently introduced legislation to expand co-operatives nationwide: vtdigger.org/2017/05/17/sen…

27) In August of 2017, Sanders endorsed the designation of the Socialist Labor Party Hall as a UNESCO World Heritage Site: oldlaborhall.org/bernie-sanders…

His words from the endorsement letter:

28) In a Buzzfeed article that looks at past Bernie interviews (buzzfeed.com/ilanbenmeir/be…), they include his following statement:

“Democracy means public ownership of the major means of production, it means decentralization, it means involving people in their work.”

29) According to Politico, Sanders stated:

“I believe that, in the long-run, major industries in this state and nation should be publicly owned and controlled by the workers themselves.”

politico.com/story/2015/07/…

30) Sanders also stated the following:

“... you cannot separate the political structure from the economic structure... So if you believe in political democracy, if you believe in equality, you have to believe in economic democracy as well.”

Source: politico.com/story/2015/07/…

This extensive Twitter thread doesn’t even include quotes from Bernie’s 2016 book, “Our Revolution.” We highly recommend that you all give it a read.

Please see pages 11, 13, 18, 260, and 261.

#BERNIE2020

unroll.