CNN Kfile: on Corporations


Bernie Sanders: 1976: I favor the public ownership of utilities & banks

Bernie Sanders advocated for the nationalization of most major industries, including energy companies, factories, and banks, when he was a leading member of a self-described "radical political party" in the 1970s, a CNN KFile review of his record reveals. "I favor the public ownership of utilities, banks and major industries," Sanders said in one interview with the Burlington Free Press in 1976. In his career as a US Senator, Sanders has backed away from such ardent calls for nationalization.
Source: CNN KFile "1970s nationalization" on 2020 Democratic primary Mar 14, 2019

Bernie Sanders: 1970s: State should take over utilities without compensation

After moving to Vermont in 1968, Sanders became an active member of the left-wing Liberty Union Party. Sanders left the Liberty Union Party in 1977. When he launched his campaign for the Senate in 1971, Sanders said state utilities needed to be run by Vermont on a nonprofit basis. If revenues exceed expenditures they could be used to fund government programs and lower property taxes. In 1976, Sanders went even further: calling for the state to seize ownership of Vermont's private electric companies without compensation to investors.

Sanders' rhetoric was strongest during his 1976 campaign for governor of Vermont. "I will be campaigning in support of the Liberty Union utility proposal which calls for the public ownership of Vermont's private electric companies without compensation to the banks and wealthy stockholders who own the vast majority of stock in these companies," he said in a July 1976 press release. "I will also be calling for public ownership of the telephone company."

Source: CNN KFile, "Nationalization," on 2020 Democratic primary Mar 14, 2019

Bernie Sanders: 1976: Relocating businesses must pay; for public ownership

"We have got to deal with the fact that corporations do not have the right to disrupt the lives of their workers or their towns simply because they wish to move to earn a higher profit," Sanders said in a press release in August 1976. Sanders' plan would 10 years of taxes for the town.

"In the long run, the problem of the fleeing corporations must be dealt with on the national level by legislation which will bring about the public ownership of the major means of production and their conversion into worker-controlled enterprises," he said.

Source: CNN KFile, "Nationalization," on 2020 Democratic primary Mar 14, 2019

  • The above quotations are from CNN Kfile
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