US Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders hails Jeremy Corbyn's stance against elites in UK elections

Vermont Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders (Photo by AP)

US Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has praised British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in a Chicago rally for major gains in UK’s general election last week, insisting that his success came by standing up to British elites.

Speaking Saturday at The People’s Summit in the major Midwestern US city, the American lawmaker and former Democratic presidential candidate further emphasized that Labour supporters were successful "not by moving to the right, not by becoming more conciliatory - they won those seats by standing up to the ruling class.”

Hailing Corbyn for his frank anti-establishment positions throughout his electoral campaign, Sanders reassured his supporters that “we may not have won the campaign in 2016, but there is no question that we have won the battle of ideas.”

Sanders was enthusiastically greeted by his progressive supporters at the Chicago rally, many of whom called for his presidential run in the 2020 US election.  

“Ideas that, just a few years ago, seemed radical and unattainable are now part of Main Street discussion, and in fact, some of them are being implemented across the country as we speak,” Sanders said in his address at the rally. “Today, support for the concept of paid family and medical leave is gaining support... Today, states and communities throughout the country are moving forward to make public colleges and universities tuition free.”

 The People’s Summit has brought together various progressive activists from across the United States, including Palestinian-American Muslim activist Linda Sarsour, who is affiliated with the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and a frequent target of anti-Islam politicians and political groups.

In an interview with the Washington Post published on Saturday, Sanders also stated, “People have got to understand that we’re at a pivotal moment in American history, and it’s not clear which way we’ll go.”

“There’s an enormous potential to improve peoples’ lives; on the other hand, there’s an opening for an austerity economy where everybody but the top one percent gets poorer,” he further underlined. “I will do my best to make people to understand that this is a 12-month-a-year operation, not about an election every four years."

Sanders endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after she was nominated by the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2016 race, in which she was defeated by Republican billionaire Donald Trump.