EU), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (precursor to the World Trade Organization), the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank not to serve the interests of working and oppressed people, but to carry out the policies of their capitalist masters.

All of these institutions were designed to shore up the capitalist world system, lock in American dominance over its allies against Russian imperialism's bloc in the Cold War, and pry open the world market for American multinationals.

The words of American journalist John Reed from the beginning of the 20th century applied every bit as much in the postwar era: "Uncle Sam never gives you something for nothing. He comes along with a sack stuffed with hay in one hand and a whip in the other. Anyone whoaccepts Uncle Sam's promises at face value will find that they must be paid for in sweat and blood."

Bitter experience has rightly taught people around the world to question and oppose the postwar order that Sanders lionizes. The U.S. used human rights and democracy as alibis to intervene throughout the world, violating both principles in the process. It used the IMF, World Bank and the WTO to plunder the developing world.

LIKE ITS predecessor, the League of Nations, which the Russian revolutionary Lenin famously called the "thieves' kitchen," the UN is a guardian of the international status quo, presided over by the most powerful governments. It is controlled by the great powers that belong to the UN Security Council--they either sideline the UN General Assembly when they don't agree,