ICYMI: At Global Convening, Murphy Urges Progressives to Combat Authoritarianism By Taking On Corruption and Corporate Power
Press (Murphy)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 20, 2026
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Deni Kamper
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
AT GLOBAL CONVENING, MURPHY URGES PROGRESSIVES TO COMBAT AUTHORITARIANISM BY TAKING ON CORRUPTION AND CORPORATE POWER
BARCELONA, SPAIN - U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Saturday took the mainstage at the Global Progressive Mobilisation conference in Barcelona, Spain to call on progressive leaders from around the world to work together to combat rising authoritarianism. During his remarks, Murphy directly rebuked President Donald Trump’s systematic attacks on American democracy, while urging its defenders to pursue an unabashed anti-corruption agenda that not only champions working people’s rights, but addresses the spiritual crisis created by an economy defined by concentrated corporate power.
On the heels of a historic victory for democracy in Hungary, Murphy called on defenders of democracy to learn from one another: “This is a moment when progressives around the world must unite. Trump. Orbán. Le Pen. The AfD. The remnants of Bolsonaro. These right-wing movements — they learn from each other. They copy one another's tactics of democratic disintegration. And they count on us to be divided. To argue over purity tests while they dismantle our freedoms. But to beat them, we must learn from each other too. ”
Identifying the isolation and cynicism that fuels right-wing movements, Murphy urged progressives to meaningfully reassert community and connection as a cornerstone of our politics: “Capitalism is broken. In America, our people felt powerful, generations ago, when the leaders who ran their companies and set the rules of their local economies were their neighbors. Your community hospital. The grocery store on your corner. The company where you worked. All of them owned by people you knew — or at least people who shared your common fate.”
He continued: “The consolidation of economic power into the hands of a few technology and private equity elites is not just an economic problem. It is a spiritual one. People feel lonelier, and less connected, when the centers of economic power sit in Aspen and Davos instead of in their own backyards. We need to break up concentrated corporate power.”
Murphy offered concrete reforms to return political power to working people: “Progressives should make the reform of our democracies our number one priority — and in the United States and across the world, that means a constitutional amendment to get billionaire money, corporate money, and anonymous money completely out of our elections.”
While emphasizing the importance of winning upcoming November elections in America, Murphy made clear progressives must do much more to permanently beat back the threat of authoritarianism:
“Our project as progressives is not simply to win elections. Our project is to reckon with the spiritual unspooling happening under our feet — for millions of people, especially in the high-income nations of the world. We must see that the modern world has, for many, turned existence into a wasteland of empty consumption, technology-induced loneliness, flattened culture, and work without dignity. So our challenge is not just to raise wages. It is not just to protect civil rights. It is not just to keep our water and our air clean. Our challenge is to build a world in which people find real connection, and real meaning, in their daily lives.”
A transcript of Murphy’s remarks as drafted is available below:
My thanks to all the organizers of this essential conference, but especially Prime Minister Sanchez, who has shown the world how to stand up to bullies.
My friends, I bring you greetings from a nation in crisis.
I will not sugarcoat the gravity of what we face. This is the gravest threat to American democracy since the Civil War. Donald Trump intends to end our democracy. And today, we are not on the verge of a totalitarian takeover. We are in the middle of one.
Donald Trump is attempting to seize control of our courts, our law enforcement, our media, and our elections. His goal is oligarchic capture.
He does not believe in democratic equality. He does not believe in shared prosperity. He believes only in the consolidation of wealth, and the consolidation of power.
And his White House is the most corrupt White House in the history of our nation.
And he thinks he can get away with it by distracting us. By telling Americans that the real threats to their lives are immigrants, Muslims, gay children, drag shows — and, often, Europe. He wants to turn us against each other.
His other tactic is to silence dissent. He threatens to lock up my colleagues for opposing him. He has invaded American cities with his new personal political police force — ICE — to crush peaceful protest.
But here is what I came to tell you. Trump is not going to win.
Three weeks ago, eight million Americans walked out their front doors and joined together at 3,300 town squares and parks and public places — the largest single day of protest in the history of the United States. His approval ratings are at historic lows. His party loses election after election. And his enablers in Congress — odds are, they will be wiped out of office this November.
And let me tell you something else. Americans are watching what happens in the rest of the world. The courage of the defenders of democracy in Hungary — and their victory last weekend — was a beacon of inspiration for freedom fighters in America.
So thank you. Thank you, Hungary.
This is a moment when progressives around the world must unite.
Trump. Orbán. Le Pen. The AfD. The remnants of Bolsonaro. These right-wing movements — they learn from each other. They copy one another's tactics of democratic disintegration. And they count on us to be divided. To argue over purity tests while they dismantle our freedoms.
But to beat them, we must learn from each other too. We must study how Gustavo Petro built such a broad progressive coalition in Colombia. We must learn, together, the lessons of Hungary.
And the corporations that quietly — or loudly — back the right-wing project of oligarchy? They are counting on us to be divided too. The big tech companies want to keep the United States and Europe paralyzed on how to protect our children and our families from the poison spewing out of social media and artificial intelligence. The only way to prevent the total corporate capture of our societies is for the global progressive movement to unite in breaking up concentrated power.
Now here is my last message, and perhaps the most important. Donald Trump is not the cause of America's problems. He is a symptom. And the same is true for the right-wing demagogues rising across many of your own countries.
Beating Trump this November — as beating Orbán was last weekend — will be cause for celebration. But it will not be the cure for what ails us.
Our project as progressives is not simply to win elections. Our project is to reckon with the spiritual unspooling happening under our feet — for millions of people, especially in the high-income nations of the world. We must see that the modern world has, for many, turned existence into a wasteland of empty consumption, technology-induced loneliness, flattened culture, and work without dignity.
So our challenge is not just to raise wages. It is not just to protect civil rights. It is not just to keep our water and our air clean. Our challenge is to build a world in which people find real connection, and real meaning, in their daily lives.
Capitalism is broken. In America, our people felt powerful, generations ago, when the leaders who ran their companies and set the rules of their local economies were their neighbors. Your community hospital. The grocery store on your corner. The company where you worked. All of them owned by people you knew — or at least people who shared your common fate.
The consolidation of economic power into the hands of a few technology and private equity elites is not just an economic problem. It is a spiritual one. People feel lonelier, and less connected, when the centers of economic power sit in Aspen and Davos instead of in their own backyards. We need to break up concentrated corporate power.
It requires progressives around the world to confront the ways artificial intelligence will compound this spiritual crisis. Yes, AI is going to kill jobs. But what happens to our soul when machines replace the things that make us human — conversation, friendship, creativity, problem-solving? We should refuse to live in a world where machines, controlled by a small group of out-of-touch billionaire tech elites, replace what it means to be a human being.
It requires a confrontation with the cult of consumption. Part of our emptiness comes from the belief that buying the right things, or watching the right shows, or following and mimicking the right influencers, will make us happy. But we are not happy. Because happiness comes from giving. From selflessness. From shared work.
Progressives should call individuals to something bigger than buying. We should create shared projects for people to join. We should make national service mandatory for young people. And we should stop letting the rich buy their way out of shared experience.
And finally, progressives must confront the cult of corruption.
Here is the lesson of Hungary. They refused to bend to the cult of corruption. They demanded a higher standard for their public sector leaders. And when Péter Magyar won, he delivered immediately. Days after the election, he walked into the studio of the state broadcaster — the propaganda machine that had carried Orbán's lies for sixteen years — and announced, on the air, that his government would shut it down and rebuild it as a true, independent public service.
Progressives should make the reform of our democracies our number one priority — and in the United States and across the world, that means a constitutional amendment to get billionaire money, corporate money, and anonymous money completely out of our elections.
This is the kind of agenda that speaks to the spiritual heart of our nations. An agenda that can rebuild meaning. An agenda that can rebuild connection. An agenda that builds a barrier against the messages of division coming from Trump and the rest of the xenophobic, anti-democratic right.
Our work IS to raise wages. It IS to clean the air. It IS to promote equality. But our work is also to confront the coldness of the modern world — the ways in which the cults of profit, of technology, of consumption, and of corruption lead to loneliness, isolation, and hopelessness. Our politics must be the politics that restores communion and meaning to people's lives. Until we do that, no election victory will last.
I truly believe that in America, we are going to do the things necessary to save our democracy from Donald Trump.
But none of us — in America, in Europe, in Latin America, in Africa or Asia — none of us will be safe unless we do the hard work, together, across borders, to build a world full of connected, empowered men and women who find so much meaning in their own lives that they have no need of a charlatan or a demagogue to give their lives meaning for them.
That is our work. And it is worth doing.
Thank you.
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