Sanders vows to "man the barricades" to fight injustice.

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Bernie Sanders walks picket line with striking Verizon workers

Senator adopts moniker “Bernie the Red Menace”

In a gesture unprecedented in presidential election politics, Democratic candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) joined a protest of striking Verizon Communications workers on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn.

Addressing the strikers as “brothers and sisters,” Sanders condemned Verizon for its chief executive's pay and reluctance to pay the benefits the union had asked for.

“This is about a company that wants to take health-care benefits away from its workers, but somehow they have enough money to pay $20 million a year,” Sanders said. “These workers are standing up against injustice, and I stand with them.”

Sanders went on to say, “This is just another major American corporation trying to destroy the lives of working Americans. Today you are standing up not just for Verizon workers; you’re standing up for millions of Americans who don’t have a union … on behalf of every worker in America, who is facing the same kind of pressure: Thank you. We’re gonna win this thing!”

According to campaign staffers, Senator Sanders was so energized by his reception at the strikers’ rally that he has begun referring to himself as “Bernie the Red Menace,” a reference to the title of a 1965 Kander and Ebb musical, “Flora the Red Menace,” about depression era worker struggles with unionizing and Communist ideals.

 In response to Sanders’ position, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam accused Sanders of getting the facts wrong and oversimplifying the situation, dismissing the candidate's views as "contemptible."  McAdam’s comments come days after General Electric Co. CEO Jeff Immelt pushed back against Sanders’ comment that companies like GE are “destroying the moral fabric” of America.

Replying to the corporate criticism, Sanders said, "I don’t want the support of McAdam, Immelt and their friends in the billionaire class. I welcome their contempt.”

Taking his new “Bernie the Red Menace” moniker to heart, Sanders has vowed that going forward he will devote one full day of every campaign week to organizing and appearing at demonstrations at billionaire-run companies that are “raping and pillaging” the American people.

In another nod to mid-20^th century pop culture, in this case the 1976 Paddy Chayefski film “Network,” Sanders said  “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore,” indicating that he will be “manning the barricades” in front of the headquarters of any and all corporations who are not giving the American worker a “fair shake.”

When asked which corporations specifically Sanders was targeting, his campaign spokesman, channeling Sarah Palin, said, “All of them, any of them.”