Ralph Nader's Candidacy And The Greens

The Greens/Green Party USA
1-866-Greens-2 (toll free)
www.greenparty.org
gpusa@igc.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2/25/04

CITIZEN RALPH NADER & THE GREENS

The Greens/Green Party USA enthusiastically welcomes Ralph Nader's independent candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.

Americans will make up their own minds on whom to vote for come election day. In the meantime, Ralph Nader adds a powerful voice to the campaign against the billion-dollar corporate interests that control the two dominant parties -- the same parties that again control the national debates and are already scrambling to exclude Nader and other third party candidates.

Greens note that this country is at a turning point in its history. However, we do not believe that the main strategy for fighting against the Bush regime's coup d'etat of the US government is to paint our movement into a corner by offering voters the choice of a pro-war, pro-Patriot Act, pro-Free Trade, pro-monopoly corporate Democrat in exchange for the current crusading warmonger.

Democrats such as John Kerry, as well as the Bush/Cheney Republicans, supported and voted for the war in Iraq -- a war based on a series of intentional lies and misrepresentations; so-called "free trade" agreements such as NAFTA, GATT, WTO, etc. that have exported jobs out of the US; and the USA Patriot, Homeland Security, and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Acts that have shredded the Bill of Rights. Many are also supporting the Emergency Health Powers Act that establishes internment camps in the United States.

For John Kerry, who was -- with George W. Bush and his father -- a member of the Skull & Bones secret society at Yale, "the problem with the Patriot Act is John Ashcroft" (as he stated), not the Patriot Act itself.

Are there differences between the Democrats and Republicans? Sure there are, as Ralph Nader and other third party candidates point out. But if independent and Green candidates do not run, the differences between the parties will become more and more muted and Greens lose our power to help articulate and mobilize around the critical social issues of the day.

With Nader and other eloquent anti-warriors in the debates (and let's not kid ourselves, getting into those debates will be the main fight of the current campaign), the issues become sharper and Greens gain much greater access to the electoral arena, which we use as a means to mobilize people to join social movements and fight for the kind of society we'd like to live in.

The social movements in which Greens are mobilizing include the fight to save the environment and against:

- the mass application of cancer-causing pesticides
- genetic engineering and the private patenting of life
- the racist war on drugs
- outsourcing of jobs
- global warming, and dependence on fossil fuels
- the prison-industrial complex and the criminalization of the poor
- the death penalty
- the sham of electronic voting and the stealing of elections
- the collapse of public education and public health systems
- the Democrats' and Republicans' mutual support for the logging industry at the expense of old growth forests and the rights of indigenous people, and
- war profiteers such as Halliburton, the Carlyle Group, Bechtel and the bought politicians who represent Enron and the giant oil corporations, not the people of this country.

Greens are fighting for free, comprehensive universal health care and the full range of reproductive rights (including a woman's right to abortion); the shutting down of all nuclear power plants and support for solar, wind and other sources of renewable energy; and to establish the truth behind the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Greens/Green Party USA has joined in initiating the call for the impeachment of George W. Bush. Ralph Nader's candidacy will help publicize that call, and help mobilize people in the streets to achieve it.

Based on our Ten Key Values, the Greens/Green Party USA is organizing all over the country, running candidates in local campaigns as well as participating in direct action struggles to take back our country from the corporate hijackers and their apologists in the Democratic as well as Republican parties.

We don't have to agree with Ralph Nader in every detail -- unlike Nader, the Greens/Green Party USA calls for immediate and unconditional withdrawal of US troops and corporations from Iraq, for example -- in order to welcome Nader's entry into the presidential campaign.

Expanding the CHOICES voters have is always a good thing. So is utilizing the elections to help publicize and build the mass movements. For too long, the Democrats have tried to orchestrate our fears of Bush and his gang in order to gain our votes, and to channel all attempts at social change into the electoral arena. We reject that approach. The "evil of two lessers" is still evil. It's the job of all candidates to speak to the issues, articulate the demands of the social movements whose participants they aspire to represent, and give us good reasons to vote for them.

We look forward to working with Ralph Nader, the eight currently announced Green Party candidates for President, and other independent forces and activists in reshaping the national debate and in redirecting social policy. The issues that are of concern to most people in this country are being ignored or suppressed by the two corporate parties and the candidates they proffer.

ENDS

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