Fiery Nader unleashes pointed attacks

Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader '55 last night gave the Princeton community an hour-long social commentary — and the audience loved every bit of it.

"It's nice to be back," Nader said. Continually stressing the theme of "human need over corporate greed," he delivered stinging criticisms of what he claimed was an American democratic system that has collapsed under corporate interests.

"This is all about people losing control of everything that matters to them," he said to a near-capacity Richardson Auditorium. Loss of control to corporate interests, he said, has some "severe consequences," such as "the deception of reality."

He questioned the widely accepted contention that the American economy is currently strong and healthy.

"Currently strong for whom?" Nader challenged. "For all the workers who are making relatively less now than they were 20 or 30 years ago? For the 20 percent of Americans that live in poverty? For the 10 million people who still make minimum wage?"

Nader also said the "increasing corporatization" of universities is causing students' "horizons [to be] lower." He pointed out, with pride, the benchmark effort of his class — Princeton Project '55 — as a "civic action alternative" that "has been very successful for Princeton undergraduates."

"That's why the class of '55 as they march down the P-Rade always gets the biggest applause," he said to a chorus of laughter from the audience.

Nader was quick to note what he says is a dramatic shortage of differences between Democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore and Republican Texas Gov. George W. Bush, whose parties, he said, are "bought, rented and sold" by corporate interests.

"Did you all watch the second debate? That thing was an agreement fest!" he exclaimed to wild laughter from the audience. He said he counted 36 different times where the two agreed with each other.

"Bush ran out of agreements with Gore, he started agreeing with Clinton!" Nader bellowed.

While Nader said he believed the Republican candidate was the worst choice, he offered little praise for the Democrats.

"Joe Lieberman, that guy never met a weapons system he didn't like, and he's all bent on personal morality," Nader said, contrasting the candidate's views with his own position of social justice.

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Nader said he does not believe that the government should spend any more tax dollars on national defense, and instead those dollars should beused to fight "corporate crime, corporate violence, corporate welfare and corporate regulation."

"Prices are going up, while wages are sliding backward," he said.

Nader also offered a scathing commentary on what he said was America's "criminal injustice system."

"We shouldn't be sending drug addicts to jail, alcoholics to jail," he said to rousing applause. "Addiction is a health problem."

Nader said the attitudes of young people toward voting are a paramount issue, pointing out that two-thirds of younger Americans do not vote. "If you haven't turned on to politics," he charged, "politics will surely turn on you."

He commended University students for their activism against sweatshop labor, but said that greater evils exist, such as international financial institutions.

"Don't let anyone use globalization the way Paul Krugman does," Nader said, referring to the University economics professor's views on the subject. "I don't know what's wrong with this guy," he said, accusing Krugman of misrepresenting Nader's stand on the issue.

"According to this guy, Social Security will go broke by 2037. Social Security will not go broke by 2037," he exclaimed.

"Does he teach here?" Nader asked. "Well, my commiserations."

Nader charged that corporate globalization and organizations such as the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and NAFTA are "autocratic secret systems of governance."

He said NAFTA and the WTO —with its "anti-democratic provisions" — were issues that Bush and Gore would never raise.

Only near the end of the speech did he outwardly promote the Green Party.

"November 7 is just the starting point of the first stage of building America's new progressive political movement!" Nader exclaimed to wild applause. He said the Democrats and Republicans need to be forced to address the "needs of the people," and that "the only language they understand is the loss of votes."

"It's time to make some history on November 7," Nader said, "and move to a democracy where people matter, first, foremost, here and abroad."