by Rene Luna
Staff Writer
The Republican and Democratic National Conventions are over!
All eyes were on the cities of Philadelphia and Los Angeles this summer as presidential candidates George Bush and Al Gore squared off to win the nation’s votes.
As these two major political parties locked horns with one another, other political parties continue to remain out of the spotlight.
The Pacific Green Party held its rally in Portland, Ore., this summer. Presidential candidate Ralph Nader and vice presidential candidate Winona Laduke each gave speeches before a full house of 10,000, “which no other candidate in the history of America has been able to accomplish,” said sophomore Green Party advocate Stephanie Pedroza.
Nader graduated from Princeton University in 1955 and from Harvard Law School in 1958. He came to the public’s attention in 1965 when his best-selling book “Unsafe at Any Speed” exposed unsafe cars such as General Motors’ dangerously defective Corvair.
Nader has pushed for numerous laws to protect consumers, workers, taxpayers, and the environment, combating corporate abuse, and increasing citizen access to government.
Laduke graduated from Harvard in 1982 and currently resides on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota and works on restoring the local land base and culture. In 1994, she was named by Time magazine as one of America’s 50 most promising leaders under 40 years of age.
There are Green Parties in over 80 countries, particularly those that have proportional representation in government. About 200 members of the European parliament are Greens. In the United States, 59 Green Party Members hold elected office in 12 states, and many more Greens hold appointed office and serve on city/county advisory boards and community organizations.
According to the Green Party Native Platform-from Global Circle.net, traditional Native values of caring for the collective, are all values which resound with sustainability, a healthy community and a healthy environment. Those values, and how people live them in their day-to-day lives, represent values needed in America today.
Those values are perhaps best reflected in the founding principles of the Green Party, which speak to ecological wisdom, grassroots democracy, non-violence and economic justice. In addition, the Nader/Laduke 2000 campaign supports government-to-government relations with Native people and their representative governments, and will continue to support Native sovereignty and the responsible exercise of treaty retained rights.
Pedroza spent her summer in Oregon as part of her Summer Service. She also worked for the Green Party in a booth at the local county fair passing out literature, and par-taking in the rally at the Portland Convention Center.
Pedroza said what was unique about the rally was that everyone who attended dressed in their own way. Nobody wore blazers and everyone was friendly and “not concerned with wealth.”
David Rojas, a junior and Green Party advocate said, “If you see what the Green Party stands for, it just makes sense. With all the crap people have to go through, there is so much division, classicism, racism, oppression in general. It’s about correcting all the social injustices that plague us now.”
“The Green Party for me is an alternative,” said junior Kristine Werthwein. “You’re either a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent and ‘there’s nothing else out there.’ The Green Party is a party that is growing in numbers. It’s about non-violence and protecting the environment around us. It’s a party for the people.”
Some of the issues Rojas and Werthwein would like to be known, are the Democrats, who have reaped the benefits of organized labor’s grass-roots effort, telephone, and money, but have not expanded organized labor. Rojas said the Democrats are the biggest promoters of corporate welfare.
According to www.votenader.org, the “corporations have always, and will always plan the future of Americans. They make sure the children of American grow up corporate. They are raised by Kindercare, fed by McDonald’s, educated by Channel One. They are given hand-held entertainment units like Gameboys, seduced by Disney movies and toys, and their coaches and teachers all operate against a backdrop of corporate logos and sponsorship.”
Nader, in his nomination acceptance speech said, “The worsening concentration of global corporate power over our government has turned that government frequently against its own people, denying its people their sovereignty to shape their future. Again and again, the will of the people has been thwarted and the voice of the people to protest has been muted.”
Pedroza added that the plastic and cotton industry paid the United States government to pass proposals to make hemp, a widely cultivated Asian herb with a tough bast fiber and that can grow under any environmental condition, illegal. Hemp is biodegradable and can be used to make many products, such as clothes and paper. But with its association with marijuana, Hemp continues to remain illegal.
Pedroza said to help get Ralph Nader in the Presidential debates, call the Commission on Presidential Debate at (202) 872-1020. Pedroza also said the elections this year are very important because the next president could choose three new Supreme Court judges who can “alter the Constitution.”
“It is our duty as young Americans to get involved because if we don’t, the government will dictate what we can and cannot do,” Pedroza said.
