nader in montrose press coverage

["mike chamness" <m_chamness@hotmail.com>]

Nader Urges Corporate Power Challenge

BY DAVID FREY
Aspen.com/News

MONTROSE ­ Green Party supporters from the Roaring Fork Valley headed here 
on Saturday to listen as presidential candidate Ralph Nader blasted 
corporations for creating or ignoring some of the world's biggest problems.

Speaking to the environmental group Western Colorado Congress, Nader 
criticized trade agreements that he said weakened world environmental and 
human rights laws to allow corporations to maximize profits.

"If you make a list of the world's 10 most serious problems, you will find 
that corporations are either indifferent to them, causing them or 
contributing to them," Nader said, rattling off a list of woes including 
rainforest deforestation and child labor.

More than 500 supporters turned out for his appearance in the Montrose 
Pavilion, for the cap of the Western Colorado Congress' 20th anniversary 
meeting.

"I say it's way past time to vote for what you believe in and put your heart 
in what you believe in and stand for what you know," said Jennifer Johnson, 
of Carbondale. "It's crazy, I think, to vote for people you have no 
alignment with."

Because WCC is barred by its nonprofit status from endorsing political 
candidates, Nader avoided politicking except when asked, speaking instead as 
a consumer advocate.

He reserved campaigning for a Green Party later at a Holiday Inn Express, 
where told supporters they wouldn't waste their votes by voting for him.

"I think what this campaign is trying to convey is, vote for your dreams, 
your interest, your conscience. If you vote for the least worst, every four 
years both parties are going to say 'thank you' and get worse."

Saying Democrats and Republicans are "morphing more and more into the same 
corporate monster with two heads," Nader admitted his own tactics have 
become more mainstream in an effort to win young voters, including upcoming 
appearances scheduled on "The Tonight Show" and "Saturday Night Live."

Calling for a "coordinated civic movement" against corporate power, he 
warned the crowd of becoming "serfs of a brave new world of 
mega-techno-bioengineered corporations."

He criticized trade organizations like the International Monetary Fund and 
World Trade Organization, which he said use U.S. tax dollars but operate in 
secret, "with nary a sliver of accountability."

In the wake of the Firestone tire recalls, Nader said, new tire safety laws 
are being written not in open Congressional hearings, but in closed-door WTO 
sessions.

"You can only guess how strong that's going to be," he said. "You can only 
guess how we can never be first again in safety." He called for new trade 
agreements that would safeguard the environment and human rights and require 
trade organizations to act with more openness.

"I agree with him 100 percent," said Jerome Shain, 62, of Montrose, a 
retired technician with the Federal Aviation Administration.

"We have to have a moral leader such as Mr. Nader."

Asked if he was troubled by voting for a candidate unlikely to win, Shain 
said, "In Colorado it doesn't make any difference. It's gonna be Republican 
anyway."

For more information: www.votenader.com www.greenparty.org 
www.greens.org/colorado/ www.wccongress.org


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