March 5, 2008

Ralph Nader and the Antiwar Movement

By Kevin Gosztola

Freedom is participation in power. -Cicero

It’s not like they haven’t been met with issues before. The system has always been stacked against them. Draconian ballot access laws, exclusion from debates, and political bigotry all are expected by the Nader campaign and the Green Party.

There are also the widespread myths and allegations that Nader threw the election to George W. Bush in 2000 or that Nader cost Gore the election in 2000 by siphoning votes away from him.

And now as the Iraq War rages on, Nader will have to deal with the antiwar movement’s opposition to participating in this election.

Yesterday, I attended a meeting where stalwart anti-war anti-occupation Americans spoke out angrily at Nader for not clearly articulating. I wonder how deep this sentiment runs within the anti-war movement.

If you go to OntheIssues.org you can find this quote on Ralph Nader from the Green Party:

Q: Briefly describe Nader's position on the following issue: Middle East Policy, including Iraq.

A: On Iraq, Ralph Nader supports the rapid and responsible withdrawal of US military forces, civilian military contractors, and US corporate interests fro Iraq. Ralph Nader has put a major focus of his time and energy into the Stop the War Campaign of Democracy Rising, which provides grassroots antiwar activists across the country with fact sheets, information, and tools they need to be effective.

Source: Green Party 2008 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire Feb 3, 2008

Is supporting Democracy Rising not enough to prove he is against the war and occupation of Iraq? Is writing numerous articles calling for people to be a movement against this spoiled system not enough to show Nader is against this "war on terror"?

Nader has characterized the Bush administration in ways that Hope and Hill would never characterize Bush. On Nader’s blog on Democracy Rising, you can find phrases like “the rogue regime of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney”, descriptions of Bush that characterize him as the “obstinate, messianic militarist in the White House”, and statements that say “Presidential outlawry did not start with Mr. Bush. It has been building up for a long time going from the episodic to institutionalized forms.”

Nader Speaks at a Fundraiser

I wonder how any antiwar movement member could possibly watch the first seven minutes of this above video and not think the movement owes Nader for what he is doing to spur antiwar sentiment in America.

But, as I spend more and more time with the antiwar movement because I do not care to put time and resources into the Obama or Hillary campaign, I learn more and more about how they view our democratic society or lack thereof.

The movement in Chicago has almost universally decided that incorporating politicians into the antiwar events that they organize for is a bad idea. For the March 19th/20th rallies to mark the unfortunate fifth anniversary of this illegal war and occupation of Iraq, the organizers collectively chose to demand that people be out in the streets challenging the powers that be and the corrupt, broken, and rigged imperialist system that allows this war to rage on instead of calling attention to choices like Nader that will show up on the ballot in Illinois.

This is despite the fact that the antiwar movement in Chicago has had leaders from the Green Party come and support the movement explicitly by putting hours to make the events work and by putting up money.

Why are antiwar leaders so against Ralph Nader?

John Walsh wrote in an article on the January 27th demonstration United for Peace and Justice held in 2007 titled “Crazy for Liberty”:

Ralph Nader, who was in Washington that weekend, was pointedly not invited to speak. On Saturday night Nader was reportedly inquiring of other independents just who had been invited to speak among their growing number. Imagine that; the only antiwar candidate in the 2004 elections was not an invited speaker, even though he and Cindy Sheehan drew tremendous applause at the last mass rally in 2005 (Notice how these rallies occur now only in only non-election years, nicely tailored to get activists to work for Dems, but not to pressure the Dems to take a strong anti-war stand.) The non-invitation removed Nader from the movement every bit as effectively as the censors armed with air brushes removed dissidents in the "socialist" Czech republic chronicled by Milan Kundera. Nor was there anyone who spoke as a representative of the Green Party, even though at least one speaker was in fact a Green and even though an informal survey showed an enormous number of people in the crowd were Greens or Green sympathizers. Yes, the Greens were "permitted" a feeder march but their only organized presence on the Mall that this writer could find was a small card table with three women staffing it.

Ralph Nader and the Green Party seem to all too often get snubbed by the antiwar movement.

Previously, ties to the Democratic Party kept prospective third-party candidates out. But after my meeting yesterday, the amount of expletives thrown in the direction of all politicians in power especially Democrats who should be opposing this war set a new standard for the antiwar movement. No longer willing to accept the nominee that the Democratic Party puts up for people to vote in November, what if the antiwar movement came around to the idea of advocating for a third-party candidate?

In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that World Can’t Wait is an outgrowth of the Revolutionary Communist Party, I would suggest that Nader would be lauded by World Can’t Wait members as someone to vote for because he is listed in the Voices Speak Out section of the World Can’t Wait to Drive Out the Bush Regime website.

The antiwar movement for 2008 is a wildcard. One has to wonder if the upcoming events surrounding the fifth anniversary will be enough to really stir a sentiment in the public that is a sentiment of rejection---a sentiment that creates a desire to repudiate this system.

If the movement could get their members to really look at the possibility of opposing Democrats and Republicans at the ballot box, think of what would happen.  If only they would ask people to take 2 minutes out of their life to oppose the government of political bigots and corporatists that rule this nation.

If the antiwar movement really is disgruntled with Democrats and Republicans as much as they say they do, they should turnout to vote so that Democrats and Republicans lose their jobs in November in city, county, state, and federal elections.

The Green Party puts up a choice next to the Democratic Party and Republican Party for people to look at and see that they do not have to choose the party with the “least worst candidate.”

As an established party now in many states across the nation, they are a viable option for the people to believe in.

And, in fact, Green Party candidates like Nader raise the question the antiwar movement is most concerned about---

How do we get people motivated to believe in themselves---to respect themselves---before they start generating a politics of respect for all American people?

How do we get people to follow the words of Mario Savio, a member of the Berkeley Free Speech movement, who said, “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you cant take part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!”

Indeed, the Green Party is putting themselves on the machine. And the Party supports candidates who advocate for repudiating the system.

The Green Party and its prospective candidates may not be facing arrests, beatings, and further violent violations of civil liberties, but they are doing the grunt work for a free and more democratic society.

Whatever end result the antiwar movement may have in mind, supporting a guy who has been around for the antiwar movement like Nader and supporting the Green Party that is constantly a part of antiwar events (at least in the Chicago area) is a tactic worth employing in order to pull more people into the movement.