[SfN] Fwd: Nader 2000 Action Alert

[Jim Buell]

 From chickens to ducks - it's clear this is the campaign with ideas!

Jim

>Approved-By: jonah at VOTENADER.ORG
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>Date:         Tue, 26 Sep 2000 18:49:54 -0400
>Reply-To: campaign at VOTENADER.ORG
>From: Nader 2000 Campaign <campaign at VOTENADER.COM>
>Subject:      Nader 2000 Action Alert
>To: NEWSLETTER at LIST.VOTENADER.ORG
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>
>Dear Citizen Activist:
>
>Our campaign is continuing to build momentum.  We had over 12,000 people
>for our super rally in Minneapolis on Friday and over 10,000 in Seattle
>on Saturday. The protests and letters about our exclusion from the
>debates are having an impact so keep it up. We are now focused on the
>Super-Rally scheduled for Boston on October 1, just two days before the
>first scheduled debate.
>
>DIRECT ACTION MISSION: The debate chickens have appeared with great
>fanfare at protests all across the country. This week we would broaden
>the protest message to include the Issue Ducks. Let everyone know how
>you feel about the way Bush and Gore duck all the important issues. Wave
>signs: "Universal Health Care: Ducking the Issue" or "Death Penalty:
>Ducking the Issue" or "Living Wage: Ducking the Issue" or other issues
>that matter to you. A chorus of duck calls complements a "let Ralph
>debate" chant quite nicely.   Remember: always civil, always peaceful,
>always polite, but let's get the point across, let's get the cameras'
>attention, and let's get Ralph into the debates!
>
>OUTREACH MISSION:  The mission this week is to register 10 friends or
>family members to vote. Although there are more than six weeks until
>Election Day, important deadlines are fast approaching: Nevada and Rhode
>Island have the earliest deadlines on October 7, but by October 13, any
>remaining unregistered voters in most states will be shut out of the
>November election entirely.
>
>The Nader2000 website, http://votenader.com, now features a chart that
>spells out voter registration deadlines in each state (and DC).  It can
>be found at http://votenader.com/deadlinechart.html.  Keep in mind, in most
>cases new forms have to be received by these deadlines, so now is the
>time to put all voter-registration efforts into high gear.  New voters
>can also register through the home page of our site, by clicking
>"Register to Vote" under the "What You Can Do Today" heading.
>
>PRINT MISSION:  Our topic for this week's letter-to-the-editor is the
>revenge of the non-voter. The following are talking points for such a
>letter:
>
>· Over half of the eligible voters in the United States, particularly
>young people, do not vote.  Politicians depend on this low voter turnout
>to maintain the status quo.  As Ralph Nader often says, "If you don't
>turn on to politics, politics will turn on you."
>
>· Ralph Nader has proposed the following solutions help reduce the
>number of non voters in the United States:
>
>- Publicly financed campaigns to take special interest money out of
>   elections and make politicians more responsive to the public interest
>- Free airtime for ballot qualified candidates
>- Proportional representation so that everyone's votes would count
>- Same-day voter registration
>- Instant runoff voting to ensure that candidates cannot win with less
>   than a majority and allow people to rank candidates, eliminating the
>   "spoiler" argument against third parties.
>- Open the Presidential debates to candidates who have achieved ballot
>   access in enough states to win the election
>- Implementing a "None of the Above" option in elections to force a new
>   election if only one candidate is running with little support or if
>   there is no real difference between two or more candidates
>
>· We must all register to vote, so that as Michael Moore has said,
>November 7 will be "Payback Time - the revenge of the Non Voters!"
>
>Be sure in your letter-to-the-editor to include your state's voter
>registration qualifications and deadlines and local places where people
>can register.
>
>
>CONTRAST OF THE WEEK: "In the last three years alone, the IMF has:
>contributed to and worsened financial crises in Asia and elsewhere;
>watched as billions of dollars of its money was stolen in Russia; failed
>to respond in meaningful ways to the growing global demand for debt
>cancellation for poor countries; bailed out big banks while
>impoverishing the poor; and continued to push its environmentally
>destructive export-led development model." - Ralph Nader
>
>This week, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will hold
>their semi-annual meeting in Prague, Czech Republic.  While these
>organizations claim to promote economic growth and create jobs by
>bailing poor and developing countries, they actually force countries pay
>off their debts while ignoring their own people.  In other words, they
>illustrate the trend of reckless globalization promoted by multinational
>corporations and their friends in the Democratic and Republican
>parties.  The policies of the Fund and the Bank encourage free trade and
>lax labor laws, perpetuating labor abuses in developing countries.  In
>turn, corporations take advantage of the policies by paying low wages,
>ignoring workplace safety standards, and firing workers that try to
>organize unions.
>
>Ralph Nader has a profoundly different take on the IMF, World Bank, and
>corporate globalization than the other candidates for President.  Unlike
>Al Gore and George Bush, Nader is not beholden to corporate interests
>and will not remain silent on the corporate globalization promoted by
>these institutions.  In contrast to Gore and Bush:
>
>· Ralph Nader believes that the IMF and World Bank have led to poverty,
>deepening economic inequality, and environmental degradation all over
>the world
>
>· Ralph Nader would fight the unfettered corporate globalization like
>those promoted by the IMF and World Bank, and demand that these
>institutions focus on people ahead of profit
>
>· Ralph Nader would negotiate trade agreements that would force
>multinational corporations operating abroad to respect labor laws and
>environmental standards in debt-ridden nations
>
>· Ralph Nader would support trade agreements making it more difficult
>for corporations to close factories in the United States
>
>Ralph Nader has a different position from Gore and Bush on
>globalization.  He can stand up to multinational corporations because,
>he is not owned by them.  As the media covers the IMF and World Bank
>meeting in Prague from September 26-28, use it as an opportunity to tell
>your friends and colleagues how Ralph Nader differs from Gore and Bush
>and puts people before corporations when it comes to globalization
>issues.
>
>_________________________________________________________________
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>ENCOURAGE OTHERS to VOLUNTEER and WORK to TRANSFORM THIS YEAR'S RACE INTO AN
>OPEN DEBATE ON CORPORATE CONTROL OF OUR DEMOCRACY AND OUR LIVES.  Please
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>
>Paid for by the Nader 2000 General Committee, Inc.
>P.O. Box 18002, Washington, D.C. 20036
>campaign at votenader.org