Boulder, CO: Ralph Nader Oct 22
News Advisory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ryan Mehta, 408-348-0681, rmehta@votenader.org (national); Aaron Ney, 303-520-7581, aney@votenader.org (local)
NADER TO HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE AND RALLY IN BOULDER, CO
WHO: Ralph Nader
WHAT: Press Conference and Rally
WHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 22, at 7 and 7:30 p.m., respectively
WHERE: Glen Miller Ballroom, room 381, Student Union, University of Colorado, Boulder
On Wednesday, October 22 at 7 p.m., consumer advocate and presidential candidate Ralph Nader will hold a press conference at in room 381 of the Glen Miller Ballroom of the student union at the University of Colorado, Boulder, followed by a 7:30 p.m. rally. Mr. Nader will speak on a variety of topics including the economic crisis, the fraudulent Commission on Presidential Debates which excludes alternative voices from participating, and other pressing issues especially pertinent to Colorado residents.
Nader/Gonzalez condemns the unprecedented actions of a coalition of unions in Colorado that rescinded from the November ballot four extraordinary measures intended to advance workers’ rights. The groups’ organizers justify the cowardly move, which was made just hours before a 5 p.m. Oct. 2 deadline to recall ballot measures, by assuring supporters that a deal made with leaders of the Chamber of Commerce and other pro-corporate forces will help defeat three anti-union measures (Amendments 47, 49 and 54), which are still set to be on the ballot. To push the four pro-worker measures, the coalition raised over $6 million (twice as much as their corporate foes) and collected about 583,000 signatures from Coloradans to ensure that these measures would have a spot on the ballot. If the measures remained valid and passed, they would:
* Amendment 53 - hold executives criminally accountable for wrongdoing under state law
* Amendment 55 - force employers to show just cause for firings
* Amendment 56 - require state employers with at least 20 employees to provide health insurance to workers
* Amendment 57 - allow workers to sue their employers in workers compensation cases
By capitulating to the business groups which have no mercy and hold no sympathy to workers, the coalition’s organizers in effect betrayed the unions, organizations and their members who contributed to the cause, all Colorado workers, the petitioners who worked so arduously to collect enough signatures for the ballot, and the measures’ supporters. Perhaps more fundamental, the coalition destroyed Colorado’s chances of establishing important precedents for the rest of the country to seek fair and just workers’ rights codes which have been so savagely violated by, among other laws, the 61-year old anti-union Taft Hartley Act.
While the Nader/Gonzalez campaign certainly opposes Colorado’s anti-union Amendments 47, 49 and 54 which, if enacted, would indeed cause a devastating blow to workers, nothing can be said to absolve the coalition’s leaders of this grave travesty that stripped the voters of the opportunity to directly vote justice for workers, consumers and health care — i.e. for themselves.
On other issues, the US Census Bureau says that the number of Coloradans without health insurance rose from 647,000 to 770,000 between 1999 and 2007. Currently 16.3 percent of the state’s residents are uninsured, putting Colorado in the top 20 states with the lowest number of insured residents in the country per capita. While McCain promises more of the same broken health care system, Obama supports a cockamamie plan that doesn’t cover everybody and that is based on the same wasteful, fraud-ridden private insurance companies causing the problems in our current system. By contrast, Nader/Gonzalez proposes a single-payer, Canadian-style, private delivery, free-choice public health insurance system that will cover everyone.
A 2006 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that NAFTA had displaced more than 13,000 jobs in Colorado. While McCain supports NAFTA and Obama has backtracked on his promise to reform the unjust agreement, Nader/Gonzalez would replace free-trade treaties like NAFTA and the WTO with fair-trade that protects the environment, labor rights, consumer needs and democratizes the process for adopting these and any new trade agreements.
A recently issued report by the Colorado Children’s Campaign found the state to have the largest growth in child poverty in nation from 2000 to 2006 — a 73 percent increase, while the nationwide increase stood at 9 percent. Minorities in Colorado were most severely impacted. The number of American Indian children in poverty increased a staggering 473 percent, while the figure for African Americans rose 116 percent and whites 57 percent. Nader/Gonzalez believes that an end to poverty ought to be made priority by instituting a truly progressive taxation system, ending huge corporate subsidies and pushing for a $10 minimum wage.
Mr. Nader will also address other critical issues the major party candidates have taken "off the table" that the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign has put on the table, including:
- a comprehensive, six-month negotiated military and corporate withdrawal date from Iraq;
- a single-payer, private delivery, free-choice public health insurance system for all;
- a living wage and repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act;
- a no-nuke, solar-based energy policy supported by renewable, sustainable, energy-efficient sources;
- a carbon tax to deter global warming and a securities derivatives tax to pay for the Washington bailout of Wall Street;
- an end to the corporate welfare and corporate crime that has resulted in millions losing pensions, savings and jobs and squandered tax dollars; and,
- more direct democracy reflecting the preamble to our constitution which starts with "we the people," and not "we the corporations."
About Ralph Nader
Attorney, author, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been named by Time Magazine one of the "100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th Century." For more than four decades he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups advocating solutions. He led the movement to establish the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and was instrumental in enacting the Safe Drinking Water Act,, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of important consumer legislation. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments. Nader graduated from Princeton University and received an LL.B from Harvard Law School.
About the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign
The Nader/Gonzalez independent presidential candidacy will be on the ballot in 45 states, is polling at 5-6 percent nationally, and a recent Time/CNN poll shows Ralph Nader polling 8 percent in New Mexico, 7 percent in Colorado, 7 percent in Pennsylvania, and 6 percent in Nevada — all key battleground states.
For more information on the Nader/Gonzalez campaign, visit: votenader.org.
