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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 July - 2 August 2000 Issue No. 492 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 July - 2 August 2000 Issue No. 492
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Pushing back
By Kareem Fahim
For consumer advocate Ralph Nader, the freshly-inked 1996 South African constitution was simply another contract to be scrutinised, dissected and carefully considered in the interests of his clients. The Harvard-educated lawyer saw familiar danger in the document. In a letter that year, he warned sternly, "South Africans should be aware that a key provision of the nation's new constitution risks entrenching a new form of power abuse in the country -- autocratic rule by big corporations."
The names have changed over the course of his 35-year career, but Nader's battles always pit his perennial clients (working citizens) against their most enduring foe -- the large corporation. His run this year for the presidency of the United States as the Green Party candidate is seen by many as simply his latest assault in an ongoing war. Nader has attempted the presidency before (in 1996, when he won 1 per cent of the national vote), but this time he is campaigning with added vigour and a $5 million war chest -- several times what he spent in '96.
More significantly, the American political landscape has changed. Two outsider pro-reform candidates, Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura and Senator John McCain of Arizona, have gained considerable national popularity and Americans seem at least aware of the anti-trade protest voices heard recently in Seattle and Washington. Recent polls giving Nader between 5 and 10 per cent of the vote in crucial large states like Michigan and Pennsylvania seem to confirm that more Americans are hearing Nader's populist message this time around. The foregone two-party November conclusion, pundits say, could become a sticky three-party free-for-all.
Nader's run could end up being big trouble for Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic Party nominee. Though most political observers (and indeed, Nader's supporters) admit it is unrealistic that he will win the presidency, the recent history of third-party candidacies should give Gore cause for concern. Ironically, it was Ross Perot's Reform Party bid in 1992 that helped put Gore and Bill Clinton into the White House. Perot captured 19 per cent of the national vote by siphoning off votes that might have gone to then-incumbent President George Bush.
Recent polls showing Gore trailing Republican candidate George Bush by up to 12 per cent in key states indicate that history could repeat itself, this time to Gore's detriment. Like Perot in '92, Nader has managed to divide constituencies seen as vital to a successful Democratic bid. A critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Nader seems to be attracting the support of labour unions, a traditional Democratic Party ally. So far, the Teamsters and the United Auto Workers -- organisations commanding some two million members and considerable campaign dollars -- have refused to endorse Gore's candidacy.
The Gore campaign maintains Nader is not a threat. "In the final analysis," Gore said on NBC's Face the Nation, "it is likely that most people will see this as a two-person contest and want to vote on that." When asked about his rivals, Nader was less diplomatic: "The only distinction between Bush and Gore is the velocity with which their knees hit the floor when big corporations knock on the door," he said recently.
Nader's first public crusade targeted the US automobile industry. His 1965 best-selling book Unsafe at Any Speed exposed latent dangers in cars like General Motors' Corvair. After settling a subsequent lawsuit with the auto giant, Nader used the $425,000 he received to start the Public Interest Research Group, a platform from which he encouraged young American idealists to join his call to civic action. "Nader's Raiders," as the young staffers were called, invigourated the advocate's many crusades. Groups he has formed have lobbied for cleaner air and stricter environmental regulations; greater consumer protections; increased airline safety and citizen empowerment, including access to "public" information and taxpayer relief.
Born in 1934 to a family of Lebanese descent, Nader's work ethic and commitment to public welfare are legendary. He has never been married, nor does he have any children. Colleagues say he doesn't see movies and stumbles over small talk. As fan William Greider wrote this month in The Nation, "He is not just uncharismatic but anticharismatic." The thought of the ruffled, often long-winded public servant occupying the White House elicits smiles from supporters and detractors alike.
But this election might favour some counter-intuition. As the Group of Eight (G-8) summit closes in Okinawa, Japan this week, protest against a global economic system that benefits the world's wealthiest at the expense of developing nations is as loud as ever. Nader's version of this message, perhaps newly-energised by the protests in Seattle and Washington against the WTO, focuses once again on his suffering clients.
Ten years of economic growth have not diminished the problems of healthcare, retirement, child poverty, public transportation or consumer exploitation, Nader told interviewer Jim Lehrer. "It's an overall philosophy ... a strong democracy that does not allow the few to reap the benefits from the many to keep the many from having their just rewards."
Nader's campaign platform appears built on the foundation of his advocacy. As with the South African constitution, he views US foreign commitments through a familiar lens. "I think I have sufficient familiarity [with foreign affairs] to know that our government should side with the peasants and workers for a change, instead of funding, arming, subsidising and propping up dictatorships and oligarchs," said Nader, who studied Far Eastern politics and economics. He has said that the Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict was "preventable," and favours an end to UN sanctions against Iraq.
The possibility that his bid will sink the Gore candidacy, thus enraging Democrats and other opponents of Bush, doesn't seem to bother Nader. "Nobody's entitled to votes. We all have to earn our votes. In many ways, Al Gore is siphoning votes from Al Gore," Nader said.
Whether he is realistic or not about his chances at winning the White House, Nader measures the success of his run in the context of another accomplishment -- the mobilisation of society towards civic responsibility.
"The minimum measure is a significant progressive third party that brings thousands of people, many young people, into progressive political activity for future leadership and says to the two parties: we're coming, and we're growing, and if you don't shape up, you're going to shrink down because the people are mobilising, and they're fed up and they're not going to take it anymore."
