Ralph Nader did not disappoint the excited and excitable students packed well past the doors of the York auditorium where he spoke last week.
“Don’t think of yourselves as citizens-in-waiting,” said the Green Party presidential candidate and consumer rights activist. “Get out the vote now….You won’t be like so many people who, quote, ‘succeed in life’ and by the time they retire look back with an empty feeling in their gut because they missed the justice train.”
More than 700 students attended the November 6 talk addressing “The Corporatization of North America: The Challenge to Democracy.”
In a telephone interview following the event, Nader said the audience’s enthusiastic reaction “illustrates how much potential there is on campus.” But he cautioned, “we need to get organised.” The thrust of his argument is that the principle of justice can become the cohesive force behind sustained civic action. This organised citizen response, according to Nader, is the key to tempering the impact of “corporate greed.”
Nader began with a litany of “corporate crimes” from nearly every major industry. He cited a Harvard School of Public Health study that found 80,000 people die every year from medical malpractice, but noted that these “corporate crimes” do not receive nearly the same attention as overt street violence.
In particular, Nader addressed the effects of corporate influence on academic freedom. He warned soliciting big donations from corporations “puts universities in a frenzied competition for money from bio-tech companies and computer companies,” which could compromise what kind of research is performed and the curriculum.
In the interview, Nader elaborated on the steps universities could take to safeguard academic integrity. He described the need for universities to have an explicit and widely publicized policy on commercialism and an end to “ad hoc relations with drug companies.”
He cautioned that universities not only risk forfeiting their academic freedom in these dealings, but do so in the name of research which may not be in the best interest of the public. He called for students to “question the premise—why do corporate research?”
York students as well as Green Party members appeared freshly motivated after the event.
The Green Party of Ontario’s fundraising coordinator, Gregory Laxton, enthused that “the Green Party of Ontario has the brightest future of any political party in Ontario,” citing a new wave of voters about to come of age, and, he believes, vote Green.
Photograph by Simon Turnbull
