University of California at Riverside
MEChA and Ethnic Studies Welcome:

Ralph Nader

Green Party
Presidential Candidate

University Administration Retaliates! .

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by
Hector Carreon
La Voz de Aztlan

Riverside, California (October 20, 2000) - Viva Ralph Nader, viva Ralph Nader, shouted exuberant students Friday morning after the Green Party candidate for U.S president completed a speech to a standing room only audience inside the UC Riverside University Theater and to a larger one outside viewing the event on two large temporary video screens. The greatly successful event was planned, organized and carried out by MEChA and other students with the assistance of the Ethnic Studies Department. The event met with extreme resistance from the university's administration and now there is great concern in the Mexican-American community because there have been retaliatory moves against Dr. Armando Navarro, Chairman of the Ethnic Studies Department.

The retaliatory moves against Professor Navarro raise many questions concerning Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech at the university and questions about the nature of the collaboration between the university, the dictatorial two party system, and the corporate business establishment. Dr. Armando Navarro was one of the founders of La Raza Unida Party (The United People's Party) in California and is the author of the recently published book "La Raza Unida Party: A Chicano Challenge to the U.S. Two-Party Dictatorship." Professor Armando Navarro has earned high respect over the years in the United States and in Mexico for his outstanding leadership, great academic achievements and effective organizing efforts to establish equitable political representation for disenfranchised Latinos in the United States. The coming weeks will tell if massive organizing efforts will be necessary in order to bring an energetic response against entrenched bigoted and racist administrative elements at the university.

Ralph Nader and the Green Party have been the victims of the same forces that destroyed La Raza Unida Party during the years between 1970 and 1981. Presently, the U.S. two-party dictatorship has the political system rigged against any other party that may want to participate in the so called democratic political process. A case in point was the exclusion of Ralph Nader and the Green party from the recent nationally televised presidential debates. The owners of the national media, as well as the corporate interests that paid for the the debates, will never allow any other political party to participate that they can not control . This two-party monopoly is tyrannical and is part and parcel of the plutocracy that actually rules the United States. Dr. Armando Navarro states in his recently released book La Raza Unida Party , "I reject the notion that the United States has in place a pluralist democracy. To the contrary, I contend that the nation's political system, while democratic in theory, is in actuality a plutocracy governed by an omnipotent power elite. Through their pervasive control of government, this elite uses such socialization agents as the mass media and educational institutions to exercise power and control over the most perfect party dictatorship ever conceived."

La Raza which includes Chicanos, Mexican-Americans and other Latinos have become increasingly "fed-up" with the Democratic and, even more so, with the Republican Parties. We are sick and tired of forever having to vote for the lesser of two evils. We have come to realize that even elected Hispanic representatives, of either party, do not really represent the interests of our community which has many special and urgent needs. These Hispanic elected representatives are in most cases corrupt, are in to enrich themselves, and in the larger sense vote for the big money interests that buy their votes. A shameful legacy of the Hispanic politician in the two-party system is the taking of money from the alcohol industry which produces and sells a product that has devastated countless families in our community. The "Cash-Register Politics" of the two-party political system however affects all politicians across the board. The two-party system has failed to address the most pressing problems affecting La Raza and in fact it implements instead policies that adversely affects the quality of life of the members of our community. The failed "War on Drugs" which is actually a "War on Latinos and Blacks" is a policy of the two-party monopoly and has resulted in incarcerating millions of Latino youths for minor drug possession offenses when in fact white youths use drugs as much as any other group. It is the policies of the two-party monopoly that have shut the doors to higher education to our youths and they are also responsible for outlawing Bilingual Education in California. Life for a large majority of the people is getting worse. Hunger and homelessness is increasing while Gore and Bush lie to the American people that things are great. Ethnic tensions between Mexicans, Blacks and Whites are also increasing which could explode if we go into a serious economic downturn, and signs of a downturn are already apparent. We need drastic and immediate political reform in order to avoid a national social and ethnic disaster.

The best and most effective reform we can accomplish is to truly democratize the U.S. political system and break the chains of the tyrannical two-party dictatorship. Towards this end, La Voz de Aztlan is calling for La Raza to stand behind, in this election, for the only truly good, honest and competent candidate for president. This candidate is, without question, Ralph Nader of the Green Party. No one can question his integrity, as opposed to the integrity of the "pot smoking" Gore and of the "cocaine sniffing" Bush. The two candidates of the two-party monopoly are buffoons and will never measure to the stature of Ralph Nader. Ralph Nader is a man of his word and has outlined justice, health, education, housing, and employment policies that would rectify most of the injustices La Raza has suffered under the two-party dictatorship that caters only to the rich. A vote for Nader will be vote a for La Raza and will open the doors to forming our own party for the year 2004 elections. In coalition with the Green Party and other progressive third parties, we can at last take real control of the government that is supposed to serve the people and not just the rich and powerful lobbies of corporate America and of the military-industrial complex.