NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

10/17/2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES- Ralph Nader, who has been a prominent consumer advocate for almost 40 years, will lecture at Northwestern State University Thursday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. in the A.A. Fredericks Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public. The lecture is sponsored by Northwestern's Student Government Association is part of the University's Distinguished Lecture Series. His topic will be "Big Business and the American Duopoly."

Nader was honored by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential Americans of the Twentieth Century. He has devoted his life to giving ordinary people the tools they need to defend themselves against corporate negligence and government indifference.

In 1965, Nader took on the auto industry with his book, "Unsafe at Any Speed," a shocking expose' of the disregard carmakers held for the safety of their customers. The Senate hearing into Nader's accusations and the life-saving motor vehicle safety laws that resulted catapulted Nader into the public sphere.

Nader quickly built on the momentum of that success. Working with lawmakers, he was instrumental. In creating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Laws he helped draft and pass include the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Meat and Poultry Inspection Rules, the Air and Water Pollution Control Laws and the Freedom of Information Act.

Several citizen groups have been formed by Nader including the Center for Auto Safety, Public Citizen, the Pension Rights Center, the National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest and the student public interest research groups (PIRGs) that operate in more than 20 states. In his latest citizen initiative, he is working with alumni classes, including his own at Princeton University and Harvard Law School, to expand their efforts beyond parties and reunions to community projects that systemically advance social justice.

Believing that Republicans and Democrats are so close ideologically he calls them "tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum," Nader organized a presidential campaign in 2000 to challenge the "duopoly" of the two-party system. His goal is to build the foundation of a third political party and a robust progressive political movement that rally around issues rather than empty slogans and figureheads.

Nader received three million votes in the 2000 election against George W. Bush and Al Gore. Many analysts say Nader's presence in the race took votes from Gore and tipped the race to Bush.

Among his best-selling books are "Winning the Insurance Game: Why Women Pay More and Getting the Best From Your Doctor." His most recent books are "Children First: A Parents Guide to Fighting Corporate Predators;" "No Contest: Corporate Lawyers and the Perversion of Justice in America" and "The Ralph Nader Reader." Nader's most recent bestseller is titled "Crashing the Party: How to Tell the Truth and Still Run for President."

Nader is listened to intently by both citizens and corporate audiences. Years after they graduate, college students tell him how his lecture evening changed their lives. His message is simple and compelling: "To go through life as a non-citizen would be to feel that there's nothing you can do, that's nobody's listening, that you don't matter. But to be a citizen is to enjoy the deep satisfaction of seeing the prevention of pain, misery and injustice."

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