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AUGUST 29, 2000

Can the Green Party win the upcoming election?

If you ask Winona LaDuke, the White Earth Anishinaabeg activist, author, mother, and running mate of consumer advocate Ralph Nader, the answer is yes.

Telling listeners to vote with their conscience, LaDuke appeared on the nationally broadcast radio program Native America Calling. Besides responding to questions on her and Nader's chances at winning, she did some calling of her own, urging the American public to speak out for more inclusion in the political process.

She said people should write letters to their local newspapers to get the Green Party in the upcoming debates, or else the event would turn out "boring" with just Texas Governor George W. Bush and Vice-President Al Gore. She also said Gore was taking the votes of women, minorities, and Native people for granted.

Responding to questions that the Green Party was causing division among Democrats, LaDuke pointed to Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura as an example of how a third-party candidate can sneak up and steal the vote.

Like the Green Duo, Ventura was also trailing in the polls in his state. Without access to the media through events such as debates, Ventura may not have been able to come from behind and win the election.

LaDuke also said Ventura met with the pair recently to discuss various issues. Half-jokingly, she said Ventura could be considered for Secretary of Defense in the Nader White House, due to his liking of "big guns."

Although the Green Party has scored as high as 6 percent in some polls, support for Nader and LaDuke has dropped recently. But LaDuke pointed out that the party sold out the Portland Coliseum, while Bush had to give seats away to his event there.

The best comment on the electoral process, however, came from a caller, not LaDuke. A caller urged people to register to vote as soon as possible.

LaDuke herself said she hadn't ever voted in a Presidential election until 1996, the year she she first ran with Nader.

Relevant Links:
Honor the Earth - www.honorearth.com
The Green Party - www.greenparty.org
Ralph Nader for President - www.votenader.org/index.html

Related Stories:
Spotlight on Winona LaDuke (The Talking Circle 8/28)
Groups to Honor the Earth (Enviro 08/18)
Nader / LaDuke under fire (The Talking Circle 08/14)
Nader / LaDuke sue (The Talking Circle 08/04)
LaDuke runs (The Talking Circle 07/12)
Nader's No 2 (Salon 7/13)
Winona LaDuke Speaks (Enviro 4/20)

Books by Winona LaDuke:
All Our Relations (Consortium 1999. Amazon.Com US$14.40)
Last Standing Woman (Voyageur Press 1999. AllNative.Com US$14.95)

More RealAudio with Winona LaDuke:
Winona LaDuke(Democracy Now 6/27)
Book-of-the-Month: All Our Relations (NAC 1/26)
Killings in Colombia (Part 1)(NAC 3/99)
Winona LaDuke, Ian Zabarte and Corbin Harney on the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (Honor the Earth 9/98)