Ralph Nader was born in Winsted, Connecticut to Lebanese immigrants who operated a restaurant and bakery. His dream of becoming a "people's lawyer" was instilled in him by his parents, who conducted family seminars on the duties of citizenship in a democracy.

Following his graduation from Gilbert School, Nader entered Princeton University. Graduating magna cum laude with a major in government and economics, he enrolled in Harvard Law School. After graduating with honors, he set up a small legal practice and traveled widely. The young attorney became distressed by the indifference of American corporations to the global consequences of their actions, and he began to speak out against the abuse of corporate power.

The consumer advocate went on to create an organization of energetic young lawyers and researchers, which has produced systematic exposés of industrial hazards, pollution, unsafe products, and governmental neglect of consumer safety.

Recognized as the founder of the consumers' rights movement, he played a key role in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Freedom of Information Act, Consumer Product Safety Commission and continues to work for consumer safety and reform of the political system through his group Public Citizen.

He is receiving solid support in his 2000 Presidential campaign, in spite of receiving almost no media attention, and scored in double digits as the candidate best suited to address the environment, campaign finance and consumer protection.

Originally written by him in 1992, The Concord Principles sets forth ten statements of position to enable citizens to regain their rightful participation in their own destiny. He urges all Presidential candidates to adhere to these principles in their campaigns and in whatever public offices they may hold.

First: Democracy must empower and enable citizens to obtain timely and accurate information from their government, enable citizens to band together in civic associations in pursuit of a just society, and communicate their judgments through modern technology.

Second: The American people should have reasonable control over the public lands, public media airwaves, pension funds, and other societal assets which the public legally owns, rather than having these public assets controlled by a powerful few.

Third: We need modern mechanisms so that civic power for self-government and self-reliance can correct the often converging power imbalance of Big Business and Big Government that weakens the rights of citizens.

Fourth: Citizens should have measures to ensure that their voting powers are not diluted, over-run, or nullified. Such measures include easier voter registration, state-level binding initiatives and referendums, public financing of campaigns, and term limits not to exceed 12 years.

Fifth: Citizens must have full legal standing to challenge in the courts the waste, fraud, and abuse of government spending. Overly complex, mystifying jargon in our laws and procedures must be simplified and clarified so that the general public is not shut out from readily understanding and challenging them.

Sixth: Citizens should be accorded computerized access in libraries and in their homes to the full range of government information. Inserts in billing statements from monopolized utilities and financial companies should invite consumers to join consumer action watchdog groups. The public, which owns the tv/cable/radio media airwaves and are leased for free to large commercial businesses, should have its own Audience Network to inform, alert, and mobilize democratic citizen debate and initiatives.

Seventh: Effective legal protections are needed for ethical whistleblowers who alert Americans to abuses or hazards to health and safety in the workplace, or contaminate the environment, or defraud citizens. Such conscientious workers need rights to ensure they will not be fired or demoted for speaking out within the corporations, the government, or in other bureaucracies.

Eighth: Working people need a reasonable measure of control over how their pension monies are invested, rather than it being controlled by banks and insurance companies.

Ninth: Shareholders, who are the owners of companies, should not have their assets wasted or worker morale victimized by executives who give themselves huge salaries, bonuses, greenmail, and golden parachutes, self-perpetuating boards of directors, and a stifling of the proxy voting system to block shareholder voting reforms.

Tenth: Our country's schoolchildren need to be taught democratic principles in their historic context and present relevance, with practical civics experiences to develop their citizen skills and a desire to use them, and so they will be nurtured to serve as a major reservoir of future democracy.

More information:

Ralph Nader for President
National Committee Presidential candidate draft pick
Ralph Nader and the Green Party
Statements of position
Current Writings
Public Citizen
Ralph Nader