The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

Out to sway Kerry, Kucinich makes his case in Portland

The underdog aims for a strong showing in Oregon's primary to bolster his priorities, including pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq

03/28/04
JEFF MAPES

The vegan menu at the Dennis Kucinich fund-raiser Saturday morning in Portland -- multigrain pancakes, potatoes and tofu scramble -- provided just one hint that the Democratic congressman from Ohio is not your typical presidential candidate.

It was also clear when the question-and-answer session veered from such standard political topics as trade and foreign policy into a discourse about whether people should avoid using violence-laden language as a first step toward creating a more peaceful world.

"Each one of us needs to find that -- a way to clear our anger," Kucinich advised his audience. "Anger is very hard to let go of sometimes."

On his call to withdraw from free-trade treaties . . .

"We cannot continue these huge trade deficits without it having a dramatic negative effect on our national economy, at which point the borrowing we're doing is not going to be sustainable. . . . We could be looking down the road at our children living under the structural readjustment policies of the International Monetary Fund if we don't get a handle on our trade. . . .

"There's a practical expectation that we need to have that if people sell to us, they buy from us. Then the next question is, what are the conditions under which we do business? The North American Free Trade Agreement, the World Trade Organization (and other trade agreements) came about because of the desire of corporations to have access to cheap labor. Trying to get cheap labor is one of the oldest stories in humanity. . . .

"We need to create an alternative international trade structure where we put ethical principles in commerce, and those ethical principles are workers' rights, human rights and the environment.

"The president of the United States -- and most people don't know this -- has the ability to withdraw from both Nafta and the WTO, and we could set an alternative trade structure in place. We can first begin with bilateral trade, where we put in these conditions.

"Everybody wants access to our market. How do we know? We have a $550 billion trade deficit. . . . Everybody wants to sell to us; they just don't want to buy from us."

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