Media Advisory
June 11, 2003
Contact: Rah-ed Ghuma: 410-467-3070
or Jason Kafoury: 202-465-2764

Ralph Nader’s “People Have the Power” Tour Hits Baltimore

Congressman Dennis Kucinich to Join Nader at Rally

Rally to help “Revitalize the Grassroots in Maryland”

Baltimore, MD: On Thursday, June 26, Ralph Nader's "People Have The Power" tour will bring to Maryland a unique blend of community activism and entertainment. Acknowledging the historic bond between social movements and music, Nader has woven the two together into a series of events that is expanding civic activism and grassroots organizing -- addressing such timely and critical issues as the human, social, economic and political costs associated with post war Iraq, the corporate business of war, the fragile state of our civil liberties and how citizens must stay vigilant to protect their environment and social services, such as education and health care.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Baltimore City Councilman Rev. Kwame Abayomi along with other performers and community leaders working for progressive social change will join Mr. Nader and encourage the audience to get involved with local campaigns.

“The purpose of these events this year is to bring people together in cities across America, which is especially critical now,” said Nader, America’s leading consumer activist. “Progressive people and organizations in Maryland and beyond must work together. Civil liberties, our nation’s security and the nation’s major social priorities, are at risk in the Executive Branch and Congress. All major peace and social justice successes in our history have started with a mobilization of the citizenry. We must further this tradition and strive to ensure that the values of democracy, law enforcement, respect for human rights and the protection of all innocent people prevail here both at home and around the world.”

Baltimore is the fifteenth stop of Nader’s nationwide tour beginning in 2001 in Portland, Oregon, and has since packed venues from San Francisco to Cleveland and NYC to Tampa. Nader likened this current tour to the “Super Rallies” he headlined during his bid for the Presidency in 2000. Those rallies filled ten major arenas, from Portland’s Memorial Coliseum to New York’s Madison Square Garden, with turnouts far larger than those of the 2000 major party candidates. This event is being sponsored by Nader's newest organization, Democracy Rising, which seeks to unify people “in the cause of freeing American politics from the grip of corporate interests,” Nader said.

The rally will be held at Johns Hopkins University, Shriver Auditorium, 3400 N. Charles St. Baltimore. The official program begins at 7:00 p.m. (doors, live music, and community group tabling at 5:30 p.m.). An array of community organizations will have information tables to distribute literature and solicit signatures for a variety of progressive causes. General admission tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Children 12 and under are free.

For information on the issues and the rally at Shriver Auditorium, call 410-467-3070 or check out www.DemocracyRising.org