The Daily Iowan

By Jesse Elliott/The Daily Iowan

ST. LOUIS -- In the streets and parks of St. Louis Tuesday night, local students and protesters from around the nation joined under the O17 coalition to make their voices heard.

While police officers and state police stood their ground calmly behind metal barricades, at least 4,000 protesters chanted from 7:30 p.m. until 9 p.m. when they began marching to the front door of the building housing the debate in an attempt to meet the candidates afterwards. The debates inside the Washington University Field House were unaffected by the protesters.

The O17 coalition, which coined its name from the date of the final presidential debate, was a conglomeration of various political-activist groups that say they have been ignored this election season by the presidential candidates of the two major parties.

The activist groups included include Amnesty International, the Association of Black Students, Socialists Forum, the Gateway Green Alliance and various Middle East human-rights groups.

During the protests, the demonstrators chanted "this is democracy" to the pounding of snare drums and against the glare of Missouri State Patrol floodlights set up behind the barricades.

Ralph Nader, who wasn't allowed to take part in the presidential debate Tuesday, is suing the commission organizing the debates because of his exclusion. He addressed the St. Louis crowd by telling them they had alternatives.

"This election is about the Green Party and all third parties versus the Republican-Democratic party," he said.

"What we want is clean money and clean elections," he said. "We practice what we preach. We take no PAC (Political Action Committee) money, no corporate interest money and no soft money."

UI junior Peter Reed heard Nader speak and had the opportunity to meet Nader earlier in the afternoon.

Nader's desire and ability to empower people and free them from corporate control and the commercialization of culture are what Reed admires most about the Green Party candidate.

"Nader's idealism is contagious," he said. "Nader supporters are very idealistic and seem to have more faith in humanity than those who feel they must choose between Bush and Gore."

In his 5 p.m. speech at Forrest Park, Nader said he wanted to liberate people from a government "of the Exxons, by the GMs and for the DuPonts." Behind Nader was a banner that read "Where's the debate?"

UI graduate student Carolyn McConnell said Nader will get her vote in November because of his commitment to campaign-finance reform and his understanding of environmental problems spawned by corporate greed.

A fellow Nader supporter, UI graduate student Mark Dowdy, traveled to St. Louis with McConnell in a van driven by members of the Iowa Green Party Tuesday.

"Nader has done more to change this government from the outside than both Gore and Bush have done from the inside," he said.

DI reporter Jesse Elliot can be reached at:

jesse-elliot@uiowa.edu

Protestors throng to St. Louis