Jesse Jackson urges Yalies to support Gore-Lieberman

Facing an audience that packed Battell Chapel on Wed., Oct. 25, politician and civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson gave an impassioned plea for voting in this year's election, calling it one of those "huge moments in history that count down our destiny." Jackson's speech—sponsored by many campus groups including Yale College Democrats,Yale Hillel, and union activists for Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Graduate Employees and Student Organization (GESO)—focused on the presidential race and the difference between the Democratic and Republican tickets.

REBECCA ROSENTHAL/YH

After a welcome by Mayor John DeStefano Jr., some words from Matt Lieberman, son of vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, MC '65, LAW '67, and speeches by union activists, Jackson took the stage and urged the audience to vote for Vice President Al Gore. Jackson called on Yalies to look at Texas governor George W. Bush's, DC '68, "game plan and teammates." Bush, Jackson noted, opposed legislation on a woman's right to choose, clean air, and hate crimes. He said that Bush's teammates would include Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC), who, Jackson quipped, had "voted against Abraham Lincoln." He also spoke of the future of the Supreme Court. Bush's choice of strict constructionist justices would work against workers' rights, overthrow Roe v. Wade, and "dismantle every gain made in the 1960s," Jackson said.

Contrasting Gore with Bush, Jackson emphasized that Gore's choice of running mate—Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman—was a victory for all historically oppressed minorites, and said that Gore would reduce the debt and invest the surplus in health care and public education.

At the end of his talk, Jackson urged students to work together in mobilizing voters in the final two weeks before the election. In immediate response to his challenge, Yale activist groups organized a 5 p.m. meeting on Fri., Oct. 27, at the Yale union headquarters at 425 College St., to gather all on-campus get-out-the-vote efforts.

The eagerness Jackson fostered in some students, however, was not shared by all. The event also turned out a share of dissenters, with Bush and Nader supporters rallying outside the chapel. "I do not support Rev. Jackson's appearance here. The Democratic Party is using him because Al Gore is having problems attracting his base," Jay Nelson, a Bush supporter, said. Advocates for Ralph Nader also disputed Jackson's argument that the Green Party was taking votes away from Gore. "I don't agree with Jackson," Byron Igoe, SM '04, said. "Nader is helping the cause. If he gets five percent of the vote in this election, the Green Party will get federal funding and have a greater chance of affecting policy."

But for the most part, Jackson's appearance was one of enthusiam, good will, and a certain amount of levity. " You gave us Clarence Thomas and George W. Bush," Jackson said to close his speech. As the audience broke into laughter, he said, "You have a lot of work to do."

One-on-one with Reverend Jackson

Before his speech, the Herald spoke with Jesse Jackson about the upcoming election and student activism.

Yale Herald: What can we do to support the unionization of Yale-New Haven hospital workers and GESO?

Jesse Jackson: I have been to this campus in several organizing efforts. When students challenge the administration, when they join the demonstrations, when they participate in creative protest actions, it always helps the workers. One of the great exciting things that has happened in late years, is students fighting corporate greed in sweatshops and organizing workers. It is one of the more relevant social movements of our time.

YH: Initially, many African-American leaders questioned Gore's choice of Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) as running mate because of his support of vouchers and opposition to affirmative action. Do you believe that the black community has warmed up to Lieberman?

JJ: I think that Lieberman is a real asset to the ticket. With him on the ticket, Gore opens up a whole body of people who have been locked out historically: Jews, blacks, Hispanics, labor, women, gays. He represents an opening door of opportunity for those who historically have had the ability but never had the opportunity.

YH: Analysts have predicted that high black turnout could tip key battleground states such as Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee to Gore. Do you think black voters will turn out with high numbers on election day, and what can be done to bolster black voter turnout?

JJ: I think that black voters, Hispanic voters, women and workers have a lot at stake. The issue of high black voter turnout is important, but you should not limit it to that. It's important whether you are black or Hispanic or a woman, whether you live in Appalachia or New Haven. There is reason to believe that if a strict constructionist Bush Supreme Court were put in place, [the Justices] would attack workers' rights to organize, because they believe in states' rights. They would attack consumer advocates, they would unleash corporate greed. They would undercut the infrastructure which Dr. Martin Luther King put in place 40 years ago. All Americans who choose the expanding dream of inclusion have reason to vote on Tues., Nov. 7.

YH: Polls show that consumer advocate Ralph Nader is siphoning votes from Gore in key states which may go to Bush and decide the election. What can be done in the next two weeks to woo voters back to Gore?

JJ: It is not a matter of "wooing." It is a matter of those voters knowing that if they, in fact, give a comfort margin to Bush, they would elect a Supreme Court that would be anti-consumer advocates, anti-civil rights, anti-women's right to choose. Nader himself should not, in fact, be an unwitting ally of the right-wing forces and fight to undercut a half-century of work for social justice.

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