Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Oct. 30, 1992, edition 1 / Page 4
Part of Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
4The Daily Tar HeelFriday, October 30, 1992 Students try to SNAP By Phuong Ly Staff Writer The donkey and the elephant. , When most people think about ; American politics, only two parties come : to mind the Democrats and the Re ; publicans. Independent candidates like Ross Perot are temporary fodder for the me- dia and often disappear from the public eye soon after the election. But the New Alliance Party hopes to change the two-party system of Ameri- can politics. "(The New Alliance Party is) the American affiliate of the pro-democracy movement," said Clifton Toth, staff adviser of the UNC Student-led New Alliance Party. SNAP, which Toth helped organize in 1989, is the Chapel Hill chapter of the national party. The party maintains that America is not as democratic as most citizens are led to believe because the political pro cess is dominated by only two parties whose platforms are becoming more and more alike, Toth said. The New Alliance Party fights for legislation that would reduce the num ber of signatures required to put a can didate on the ballot and would allow independent candidates the opportunity to participate in political debates. Toth said social changes could not take place "until you change the fact that you have invariably two candi dates, paid for by big businesses, who don't represent the interests of the vast majority of this country." The New Alliance Party was formed in 1979 in New York City when state Sen. Joseph Galiber, a black Democrat, decided to fight back after he was re fused his party's nomination for bor ough president. He had been promised the nomination earlier by party leaders. !R0W.Frzi2iSl tet prize: $75 pumpkin Does the cost looking TO8MY (i ) Searching for a lace to shop where the prices aren Then creep y&Ajt RARR-EE STATION -SM mm DRASTICALLY DISC0U2ITED CL0TIU1IG FOR MQI & W0.1BI Saturday, cffoSbesr 31st, 10 til 5 149 E. franklin St., (Shapsl Hill f -' , w uf Lenora Fulani Galiber asked for help from two pro gressive groups and ran in the election as the first candidate of the newly formed New Alliance Party. Even though the party was only six weeks old, Galiber received more than 1 7 percent of the votes. The party went national in 1984. The party made history in 1988 when it placed Lenora Fulani, the first woman and the first African-American presi dential candidate, on the ballot in all SO states. This year, Fulani is on the ballot in 40 states and is a write-in candidate in North Carolina. The New Alliance Party is the fourth largest political party in the United States, with an estimated 250,000 sup porters. The Libertarian Party is the third-largest party. Support for the New Alliance Party is estimated by the 1988 election results since the party does not keep official membership tallies, said TOT iL rv. S V 3rd Annua! featuring Ce;tune Ctsjt at MMftfsbt Gift Certificate 2nd prize: $25 Gift Carving Contest gtadeftf Stores high sssjnps up fjs to out of two-party system Caroline Donnola, field organizer for the N.C. New Alliance Party and a coordinator for the Fulani for President campaign. There are about 5,600 New Alliance Party supporters in North Carolina. State affiliates consist of UNC SNAP and chapters in Raleigh and Durham. The student-led organization has about 15 to 20 people who attend its meetings, Toth said. Students are attracted to the party because it emphasizes building a more perfect democracy, Toth said. Senior Anna Meadows, chairwoman of SNAP, said she became interested in the party and joined SNAP last semes ter because she felt it was advocating people who had been shortchanged by the major political parties. "(The Democratic and Republican parties) were run by professional politi cians who were losing sight of the indi viduals of this country," Meadows said. "They were so entrenched in politics and getting elected. I didn't think they could see the big picture or the small picture. "I felt like the New Alliance Party was a voice of tolerance and openness that I hadn't seen anywhere before." The party describes itself as a black led, multiracial, pro-gay, pro-women, pro-socialist organization, Donnola said. Some issues in the party platform include civil rights, gay rights, a na tional health-care system for everyone regardless of income and free education from day care to graduate school for all. "We are not concerned about how much profit IBM is making," Donnola said. "We are concerned about whether people have the basic things to survive in order to live decently." Critics describe the New Alliance Party as "psycho-political" and as brain- Certificate yey the attic 7T LJVl 1 V VS' V 838-8767 AM at washing people, Toth said. "(But the critics are) ignoring the fact that they're very brainwashed." Society has always taught people to keep in place and to do what they're told, but the New Alliance Party is trying to change that, he said. Other critics call the party racist, Toth said. "(Critics say) we really are black-led, and that means that white people aren't welcome, or that we re ally aren't (black-led), and we're just a bunch of white people." Toth questioned how the New Alli ance Party could be racist when it was working to promote the openness and acceptance between people of all classes, races and sexual orientations. He added that although the party has many black leaders and supporters, many people of other races were involved in die party. The UNC chapter consists of a ma jority of whites, Toth said. One reason is that when black student groups on campus are contacted to help with the New Alliance Party movement, they are already committed to their organi zations and don't feel they have time to join the movement, he said. This year, the New Alliance Party is campaigning for Fulani as well as other party candidates running in state and local elections throughout the country. No New Alliance Party candidates are running for offices in North Caro lina this year. However, Toth said the student-led organization was support ing Marc Marcoplos for Orange County Commissioner because he was an inde pendent and an active environmental ist No New Alliance Party candidate has ever won an election, but that does not stop the party from its activities, Donnola said. "We take some positions that some people say if you wouldn't take that position, you'll get more votes," she said. "But our concern is always to represent the people. That's more im portant to us than how many votes you See ALLIANCE, page6 INTRODUCING Roger Williams University School Of Law Bristol, Rhode Island a representative will be available to answer questions about (1 ) law school admissions, (2) the law school experience & (3) Roger Williams University School of Law's Juris Doctor programs. Monday - November 2, 1992 From 8:30 am -12:00 pm In the Carolina Union Neighborhood Grill & Bar Come Dressed to Win Prizes! $106 Draft Beer & House Wine All Day $206 Vampire Wings During the Party (5-8 pm) 15C3 East Frcn!d:n Street chepem;:), r:c Clinton's classmates, pals stump in Durham By Alia Smith Staff Writer DURHAM A group of friends and acquaintances of Democratic presi dential nominee Bill Clinton rolled into Durham Thursday to stump for the Arkansas governor. During the last stretch of the 1992 presidential campaign, the groups, whose members call themselves the Arkansas Travelers, are touring small towns to secure votes for Clinton in key states such as North Carolina. There are about 300 Arkansas Trav elers, broken down into small groups, who are touring critical states in the election. A group of eight visited Durham Thursday on their trip through North Carolina. Most of the Arkansas Travelers now live in Washington, D.C., but are origi nally from Arkansas. Though it is the first tour for the group that visited Durham, other groups of Arkansas Travelers have been touring since the Florida primaries in May. The group arrived at the Demo cratic headquarters in Durham and then made their way to Ninth Street, where they stopped passers-by to discuss the campaign and answer their questions. Many Arkansas Travelers told of their relationships with Clinton. I met the governor when I went to Boys' State in Arkansas and then again at the high school valedictoriansalu tatorian dinner at the governor's man sion," said Kurkley Thomas, an Ar kansas Traveler and a recent graduate of the University of Arkansas. Clinton' s a great leader and a great guy. He's done great things in Arkan sas, or we wouldn't have elected him five times," Thomas said. The Arkansas Travelers also are touring rural areas to reach voters who migiitnotbeable to attend the big rallies, said Dona O'Bannon, who attended Georgetown University with Clinton. "We both ran for Student Con gress when I was . 1"" Bill Clinton a junior, and (Clinton) was a freshman. It was 1964 I was the first woman elected to Student Congress, and he was the first freshman," O'Bannon said. All the Arkansas Travelers are cam paigning on their own time and ex pense because they are so committed to the governor's campaign, said Jen nifer Rhodes, who worked with Clinton on his campaign in Little Rock. "I' m proud to endorse Bill Clinton," saidRhodes, a 1 990 graduate of Tulane Univeristy. "College students should be especially interested in Bill Clinton. It's tough to get a job now. Elderidge Bowen, a family friend of Clinton's, said that he was espe cially sensitive to Bush's attacks on Clinton's character. "I had leukemia when I was in high school," Bowen said. "(Clinton) kept in contact with me, wrote letters and sent flowers. Clinton makes sure everyone's needs are heard." Bowen's sister, Laura Bowen Wills, coordinator of the Arkansas Travelers in North Carolina, said she "felt like it was important to get out and support Bill Clinton and defend his character." "Knowing him personally," Wills added, "we can truly attest to his char acter." Bowen first met the candidate when she was in sixth grade and Clinton was attorney general of Arkansas. Lecture series to teach U.S. foreign policy By Fred Henderson Staff Writer No more excuses for being unin formed about world events. This spring, the Great Decisions lec ture series once again will be open to about 350 students. The class is designed to introduce students to major foreign policy issues facing the United States.The topics will be presented in a series of eight 1 12 hour lectures by experts in the field. The class will be held on Tuesdays in Hamilton 100. "The basis for a working democracy is an informed populace," said Sophie Bolon, chairwoman of the Great Deci sions committee. Staff adviser Richard Win of the office of international programs agreed about the importance of the class. "You have a civic responsibility to be an informed voter, and with the world be coming more interdependent daily, our foreign policy becomes more important in our daily lives," he said. Great Decisions is run entirely by students. Seventeen students, mostly juniors and seniors, make-up this year's committee. During the fall, the committee meets with Ulin to plan for the class. The committee, which receives $2,000 from Student Congress each year, is respon sible for lining up the speakers. "It's hard to get good speakers when you don't have much (money) to offer them," Bolon said. "You have to sell them on the importance of the pro gram." In addition, each committee member leads a discussion group that meets for an hour per week. "The beauty of the whole program is that the 400-person class is divided up into intensive discus sion groups," said Lisa Stevenson, a member of the Great Decisions com mittee. Students can sign up for the Great Decisions class through Caroline as Political Science 89, a graded, two credit-hour class that involves several papers and other graded assignments. Most students, however, sign up for the class as International Studies 93, a passfail class worth one credit hour, Ulin said. Students earn passing grades as long as they attend seven of the eight lectures. Students who miss two lec tures can still pass by writing a letter to a congressman concerning one of the See DECISIONS page 5 lU22flfGlfr1 I'll - ' - .u I "1
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Oct. 30, 1992, edition 1
4
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75