National Civic Leaders Call for End of
Wartime Opportunism Since September 11th Tragedy

Advocates demand stop to corporate profiteering in a time of national crisis

Washington, DC: Citizen advocates converged today in Washington, DC to call on President Bush and Congress to end the outburst of wartime opportunism since the September 11th tragedy.

"Since September 11th members of Congress have served up a nonstop buffet of corporate pork legislation. Under the guise of ‘national security’ our federal treasury is being raided and our democratic rights are being taken away while Congress feeds sympathetic campaign contributors at taxpayer expense, sends working people to fight, and leaves the unemployed, the disenfranchised, and American families to suffer," said Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and founder of Citizen Works.

Organizations in the environmental, labor, consumer, civil liberties, civil rights, and pro-democracy communities have had to defend citizens against a new onslaught of opportunism in areas ranging from multi-billion dollar corporate tax cuts to expansion of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"For corporations to loot the U.S. Treasury and prey on the environment while wrapping themselves in the flag is an act of sheer treachery, one Americans will not soon forget," said John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA.

Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth stated that, "The Administration and many in Congress are pushing energy legislation that will actually weaken national security."

Mildred Brown, past national president of ACORN said, "The nation recognizes that the heroes of this tragedy are our nation’s working people, but all Congress and the President want to do is give more tax breaks to big business and the nation’s wealthiest people."

Mark Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said "Private contractors are building a system of Big Brother surveillance with federal tax dollars while civil liberties are pushed aside."

Citizen Works, a pro-democracy citizen organization, laid out nine areas of corporate opportunism in a call to action released today:

1. A so-called "Economic Stimulus" Plan that benefits corporate treasuries and neglects workers
2. Pharmaceutical Gouging
3. "Bailouts for Billionaires" not workers
4. The Re-emergence of autocratic "Fast Track"
5. Handouts for the Insurance Industry
6. More Phony "Defense" and the Reintroduction of Biological Weapons
7. Endangering the Environment and Energy
8. The oxymoronic "USA PATRIOT Act"
9. Restrictions on Information/Invasions of Privacy

"From Fast Track to pharmaceuticals, the wartime opportunists are shamefully using the tragedy of September 11 to advance narrow corporate interests, often at the expense of public health and safety," said Robert Weissman, co-director of Essential Action.

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