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Press Release: Ralph Nader to Speak at Berkeley Post Office

From Jacquelyn McCormick and Kristen Hanson, Berkeley Post Office Defense
Friday July 25, 2014 - 09:21:00 AM

Ralph Nader will speak on the front steps of the Berkeley Main Post Office, 2000 Allston Way, on Tuesday, July 29, 2014 at 2:30pm about the fate of the United States Postal Service, privatization and the importance of our public commons. 

Berkeley advocates have been concerned that selling off Post Office buildings is the first step to privatization and loss of our public commons. Local groups, Save the Berkeley Post Office, Berkeley Post Office Defense and the National Post Office Collaborate have continued to protest the actions of the USPS for over the past two years.  

Mr. Nader has been an advocate on behalf of keeping the USPS under public control and has helped expose the mis-information that has been proliferating about the postal service’s financial situation. Nader argues that it is in the public’s interest to join the struggle against the corporate state that will ultimately destroy the rights of the American People. In a writing from February 6, 2013 Mr. Nader stated: 

“Postmaster General Donahoe has demonstrated that he lacks the political courage to stand up to Congress and tell them that they caused this mess and they need to fix it. Instead, time after time, he has chosen to take the easy road and dismantle the USPS piece by piece – whether it is by cutting post office hours, closing post offices, cutting service and delivery standards, increasing postage rates, or now ending Saturday delivery” 

Privatizing the Postal Service was first planned by the Heritage Foundation in 2011, when it published an article recommending “deep cuts to the postal workforce, closing post offices and other facilities, and ending Saturday delivery.”  

KPFA 94.1 is holding a benefit event on Wednesday, July 30 with Ralph Nader as the keynote speaker. He will be presenting his new book UNSTOPPABLE: Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State.