The Green Party

US Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader recently crashed the Republican Party's party by making an uninvited appearance at the GOP's convention in Philadelphia.

"I wanted to see the corrupting influence of corporate money on politics, and there's no better place to do it than at the Republican National Convention," he said.

Green Party members in the US believe that the two major American political parties are beholden to corporate interests.

But the Green Party faces the same challenge that other third party efforts in the US have faced, fighting a state-by-state battle to appear on the ballot.

Party influences

Green Party Platform

Campaign finance reform

Social justice and equal opportunity

Environmental sustainability

Economic sustainability

The US Green Party is in some ways an imported party, citing the anti-nuclear, pro-environment Green movement in Europe as inspiration.

But the influence and inspiration might have well flowed both ways across the Atlantic.

The late Petra Kelly, one of the founders of the Green Party in Germany, attended American University in Washington DC and was influenced by the American environmental movement.

And the home-grown student environmental, anti-war movements in the US also proved pivotal in the formation of the party.

Let the party begin

The party's beginnings can be traced to 1984 when the first organising meetings were held, which in turn led to the formation of a national organisation of local groups called the Green Committees of Correspondence.

The party supports a platform based on environmental protection, peace, grassroots democracy, and social and economic justice.

In these early days, the party was mostly working at a local level, but within two years, the party was able to get its first candidate on the ballot.

In 1989, the party held its first full delegated congress in Eugene, Oregon.

Ballot access

The Green Party first got ballot access in Alaska in 1990 and then in California two years later.

Ralph Nader is fighting to get the party on the ballot in 45 states

Gaining ballot access has been the main difficulty for most third party efforts in the US.

Third party activists say that Republican and Democratic parties have made the process of establishing a viable third party purposefully difficult to prevent any threats to their political duopoly.

On the party's website, Greens condemn the present two-party system.

"The current two-party, money-controlled political monopoly effectively deprives ordinary citizens of their constitutionally guaranteed rights to representative government," the party site says.

As of early August, the Green Party has collected enough signatures for Mr Nader to appear on the ballot in 34 states, and it aims to be on the ballot in 45 states by autumn.

Consumer crusader

Mr Nader launched the party's first bid for the presidency in 1995.

Ralph Nader crashed the Republican Convention

In the 1996 presidential election, he and running mate Winona LaDuke came in fourth behind Reform Party Candidate Ross Perot, winning 700,000 votes or about 1%.

Mr Nader and Ms LaDuke again have won the party's nomination for the 2000 elections.

In addition to battling the corporate influence of politics, Mr Nader has also promised to work for universal healthcare, redistribution of wealth and getting the US out of the World Trade Organisation and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Will Mr Nader fare better than in the last election? He still polls in the single digits, but analysts say that he has no outsized hopes of winning, but rather wants to help the Greens become a viable third party.

Mr Nader's poll numbers remain in the single digits, but if he has any motive other than winning, he does not let on in public.

But when asked at the Republican National Convention whether he feared taking votes from Democratic candidate Al Gore, he answered the question with a question. "Why do you assume I'm going to lose?"