Public Citizen

A nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., Public Citizen is the largest of the many organizations founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Dedicated to “health, safety, and democracy,” Nader started Public Citizen in 1971 as a sort of counterweight to the growing influence of corporations. It has since expanded to encompass five umbrella groups—Congress Watch, Health Research Group, Critical Mass Energy Project, Global Trade Watch, and the Litigation Group—and its nationwide membership has grown to more than 100,000. In 1980, Nader resigned as director and was replaced by Joan Claybrook, former head of Congress Watch and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration during the Carter Administration.

The importance of a consumer advocacy group such as Public Citizen bespeaks the centrality of consumption to postwar American citizenship. Whereas before World War II, most Americans implicitly defined citizenship in relation to work and production, a conception underlying the importance of the labor movement, since then an increasing number of Americans have defined their position as citizens in terms of their rights as consumers. Nader and Public Citizen challenged corporate power—and government-business collusion—in the name of consumers.

Public Citizen's list of successful campaigns is impressive, particularly in its early years, before the New Deal regulatory system progressively corroded in the Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush years. For example, in 1976 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned Red Dye No. 2, a carcinogenic food coloring, thanks in no small part to the efforts of Public Citizen. Public Citizen has always been dedicated to car safety—no surprise, considering Nader first gained fame for his 1965 book, Unsafe at Any Speed, which unmasked the ways in which U.S. automobile manufacturers willfully resisted adding safety features. Public Citizen successfully lobbied Congress in 1991 to pass legislation to mandate air bags and then in 1998 to require safer air bags.

Public Citizen has acted as a government watch-dog, most famously for its role in the so-called Saturday Night Massacre during the Nixon Watergate scandal. On October 20, 1973, President Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor demanding access to the secret White House tapes. Richardson refused, resigning instead, as did Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus. Nixon then turned to a compliant solicitor general, Robert Bork. Public Citizen sued the White House, contending the firing was illegal. A federal court sided with Public Citizen in November 1973.

More recently, Public Citizen's most important work has been as part of the growing movement against corporate globalization. In 1998, it helped lead a campaign that resulted in the failure of the Multilateral Agreement on Investments, a proposed global investment treaty. In 1999, they helped organize the now famous mass protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle.

Although Public Citizen and other Nader groups have clearly done important work advancing the cause of social justice, in the nonprofit world these groups have long been known for low pay and long hours, often resulting in high rates of employee turnover. As a result, Public Citizen employees joined the ranks of the Service Employees International Union in 2005.

...