Transcript of Dr. Jill Stein's Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech at Green Party National Convention

Jill Stein with supporters
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Thank you so much you for being here today and for leading the charge for an America and a world that works for all of us, a world that puts people, planet and peace over profit.

I am honored beyond words to be your candidate in this election. I'm honored to be running for President of the United States with the Green Party, the one national party that stands up for the people, and that's been ahead of the curve in so many ways - on climate change and green energy, on marriage equality, free public higher education and health care as human rights, on stopping the Trans Pacific Partnership, on reparations for slavery, opposing Saudi war crimes in Yemen, and Israeli human rights abuses and occupation in Palestine, on recognizing indigenous rights. I want to recognize the heroes who have kept the party going through thick and thin. Please stand if you are a part of a Green Party organization - at the local, state or national level.

It's also so exciting to be running in alliance with the Bernie Sanders movement that lives on outside the Democratic Party. We owe you such a debt of gratitude for getting the revolution going. And then for refusing to be shut down. It's so exciting to run with you and for you. Please stand up if you're coming here from the Bernie Sanders campaign.

It's an honor to be your candidate running alongside Ajamu Baraka, a powerhouse of human rights --who brings a lifetime of dedication to racial and economic justice. And I thank Dr. Cornel West, for bringing his powerful voice into the campaign. And it's an honor to run along with so many inspirational state and local candidates running for office. If you are running for office would you please stand?

It's an honor to be your candidate in this historic moment, of unprecedented crisis and unstoppable momentum for transformational change so we can solve those crises. And we have an historic opportunity, an historic responsibility to be the agents of that change. As Martin Luther King said, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." I know that arc is bending in us, and through us. And we are actors in something much bigger than us as we struggle for justice, for peace, for community, for healing.

That arc of justice is moving through us as we mobilize to make black lives matter, and to end violent policing -- as the Frisco Five and the Millions March NYC just did. The arc of justice is moving through us as we sit in and lock down to stop fracking pipelines, fossil fuel bomb trains, coal and LNG export terminals, and all manner of fossil fuel and nuclear infrastructure.

The arc of justice was moving through us in Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love was overrun by love and revolution, as the Bernie or Bust movement declared independence from the Democratic Party, and merged with our campaign in rally after rally, growing stronger by the hour. The power of this movement was clear during our Power Rally at FDR Park, where nature erupted in thunder and lightning as our rally drew to a close, and the heavens opened up as if to say, "get ready, there's a big change coming." We sought shelter in a nearby highway underpass and we kept going. This movement is unstoppable.

So here we are, a movement for justice and democracy that's sweeping the planet. From living wage campaigns, to fossil fuel blockades, to the fight to end mass incarceration, to cancel student debt, to restore the rights of immigrant rights, indigenous rights, LGBTQ and women's rights and disability rights. Across the globe people are rising up like we haven't seen for generations.

We face unprecedented crises that call for transformational solutions, a new way forward based on democracy, justice and human rights. And that won't come from corporate political parties funded by predatory banks, war profiteers and fossil fuel giants. It will come from we the people, mobilized in a broad social movement, with an independent voice of political opposition, because, as Frederick Douglass said, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has. It never will." And we must be that demand.

They say we're in a recovery but in fact it's an emergency. We've lost good jobs - replaced by part time and temporary jobs. A generation of young people is locked in predatory student debt. Black lives are on the firing line. Immigrants face mass deportation. Wars for oil are blowing back at us with a vengeance. And the climate meltdown threatens civilization as we know it in our lifetimes.

Meanwhile, the super-rich party on, richer than ever. Twenty-two of these super-rich people have the wealth equivalent to half of the US population. And the political elite that serve the economic elite are making things worse, inflicting austerity on everyday people while they squander trillions on wars, Wall Street bail outs, and tax favors for the wealthy.

No wonder people are in revolt. And the good news is that we actually have the power to turn this around, the minute we stand up with the courage of our convictions. Because we have the vision and values of the American people. And, as a broad coalition for justice, we have the numbers to win the day.

Here's how. There are 43 million young people -- and not so young people -- who are locked in predatory student debt, with no prospects for getting out. And there is only one candidate who will cancel that debt -- and you're looking at her. And by the way, we bailed out Wall Street, the guys who crashed the economy with their waste, fraud and abuse. It's about time we bailed out the young people who are the victims of that abuse. So if young people come out on election day 2016 to vote green to cancel their debt, they can actually take over the election, not only to cancel student debt, but to advance the whole agenda for justice. And the world will be a better place for it! And millennials are the self organizing demographic that can do this.

So we do have the power to end student debt, and to make public higher education free. This is the right thing to do to provide the younger generation with economic security in the 21st century, just like free high school education provided security in the 20th century. And it pays for itself by a 7:1 margin, as the results of the GI bill demonstrated following the 2nd World War.

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