Jill Stein and Ajamu Baraka speaking to reporters in Detroit.

DETROIT — Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and her running mate, Ajamu Baraka, campaigned in Detroit on Sept. 3, presenting themselves as a viable alternative to the two major parties’ candidates.

Stein emphasized the symbolism of Detroit in the national struggle for jobs, health care, public education and access to water.

She praised Detroiters fight against the “undemocratic takeover” of the public school system and their push against poverty.

The candidate condemned inequality, citing research by the Congressional Budget Office that says 76 percent of the wealth of the nation is held by 10 percent of the people.

“The lower 50 percent of the population has in its possession 1 percent of the wealth,” she said. “This means that we are living in an incredibly divided society, where the few are doing very, very well, but 50 percent are trapped in absolutely staggering levels of poverty. This is a national scandal. This is an outrage that we cannot survive.”

Stein said Michigan’s economy has been hit hard by trade deals, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, which was signed by President Clinton. She said NAFTA exported good industrial jobs and put downward pressure on wages.

She described her economic plan, dubbed the Green New Deal, as the anti-NAFTA.

The Green Party candidate pledged to declare an economic and environmental emergency. She added that the recovery from the recession has mostly been felt at the top.

Stein said civilization cannot sustain rising sea levels caused by climate change.

She said the Green New Deal would focus on jobs in renewable energy, public transportation, echo system restorations and healthy food sources.

“It not only revives the economy; it turns the tides on climate change,” Stein said of her plan. “And importantly, it makes wars for oil obsolete, which deprives us of more than half of our discretionary national budget.”

Stein said Washington has spent $6 trillion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — about $50,000 per American household.

She said foreign policy that pushes for American global domination has brought failed states, mass refugee crises and worse terrorist threats.

“These wars are not winning; they’re making us less secure, not more secure,” Stein said.

She said offsets from the military budget and a sales tax on Wall Street transactions would help pay for the Green New Deal. She added that reducing pollution would also save hundreds of billion of dollars in health expenditures.

Stein slammed Donald Trump’s Muslim ban proposal, but also criticized Democrats’ hawkish foreign policy within the same context.

“Deporting immigrants is not worse than bombing Muslims around the world,” Stein said.

In a response to a question by The Arab American News, Stein said promoting Hillary Clinton by saying she’s not Donald Trump is not enough.

“The only solution to this right-wing extremism is a truly radical progressive agenda that addresses the economic misery that has lifted up voices like Donald Trump,” she said.

Stein invited Bernie Sanders’ supporters to join her campaign, saying that the millions of young people suffering from “predatory student loans” can help get her elected.

“Vote for the campaign that will fight to bail out the students like we bailed out the crooks on Wall Street,” she said. “We can do that. We need to simply reject the propaganda of powerlessness, reject the lesser evil, fight for the greater good like our lives depend on it, because they do.”

Stein’s rally coincided with Trump’s visit to an African American church in Detroit.

“Donald Trump has nothing to say to workers here in the state,” Baraka said. “We’re here to counter the message of hate and divisiveness. We’re not afraid of Donald Trump, because we understand the potential power of the people.”