Jerry White, the Socialist Equality Party’s 2012 presidential candidate, came to the New School on Thursday to talk to students and faculty about foreign policy, class war, civil liberties and Marxist theory.

White, a Queens native, began his political career in the 1970s. In 1975, he protested the City University of New York’s decision to begin charging students tuition at the formerly tuition-free institution. In 1979, he joined the Workers League, an international Trotskyite labor group, while working at the United Parcel Service.

At the discussion, held in a classroom on the fourth floor of the 66 W. 12th Street building, White accused democrats and republicans of implementing “policies of militarism, assaults on the working class and austerity which is supported by both parties.” He also criticized how many Americans absorbed the anti-war movement into the Democratic Party’s platform prior to President Barack Obama’s election in 2008.

White said he remains skeptical of the Occupy Wall Street movement, claiming that they received financial backing from many Democratic Party-backed labor unions. But he does believe that much of the world’s wealth is unevenly distributed, noting that 0.002% of the world’s population, or 30,000 individuals, controls wealth equal to half of the world’s goods and services.

White was also the Socialist Equality Party’s presidential nominee in 2008, running as a write-in candidate because the party lacked ballot access. White hopes to gain ballot access this time around, but said that if he does not, he will encourage supporters to write in his name once again.