"We live in a country which is a political democracy, but we don't have a democratic economy."

This is the message Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden brought to approximately 2000 spectators at the Fieldhouse Wednesday afternoon.

Conducting what she called a "blitz pilgrimage," speaking in 50 cities in 35 days, Fonda said the purpose of the nationwide tour is to initiate dialogue among Americans about economic problems that are evident today.

The long-term goal, however, is to educate people on current issues with the hope of stimulating active participation in the 1980 presidential election.

"In the history of our nation, it was always a movement begun by citizens that created the change," Fonda said. "The time has come to build a new citizen's movement."

For Fonda and her husband Hayden, this means activity in the Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED), a grassroots political organization in California.

The CED, described by Fonda as being "sort of like a political party, in that they try to run candidates," espouses a progressive platform of economic reforms, energy alternatives, tenant rights and health care. The organization, she said, won 17 elections last year in "very conservative parts of California."

This is because the CED confronts the deterioration of American's economic stability, Fonda said.

"The American dream is turning into a nightmare," she said. "It never occurred to us that we would face economic chaos of the kind of the '20s and '30s."

Fonda made it clear most current economic problems are the result of a conscious effort by huge corporations to maximize profits without regard to the effect on the middle class majority. The average American has begun to "feel expendable" in the wake of corporate disregard for his economic security, she said.

The cold-shouldered response of government to nuclear power crises and energy questions has caused this feeling of helplessness and expendability to spread to government as well.

"The men who were responsible for Vietnam didn't retire," she said. "They now head the Energy Department."

Fonda and Hayden were joined by guest speaker Holly Near, a national anti-nuclear power activist, in their plea for energy alternatives to nuclear power.

"We're not saying to close down all the nuclear plants tonight," Fonda said. "What we are saying is no more new nuclear plants."

Existing plants must be made safer in the meantime, she said, and a "crash conversion program" must immediately begin for alternative energy methods.

For the CED, solar energy provides a sensible alternative. However, as Hayden pointed out, government disinterest has made it difficult to implement on a large scale basis.

"Small solar companies are screwed," he said.

These companies have little capital, and if the government gives them a loan, it is usually on the condition that they disclose their techniques, allowing them to be copied by larger groups, he said.

Hayden's speech was interrupted, only a few minutes after he began, by a bomb scare that forced discontinuation of the scheduled presentation. However, many spectators stayed to talk with the couple.

"We have the responsibility to create a positive culture," Fonda said. "It won't happen unless we aren't afraid to get mad."