Venice-born Peace and Freedom Party regains ballot status
by Jim
Smith
In a historic comeback after
being off the ballot since 1998, the Peace and Freedom Party has obtained
sufficient registrations to re-qualify for ballot status. Riding on a surge of
anti-war sentiment, the party’s registration reached an official count of
79,462 on February 10, more than 2,000 over the 77,389 needed. This capped a
three-year registration campaign in which more than 40,000 new registrations -
including 13,000 since January 1 - were collected.
This is the first time in
California’s history that a political party has come back, after being off
the ballot for two or more general elections. The Peace and Freedom’s
first state office was on West Washington Blvd. (now Abbot Kinney) and its first
state chairperson was Venetian John
Haag.
“Gray Davis and George W.
Bush helped the Peace and Freedom Party in our effort,” said P&F State
Chairperson Marsha Feinland. “The war drive, the anti-civil liberties
Patriot Act and cuts in social services have driven thousands of Democrats,
independents and previous non-voters into our Party. We intend to run active
campaigns throughout the state that include focusing on peace, free health care
and education, low-income housing, justice and equality, as well as decent jobs
and incomes for all working people,” she
added.
The Peace and Freedom Party was
founded in 1967 in response to the growing outrage against the war in Vietnam.
Activists in the civil rights and farmworkers movements were also part of the
original organizers.
P&F joined forces
with the Black Panther Party to run Eldridge Cleaver for president in 1968.
Other activists included comedian Dick Gregory and Bob Scheer, now with the Los
Angeles Times. In 1970, P&F ran the first Latino candidate, Richard Romo,
for California Governor in the 20th century. Venetian Marge Buckley ran for
attorney general. Other Venetians to run on P&F were John Haag, Tom
Johnston, Carol Berman, Rick Davidson, Milton Takai and many others. Several
Venetians became missionaries to other states in hopes of founding a national
third party. Some would up in such unlikely places as Idaho, Oklahoma and
Louisiana.
When P&F was founded,
there were no Libertarian or Green Parties. Many of those who later went on to
found those parties began in P&F. In 1974, the party’s candidate for
governor was Libertarian Elizabeth Keathley. Finding no other way to get media
coverage, she held a nude press conference on Venice beach.
It was well attended by the press. Because
of the wide range of views within the party - from libertarian to communist -
discussions naturally ensued as to what united P&F’s members. The
majority decided, in 1974, that they wanted a democratic form of socialism. The
libertarians left shortly after that to form their own party. The greens left
some years later. However, the P&F platform has remained the same since that
time. It states that the Peace and Freedom Party “is committed to
socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism and racial
equality...”
The Venice P&F
was active from the beginning in community struggles. It founded the Free Venice
Beachhead in December, 1968. In 1969, P&F set up the Free Venice Organizing
Committee, says John Haag: “...to coordinate Venice projects, encourage
community control of community affairs, and look into the possibility of
seceding from Los Angeles.” P&F also fought against a freeway through
Venice, and opposed L.A.’s “Master Plan” to turn Venice into a
Miami Beach-like development.
This
time around, P&F’s drive to ballot status was hampered by stringent
“purges” instituted by former Secretary of State Bill Jones. Under
his policy - which is still in effect - those who did not vote in two
consecutive elections were mailed a post card to determine if they were still
residing at the same address. If the card was returned by the post office, the
voter was removed from the active rolls and placed on an inactive list. This
policy hit apartment dwellers harder that home owners since the post office will
not deliver mail if the apartment number is omitted. Others lost their active
voting status because of mistakes by the post office or by county voter
registration clerks. In one purge alone, in Los Angeles County last December,
181,000 people were deprived of their active voter status, including more than
3,000 Peace and Freedom registrants. The Peace and Freedom Party believes it was
removed illegally from the ballot because the Secretary of State refused to
count all of its 100,000-plus registrants - both active and inactive - toward
its ballot qualification.
The Peace and
Freedom Party will be targeting pro-war Democrats and Republicans in the 2004
elections for congress, legislature and other bodies. The party has its highest
concentration of voters in south central and east L.A., however, Venice has a
strong P&F core that will be active in elections in this area. The Peace and
Freedom Party website is: www.la-peaceandfreedom.org
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THIRD
PARTIES
Number registered in L.A.
County
1. *American Independent -
65,875
2. Peace & Freedom -
34,034
3. Green Party -
26,920
4. Libertarian Party -
19,951
5. Natural Law Party -
17,010
* American Independent Party is
a segregationist party founded by Alabama Gov. George Wallace. Many voters
mistakenly register AIP because they think it means they are
“independent” (actually,
“decline-to-state”).
Posted: Tue - April 1, 2003 at 06:57 PM