John Haag and the Peace and Freedom Party - Casey Peters
In 1971, when I was 18 years old, I participated
in an anti-war rally when the annual Army Ball was held at the Beverly Hilton.
Someone handed me a flyer promoting a national gathering to form an alternative
political party. A couple of weeks later I just showed up unannounced at the
Peace and Freedom Party headquarters in Venice when a caravan was preparing to
depart for Albuquerque.
I was accepted into their company
immediately and we drove to Arizona where we camped for the night. It was
obvious to me as a newcomer that John Haag was the point person with whom all
conferred when problems needed to be solved. People sang songs and John read
some poetry as we sat around the campfire. When we reached Albuquerque the next
day, we found the city occupied by the National Guard. There had been no
national news coverage of the military control, but it had stemmed from a
confrontation between young people attending a concert and the local police.
What frightened the government was that Chicano, White and Black youth were all
united in their right to enjoy music together without police interference.
Our meeting venue had been put off
limits, and we were relocated to an abandoned adobe-style house on the outskirts
of town, belonging to a doctor who believed in universal health care. Among our
company of nearly 200 activists from around the country were Gore Vidal and Dr.
Benjamin Spock.
Among the groups there
were the New Party, New Mexico Independent Party, Montana New Reform Party, Ann
Arbor Radical Independent Party (which later grew into the Michigan Human Rights
Party), the Wisconsin Alliance, DC Statehood Party, Vermont Liberty Union,
Monroe County NY Liberal Party, and many others. We formed “The
Coalition” that later became the national People’s Party and ran Ben
Spock for President in 1972.
When we
got back to California, I got active in Peace and Freedom Party. That gave me
the opportunity to work with John Haag on a regular basis. Despite his role as a
leader, he was an unassuming fellow. He was easy to speak with, and was focused
on the tasks at hand. John was good with detail but always looked at the big
picture.
As often happens in politics,
a split occurred. In 1974, Peace and Freedom Party was torn asunder by two
factions. One was a laissez faire grouping that became the nucleus of what later
achieved ballot status as the Libertarian Party. The other was a conglomeration
of left leaning radicals under the banner of feminist socialism. In between was
the Unity Caucus trying to emphasize the commonality of the factions and to
prevent a split, consisting of such stalwarts as John Haag, CT Weber, John
Donahue and myself. When the Libertarians walked out of the state convention in
1974, most of the Unity Caucus left as well, and I was about the only one to
remain and help build a self-styled “feminist socialist” Peace and
Freedom Party of California.
It was
years before I saw John Haag again. He was drawn back into the party he had
helped to found when his old colleague Jack Hampton ran for State Assembly in
the mid-1980s. I petitioned to get Jack on the ballot, and we were delighted
when John stepped in to become his campaign manager. Soon John met Martha who
became his closest ally for many years.
John stayed active for a few more
years before health issues and other personal priorities diverted his attention
from political organizing. He remained a presence in “Free Venice”
and in the poetry and art communities. His contributions are already legendary.
Most of all, John Haag is someone I
will remember who was totally honest and truly reliable. He was an elder
statesman of the peace movement who helped to bring more than one teenager, as I
was, into commitment to lifetime dedication to working for liberty, democracy
and equality.
-Casey
Peters
Posted: Mon - May 1, 2006 at 08:03 AM