Freedom’s Warrior – the life of John Haag, Venetian - Jim
Smith
John and Anna Haag had two biological children,
Duanna and Thomas Paine Haag. But in a sense, all Venetians are their children.
Our continuing identity with this little seaside community comes from their
words and deeds. We Venetians - and if you don't like being called a Venetian,
then you probably aren't one of their children - are inspired to defend our
community, often against seemingly hopeless odds, by their example. They are our
role models, not the cigar-smoking developer and tobacco magnate, Abbot
Kinney.
Anna Ricci Haag died in 2003 of cancer. A
moving memorial took place on the beach with the participation of many
Venetians, including her long-ago husband, John. He had met this small-town
Italian beauty in Rome, and swept her off her feet. They married and not long
after, in 1959, they moved from Rome to Venice (California). They took over the
Venice West Cafe in 1962 from John Kenevan, who had got it from Stuart Perkoff,
who was perhaps Venice's greatest poet and the founder of the now-famous coffee
house that was located at 7 Dudley
Avenue.
Venice had been a disreputable
place for decades, but now with people spouting poetry and playing music,
Venetians were becoming insufferable. L.A. City Councilmember Karl Rundberg, who
preceded Pat Russell, who preceded Ruth Galanter, who preceded Cindy
Miscikowski, who preceded Bill Rosendahl as the representative of Venice,
introduced a city council resolution banning "the beating of drums and playing
of other instruments on beaches..," according to the book, Venice West, by John
Arthur Maynard. Then councilmember Tom Bradley objected but the city plowed on.
Maynard quotes from a letter John Haag sent to the city council, "There is
little enough joy in today's world. Let us not stifle what is left. Let us not
make our city known as the city that outlawed music."
John well knew that music wasn't the
real issue at stake. Then, as now, it was development. Mayor Sam Yorty said he
was in favor of bulldozing Venice and starting over. It might have happened
without John. Abandoning the political passivity of the Beats, John found his
true calling in life as a political organizer. Like Athena springing from
Zeus’ forehead, organizations emerged full-blown from his brow: the Venice
ACLU, the Venice Forum (not to be confused with its current day opposite by the
same name), the Venice Survival Committee, and later, Free Venice, the Beachhead
and the Peace and Freedom Party. And he was not above joining existing
organizations, including Venice/Santa Monica CORE, the Congress of Unrepresented
People (COUP), the Southern California Conference on Vietnam and the Ad Hoc
Committee to End Police
Malpractice.
John, with a small band of
merry women and men, including Anna (the marriage was ending but not the
political cooperation), Rick Davidson, Marge Buckley, Jane Gordon, Bea Free,
Carol Berman, Phil Chamberlain, Marvena Kennedy, Steve Clare, Bob Wells, Mary
Lou Johnson, Tom O'Conner and a few others took on and foiled the goals of
powerful Los Angeles interests that wanted either to bulldoze Venice (as they
had much of Ocean Park), run a freeway through it, bring yachts into the canals
and build high-rises along Ocean Front Walk. Today, we are still fighting those
same forces, who often have the same goals. Meanwhile, John and his political
offsprings have bought us 40 years in which Venice has flowered as an arts
haven, and a real community.
My own
association with John was mostly in passing until recent years. Aside from my
interview with John in 1969 (see page 10), a class project when I was a student
at Valley State College, I'd mostly see John at demonstrations where he was one
of the leaders and I was one of the "extras."
As the years passed, I'd run into John
walking down the street, or pass him in my car on the way to a union organizing
campaign somewhere miles away. Like many others, I worried about the future of
Venice, but I felt secure just knowing that John was on the job, holding back
those forces that would overwhelm us if they could. But they couldn't, because
John was there, as in the photo of him peacefully confronting the cop at the
Venice jail. That photo should be made into a statue and placed in the Circle,
as a constant reminder that we must speak truth to power if we want to be
free.
Through the years, John fought
against police abuse, against discrimination, for a building moratorium. He saw
through the games developers play, that many others fell for. When John ran for
office or spoke at Town Council meetings, he always spoke up for those without
power, and against those with too much
power.
The Beachhead was John's idea,
although he was much too modest to take credit for any successful venture. He
saw clearer than anyone else that a newspaper could tie our community together.
It would spread the word of what was happening in the canals, or Oakwood, or
North Beach, far beyond the small group that was fighting for their homes or
their rights. And 38 years later, it's still performing that function. It's
still one of John's children.
And so it
was with the Peace and Freedom Party. John came to understand the need for a
third party, not through an intellectual process alone but through his own
experience. He had run for the State Assembly in 1964 as a Democrat. He was
active in reform movements within that party until he realized that the
Democratic party would always drag its feet on getting out of Vietnam, in
standing up for real integration and equality and for basic human rights.
John once told me that he had been in
Seattle for a visit and met some people who were talking about forming a party
dedicated to freedom and peace in the state of Washington. When he returned to
Venice, he suggested that a campaign begin to put a third party on the ballot,
called the Peace and Freedom Party. The campaign was successful in 1967 and
Venice and Berkeley became the centers of the new movement.
Around the same time, supporters of
the arch-segregationist George Wallace put the American Independent Party on the
ballot.
The emergency of new parties
on the left and right were but two of the signs that a fundamental shift in
politics were underway. In short order, Gene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy became
anti-war presidential candidates and Lyndon Johnson bailed out. Bobby got shot
in L.A. and the Democrats ended their rebelliousness by nominating Hubert
Horatio Humphrey who was dispatched by "Tricky Dick" Nixon. John's vision of the
need for a third party was confirmed. John was state chairperson of P&F at
one time, and ran for a variety of offices including Lt. Governor and state
Controller. He initiated successful campaigns in other states to put P&F on
their ballots. He led door-to-door campaigns that boosted P&F registration
to more than 1,600 in Venice.
When it
was formed, Peace & Freedom was the only progressive party on the California
ballot. In the 70s, the Libertarians split off and formed their own party, as
did the Greens much later. There was ferment in the Peace and Freedom Party in
the late 80s to make it the California affiliate of the Green Party. The Venice
Chapter of P&F was mostly part of the "Green Caucus" of P&F. When the
national Greens decided they wanted the California party to be called
“Green," they began a successful drive to register a new party. Some of
those in P&F left to join the new Green party. But John remained an
enthusiastic P&F member until the end.
By the early 90s, John had retired
from political activity due to a number of infirmities including diabetes.
In 2002, a group of Venice activists
began talking about reviving the Beachhead as a monthly publication. The paper
had staggered through the 90s on a more and more sporadic publication schedule.
Yolanda Miranda and I were delegated to talk to John and, hopefully, get his
blessing. John had become something of a hermit, and especially did not like to
be disturbed before noon. We knocked with trepidation on the door of the garage
where he was living (political activists don't accumulate much of a retirement
nest egg). "Who's there?" came a voice. Yolanda blurted out "Peace and Freedom,"
and the door swung open. As it turned out, John was very pleased that a new
collective was going to carry on the Beachhead tradition. He supplied us with
some of his poems, and contributed money. He even agreed to some public
appearances where he spoke mainly about the Beachhead and the Peace and Freedom
Party.
Recently, John's health declined
even more, as did his contacts with Venice activists. He reluctantly turned down
a University of Venice forum, a few months ago, on restoring Venice cityhood,
another issue close to his heart. He just didn't have the strength, he said. He
was also in a good deal of pain much of the time. In March, he came down with
pneumonia and was admitted to the UCLA hospital. He seemed to have beat it off,
and was transferred to a nursing home because he was still too weak to go home.
It was either there, or at the hospital, that he contracted a staph infection,
and died. John Haag lived from Dec. 14, 1930 to March 29, 2006. All his children
mourn him.
But John would have us not
mourn, but organize. Let me suggest the following ways to honor/emulate John
Haag.
1) Join the Peace and Freedom
Party. John's spirit lives on in P&F in its democratic traditions and its
uncompromising opposition to militarism.
2) Support the Beachhead: distribute a
bundle to your neighbors, take out an advertisement, become a sustainer, write
an article or poem.
3) Work to "Free
Venice" from Los Angeles and create a self-governing community.
4) And finally, the Venice Peace and
Freedom Chapter would like your help in creating an everyday reminder to the
people of Venice of what John stood for and his unselfish contribution to the
Venice spirit, perhaps by renaming a street for him, or the Venice Circle or
some other fitting memorial that would make people think about a life spent in
the pursuit of freedom for all.
-Jim
Smith
Posted: Mon - May 1, 2006 at 07:06 AM