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          


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