New Third Party Radicalism: the Case of the California Peace and Freedom Party

• Author: James M. Elden,David R. Schweitzer
• Published date: 01 December 1971
• DOI: 10.1177/106591297102400411
• Date: 01 December 1971
• Subject Matter: Articles

761

NEW

THIRD

PARTY

RADICALISM:

THE

CASE

OF

THE

CALIFORNIA

PEACE

AND FREEDOM

PARTY

JAMES M.

ELDEN,

University

of

California,

Los

Angeles

and

DAVID R.

SCHWEITZER,

University

of

British

Columbia

REPUDIATION

of

conventional

political

focus

and

strategy

is

one

of

the

more

striking

characteristics

of

what

in

America

is

being

called

the

&dquo;New

Left,&dquo;

&dquo;New

Radicals,&dquo;

or

simply

&dquo;The

Movement.&dquo;

1 Whatever

its

exact

title,

the

new

American

radical

left

would

not

be

expected

to

appeal

to

the

middle-

class

leftist

generally

associated

with

the

established

politics

of

traditional

liberalism

and

political

change

through

the

existing

frame

of

the

two-party

system.

Nor

would

the

new

American

left

be

expected

to

spawn

an

organized

new

third

party

within

the

established

frame

of

electoral

politics.

Nevertheless,

on

January

2,

1968,

the

filing

of

105,100

registrations

ofhcially

created

the

California

Peace

and

Free-

dom

party

( PFP) - a

self-styled

&dquo;independent,

permanent,

radical

political

party.&dquo;

This

new,

radical third

party

emerged

on

the

political

scene

as

an

expres-

sion

of

growing

discontent

among

certain

segments

of

the

white

middle-class

popu-

lation.

PFP

was

consciously

conceived

by

its

early

founders

as

an

alternative

to

the

two

major

parties

and

as

&dquo;an

organized

vehicle

for

the

anti-war

movement

and

the

movement

for

black

liberation.&dquo;

2

While

third

parties

are

not

unknown

in

America,

little

is

known

about

the

activists

who

create,

promote,

and

maintain

them.

What

little

literature

exists

on

third

parties

is

almost

entirely

discursive

and

historical.

The

developing

literature

on

major-party

activists,

while

systematic

and

empirical,

has

not

been

extended

to

third-party

activists.3

In

short,

radical

third-party

activists

in

America

have

been

1

An

early

definitive

and

influential

statement

on

the

New

Left

movement

is

found

in

C.

Wright

Mills,

"Letter

to

the

New

Left,"

first

published

in

England

in

the

New

Left

Review

(September-October

1960),

pp.

18-23,

and

reprinted

in

the

United

States

by

Studies

on

the

Left.

Other

representative

works

bearing

on

aspects

of

New

Left

history

and

organization

are

found

in

Howard

Zinn,

SNCC:

The

New

Abolitionists

(Boston:

Beacon

Press,

1964) ;

Christopher

Lasch,

The

New

Radicalism

in

America

(New

York:

Vintage

Books,

1965) ;

Paul

Jacobs

and

Saul

Landau,

eds.,

The

New

Radicals:

A

Report

with

Documents

(New

York:

Random

House, 1966); Jack

Newfield,

A

Prophetic

Minority

(New

York:

New

American

Library,

1966) ;

Herbert

Marcuse,

One-Dimen-

sional

Man:

Studies

in

the

Ideology

of

Advanced

Industrial

Society

(Boston:

Beacon

Press,

1966) ;

Michael

Harrington,

Toward

a

Democratic

Left:

A

Radical

Program

for

a

New

Minority

(New

York:

Macmillan,

1968) ;

Arnold

S.

Kaufman,

Radical

Liberal:

New

Man

in

American

Politics

(New

York:

Atherton

Press,

1968);

Kenneth

Keniston,

Young

Radicals:

Notes

on

Committed

Youth

(New

York:

Harcourt

Brace

and

World,

1968);

Richard

Flacks,

"The

Liberated

Generation:

An

Exploration

of

the

Roots

of

Social

Protest,"

Journal

of

Social

Issues,

23

( July

1967),

52-75;

Staughton

Lynd,

"The

New

Left,"

Annals

of

the

American

Academy

of

Political

and

Social

Science,

382

(March

1969),

64-77;

Carl

Oglesby,

ed.,

The

New

Left

Reader

(New

York:

Grove

Press,

1969) ;

and

Armand

L.

Mauss,

ed.,

"The

New

Left

and

the

Old,"

Journal

of

Social

Issues,

27

( July

1971),

1-202.

2

Statement

adopted

at

the

Peace

and

Freedom

Founding

Convention,

March

18,

1968.

3

For

an

historical

account

of

third

parties

in

the

United

States,

see

F.

E.

Haynes,

Rise

and

Fall

of

Third

Parties

from

Anti-Masonry

to

Wallace

( Washington,

D.C.:

Public

Affairs

Press,

1958),

and

Third

Party

Movements

in

the

United

States

(Princeton:

Van

Nos-

trand,

1962).

Studies

of

major-party

activists

are

by

now

several

decades

old.

Only

recently

has

there

been

systematic

empirical

research

reported;

see

Dwaine

Marvick,