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New Freeway Hall, Columbia City, Seattle, Washington, party headquarters.

The Freedom Socialist Party is a socialist political party with a revolutionary feminist philosophy that emerged from a split in the United States Socialist Workers Party in 1966. The party views the struggles of women and minority as part of the struggle of the working class. The SWP's Seattle branch, with support from individuals in other cities, split off from the SWP over what it described as the SWP’s entrenched opportunism and undemocratic methods. The current National Secretary of the FSP is Doug Barnes.

History[link]

This section provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. Please help improve the article with a good introductory style. (September 2011)

The immediate forerunner of the FSP being the Kirk-Kaye tendency within the SWP was led by Dick Fraser (Kirk) and Clara Fraser (Kaye) who were at the time husband and wife. At the time Fraser was seen as the central leader of the tendency due to his development of the theory of revolutionary integrationism. In addition to their distinctive position on civil rights, derived from the theory of revolutionary integrationism, the tendency also took a position that was more sympathetic to China than was the norm in the SWP, in part this being due to the alliance between the Kirk-Kaye tendency and the loose tendency around Arne Swabeck and Frank Glass.

Political differences, as articulated by the soon-to-become FSP, included what was characterized as the SWP’s uncritical support of the black nationalist views of Malcolm X, SWP’s orientation toward the labor aristocracy, its opportunism in the anti-Vietnam War movement, and its dismissive attitude toward the emerging feminist movement. The nascent FSP advocated the class solidarity of black and white workers, called for a greatly expanded understanding of and attention to women’s emancipation, and urged the anti-war movement to support the socialist, anti-colonial aims of the Vietnamese Revolution.

Ideology[link]

The FSP is politically Trotskyist. FSP leaders Clara Fraser (1923–1998) and Gloria Martin (1916–1995) built on the socialist analysis of women’s oppression to create a Leninist party that is "socialist-feminist" in ideology and practice. The party views the liberation struggles of women, people of color and sexual minorities (such as homosexuals) as intrinsic to working class revolt, and it looks to these specially-oppressed sectors of society to provide revolutionary leadership. Women comprise a predominant part of the party leadership. The party characterizes its National Comrades of Color Caucus as offering the party’s diverse ranks of people of color an opportunity to work together as a team to grow as leaders and provide direction for the party’s work in people of color movements.

Strategy[link]

The party has frequently supported united front efforts around a number of issues and often helps other socialist groups get on the ballot, while simultaneously running its own candidates for office. The United Front Against Fascism (UFAF)—founded by the FSP, but also including a broad coalition of the Left, the LGBT community, labor unionists, feminists, people of color, Jews, and civil libertarians—took the lead in mobilizing against neo-Nazis in the Pacific Northwest.^[1]

Freeway Hall in Seattle's Northlake neighborhood was for many years the FSP headquarters.

The party has branches in a number of U.S. cities and a sympathizing section in Australia. The Freedom Socialist is produced six times a year. Red Letter Press publishes books and pamphlets for the party. The FSP is affiliated with Radical Women, which is an autonomous socialist feminist organization. In 2003, Red Letter Press and its managing editor, Helen Gilbert, were the target of a complaint to the Federal Election Commission by the campaign committee of perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche. LaRouche alleged that Gilbert and the FSP publishing house, which had issued a pamphlet by Gilbert critical of LaRouche's ideology and political history^[2] were in violation of campaign finance laws. The FEC found LaRouche's complaint to be without merit and dismissed it.^[3]

In 2004, Jordana Sardo, party organizer in Portland, Oregon, ran for the Oregon House of Representatives in Oregon's 45th congressional district, earning 8.74% of the vote (results). Other FSP campaigns have been run in New York, Washington, and California.^[4]

In 2012, the party is running a write-in presidential campaign with candidates Stephen Durham for U.S. president and Christina López for vice-president.^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Freedom Socialist Party

• Freedom Socialist Party
• Freedom Socialist newspaper
• Red Letter Press
• Radical Women
• Crisis and Leadership by Clara Fraser and Richard Fraser; original critique of SWP and founding documents of the Freedom Socialist Party

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Socialist Party is the name of several different political parties around the world that are explicitly called Socialist. All of these parties claim to uphold socialism, though they might belong to different branches of the socialist movement and might therefore have different interpretations of what socialism means. Most of these parties advocate either social democracy, democratic socialism or even Third Way as their ideological position. Many socialist parties have explicit connections to the Labour movement and trade unions. See also Socialist International, list of democratic socialist parties and organizations and list of social democratic parties. A number of affiliates of the Trotskyist Committee for a Workers' International also use the name Socialist Party.

Active parties[link]

This list is incomplete. If you know a Socialist Party that is not listed, you are encouraged to add it.

Nation	Party	Affiliation
Albania	Socialist Party of Albania	SI
Argentina	Socialist Party	SI
Armenia	Armenian Revolutionary Federation	SI
Australia	Socialist Party	CWI
Belgium (French Community)	Socialist Party	SI, PES
Bolivia	Socialist Party
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Socialist Party
Brazil	Brazilian Socialist Party	FSP
Bulgaria	Bulgarian Socialist Party	SI, PES
Canada	Socialist Party of Ontario
Chile	Socialist Party of Chile	SI
Egypt	Socialist Party of Egypt
France	Socialist Party	SI, PES
French Guiana	Guianese Socialist Party
Gabon	Gabonese Socialist Party
Guinea-Bissau	Socialist Party of Guinea-Bissau
Hungary	Hungarian Socialist Party	SI, PES
India	Socialist Party
Iraq	Assyrian Socialist Party
	Kurdish Socialist Party
Ireland	Socialist Party	CWI
Italy	Italian Socialist Party	SI, PES
Latvia	Socialist Party of Latvia
Lithuania	Socialist Party of Lithuania
Macedonia	Socialist Party of Macedonia	PES
Malaysia	Socialist Party of Malaysia
Mexico	Socialist Party of Mexico
Moldova	Socialist Party of Moldova
Morocco	Socialist Party
Netherlands	Socialist Party
Peru	Socialist Party
Poland	Polish Socialist Party
Portugal	Socialist Party	SI, PES
Romania	Romanian Socialist Party
Rwanda	Rwandese Socialist Party
Serbia	Socialist Party of Serbia
Senegal	Socialist Party of Senegal	SI
South Korea	Socialist Party
Spain	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party	PES
	Socialist Party of the Basque Country – Basque Country Left	SI, PES
	Socialist Party of Catalonia	PES
	Majorca Socialist Party	EFA
Sri Lanka	Socialist Party of Sri Lanka	LFI
Sweden	Socialist Party	USFI
Switzerland	Swiss Socialist Party	SI, PES
Tajikistan	Socialist Party of Tajikistan
Timor-Leste	Socialist Party of Timor
Ukraine	Socialist Party of Ukraine	SI
United Kingdom	Socialist Party (England and Wales)	CWI
	Socialist Party of Great Britain	WSM
	Scottish Socialist Party	EACL
United States	Socialist Party USA
Uruguay	Socialist Party of Uruguay	SI
Venezuela	PSUV
Yemen	Yemeni Socialist Party	SI

Former parties[link]

These are parties which no longer exist or have changed their name from socialist party

Nation	Party
Austria	Socialist Party of Austria
Belgium	Belgian Socialist Party
Belgium (Flemish Community)	Socialist Party
Bolivia	Socialist Party
Burkina Faso	Burkinabè Socialist Party
Canada	Socialist Party of North America Socialist Party of Canada
Croatia	Socialist Party of Croatia
Ecuador	Ecuadorian Socialist Party
Egypt	Egyptian Socialist Party
France	French Socialist Party (1902) French Socialist Party (1919) Socialist Party of France (1902)
India	Socialist Party
Indonesia	Socialist Party of Indonesia Socialist Party of Indonesia (Parsi)
Ireland	Socialist Party of Ireland
Italy	Italian Socialist Party Socialist Party (1996–2001) Socialist Party (2007–2008)
Japan	Japan Socialist Party
Netherlands	Socialist Party (Netherlands, interbellum)
New Zealand	New Zealand Socialist Party
Peru	Socialist Party of Peru
Poland	Silesian Socialist Party
Portugal	Portuguese Socialist Party
Puerto Rico	Puerto Rican Socialist Party Socialist Party (Puerto Rico)
Romania	Socialist Party of Romania
San Marino	Sammarinese Socialist Party
Senegal	Senegalese Socialist Party
Spain	Andalusian Socialist Party
Sweden	Socialist Party
Thailand	Socialist Party of Thailand
Togo	Pan-African Socialist Party
Trinidad and Tobago	Caribbean Socialist Party
United Kingdom	British Socialist Party
United States	Socialist Party of America
Vietnam	Socialist Party of Vietnam

See also[link]

• Communist party
• Democratic Socialist Party (disambiguation)
• List of Labour Parties
• List of political parties
• List of social democratic parties
• Social Democratic Party (disambiguation)
• Socialist Equality Party (United States)
• Socialist International
• Socialist Labor Party (disambiguation)
• Socialist People's Party
• Socialist Workers Party (disambiguation)

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (December 2009)

Merle Woo has worked as a spokesperson, teacher, poet and activist throughout her life.^[1]

Biography[link]

Merle Woo was born to a Korean mother and Chinese father, Helene Chang and Richard Woo, in San Francisco on October 24, 1941. She grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown with her mother, a clerical worker, and her father, a butcher and ginseng salesman. Helene Chang was born in Los Angeles, where her father worked as a ginseng salesman and traveling Methodist minister. The Changs immigrated to Shanghai, China, when Helene was little, but at ten they sent her back to the United States alone to live in an orphanage run by white missionary women. She ran away from the orphanage at age sixteen to start a different kind of life. After having an abusive first husband, she married Richard Woo, Merle Woo’s Chinese father. Richard Woo emigrated from southern China and entered the United States as a paper boy (using false documents.) He worked two full-time jobs most of his life.,,^[2][3][4]

School, Activism and Career[link]

Although they were not Catholic, Richard and Helene Woo sent Merle to Catholic schools, which they thought were better than public schools. Merle Woo earned her B.A. in English from San Francisco State University (SFSU) in 1965. She married while in college and later had two children, Emily and Paul. While pursuing an M.A. in English literature at SFSU, Woo witnessed firsthand the 1968–69 Third World Student Strikes at SFSU, which radicalized her politics. She speaks of being a beneficiary of such campus activism, because of the resulting establishment of ethnic studies, the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), and affirmative action, which she believes helped her to get jobs. After finishing her M.A. in 1969, she started to teach in the Educational Opportunity Program at SFSU. During her years in the EOP, Woo attempted to make English learning more relevant to her students of color and began to incorporate Third World literature into her teaching.,^[5][6]

She came out as a lesbian in the late 1970s and has been fighting for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transsexual rights ever since.^[7]

Woo is a writer and university lecturer in Asian American, Women, and Lesbian and Gay Studies at the University of California Berkley. An outspoken lesbian, mother, and leader in Radical Women and the Freedom Socialist Party, Woo criticizes the racist, sexist images of Asian American women in the American media, where they are often portrayed as demure, invisible, and subordinate "model minorities." Her uncompromising support for student protests against racist and conservative policies at the University of California at Berkeley caused the administration to fire her twice. Both times, she lodged free-speech lawsuits and won reinstatement.^[8]

Literature[link]

Woo has created a poetry collection, “Yellow Woman Speaks.” The collection focuses on topics such as racism, sexism, love, and sex, among others. “Yellow Woman Speaks,” was expanded and reissued by Radical Women Publications in 2003.^[9]

In 2003, Woo teamed up with Mitsuye Yamada and Nellie Wong to create “Three Asian American Writers Speak Out About Feminism.”

Merle Woo published one of her works in the feminist anthology, This Bridge Called My Back. In her “Letter to Ma,” she tries to show her mother that her liberation can reinforce her pride, culture and experiences as an Asian American woman rather than take away from them. In “Letter to Ma,” Woo describes her frustration with her mother’s inability to understand and connect with Woo’s life of activism and dealing with her homosexuality. Woo tells of her silent relationship with her mother and addresses social issues such as racism, sexism, oppression and exploitation as problematic themes in her life. Her letter intends to illuminate aspects of Asian American women’s experiences and empower Asian American cultures.

Other works[link]

Merle Woo participated in "Lady is Dying", and shortly after was inspired to start a theater group. She started "Unbound Feet" or "The Unbound Three" with other Asian American poets, writers, and theater workers.

References[link]

Christina López
Freedom Socialist 2012 Vice-Presidential Nominee
Website: www.socialism.com

Christina López (born 1968) is a Phoenix-born Chicana feminist who is running for Vice President of the United States in the 2012 elections in a write-in campaign by the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP).^[1] Her running mate is Stephen Durham.^[2]

López began mobilizing for civil rights at an early age. In 1986, as a member of the Chicano student organization, MEChA, she fought against an English-only law in Arizona.^[3] She also took part in a campaign for state recognition of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

López moved to Seattle in the late 1990s, where she became involved with the Freedom Socialist Party. She represented the party in community campaigns to defend affirmative action, free imprisoned Black radical Mumia Abu-Jamal, oppose police brutality, and stop attacks on immigrants. She has been a leading voice in the National Comrades of Color Caucus, which includes activists in the party and its sister organization, Radical Women (RW).^[4]

After joining Radical Women, López was elected president of the Seattle chapter in 2005. Under her leadership, the organization has defended reproductive rights, built connections with organized labor, brought a feminist voice to the antiwar movement, and fought state cuts to jobs and vital services through the Sisters Organize for Survival.^[5]

In a pamphlet published by Radical Women Publications in March 2012, Estamos en la Lucha: Immigrant Women Light the Fires of Resistance, López examines the impact of U.S. immigration policies and highlights the leadership role of migrant women in the U.S.^[6]

Nominee López, says the campaign hopes to "register a protest against both the unjust economic system and the rigged electoral process that keeps it in place. …We want to generate discussion and action around solutions for people’s immediate survival and for changing the system for good.”^[7]

References[link]