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Sept/Oct 2000 issue (#47)

Why Alternative Parties Matter

Even if you don't subscribe to their specific ideologies, small parties can provide ideas necessary for future progress
photos and essay by Susan Fried, Free Press contributor

Features

Charter School Initiative

Schoolhouse Schlock

Bullies: Run and Hide

Fourteen Fun Facts to Know about the UW

Film's Fabulous Femme Fatale

Why Alternative Parties Matter

New Fight to Save Old Forests

Golden Rice: A Trojan Horse

Freeway Monorail

Nightmare on Wheels

Reform Slate Sweeps Walla Walla Teamsters

Trashing Public Interest

It's Time to Vote Green

Losing The War

Democracy Travelogue

"Liberal" Seattle Turns Blind Eye to Burma

One-Party Unions

Silicon Valley Sweatshops

The Regulars

Reader Mail

Envirowatch

Media Beat

Reel Underground

Nature Doc
 

I attended the People's Weekly World picnic on August 13. The annual event brings together members of the Washington State Communist party and people sympathetic to its causes. This is the third such picnic I've attended, and one thing I've noticed is that the average age of those attending is over 70. Other than the obvious observation that the Communist Party is in desperate need of some new blood, I've also admired the fact that these people have stuck it out when being a member of an alternative party like the Communists could end up getting you killed. These people fought for the right to unionize, the end of discrimination, access to health care for all Americans, and many other ideas now being taken up by new alternative parties like the Green Party. Maybe their persistence and the persistence of other alternative political parties ultimately gets these ideas into the mainstream.

Brick Mohr & Irene Hull
Brick Mohr and Irene Hull both wear "Snake Oil slade" anti-Gorton buttons.
B.J. Mangaoang
B.J. Mangaoang is the president of the
Washington State Communist Party.
Canterbury Hatten
Canterbury Hatten has provided legal assistance for Filipino workers.


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