Christina Gloria López, July 7, 1968 (Phoenix, Ariz.) -
VP candidate for Freedom Socialist Party (aka Independent aka Non Affiliated) (2012)
Running mate with nominee: Stephen Gaylord Durham (b. 1947)
Popular vote: 117 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538
The campaign:
The Freedom Socialist Party was founded in [Washington State Trivia Alert!!!] Seattle in 1966. According to their version of events--
The FSP’s creators left the Socialist Workers Party over the SWP’s failure to recognize the inherently revolutionary character of the struggles for Black and female liberation. FSP founders also disagreed with the SWP majority of the time by believing that a genuine workers’ state was established in China after the 1949 revolution.
But our predecessors would not have left the SWP had they been able to continue fighting for their positions. They were forced to strike out on their own because of an anti-democratic clampdown on internal debate, and the FSP was born.
Black liberation and socialist feminism to the fore. The theory of revolutionary integration that FSP founders proposed to the SWP in 1963 put forward the belief that the African American freedom struggle would grow into a movement to transform the whole system. The progress of the indomitable civil rights movement and the forming of the Black Panther Party confirmed this conviction.
FSP also predicted the women’s liberation movement that exploded on the scene in 1969.
Early FSP members included three-time SWP VP Myra Tanner Weiss (1952,1956,1960) and her husband Murry.
For decades the FSP did not engage in national Electoral politics with their own nominees. In 2004 they gave qualified endorsements for the SWP and Workers World Party. But on Jan. 26, 2012, for the one and only time in their history (as of 2020) the FSP nominated a Presidential ticket with Stephen Durham of New York for President and Christina López of Seattle for VP.
The 2012 FSP platform was relatively brief but to the point--
Full employment
Disarm the US war machine and use the money to create a massive, publicly funded training and jobs program at union wages with childcare available. Repeal union-busting laws. Reduce the workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay to create more jobs. Lower the retirement eligibility age to 55 to create employment for young people. Nationalize the banks and key industries under the management of workers’ committees. Ban speculation.
Government that helps the needy, not the greedy
Restore funds and programs that aid seniors, the poor, children, single mothers and the homeless. No cuts to Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare. Raise the minimum wage to $20 dollars an hour. Provide a guaranteed annual income. Free medical care for all, including reproductive services and abortion. End foreclosures and expand low-cost public housing.
Tax the rich and corporate profits
Simplify the tax code and eliminate loop holes and tax breaks for corporate giants. Shift the tax burden from workers and small businesses to the top one percent at a tax rate of 70%.
Liberation not discrimination
Equal rights and opportunity for all regardless of race, age, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, immigration status, or physical ability. End the war on women. Restore affirmative action programs with quotas. Full support for the sovereignty, human rights and cultural inheritance of indigenous peoples and their nations, in the U.S. and around the world. Dismantle Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security. Open the borders.
Ending US militarism, wars and occupations
For unilateral US nuclear disarmament. End the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. No war with Iran. Bring home all troops and mercenaries. Close all US bases abroad and shut down Guantánamo. Give soldiers the right to unionize and put them to work rebuilding the US infrastructure. Retrain veterans for productive civilian work. End arms shipments to the world.
Quality multicultural education for all ages
Tax corporate profits to pay for free multi-lingual public education, including ethnic studies, through college and trade school. End high-stakes testing and publicly funded charter schools. Protect the lives and rights of gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender youth. Cancel student debt. No military recruiting in schools.
Halting the racist “war on drugs” and abuse of police power
Treatment and job training, not prison, for addicts. Legalize drugs under community control. Outlaw for-profit detention. Enact elected civilian review boards over the police. End the death penalty.
Freedom of association & speech
Repeal the Patriot Act and indefinite military detention of US and foreign citizens. Dismantle the FBI. Outlaw covert police spying and repression of free speech activities, including those involving international solidarity groups and Occupy Wall Street. Protect the rights of whistle blowers in the public and private sectors. Free all political prisoners.
Voters’ rights and ballot access
Standardize state laws regarding federal elections to make getting on the ballot easy for minor parties. Overturn discriminatory voter ID laws and restore prisoners’ and ex-felons’ voting rights. Enact proportional representation to break the twin party monopoly. Bar super PACs.
Planetary environmental sanity
Slash industrial fossil-fuel emissions. Phase out nuclear power. Make workplaces free of toxins. Fund publicly owned renewable energy sources. Expand public mass transit and make it free. Ban fracking. Clean up toxic waste dumps and poisoned waterways and end mountaintop removal mining.
Solidarity with workers worldwide
Overturn free trade and global financial deals that impoverish workers here and around the world. Nationalize US corporations that pollute, exploit and support corrupt regimes abroad. For a socialist world!
The FSP voter recommendations for Washington State voters contains the Party's view of the competition--
Writing in Stephen Durham and Christina López for President and Vice President is hands down the best choice. But when you open your ballot, you’ll find numerous other third party options for president and vice president. Two socialist parties gathered signatures to appear on the Washington State ballot, although they spent little time campaigning here. They are: Peta Lindsay/Yari Osorio, Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL); and James Harris/Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party (SWP). FSP gave critical support to PSL candidates in past elections, despite their lackluster approach to feminism and our differences over international issues. We drew the line this year after their horse- trading shenanigans at the Peace and Freedom Party Convention in California, which resulted in not a single socialist appearing on that state’s presidential ballot. The SWP has made little attempt to run a serious campaign.
Other names on the ballot include Ross C. (Rocky) Anderson/Luis J. Rodriguez, Justice Party; and Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala, Green Party. Neither group is anti-capitalist. They pledge only incremental change, instead of tackling the profit system head on.
Two rightwing parties are also in the running: the Libertarians, who boost unfettered capitalism; and the Constitution Party, which has close ties to the far-right, racist, anti-immigrant movement.
Oddly, the FSP did not endorse the 2012 Washington State Initiative 502, making the premise statement--
Initiative 502, Marijuana legislation — Vote NO
The FSP favors legalizing marijuana but this initiative is seriously flawed. It would subject minors, drivers and medical users to a wide range of serious new criminal charges, penalties, and high costs. Groups that have long sought legalization are divided over whether the initiative is a step in the right direction. After looking at who will most likely be targeted by I-502’s new penalties, the FSP cannot endorse it.
The Durham/López ticket were write-ins in at least 16 states, with the bulk of their reported total coming from California, then New York.
In 2016 and 2020 the FSP endorsed the Socialist Action candidate Jeff Mackler.
Election history: none
Other occupations: Organizer- Seattle Radical Women, Revlon Cosmetics employee, Administrative Specialist for City of Seattle, Justice Court Clerk for Maricopa County Justice Courts, author
Notes:
Seems to have moved to Seattle in 1998.
Full disclosure, I voted for FSP US Senate candidate Steve Hoffman in the Washington State 2018 blanket primary. I also voted for Initiative 502 in 2012.
