New Alliance Party
|
|
The New Alliance Party was an American political party formed by psychotherapists Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani. The party is notable for getting Fulani on the ballot in all 50 states during her first Presidential campaign in 1988, making her both the first African-American and woman to do so.
| Contents |
Background and ideas
From 1974 to 1979, Newman had acquired some experience in politics in managing the International Workers Party. By the end of this period it seemed that a more plausible way to expand the influence of Newman's ideas was not through a revolutionary organization like the IWP, but instead with a party built from "new alliances" of groups marginalized by the American electoral process, namely racial minorities, homosexuals, Jews and women. The climate of many sectarian Left groups in the 1970s was intended to be "race neutral"- that is, strictly dedicated to the "dictatorship of the proletariat" regardless of race. This was seen as naive by revolutionary groups set up by minorities. In 1979, Newman started the New Alliance Party (NAP) to expand his base beyond the IWP and into the marginalized communities.
Like all groups founded by Newman, the basis for the NAP was in his own Social Therapy methods. The group did label itself as "pro-socialist" but it is unclear whether the group's platform was really rooted in class struggles or simply used the language of dialectical materialism to underscore the disproportionate power that certain social groups held and the need for change. Social therapy posits that personal problems are brought on by the political system- a member of a marginalized group would be less likely to be in emotional distress if they had a stronger political voice instead of being reliant on a system that mistreats them.
Dr. Newman's patients went from "one-on-one" therapy sessions to "grouplets"- mixed groups where each person was encouraged to speak out against any social or racial group, especially if members of that group were in the grouplet. Newman believed that only by making his patients vulnerable to these attacks could they all see how the divisions created in society were harmful to their psychological states. The sometimes brutal shared abuse of these therapy sessions drew accusations from outsiders that the group was less a political organization than a cult using leftist lingo as a control mechanism. The sessions did produce a "collective" mentality that focused an intese amount on sexual and racial identity politics. The grouplets nicely served as a starting point for NAP activism because the mixed groups could all return to their diverse communities for recruitment.
Electoral politics
In addition to being harshly criticized for its internal practices, the NAP also came under fire for its campaigning activities. The NAP has been frequently accused of practicing entryism. This caused problems not only with the Democratic Party but also many independent groups.
In 1984 the NAP made its entry into the Presidential campaign scene. Its candidate was Dennis Serrette, an African-American union activist who would later leave the NAP alleging questionable methods used by Newman and others. Serrette's running mate was Nancy Ross, a Jewish social therapist who had previously won a seat on the school board in New York city as an IWP candidate.
In 1985 the NAP began its unusual political "relationship" with Jesse Jackson. While Newman was initially dismissive of Jackson, Fulani had praised the popular activist during his 1984 Presidential run. However, it was after he founded his Rainbow Coalition group that the NAP got him to take notice of them. Newman and Fulani created the similar-sounding Rainbow Alliance, which at first lobbied for the benefit of small political parties. It later changed its name to the Rainbow Lobby and expanded its lobby to include issues of Joseph Mobutu's presidency in Zaire and the Haitian dictatorship of Prosper Avril. It is unclear how many people gave money to the Rainbow Lobby thinking that it was connected to Jackson, but when asked about his political relationship to Fulani in the press he said that there was no relationship at all. The Rainbow Lobby continued to raise money into the early 1990s but Fulani criticized Jackson for his support of the Democratic Party.
The 1988 presidential race was a big step for the NAP. In the previous election, they were only able to get Serrette on the ballot in 33 states. This time around they pursued every avenue they could imagine to gain ballot access. This included attempts at taking over other small political parties which had existed previously without any involvement from NAP members, such as the Solidarity Party in Illinois. The easiest way to do this was to bus as many NAP members as possible to the unsuspecting party's convention and have them vote as delegates to endorse the nominations of NAP candidates. They had unsuccessfully attempted this technique in the 1984 election with the Peace and Freedom Party (P&FP) in California, but this time around they simply held another convention and declared themselves to be the real P&FP. California refused to recognize any P&FP convention results that year. Nevertheless the NAP succeeded not only in getting Fulani's name on the ballot in all 50 states but also at diminishing much of the "competition" from other leftist small groups, whom they sometimes accused of being "bought" by the Democrats.
Fulani ran unsuccessfully as a New York gubernatorial candidate in 1990. She was endorsed by Louis Farrakhan who had recently been politically involved with Jesse Jackson's 1988 campaign only to be dropped at the recommendation of Jackson's campaign advisors. This was due to the public's perception of Farrakhan as anti-semitic, which amplified the reaction to Jackson's slipped comment of calling New York City "Hymietown". Fulani and Newman embraced Farrakhan and angered the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) by refusing to call him out for comments he had made. Accusations of anti-semitism were nothing new to Newman. The ADL quotes him as saying in a 1985 speech that Jews had become the "stormtroopers of decadent capitalism" in response to the Holocaust. In the wake of this criticism, Fulani moderated a "historic conference" on Black-Jewish relations, featuring the "Jewish Marxist" Newman sitting down with activist Al Sharpton.
Fulani again ran for president in 1992 on the NAP ticket. Maria Elizabeth Munoz, a chicano activist, was chosen as her running mate. Munoz had previously run for Senate and Governor in California on P&FP tickets. The NAP again tried to take over the P&FP convention, but lost the party's nomination to Ron Daniels of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition. Fulani also entered the New Hampshire primary for the Democratic Party Presidential nomination in 1992, and gained some press coverage for frequent heckling of Bill Clinton's campaign appearances after she was excluded from the New Hampshire Democratic debates.
By the mid 1990s the NAP appeared to have been disbanded. In 1994, Fulani and Newman for a period joined the Patriot Party, one of many groups which would later compete for control over Ross Perot's Reform Party in the years to come. This same year, Fulani would with fellow Newmanite Jacqueline Salit start the Committee for a Unified Independent Party, an organization dedicated to bringing various independent groups together to challenge the bipartisan hegemony in American politics. Critics say that these groups are actually a way for Newman and Fulani to manipulate the independent parties, and many respected political figures such as Ralph Nader and George Pataki have been condemned in the press for their cooperation with Newman-led organizations. Supporters of Fulani and Newman were successful in gaining control over some state affiliates of the Reform Party, most notably in New York, leading again to charges of entryism.
Affiliated projects
The NAP released various periodicals such as National Alliance and Probe as mouthpieces for their political ideas. Newman (sometimes with Fulani) also created a number of community programs like the All Stars Project Inc. and the Castillo Cultural Center venue for minority theater groups as well as the Barbara Taylor elementary school in Harlem. These too operate using Newman's social therapy as their basis. While they continue to operate today, they propagated NAP political platforms when the party was still active. Many of the plays put on by affiliated theaters were written by Newman himself, and occasionally stir up controversy for their portrayals of Jews.
"Front group" criticisms
It is important to point out that the formation of the NAP did not bring about the dissolution of the IWP. Many former NAP members reported that the IWP served as a secret governing body for the NAP. Knowledge of the IWP operations during the 1980s was exclusive to individuals who were singled out to serve in the higher ranks of the NAP. Whether the NAP was originally intended as a "front" for the more violent revolutionary IWP is unknown.
Fred Newman's habit of starting very similar organizations concurrently with largely shared memberships has lead some to believe that his political activities are simply a "paper shuffle"- a complicated web of fundraising for Social Therapy that takes place via fragmented and drawn out schemes. Newman has responded to this criticism by saying that many political organizations turn to partnered groups for support and that the apparent incestuousness of Newmanite groups is overstated in the press.
Some skeptical leftists believe that all of Newman's enterprises - including the NAP - are actually front groups for his former ally Lyndon LaRouche. This is because Newman brought his organization into a brief alliance with the LaRouche organization in 1974, and willingly collaborated with LaRouche's National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC) after they had attacked other leftist groups. While as far as anyone knows the NAP never physically attacked other groups, they have slandered many of their opponents in "smears" similar to those that the various LaRouche organizations carry out. Additionally, the NAP's 1984 presidential candidate Dennis Serrette said that even he couldn't tell whether the NAP was a LaRouche front. This was because Newman was found to be lying about his claim that he had only worked with the NCLC pre-"Operation Mop Up". However, in 1996 LaRouche himself issued a warning to Fulani that he would expose "significant features of the Fred Newman organization" after she became involved with the Reform Party. Interestingly, this threat was issued in response to an article that Fulani had written criticizing Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton, both of whom had previously been supported by the NAP. [1] (http://www.larouchepub.com/lar/1996/fulani.html)