Freedom Socialist Party - History

History

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.

The FSP became a pole of attraction for Seattle leftists opposed to the SWP's internal politics and established a home at Freeway Hall. The party formed Radical Women with the dual goal of building a radical feminist organization and teaching women the organizational and leadership skills they were often denied in male-dominated organizations.