From: David McReynolds
Subject: Sanders in 1980 pres. election and Liberty Union
Date: Sunday, 18 June 2006 20:04:54 -0400
Because Peter Diamondstone of Liberty Union has been posting recently, let me give some history on Liberty Union. (And I agree with Steve, that I don't remember Sanders as having an interest in being on the 1980 ticket - if Peter can give documentation, that would be good. I met with Bernie in 1980, but that is part of the following account).
Liberty Union was formed in Vermont as part of a failed national effort to build a true third party that would give political voice to people on the Vietnam War issue. The "main" front in this struggle was the Peace and Freedom Party, which was formed by an alliance in California of the Black Panthers and a group of pretty good quasi-Trotskyists who came out of the old Max Shachtman framework of the ISL. Very dedicated, they got P&F on the ballot there in 1968. A similar effort was made in New York State in 1968, with the same name. I was the P&F candidate for Congress here in the 19th CD, got the Village Voice endorsement and nearly 5% of the vote. I met with Eldridge Cleaver several times during that campaign - he was the P&F candidate for President.
Liberty Union was started in Vermont just a couple of years later, in June of 1970, when a group met at the home of Congressman William Meyer (he had been, briefly, a Democratic member of Congress from Vermont, wonderfully left wing and decent - his son, Karl, active in the Catholic Left, launched the War Tax Resistance campaign). The google page I opened showed a photo of Peter Diamondstone as he looked at that time, a very handsome guy. It also shows William Meyer and, I think, a young Bernie Sanders.
The hope - a serious and reasonable hope for a state with a small population (two Senators but just one member of Congress!) - was to do something like the Liberal Party did for some years in New York State - to at least force the two major parties to the left. And, of course, the hope of becoming a replacement for one of the two parties. Both Peter Diamondstone and Bernie Sanders were candidates for various offices.
In 1980, when I was the SP candidate for President, I went to Vermont to seek the endorsement of Liberty Union. At that time there had just occured a very personal, very bitter division between Peter Diamondstone and Bernie Sanders. Bernie felt that LU had exhausted its potential. Bernie's own inclinations politically were probably closer to the Socialist Workers Party than the SP, and he had done some first rate work on Eugene Debs. (People interested in his work on Debs might try writing him at the House Office Building in DC - I think he'd be delighted.) Peter's own "actual politics" were never clear to me. In recent years he has seemed close to the Workers World Party's positions but I am quite sure he isn't a member of it.
Peter felt Bernie had betrayed him by leaving LU. I met with both men during the 1980 campaign. To some extent, also, LU had become Peter Diamondstone's personal project. There were some good people around Peter - Jerry Levy, Mary Alice Herbert, etc. For Peter, the Presidential campaigns meant that all the minor left parties would pay attention to him - I went up in 1980 and 2000, the Workers World tried, New Alliance tried. People spent time with Peter.
If you want to understand Peter Diamondstone, you need to see the old movie with Lionel Barrymore - "You Can't Take It With You". Diamondstone's front yard was littered with cars in various states of disarray. The house itself was messy in a cheerful friendly way, with children, cats, dogs, a wonderful wife - Doris (the Doris Lake of the email address), and out in the backyard a maple tree from which Peter and Doris could get real maple syrup every year. Peter was delightfully eccentric, taking extreme but challenging positions on everything (usually, in my view, the right positions).
Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, was encouraged by friends to run for Mayor of Burlington. An open socialist, he took on the race and won. He had a good base with the working class in Burlington, he was a good Mayor, and he went on to run as an independent (never denying he was a socialist) for Congress. This year he is running for Senate.
I'm not going to defend every vote Bernie has cast. I think he has been a genuine asset in the House, has been on the right side of things almost all the time (meaning the left side), but he has failed on some key issues involving the sanctions against Iraq, etc.
That, in short, is the history of LU - it still exists, but it isn't a force in Vermont politics. Bernie Sanders, several times the Liberty Union candidate for Senator or Governor, went on to win office as an independent. Meanwhile Peter Diamondstone seems a bit lost, if I can say that gently. If he is bitter at Bernie, it is partly because Bernie was a success at the political game, and Peter wasn't.
In New York State the Peace and Freedom Party did not survive the 1968 campaign. In California I suspect the Greens are more potent - though my old friend and comrade Maggie Phair has put enormous time and effort into P&F.
And in New York State, the Liberal Party is pretty much defunct - third parties have a very hard time playing an important role before they are absorbed. Vermont is interesting in that Bernie Sanders did not join the Democratic Party, but won office in Congress as an independent, and is running for the Senate as an open socialist and an independent. Unhappily for us in the Socialist Party, Peter Diamondstone seems to have turned his attention to us and is, I believe, in the Grassroots Tendency in the SP. I think, on balance, I preferred Lionel Barrymore in "You Can't Take It With You" - Barrymore got old but he didn't get bitter.
David McReynolds
Hello Peter and all--
Peter, a question to you here. Who did you talk to when you called the Convention Floor in 1980 to put Sanders name in nomination for the Vice President slot? This information was certainly not conveyed to the delegates. There was no discussion at all regarding Sanders as a possible Veep candidate, and his name was most certainly not presented to the delegates.---Sister Diane was nominated and approved by acclamation. (There is additionally nothing in the 1980 Convention minutes about Sanders in this context, and the minutes were taken by the meticulous Rick Kissell)
In fact, if I remember correctly, Sanders wanted nothing to do with the 1980 McReynolds-Drufenbrock Campaign. He ignored all our requests for being an endorser of the Campaign (I was the 1980 Campaign Manager), in spite of several letters written to him about this. We had at least two folks volunteer at the NYC campaign office from the Sanders "camp", but nothing from Sanders AT ALL.
The 1980 Campaign is where I first met you and Doris. You might recall the visit from Bill Shakalis and I one day when we were petitioning to get on the ballot in New Hampshire. I recall you were working on a carburetor on your front porch when we pulled up; I thought that was pretty cool. I also recall Doris making some comment to me like, "Look at you, in your blue work shirt", like it was working class-chic or something. I didn't have the heart to tell her I was an electrician!
Solidarity,
Steve Rossignol
Richard, you are half correct about Sanders in 1980. He called on Vermont voters to "hold their noses and vote for Carter," even though he was an elector for another candidate who I believe may have been Peter Camejo or Linda Jeness but I am really unsure who it was.
That year Sanders also wanted the SP-USA nomination for VP (while being an SWP elector,) with McReynolds for Prez, and it was me who made the calls to Milwaukee to the SP convention floor for Sanders, at his request,.to put Sanders' name before the SP Convention.
So even back then Sanders was trying to establish his "Left" identity while supporting Democrats (as he did in the '76 election, when he blocked the nomination of Peoples Party candidate, Margaret Wright,) with one foot in SWP; one foot in the SP; and one other body part in the Democratic Party.
And in '84, Sanders went on a ten Vermont town "whistle stop" tour for Fritz, the butcher of Timor.
Comradely,
Peter <>stone
The message below says Bernie Sanders has always supported Democratic presidential nominees, starting in 1976. Actually, in 1980, Bernie Sanders not only supported the Socialist Workers Party ticket, he was one of the 3 presidential elector candidates for the SWP in Vermont.
Sanders has supported ONLY Democratic Party candidates for = president since then Within about a year Sanders and cronies left LU = and moved on.