DEMOCRATS TOUR KING, POWELL AGAINST FREEDOM NOW PARTY
- DETROIT, Michigan, ~- In fear that votes won by candidates of the Freedom Now and Socialist Workers parties might prove decisive © in a close election, the Democratic machine brought in some big wheels in the final stage of the election campaign,
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., recent winner of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, was toured around Michigan in a widely publicized "voter registration drive." The real aim was to give the Democrats a psychological boost,
King bitterly assailed the Freedom Now party which is articulating the real feelings of the ghetto inhabitants of Michigan and of all the black ghettoes in America,
The well-known New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell was also imported to buoy up Democratic candidacies in districts where the Freedom Now and Socialist Workers campaigns were being felt.
In Detroit, the Freedom Now carididates centered their fire on Wayne County Prosecutor Olsen, who is notorious for whitewashing police brutality against Negroes. "Olsen Must Gol" posters, stick- . ers and literature were widely circulated throughout the Negro community.
Attorney. Milton R. Henry, candidate of the Freedom Now party ‘for U.S. Congress from the First District challenged his Democratic ‘ opponent (also a Negro) to a debate. Said the FNP candidate:
"It is easy for you to denounce the Republican Golderwaterites. But wheré do you stand on the Democratic Goldwaterites? You are running on the same ticket as Samuel B. Olsen, Democratic candidate for prosecutor. Olsen is a stench in the nostrils of the Negro community. He is a defender and protector of police brutality. He has the blood of Cynthia Scott on his hands, Cynthia Scott, a Negro woman, was killed by a white police officer during the summer’ of 1963. Olsen cleared the officer and he is still employed by the’ police department.] ... “How do you stand on Olsen? Do you endorse Olsen and seek his election? Do you repudiate Olsen and call for his defeat?. . . Speak up, Mr. Conyers} Or will you be guilty of both opportunism and hypocrisy? Which do you consider most important -- the interests of the Democratic party, or the interests of the Negro community?"
The Freedom Now party has campaigned hard on a program of
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independent political action, of alignment with “all liberation movements throughout the world, " and for a "fundamental change" in society, not a mere "reform."
‘The vote. remains tobe seen, All new parties face difficulties in rolling up a big electoral response until they become. stabilized and widely known. This year the Democratic stance of presenting themselves as the "lesser evil" was much facilitated by the candidacy of Galdwater.. But whatever the vote, the cause of independent political action and the struggle for freedom and equality were given’ a boost by the Michigan campaign of the Freedom Now: party.