labor" or "socialist"). Their
aim is to use the PFP for bargaining with
the Johnson faction in hope of obtaining
a more palatable image of the Democratic
party in relation to Vietnam.
The fundamental weakness of the PFP
is its perspective of remaining within the
framework of capitalist politics while pro-
testing against U.S. involvement in the
Civil war in Vietnam. The new formation is
appealing to vastly disparate political
elements on the basis of opposition to the
Vietnam war. But unity on this issue among
people of opposing views on many other key
issues can be maintained only in specific
actions, such as mass demonstrations
against the war and for immediate with-
drawal of U.S. troops.
But Johnson took the U.S. into Viet-
nam, as Truman took the U.S. into Korea, in
furtherance of imperialist objectives.
These can be successfully opposed only by
opposing capitalism as a whole. A united
front of action against a specific war is
not required to adopt a program on the
character of the system. But a political
party aims to win political power. For it
to offer political support to capitalism,
or to maintain shamefaced silence about it,
serves to castrate opposition to its wars.
It would be a betrayal for socialists to
support a "party" that has not broken with
the capitalist system and which lacks any
mass base in the labor movement.
The success of the PFP in getting
on the ballot offers fresh evidence of the
mounting dissatisfaction among the Ameri-
can people with the two-party system. It
also offers fresh proof of the way the
leaders of the trade-union and black lib-
eration movements are defaulting politi-
cally. If such a small, financially weak,
and poorly organized group as the ini-
tiators of the PFP could succeed in meet-
ing electoral requirements as difficult
as those in California, it can easily be
seen what could be accomplished by the
labor movement and the black people if
a determined effort were made to break
out of the blind alley of the capitalist
two-party system.
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