Maggie Phair-A Celebration of Life
Capitalism Tends To Destroy…….
The Life of an Essential Activist: Maggie Phair, 1930-2021
Article in Counterpunch.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/07/07/the-life-of-an-essential-activist-maggie-phair-1930-2021/
Ballot Access News on Maggie
Two Veterans of the Peace & Freedom Party Die on June 29
On June 29, Elizabeth Martinez and Maggie Phair, both former candidates in the Peace & Freedom Party, died. Martinez was 95 and Phair was 92.
See this New York Times obituary for Elizabeth Martinez, and this page from the Maggie Phair Institute for Democracy and Human Rights. Thanks to several readers for the links. UPDATE: see this obituary for Maggie Phair.
Peace and Freedom Party on Maggie
Original article can be found here
Maggie Phair, a founding and long-time member of the Peace and Freedom Party, passed away on June 29, 2021, at the age of 91.
In 1967, Maggie helped found the Peace and Freedom Party of California to provide an alternative at the ballot box for voters who support civil rights and oppose war. She remained a member for the next 50 years, serving on the Los Angeles Central Committee. She ran for office several times on the party’s ballot line, including twice for the 24th Congressional District in 1980 and in 1990, and for the 45 Assembly District in 1982.
Born just before the stock market crash of 1929, she grew up in the shadow of the Great Depression in Southern California.
Maggie began her activism as a student at San Fernando High School and continued through her enrollment at UCLA where she joined the Congress on Racial Equality. It was there that she met lifelong friends Vern Davidson and David McReynolds while organizing for the socialist club on campus.
Nationally, Maggie was active in the Socialist Party USA. She held several positions within the party, serving at one time as National Co-Chair. She also helped publish the party newspaper when it was in Los Angeles.
Maggie was a union organizer, a civil rights crusader, a peace activist, and a co-founder of the January 22nd Committee for Reproductive Rights in Los Angeles.
Maggie Phair practiced her beliefs on a personal as well as a political level. I remember attending camp-outs with cooperative cooking and meal sharing at Big Sur and at Mt. Tamalpais that she organized. She opened her home, an apartment, to the whole Alameda County Peace and Freedom Party delegation when we came to Los Angeles for meetings. As many as six or more of us shared her living room for the weekend.
Maggie Phair was a socialist through and through. We will miss her.
–written by Marsha Feinland
Folk Music Notebook
The Maggie Phair Institute is proud to be a founding supporter of the Folk Music Notebook.
Maggie Phair-Obituary
Maggie Phair passed away on June 29, 2021, at the age of 91.
Maggie was born just before the stock market crash of 1929 and she grew up in the shadow of the Great Depression in southern California.
Maggie’s activist career began at San Fernando High School when she brought the director of the Urban League to challenge racial slurs made by a teacher against Japanese, who had just been released from relocation camps. She challenged the discriminatory standards that enrolled all Chicano students in agriculture or home economics majors. She was a strong advocate for free speech, even for the bad guys.
Soon after enrolling at UCLA she joined the Congress on Racial Equality, helped to desegregate Bullock’s Tearoom, and Bimini Baths, a popular swimming pool. Anti-racist work convinced her of the need for full employment, and for democratic socialism. It was there that she met lifelong friends Vern Davidson and David McReynolds while organizing for the socialist club on campus.
In 1967 she became a founding member of the Peace and Freedom Party of California to provide a viable alternative for voters who support civil rights and oppose war. She remained a member for the next 50 years. She was on the Los Angeles Central Committee for the party and ran for office several times on the party’s ballot line.
Nationally, Maggie was active in the Socialist Party USA. She had first joined the party (then the Socialist Party of America) in the early 1950s as a college student and remained a party member for close to 70 years. In the SPA, she had been a member of the Debs Caucus, and was one of the core members who helped form the SPUSA when the old SPA split into three factions in the 1970s. She held several positions within the party, serving at one time as National Co-Chair. She also helped publish the party newspaper when it was in Los Angeles.
Maggie helped build the social workers’ chapter of Service Employees International Union Local 535. She fought the company association to its defeat and was one of the key organizers who brought the chapter to a strength of 2000 members and its status as SEIU Local 535.
A peace activist, her opposition to war began with the dropping of the atom bomb and has included opposition to the Korean War, Vietnam War and to U.S. intervention in Central America and the Middle East. In August 1990, Maggie helped to organize the first demonstration in Los Angeles opposing a U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf.
Maggie co-founded the January 22nd Committee for Reproduction Rights which was a leading pro-choice organization in Los Angeles.
Maggie had a lifelong enjoyment of kaleidoscopes, limericks and hootenanies.
She is survived by her daughter, Katherine Goldman, and granddaughter, Sydney Goldman.
Maggie Phair: Short Bio
Maggie Phair was born just before the stock market crash of 1929 and she grew up in the shadow of the Great Depression.
Maggie’s activist career began at San Fernando High School when she brought the director of the Urban League to challenge racial slurs made by a teacher against Japanese, who had just been released from relocation camps. She challenged the discriminatory standards that enrolled all Chicano students in agriculture or home economics majors.
Soon after enrolling at UCLA she joined the Congress on Racial Equality, helping to desegregate Bullock’s Tearoom, and Bimini Baths, a popular swimming pool. Anti-racist work convinced her of the need for full employment, and for democratic socialism.
In 1967 she became a founding member of the Peace and Freedom Party of California to provide a viable alternative for voters who support civil rights and oppose war. She is a strong advocate for free speech, even for the bad guys. Nationally, Maggie was active in the Socialist Party USA.
Maggie helped build the social workers’ chapter of Service Employees International Union Local 535. She fought the company association to its defeat and was one of the key organizers who brought the chapter to a strength of 2000 members and its status as SEIU Local 535.
A peace activist, her opposition to war began with the dropping of the atom bomb and has included opposition to the Korean War, Vietnam War and to U.S. intervention in Central America and the Middle East. In August 1990, Maggie helped to organize the first demonstration in Los Angeles opposing a U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf.
Maggie co-founded the January 22nd Committee for Reproduction Rights which was a leading pro-choice organization in Los Angeles. Maggie had a lifelong enjoyment of kaleidoscopes, limericks and hootenanies.
¡Maggie Phair Presente!
It is with a heavy heart that we announce that Maggie Phair, founder of the Maggie Phair Institute for Democracy and Human Rights passed away this morning.
Mimi Soltysik Memorial Scholarship Winners
The Maggie Phair Institute for Democracy and Human Rights would like to announce Adonis Cherry and Nyemah West as the first recipients of the Mimi Soltysik Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Adonis Cherry just graduated high school in Las Vegas, NV. He will be attending the Sage Colleges in New York. He has been active in a local food bank, the Special Olympics, and the Miracle Baseball League.
Nyemah West just graduated high school in Connecticut. She is a member of the NAACP, the Minority Student Coalition, and, March for Education Foundation.
This scholarship is present in the honor of Mimi Soltysik. In addition to being an Educator for the Maggie Phair Institute, Mimi was a community activist and presidential candidate for the Socialist Party, USA in 2016.
