Candidate for
Member of the State Assembly; District 53

Jim Smith was drafted into the army in 1966. He served honorably even though he was opposed to the Vietnam war.

Upon his discharge, he settled in Venice and became active in Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He organized a chapter in Venice and became a national leader of VVAW, serving on its national steering committee.

Smith grew up in a working class family. His father was a factory worker and his mother was a housewife. They were able to own a home and provide for all the needs of their three children on one salary. Today, it's nearly impossible for a factory worker to provide for a family's immediate needs on one salary, let alone buy a home. He wants to change that.

While putting himself through college and raising a daughter, Smith worked as a shipping clerk, machinist, letter carrier, telephone installer and taxi driver. He obtained a degree in journalism, and a Masters in Sociology from Cal State, Northridge.

While working on a Ph.D. in Economics at UC, Riverside, Smith was offered a job as a union organizer by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. He was soon directing a statewide campaign to unionize all UC campuses.

Over the years, Smith organized and represented state employees, hospital workers, newspaper workers, doctors, nurses and college professors. He has been associated with a number of unions, including AFSCME, SEIU, CNA, Teamsters, CFA, and CWA. He has always stood up for the rights of workers, even when it meant putting his own job at risk.

Smith has been a rank-and-file union member, as well as being appointed to positions of director, coordinator and administrative officer on numerous occasions. He has been elected local president, vice president and secretary-treasurer, never losing a union election.

He is a founder of the L.A.-Long Beach Harbor Labor Coalition and has also served as a representative to the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor for most of the past 20 years.

He's also worked as a journalist. Writing about the struggles of working people in Z Magazine, L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles View and other publications. He is currently a regular writer for the Free Venice Beachhead.

In recent years, as Democrats moved to the right and George Bush became president, Smith has become more and more frustrated with the lack of progressive political action in labor and in California, in general.

This is why he became active in reviving the Peace and Freedom Party, a democratic socialist party, which had been formed in opposition to the Vietnam war back in the 60s. In 1998, it lost its ballot status and was written off by most pundits. Smith initiated the Peace and Freedom Organizing Committee to help rebuild it and win back its ballot status. This unprecedented event was achieved in February, 2003. The March, 2004 primary will be the first partisan election in which P&F candidates, including Smith, can compete. Smith was elected Los Angeles County Chairperson of P&F. The Party is now the fourth largest in the county, with more than 35,000 members. It ranks behind only the Democrats, Republicans and the right-wing American "Independent" Party.

In 2002, he was an initiator of Venice Progressive Grassroots Candidates, whose nominees have dominated Venice politics and constitute a majority of the neighborhood council. Smith was elected Treasurer, last June, in a landslide election. The coalition is dedicated to expanding affordable housing and to community control of development.

Meanwhile, he has been active in opposing Bush's war policies and the anti-democratic Patriot Act. Smith has organized a total of 94 marches and rallies against the war since 2001.