Rites Scheduled for Socialist Fred Halstead
Memorial services for Fred Halstead, a Socialist Workers Party activist who was the party’s presidential candidate in 1968 and California gubernatorial candidate in 1978, will be held at 4 p.m. June 18 at the Pathfinder bookstore at 2546 W. Pico Blvd.
Halstead, 61, a native of Los Angeles, died at his Echo Park home of cancer on Thursday.
Active in the movement against the Vietnam War in the 1960s and ‘70s, Halstead also worked on organizing drives for the National Farm Labor Union, the United Auto Workers and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.
A prolific writer of tracts on a variety of issues, Halstead also produced a number of articles for the Socialist newspaper, the Militant.
In the 1968 presidential election, he garnered about 41,000 votes, or .06% of those cast.
Halstead, who worked as a cutter in the garment industry, leaves his wife, Virginia, four sons and two daughters.
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