a037  0248  02 Jul 90
PM-NOW Convention,0353
NOW Considers Third Political Party
    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The National Organization for Women is
considering forming a third political party, complaining the
Democrats and Republicans are dominated by white men.
    ''It's high time we questioned the status quo and challenged a
system that just isn't working, that is leaving too many citizens
out,'' said NOW President Molly Yard.
    The organization, which concluded its annual convention here on
Sunday, launched a commission to consider a new party that would
represent feminists and others who say they are ignored or used and
abused by the two main parties.
    The 40-member commission formed Saturday will hold its first meeting
this summer in Philadelphia. It will make its recommendations at the
NOW convention next summer in New York City.
    NOW delegates on Sunday also re-elected Yard and endorsed 15
resolutions, including a campaign to elect women to office, including
former San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein, Democratic candidate for
governor of California.
    Patricia Ireland, NOW executive vice president, noted that the
organization's allies called NOW ''suicidal'' and ''naive'' when the
idea of a third-party surfaced at the last convention.
    ''But are we naive? ... Isn't it time, with a Congress that's 95
percent male, 95 percent white - with only two 'out' gay males, and
no 'out' gay females? Isn't it time for a representative democracy?''
Ireland asked.
    Members on Saturday said the GOP abandoned all claim to women's
support when the party came out against the Equal Rights Amendment
and legal abortion.
    While they rated Democrats as somewhat better, they complained that
too many party members resist abortion rights or take other repugnant
stands.
    NOW leaders said Republican and Democratic candidates who support
women on issues of concern to them would not be hurt by their third
party, which could endorse a major party candidate instead of running
its own.
    West German Parliament member Petra Kelly, who helped form the
anti-nuclear, alternative Green Party in her country in 1979, urged
2,400 delegates to think about becoming an ''alternative political
force.''
    ''If not now, when are you going to do it? The time has come,''
Kelly said.
    
 
AP-NY-07-02-90 0539EDT
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