‘Texas oil baron JR Ewing’ was really an eco warrior

» John Hedges

An Phoblacht Editor

On George W Bush: ‘A sad figure, not too well educated, who doesn’t get out of America much.’

LARRY HAGMAN – who died on Friday at the age of 81 from throat cancer – became internationally famous in US soap drama Dallas from 1978 to 1991 playing the loathsome, scheming, callous Texas oil baron JR Ewing but in real life had been a member of the left-wing Peace and Freedom Party since the 1960s.

Larry Hagman even used his oil baron character in a TV commercial to portray a convert from oil to solar power.

The Peace and Freedom Party describes itself as being committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism and racial equality, and adds:

“We represent the working class, those without capital in a capitalist society.

“We organise toward a world where co-operation replaces competition, a world where all people are well fed, clothed and housed; where all women and men have equal status; where all individuals may freely endeavor to fulfill their own talents and desires; a world of freedom and peace where every community retains its cultural integrity and lives with all others in harmony.”

Texas oil baron JR Ewing might be expected to have been a natural bedfellow of Texas-born, right-wing US President George W Bush but Larry Hagman described Bush before the Iraq War as “a sad figure, not too well educated, who doesn’t get out of America much. He’s leading the country towards fascism.”

◆ See Larry Hagman's Radicalism