Was the farmers alliance politically active?

Yes and no. The Farmers' Alliance thought of themselves as a political education group, and wish to influence politics, but they remained avowedly non-political. The subject came up for debate often in local meetings and in Alliance newspapers, with farmers repeatedly pledging to remain a education group. They looked down on politicians trying to rise through the Alliance as overly ambitious (as the founders understood the Word) and would not run any members for public office. When members of the organization wanted to become politically involved, it cause a giant rift in the Alliance, with the political agitators forming the politicized Populist Party (or People's Party), and the non-political members absconding. Again, its a difficult question, but inherently the FA was not a political entity as we understand them today.