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| Larouche is fucking insane. | |||
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| ''The neutrality and factual accuracy of this article are disputed by supporters of Lyndon LaRouche. The article is undergoing a process of revision and editing. See the ] if you wish to participate.'' | |||
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| '''Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr.''' (born ], ]), ] political activist, leads political organizations in the United States and other countries. Although he has no formal qualifications, he describes himself as an economist and has written extensively on economic as well as political subjects. He has run eight times for ], but has never gained significant electoral support. He is probably the best-known exponent of ] in the U.S. He is widely seen as an extremist or a ] leader, and is frequently accused of being a ] and ]. He denies these charges, and his followers regard him as a major political figure, indeed a world leader. In ] LaRouche was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment for illegally soliciting unsecured loans and tax code violations. | |||
| == Early life== | |||
| LaRouche was born in ], where his father, an immigrant from ], was a shoe salesman. He was raised as a ] and enrolled at ] in ], but dropped out in ]. As a Quaker, he was at first a ] during ], but in ] he joined the ], serving in medical units in ]. During this period he read works by ] and was converted to ]. After leaving the Army in ], LaRouche attempted to resume his university education, but again dropped out of Northeastern and took a factory job in ]. In ] he joined the ] (SWP), a small ] party. In the SWP he used the pseudonym '''Lyn Marcus'''. In ] he moved to ] and married a fellow SWP member, Janice Neuberger. | |||
| LaRouche remained in the SWP until ], making him a veteran member in a group which always had a high turnover of members. He now maintains that he was soon disillusioned with Marxism and stayed in the SWP only as an informant for the ]. His ex-wife and other SWP members from that time dispute this, saying that he was a loyal and zealous party member, although this is not definitive evidence that he was not an FBI informer. During these years LaRouche developed his interests in economics, ], ], business management and other subjects. He is undoubtedly well-read in these and other subjects. He separated from Janice in ] (they had one son, Daniel, born in ]). | |||
| In ] LaRouche was expelled from the SWP and became a supporter of the ] dissident Trotskyist leader ], leader of the British ] (ancestor of the later ]). LaRouche was heavily influenced by Healy's conspiratorial world-view and his advocacy of violence and intimidation, something foreign to the intellectual tradition of mainstream Trotskyism. He was briefly linked with the U.S. Healyite leader ] and also with the ], another Trotskyist group. | |||
| After his break with Trotskyism LaRouche remained active in the left. He began giving classes on "]" to members of ], the ] (PLP) (a ] group) and other radical groups on campuses around the East Coast. These lectures attracted a following, which coalesced into a faction of the ] which was called the "SDS Labor Committee," because LaRouche criticized SDS, and the ] in general, for being too oriented toward the ], and not enough toward Labor. (This was a common complaint in the New Left, which was largely composed of students and of drop-outs like LaRouche.) He was heavily involved in SDS despite not being a student, and in the PLP's internal battles despite not being a member. Once again, LaRouche now maintains that he was an FBI agent during all this activism, but his closest colleagues from this period dismiss this suggestion as absurd. | |||
| == LaRouche and the NCLC == | |||
| In ] LaRouche formed the ] (NCLC), a grouping of ex-SDS activists and other ex-Trotskyists. Despite its name the NCLC had no significant connection with the labor movement. It soon developed the hallmarks of a ], with a charismatic leader (LaRouche), a ] and conspiratorial ideology, and an esoteric vocabulary known only to initiates. NCLC members gave up their jobs and private lives and became entirely devoted to the group and its leader. Like many cults, the LaRouche organization developed an internal discipline technique, called "ego stripping," which reinforced conformity and loyalty to LaRouche. | |||
| In the 1970s LaRouche developed an intense interest in fascism, and began to adopt some of its slogans and practices, while maintaining (as he still does) an outward stance of anti-fascism. He began to regard himself and his followers as "]," superior to all other people, and under his direction the NCLC adopted violent and disruptive tactics, physically attacking meetings of the SWP, the ] and other groups, who were classed by LaRouche as "left-protofascists." During "Operation Mop-Up," NCLC members engaged in a series of well-documented beatings of members of these groups. Some ex-NCLC members who left the group at this time say that LaRouche was studying the career of ] and consciously adopting the tactics of the early ]. | |||
| During the 1970s LaRouche steered the NCLC away from the left and towards the extreme right, while retaining some of the slogans and attitudes of the left (as did the founder of fascism, the ex-Socialist ], and many others since). The Marxist concept of the ] was converted by LaRouche into a gigantic ], in which world capitalism was controlled by a secret cabal including the ], the ], ], the ] and other standard villains of the extreme right, many though not all of them Jewish. LaRouche added some novel variations on this theme. The heart of the conspiracy, according to LaRouche, was the financial elite of the ]. LaRouche has always been violently anti-British - a trait shared by many American isolationists - and has included ], among others, in his list of conspirators. | |||
| In the 1980s LaRouche's political rhetoric and accusations grew more detached from generally accepted reality. Hitler had been a British agent as was Marx. ] was a Nazi. ] were "a product shaped according to British ] Division specifications." Both Communism or Fascism were facets of the great overarching conspiracy of the "Synarchy," an oligarchical network of financiers and manipulators who rule the world. Only LaRouche and his "humanist elite" fully understand this vast conspiracy, and possess the willpower and knowledge to withstand it. LaRouche's personal egotism is a significant force driving his politics. In ] he wrote: "My principal accomplishment is that of being, by a large margin of advantage, the leading economist of the twentieth century to date." Some of LaRouche's conspiracy theories appear to border on self-parody, "Who is pushing the world toward war?" he asked in ]. "It is the forces behind the ], the ], and the heritage of ] and the evil ]." | |||
| LaRouche claims that there is also a conspiracy by the "Establishment" and the press it allegedly controls to deny him coverage and prevent his views becoming known. He cites as evidence for this a ], ] opinion piece in the '']'', entitled "NCLC: A Domestic Political Menace," and written by ], a senior editor (who is Jewish). Rosenfeld wrote: "We of the press should be chary of offering them print or air time. There is no reason to be too delicate about it: every day we decide whose voices to relay. A duplicitous violence-prone group with fascistic proclivities should not be presented to the public unless there is reason to present it in those terms." In fact LaRouche has continued to recieve considerable press coverage, more in fact than the real importance of his organization might seem to warrant, although most of this coverage has been hostile. | |||
| ==Economic views== | |||
| Although he has no academic qualifications, LaRouche claims to be an economist, and has written extensively on economic subjects. Since he is not taken seriously by mainstream economists, there is no academic literature analysing his economic ideas. He claims that his economic ideas are descended from the "]," a slogan originally associated with ] (Secretary of the Treasury under ] and the main critic of the policies of ] ]), and later with ]. In practice this amounts to advocating centralised, though not socialist, state control of the economy, with heavy state investment in industry and science, and presumably administered by members of the "Promethian" elite such as LaRouche himself. Economists would classify these ideas as ] or ]. | |||
| LaRouche's theory (in more or less his own words) is that the principal subject of economics is the ability of the cognitive powers of the individual human mind to make new discoveries of universal principles. These discoveries, LaRouche says, lead to revolutions in technology, which re-define Man's relationship to Nature in a "non-linear way." Such revolutions, he says, are contingent on the viability of the culture, on its capacity to absorb and transmit new ideas: LaRouche asserts that the most historically successful variety of culture is what he terms the classical culture of Greece during the time of ], or the culture of ] in the centuries following the ]. | |||
| LaRouche claims to draw upon the ideas of mathematicians ] and ] to describe the "non-linear" effects of the technological revolutions he describes, and he uses the term "potential relative population density" to describe a measure of the success of a given economy or society. According to LaRouche's followers, a Russian scientist, ], proposed that the unit for measuring this parameter be called the "La" (for "LaRouche"). | |||
| In practical rather than theoretical terms, LaRouche's economic policies are not particularly radical or original. He opposes deregulation, free trade, ] and ]. He advocates government-issued credits for infrastructure projects, and claims to be an admirer of the economic policies of ]. He calls for greater federal investment in science and technology, particularly the space program. These are all staples of both the traditional left and the modern anti-globalization movement. | |||
| Despite LaRouche's rhetorical skill in presenting them as revolutionary, LaRouche's economic ideas are hardly original: they formed the basis of the corporatist system in ] under ] and ] under ]. What makes LaRouche's ideas distinctive is his belief that capitalism is not, as Marxists argue, the principal enemy of progress. Instead he has developed the elaborate conspiracy theory described above, in which he claims that a secret elite called the Synarchy really rules the world. This elite conspiracy, he says, predates and transcends both capitalism and socialism. | |||
| ==Biographical issues== | |||
| Separating fact from fiction in LaRouche's biography is made difficult by the barrages of conflicting propaganda generated both by LaRouche and by the many anti-LaRouche commentaries. According to LaRouche's writings and of the material produced by his followers, LaRouche developed his present political and economic ideas in the ] and has advocated them consistently ever since. He is represented as a respected economist and commentator on world affairs. He is credited with pioneering such ideas as the ], manned space flight to ], the ] or "Star Wars," and the so-called Eurasian Land-Bridge. It has been claimed that he regularly meets with world leaders and that they listen respectfully to his ideas. It also claimed that he was used by the ] administration as a "back-channel" for negotiations with the ]. | |||
| Some of these claims are clearly untrue. LaRouche did not develop his current political and economic ideas in the 1950s or '60s: until at least ] he was a Trotskyist, although an increasingly unorthodox one. He would have been expelled from the SWP much earlier than he was had he advocated anything like his current ideas at that time. Some of his specific claims can be disproved. Although the expression "Eurasian Land-Bridge," for example, has been used to refer to the proposed ], there is no evidence that LaRouche has ever had anything to do with this project. Other claims cannot be definitely disproved, but are highly unlikely to be true. | |||
| It is true, however, that LaRouche had some contacts with low-level officials of the Reagan Administration. Between ] and ] LaRouche met with ], then a member of the ] (NSC), and with some other NSC and ] officials. This followed a concerted campaign by LaRouche to develop close relations with the Reagan Administration, by publishing flattering articles about administration officials in the LaRouche press. Bailey later claimed that LaRouche was able to provide him with useful information, gathered by LaRouche's network of affiliates in many countries, but other intelligence officials deny the Administration gained any useful intelligence from LaRouche. The contacts between LaRouche and the administration ended after protests from former Secretary of State ] and other prominent Republicans. | |||
| The only substantial biography of LaRouche is ''Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism'', by ] (Doubleday, ]). King is not a historian or a political scientist, and his book is avowedly hostile to LaRouche. King's thesis is that LaRouche is both a fascist and an anti-Semite (although LaRouche expresses these views in coded language), and that his organization is the spearhead of a dangerous "new American fascism." | |||
| Demonstrating this thesis lends King's book a polemical tone which in the opinion of some reviewers weakens its credibility, but King has nevertheless researched LaRouche's writings thoroughly, and the factual basis of his book (as opposed to his opinions) has not been successfully challenged. LaRouche polemicists have made much of the fact that King received funding from the conservative ] to write the book, but there has been no clear demonstration that this funding influenced the content of the book. | |||
| ==Presidential bids== | |||
| From the late 1970s to the present, LaRouche has pursued a dual strategy. He has continued to promote his apocalyptic conspiracy theories and to make regular predictions of imminent economic catastrophe. These are a staple of the extreme right, although also characteristic of Trotskyism. At the same time he has sought to enter the political mainstream by contesting elections and ]. In ] he founded the ] as a vehicle for electoral politics, but this achieved no success and was wound up in ]. In ] he ran for ] as a U.S. Labor Party candidate, polling 40,043 votes (0.05%). | |||
| Since ] LaRouche has concentrated on infiltrating his followers into the ]. In ] he formed a body called the ] (NDPC), a name designed to convey the impression that it is part of the Democratic Party. Since ] LaRouche has run for the Democratic nomination for ] six times. He claims to be running again in ]. | |||
| The Democratic Party has consistently asserted that LaRouche is not a Democrat, but the U.S. electoral system makes it possible for him and his followers to enter Democratic primaries. LaRouche himself has polled negligible vote totals, but continues to promote himself as a serious political candidate, a pretension which is sometimes accepted by elements of the media and some political figures. In ], however, a court ruled that the ] has the right to keep LaRouche from nominating as a Democratic candidate, based in on a party requirement that a Democratic nominee must be a registered voter. LaRouche, as a convicted felon, is not eligible to be a registered voter in the state of ], where he lives. | |||
| The use of the NDPC name has, however, allowed LaRouche followers to compete seriously in Democratic primaries for lesser offices, and even occasionally to win them. The best known example was in ], when a LaRouche candidate, ], won the Democratic primary for the post of Lieutenant-Governor of ]. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Senator ], refused to run on the same ticket as Fairchild and formed a new party for the election. Fairchild's victory was attributed to low voter turnout and a poor "regular" candidate, but also to some genuine support for the LaRouche anti-establishment message. NDPC have won several other Democratic primaries in various states, but LaRouche's organisations have never suceeded in entering the mainstream. | |||
| Some of the LaRouche organization's successes have come from exploiting public fears about the ], which they blame on international conspirators. In ] LaRouche wrote: "It is in the strategic interests of Moscow to see to it that the West does nothing to stop this pandemic; within a few years, at the present rates, the spread of AIDS in Asia, Africa, Western Europe, and the Americas would permit Moscow to take over the world almost without firing a shot." This prediction, like all of LaRouche's apocalyptic warnings, has proved to be baseless. | |||
| ==LaRouche and the Jews== | |||
| LaRouche has been regularly accused of ] and ]. Jewish organisations such as the ] and the ] of ] have devoted much time and energy to documenting LaRouche's various writings and speeches on these subjects. LaRouche for his part has denied these accusations, asserting that those who accuse him are part of the oligarchic conspiracy to rule the world. | |||
| The truth about LaRouche's attitude to the Jews is not easy to determine. Indeed it is likely that there is no single truth, since many of LaRouche's statements on this as on other subjects have been obscure and contradictory. From the early 1970s LaRouche regularly used the word "]" as a term of abuse. The use of "Zionist" as a code word for "Jew" is a common practice among anti-Semitic groups (see for example and ). In the 1970s also, LaRouche developed connections with the ] and the ], a leading extreme right group, both well-known for anti-Semitism. The use of "Zionist" as a code word for "Jew" is particularly noticeable in the 1978 publication by the LaRouche organisation entitled ''Zionism is not Judaism''. | |||
| In NCLC publications during the 1970s the Jews were accused of running the ], controlling ] and the ]. LaRouche also claimed that the "Zionist lobby" controlled the U.S. government and the ]: not far short of the "]" rhetoric of ] organisations. Any American professing "Zionist loyalties" was, he said, a "national security risk." | |||
| In ''The Case of Ludwig Feuerbach'' (]), LaRouche (under the pen name L. Marcus) said that "Jewish culture... is merely the residue left to the Jewish home after everything saleable has been marketed to the Goyim." In an editorial in ''New Solidarity'' in ] he wrote: "America must be cleansed for its righteous war by the immediate elimination of the Nazi Jewish Lobby and other British agents from the councils of government, industry, and labor." | |||
| LaRouche has also been regularly accused of ], widely seen as a hallmark of anti-Semitism. In ] LaRouche described the ] as mostly "mythical," and his German second wife, ], dismissed it as a "swindle." These references are sourced in Dennis King's book ''Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism''. In ] LaRouche said that "only" 1.5 million Jews died during ], and that their deaths were not the result of a deliberate campaign of extermination by the Nazis. This statement is also sourced by Dennis King. In January ] LaRouche's New Solidarity International Press Service issued a statement titled "LaRouche Reaffirms '1.5 millions' Analysis". LaRouche and his followers have sought to discredit King's book since its publication in ], but the authenticity of the quotations attributed to LaRouche above has not been successfully challenged. | |||
| In recent years, however, LaRouche appears to have modified his views on these subjects - without of course conceding that he has done so. In a ] LaRouche published an article called "A Personal Statement from Lyndon LaRouche on Music, Judaism, and Hitler." In this article he several times refers to "the Jew," a usage typical of anti-Semites and one which he must have known is offensive to Jews. | |||
| Nevertheless, in the course of a discussion of ], LaRouche acknowledges the contribution made by Jews to European civilization. He says: "Germany can never be truly freed from the legacy of Hitler's crimes, until the contributions of German Jews, in particular, are celebrated as an integral part of the honorable history of Germany." The article contains several other statements in similar vein. There is even a word of praise for ], an archetypal Jewish business figure of the kind so savagely denounced by LaRouche throughout his career. | |||
| In this article also LaRouche acknowledges that the Holocaust is not mostly mythological or a Zionist swindle. He says: "We can not allow 2,000 years of Jewish survival in Europe to be buried under the faceless stone epitaph which speaks only of a bare 13-odd years of Hitler's Holocaust." He explicity states that "Yes, Hitler killed millions of Jews," a direct repudiation of his ] statement that only 1.5 million died and those not as a result of a deliberate plan of extermination. This article can be seen as a significant (if unacknowledged) retreat by LaRouche from his statements of the 1970s and 1980s. | |||
| ==Criminal conviction== | |||
| By the 1980s LaRouche and Helga Zepp-LaRouche had built a extensive political network, including the ''Schiller Institute'' in Germany, headed by Zepp-LaRouche, and branches in several other countries. The ] claimed to have affiliates in ], ], ], ] and several South American countries. In ] LaRouche operatives took over an older extreme-right group, the ] (CEC), and regularly contest elections. The LaRouche organisation publishes a twice-weekly newspaper, ''The New Federalist'' and a weekly newsmagazine, ''Executive Intelligence Review''. The LaRouche publishing house, Benjamin Franklin Books, issues a steady stream of works by LaRouche and his followers. The real membership of LaRouche's organisation is not known. | |||
| The size of the LaRouche empire led to investigations of the source of its apparently extensive financial resources. Like most cults, the LaRouche organisation devotes much of its energy to the sale of literature and the soliciting of small donations at airports and on university campuses. It also operates more sophisticated ] groups, soliciting donations by phone, usually under the guise of various patriotic front organisations to conceal the real source of the phone calls. More seriously, however, LaRouche was accused of fraudently soliciting "loans" from vulnerable elderly people, sometimes giving completely misleading explanations for the loan ("funding the ]" or "finding a cure for AIDS"). The funds thus raised were then directed into a maze of dummy companies so as to avoid both taxation and attempts to recover the "loans." | |||
| In October ] the FBI and Virginia state authorities raided the LaRouche headquarters in ] in search of evidence to support the persistent accusations of fraud and extortion made against LaRouche. He and six associates were charged with conspiracy and mail fraud, and LaRouche was also charged with conspiring to hide his personal income since ], the last year he had filed a federal tax return. In December ] a federal jury in ] convicted LaRouche and his associates, and LaRouche was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, of which he served five. | |||
| The prosecution alleged that LaRouche and his staff solicited loans with false assurances to potential lenders and showed "reckless disregard" of the facts. Assistant U.S. Attorney ] presented evidence that LaRouche's organisation had solicited US$34 million in loans since ]. The most important evidence was the testimony of lenders, many of them elderly retirees, who had lost thousands of dollars in loans to LaRouche that were never repaid. Several witnesses were LaRouche followers who testified under immunity from prosecution. | |||
| In addition to LaRouche, his chief fund-raiser, ], was convicted on ten mail fraud counts. LaRouche's legal adviser, ], and several other fundraising operatives were convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. LaRouche denied all the charges, calling them "an all-out frame-up by a state and federal task force," and said that the federal government was trying to kill him. "The purpose of this frame-up is not is not to send me to prison. It's to kill me," LaRouche said. "In prison it's fairly easy to kill me... If this sentence goes through, I'm dead." This proved to be another false prediction: LaRouche was released unharmed in ]. | |||
| One of the most striking aspects of the trial was the revelation of LaRouche's personal wealth. While lenders were told that LaRouche had no money to repay their loans, he in fact spent US$4.2 million on real estate in Virginia and on "improvements" to his 200-acre Leesburg estate. These included a swimming pool and horse riding ring. | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| * by John Mintz 1985 (Washington Post) | |||
| * by John Mintz 1985 (Washington Post) | |||
| * by John Mintz 1985 (Washington Post) | |||
| * by John Mintz 1985 (Washington Post) | |||
| * by John Mintz 1985 (Washington Post) | |||
| * By Caryle Murphy 1988 (Washington Post) | |||
| * By Alison Howard 1990 (Washington Post) | |||
| * By Peter Pae and Leef Smith 1994 (Washington Post) | |||
| * | |||
| * ~ '']'' | |||
| * : LaRouche Publications | |||
| * (''Newsday'' article on LaRouche's record of eight consecutive Presidential campaigns) | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * ~ book by ] | |||
| * ~ '']'' | |||
| * | |||
| * ~ '']'' (Temple Of The Screaming Electron website) | |||
| * | |||
| * ~ ''from the website of'' ] | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| ] | |||
Revision as of 21:59, 21 July 2004
Larouche is fucking insane.