Misplaced Pages

Following this, the NCLC adopted violent and disruptive tactics under LaRouche's direction. According to articles in the Village Voice and other publications, NCLC members physically attacked meetings of the Communist Party, and later of the SWP and other groups who were classed by LaRouche as "left-protofascists." These attacks were called "Operation Mop-up." According to Dennis King, some ex-NCLC members who left the group at this time say that LaRouche was studying the career of Adolf Hitler and consciously adopting the tactics of the early Nazi Party.

The NCLC claimed that they acted in self-defense, even though all other accounts say that it was the NCLC that initiated the violence. LaRouche writes that "the FBI was orchestrating its assets in the leadership of the Communist Party U.S.A., to bring about my personal 'elimination',", citing a document obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Some of LaRouche's most outspoken opponents are to be found among those who remained in the Left, after LaRouche and his followers had moved away from Marxism. According to Tim Wohlforth and Dennis Tourish:

The parallel between LaRouche's thinking and that of the classical fascist model is striking. LaRouche, like Mussolini and Hitler before him, borrowed from Marx yet changed his theories fundamentally. Most important, Marx's internationalist outlook was abandoned in favor of a narrow nation-state perspective. Marx's goal of abolishing capitalism was replaced by the model of a totalitarian state that directs an economy where ownership of the means of production is still largely in public hands. The corporations and their owners remain in place but have to take their orders from LaRouche. Hitler called the schema "national socialism". LaRouche hopes the term "the American system" will be more acceptable."

Whether or not LaRouche has ever called for a political arrangement similar to fascism is disputed. The NCLC engaged in activity such as defending alleged Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk, who was acquitted by the Supreme Court of Israel, and associating with the far-right Liberty Lobby.

1971–1979

In 1971, LaRouche founded the U.S. Labor Party as a vehicle for electoral politics, maintaining that both the major parties had abandoned the American System economic policies that the LaRouche organization had embraced (LaRouche names Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt as exemplars of this school of thought).

In 1971, LaRouche organized the New Solidarity International Press Service as a wire service for his publications. He founded the weekly Executive Intelligence Review and co-founded the Fusion Energy Foundation.

By the mid-1970s, LaRouche and his movement were no longer promoting a socialist agenda. Readings of Marx and Lenin were off the reading list of LaRouche's followers, to be replaced by texts by Alexander Hamilton, Friedrich Schiller and Plato. A key factor in the shift may be found in the published articles of NCLC Executive Committee member Allen Salisbury on Henry Carey and the American System school of political economy, culminating in his book, The Civil War and the American System. The LaRouche organization, after some deliberation and dissent, adopted Salisbury's thesis, that the American System approach was different from, and superior to, either Marxism or laissez-faire capitalism, and the organization's publications rapidly reflected this re-assessment. Another book was published, a collection of source documents entitled The Political Economy of the American Revolution. LaRouche also became a strong advocate of nuclear energy and directed energy technologies for ballistic missile defense.

In 1974, a former member of LaRouche's U.S. Labor Party, Gregory Rose, published an article in National Review alleging that LaRouche had established contacts with Palestinian terrorist organizations such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and also with the Iraqi mission to the United Nations in New York. These contacts culminated in LaRouche's visit to Baghdad in 1975, during which he made a presentation to the Baath Party conference on the topic of his "Oasis Plan," a proposal for Arab-Israeli peace based on the joint construction of massive water projects. During 1975, LaRouche's newspaper New Solidarity began running articles favourable to Iraq, and extensively quoting Saddam Hussein, at that time Iraq's vice-president. Rose also alleged that LaRouche at this time was in contact with Soviet diplomats.

In 1976, he ran for President of the United States as a U.S. Labor Party candidate, polling 40,043 votes (0.05%). This campaign was the first to broadcast a paid half-hour television address, which gave LaRouche the opportunity to air his views before a national audience. This was to become a regular feature of later campaigns during the 1980s and 1990s.

In a September 24, 1976 op-ed in the Washington Post, entitled "NCLC: A Domestic Political Menace," Stephen 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 1977 he married Helga Zepp, a German political activist.

LaRouche asserts that much of the hostile characterizations of him and his ideas that came during this period was the result of a coordinated attack on the LaRouche movement, in conjunction with an FBI program named COINTELPRO.

Beginning in 1979, the LaRouche movement has also conducted some of its activities within the framework of the Democratic Party, despite the disapproval of the Democratic National Committee.

Chip Berlet wrote his first of several articles about LaRouche in 1979 for the Chicago Sun Times. LaRouche sued Berlet and King for defamation, along with NBC News and the Anti-Defamation League, but LaRouche lost the case, and the same jury awarded damages to NBC.

Beginning in the late 1970s, the Heritage Foundation, the Anti-Defamation League, and The New York Times began publishing material highly critical of the LaRouche organization, which LaRouche claims was part of a "defamatory campaign laid the political groundwork for a later, new wave of corrupt Justice Department operations launched at, once again, the instigation of Henry Kissinger." In 1981, journalists Russ Bellant, Chip Berlet, and Dennis King released a set of documents to the press which they claimed revealed a pattern of potentially illegal activity by LaRouche and his followers. They called for government investigations.

A New York Supreme Court ruled in a defamation suit brought by LaRouche that it is "fair comment" to describe LaRouche as an anti-Semite.

1980s

Despite having become a registered Democrat, LaRouche was harshly critical of Jimmy Carter in the November 1980 election, with whom he had competed for the Democratic Party nomination.

LaRouche had become interested in the possible uses of lasers and other directed energy weapons during the 1970s. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, LaRouche sought to share his knowledge with the new administration, hoping that these weapons could be used against nuclear missiles.

LaRouche and his representatives met with Reagan administration Energy Secretary Donald Hodel, Interior Secretary James G. Watt, Science Adviser Dr. George Keyworth, and State Department official Richard Morris in early 1981. Later that year Lyndon and Helga Zepp-LaRouche met with CIA Deputy Director Bobby Ray Inman. Long-time LaRouche supporter and former head of German Military Intelligence, General Paul-Albert Scherer, has said:

"In the Spring of 1982 here in the Soviet Embassy there were very important secret talks that were held.… The question was: Did the United States and the Soviet Union wish jointly to develop an anti-ballistic missile defense that would have made nuclear war impossible? Then, in August, you had this very sharp Soviet rejection of the entire idea.… I have discussed this thoroughly with the developer, the originator of this idea, who is the scientific-technological strategic expert, Lyndon LaRouche. The rejection came in August, and at that point the American President Reagan decided to push this entire thing out into the public eye, so he made his speech of March 1983."

General Paul-Albert Scherer (ret.), Press Conference at the National Press Club, Washington, DC., May 6, 1992;

A military specialist involved in the SDI program, retired General Daniel O. Graham, has complained about the LaRouche attempts to take credit for SDI. "They also mounted a furious attack on me personally. Even today I get mail asking if I'm in league with LaRouche," said Graham. LaRouche countered, " "President Reagan's initial version of SDI was consistent with what I had introduced into U.S.-Soviet back-channel discussions over the period beginning February 1982. However, immediately thereafter, the mice went to work. Daniel Graham, the leading opponent of SDI up to that time, now proclaimed himself the virtual author of the policy, and was used, thereafter, to remove all of the crucial elements from the original policy." There is no independent verification outside of LaRouche group media, however, of the claim that LaRouche originated or played a major role in the development of "Star Wars" missile defense.

LaRouche opposed Reagan's support for Britain in the Falklands War (LaRouche referred to the war by the Argentine name, the Malvinas War), arguing that the policy was in violation of the Monroe Doctrine. LaRouche also strongly opposed the Reagan Administration's arming of the Nicaraguan Contras. He also opposed the zero-growth policies of the Club of Rome and formed a countergroup named "Club of Life" on the issue. LaRouche has also had contact with some foreign leaders. On May 23, 1982, he met with Mexican President José López Portillo, and advised him to suspend foreign debt payments (which was done in August 1982), and to declare exchange controls and nationalize Mexico's banks (done in September 1982).

In 1982, U.S. News and World Report sued for damages when it found that LaRouche reporters were impersonating its reporters in phone calls. Lyndon LaRouche and his aide, Jeffrey Steinberg, gave depositions that revealed that their policy was for reporters to only pretend to be from non-existing publications, and that they had infiltrated the campaigns of competing presidential nominees. Without admitting guilt, the LaRouche group agreed not to impersonate U.S. News reporters in the future.

John Train "Salon"

The John Train Salon is the name given by supporters of Lyndon LaRouche to several meetings they allege took place between 1983 and 1985 at the home of New York investment banker John Train. Articles published by the LaRouche organization claim that these meetings, which were attended by a number of journalists and others, were held in order to plan the publication of articles critical of LaRouche. A LaRouche publication claims that Train coordinated a media slander campaign and introduced salon participants to officials of the FBI and the IRS with the aim of instigating criminal prosecutions of LaRouche.

According to second-hand accounts, the attendees included: Chip Berlet, Dennis King, John Rees, journalist, Roy Godson, academic, then a consultant to the National Security Council and the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), Mira Lansky Boland, head of fact-finding at the Washington, D.C. offices of the Anti-Defamation League and former employee of the CIA, Richard Mellon Scaife, a Pittsburgh businessman known for contributing to conservative causes, Patricia Lynch, an NBC reporter, and unnamed journalists from Readers Digest, Business Week, The New Republic, and The Wall Street Journal.

The LaRouche organization claims that news coverage describing LaRouche as a fascist, communist, racist, anti-Semitic, cult leader and conspiracy theorist resulted from these meetings, although many articles making these claims had appeared in the mainstream and alternative press before the meetings are alleged to have taken place. According to a log of media coverage compiled by the LaRouche organization, NBC-TV also broadcast two programs in April of 1986, produced by alleged "John Train Salon" participant Pat Lynch, which repeated her earlier characterizations of LaRouche's ideas, and went on to accuse LaRouche of plotting the assassination of Henry Kissinger. NBC then broadcast programs in March and December 1986 claiming that LaRouche had been responsible for the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. The information published by the LaRouche organization about the John Train meetings has not been independently verified.

Other events in the 1980s

In 1984, participated in the founding of the Schiller Institute with his current wife, Helga Zepp-LaRouche.

In 1986 LaRouche launched the Proposition 64 initiative in California, which would have placed AIDS back on that state's List of Communicable Diseases subject to Public Health law. Opponents claimed that the measure could have instituted quarantines and sexual contact tracing. After its defeat it was reintroduced two years later and again defeated.

During the 1980s, the print and electronic media rarely mentioned LaRouche's name without the prefix, "political extremist." The LaRouche campaign in 1988, conducted while LaRouche was on trial, attempted to poke fun at this practice by broadcasting a national TV spot which featured a montage of clips of different TV announcers, all saying "political extremist Lyndon LaRouche."

1988–1994 Criminal conviction and imprisonment

By the 1980s, LaRouche and Helga Zepp-LaRouche had built an extensive political network, including the Schiller Institute in Germany, headed by Zepp-LaRouche, and branches in several other countries. The LaRouche organization devoted much of its energy to the sale of literature and the soliciting of small donations at airports and on university campuses; it also solicited donations by phone. Press reports alleged that this fundraising activity sometimes involved tax law violations, the conversion of publication sales into donations for LaRouche political campaigns that were then matched by the Federal Election Commission, and fraudulent soliciting of "loans" from vulnerable elderly people.

In October 1986, the FBI and Virginia state authorities raided the LaRouche headquarters in Leesburg in search of evidence to support the persistent accusations of fraud and extortion. LaRouche and six associates were charged with conspiracy and mail fraud related to fundraising. LaRouche was also charged with conspiring to hide his personal income since 1979, the last year he had filed a federal tax return. In December 1988, a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia convicted LaRouche and his associates, and LaRouche was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. LaRouche served five years of his sentence and was paroled. The convictions of LaRouche and his associates were a defining moment in the history of the LaRouche network. LaRouche supporters insisted that LaRouche was jailed, not for any violation of the law, but for his beliefs.

LaRouche did not stop all political activity while in jail. He ran for president again in 1992, met with international personages, and gave interviews. During part of his imprisonment he shared a cell with televangelist Jim Bakker, who later wrote of his astonishment at LaRouche's detailed knowledge of the Bible. LaRouche was released on parole in 1994.

• For more information on the case, see United States v. LaRouche

Meanwhile, in 1992 the father of an adult involved with the LaRouche movement paid associates of the Cult Awareness Network to have his son abducted and "deprogrammed". Lewis du Pont Smith objected and his father sought to have him declared incompetent. The incident resulted in serious legal repercussions for those involved.

1994–present

LaRouche continued his political activity upon his release from prison in 1994, concentrating much of his attention on Third World nations. He was invited to Brazil by members of the city council of São Paulo, and was made an honorary citizen of that city on June 12 of that year. On December 1, 1998, while sharing the podium with Helga Zepp-LaRouche before a meeting of the Mexican Society of Geography and Statistics in Mexico City, former President Lopez Portillo said "it is now necessary for the world to listen to the wise words of Lyndon LaRouche."

When LaRouche ran for president again in 1996 the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Don Fowler, refused to allow LaRouche to be considered as a candidate or receive delegates. (LaRouche had received enough votes from a Louisiana parish to earn 2 delegates). LaRouche sued under the Voting Rights Act and lost. He appealed to the First Court of Appeals and lost there as well, in 1999, on the grounds that freedom of association permit political parties to reject members. Opinion in LaRouche v Fowler 96-7191

During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, LaRouche mobilized his supporters in defense of Clinton. They formed a group called the "Committee to Save the Presidency," which petitioned nationwide against resignation or impeachment. LaRouche asserted that the same people and institutions that had attacked him were behind the attacks on Clinton.

In March of 2000, the Los Angeles Times printed a facsimile of the Democratic presidential primary ballot with LaRouche's name airbrushed out. During the 2000 Democratic primaries, LaRouche scored in double digits in multiple states, with his best showing in Arkansas, where he received 22% of the vote to Vice President Al Gore's 78%. In the Kentucky primary, LaRouche placed third with 11%, behind Gore and Bill Bradley. The Democratic Party refused to grant any delegates to LaRouche on the grounds that he did not support the party's platform.

In 2001 and 2003, he toured India, speaking at various conferences and university seminars. He has also traveled to Russia, where on several different occasions, LaRouche publications report that he has addressed both the Economics Committee of the Russian State Duma and the Russian Academy of Sciences, most recently in 2001.

LaRouche and his organizations opposed the US invasion of Iraq. LaRouche was cited by an op-ed in the Syria Times as "mong the US voices of reason" for asserting that the war is the result of a "1996 Israeli government policy that is being foisted on the President by a nest of (pro-Israel senior officials) inside the U.S. government." LaRouche critic Chip Berlet suggests that the commentary on Iraq by LaRouche-affiliated publications, which is incorporated into some Arab and Muslim commentaries, represents conspiracism and anti-Semitism, especially through the use of what Berlet describes as "stereotyped descriptions of the neoconservative network and their power."

2004

LaRouche entered the primary elections for the Democratic Party's nomination in 2004. He did so even though his home state of Virginia is one of a handful of states which still has lifetime denial of the vote to ex-felons, which can only be overturned on appeal to the governor. The Democratic Party did not consider his candidacy to be legitimate and ruled him ineligible to win delegates. He gained negligible electoral support.

In its 2004 assessment of presidential candidates, the National Right to Life Committee gave LaRouche a grade of 75% and declared that he is "pro-life in every way (against euthanasia, capital punishment, etc)."

LaRouche was present in Boston during the 2004 Democratic National Convention but did not attend the convention itself. He held a media conference in which he declared his support for John Kerry and pledged to mobilize his organization to help defeat George W. Bush in the November presidential election. He also waged a campaign, begun in October 2002 , to have Dick Cheney resign, or be dumped from the Republican ticket.

A significant change in the LaRouche organization since LaRouche was released from prison has been the development of the "LaRouche Youth Movement" (LYM) beginning in 1999. The recruitment of young people in the 18-25 year-old age bracket has reportedly brought more members into the LaRouche organization than at any time in the past. On September 9, 2003, members of the LYM interrupted a debate of the Democratic candidates for president at Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland. They were upset over LaRouche's exclusion from the debate and wanted Cheney to be impeached.

International publicity about LaRouche was sparked in 2003 and 2004 after Jeremiah Duggan, a Jewish student from the UK who was attending a conference and "cadre school" in Germany organized by the Schiller Institute and LaRouche Youth Movement, died in mysterious circumstances in Wiesbaden. LaRouche publications claim Duggan was suicidal, but a British court ruled out suicide, and decided that Duggan died while "in a state of terror".

Note on biography

Separating fact from fiction in LaRouche's biography is made difficult by the barrages of conflicting accounts generated by the LaRouche movement and its critics. LaRouche writes in his autobiography that he developed his ideas in the 1950s and has advocated them consistently ever since. He claims to have pioneered such ideas as the International Development Bank, the Strategic Defense Initiative or "Star Wars," and the so-called Eurasian Land-Bridge. He also claims that he was used by the Reagan administration as a "back-channel" for negotiations with the Soviet Union. There is no independent verification of these claims.

The only substantial biography of LaRouche is Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism, by Dennis King (Doubleday, 1989). King, an investigative journalist, charges LaRouche with developing an intellectualized version of fascism mixed with political cultism and anti-Semitism (see Political views of Lyndon LaRouche.)

Timeline

• 1922: Born
• 1942: Dropped out of Northeastern
• 1944: Enlisted in Army
• 1946: Return from India
• 1948: Socialist Worker Party mtgs.
• 1954: Married Janice Neuberger
• 1956: Son born
• 1963: Janice leaves
• 1964: Revolutionary Tendency
• 1965: Expelled from Socialist Worker Party
• 1965: Joins Spartacist League
• 1965: Cohabit with Carol Larrabee
• 1966: Joins Committee for Independent Political Action
• 1968: Protests at Columbia with SDS
• 1969: Expelled from SDS
• 1969: Forms NCLC
• 1971: Forms U.S. Labor Party
• 1971: New Solidarity press service
• 1973: Operation Mop-up
• 1974: Executive Intelligence Review
• 1974: Fusion Energy Foundation
• 1975: Visit to Iraq
• 1976: 1st Pres. bid, w/ US Labor
• 1976: Critical Washington Post article
• 1977: Married Helga Zepp
• 1979: Brings & loses libel suit
• 1979: moves to opposition to deregulation
• 1979: Move to Democratic Party
• 1980: USLP disbanded
• 1980: 2nd Pres. bid, w/ Democratic Party
• 1982: U.S. News suit
• 1983: Train Salon
• 1984: 3rd Pres. bid.
• 1984: Inspired formation of Schiller Institute
• 1986: California AIDS initiative loses
• 1986: Illinois state contests
• 1986: FBI raids HQ
• 1986: LaRouche & 6 others charged w/ fraud
• 1987: Forced bankruptcy
• 1988: Misttrial, charges refiled
• 1988: 2nd California AIDS intitiative loses
• 1988: 4th Pres. bid
• 1988: LaRouche & others convicted
• 1992: 5th Pres. bid, from prison
• 1992: CAN kidnapping of Lewis du Pont Smith
• 1994: Paroled
• 1996: 6th Pres. bid
• 1996: Takeover of Citizens Electoral Council
• 1996: LaRouche v Fowler
• 1999: formed Larouche Youth Movement
• 2000: 7th Pres. bid
• 2003: Death of Duggan
• 2004: 8th Pres. bid

Works

Lyndon LaRouche has written numerous articles, pamphlets, and books published mostly by his own press. These include his autobiography The Power of Reason (1980), There Are No Limits to Growth (1983), and a second autobiography, The Power of Reason 1988. His 1984 textbook, So, 'You Wish To Learn All About Economics, circulates internationally in several languages, as does his 1991 The Science of Christian Economy.

Books about Lyndon LaRouche and his movement

• Gilbert, Helen (2003) Lyndon LaRouche: Fascism restyled for the new Millennium, Red Letter Press, ISBN 0932323219
• Beyes-Corleis, Aglaja (1994) Verirrt: Mein Leben in einer radikalen Politorganisation, Herder/Spektrum, ISBN 3451042789
• King, Dennis (1989) Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism, Doubleday, ISBN 0385238800

External links

LaRouche publications:

• LaRouche Political Action Committee
• Executive Intelligence Review: LaRouche Publications
• Twenty First Century Science and Technology – LaRouche-affiliated Science organization
• Philippine LaRouche Society
• "He's a bad guy, but we can't say why" LaRouche response to the various accusations against him
• The Bizarre Case of Baroness Symons – LaRouche response to the recent Independent and Washington Post articles
• World Larouche Youth Movement
• Schiller Institute
• Schiller Institut (in German)
• Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität (in German)

Other links:

General:

• 2003 Personal Financial Disclosure for Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. (PDF)
• Lyndon LaRouche - SourceWatch article
• Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism – Review of Dennis King's book
• Building a World Without Poverty, Violence, and War:what are the roles of LaRouche and Mary Baker Eddy? by Rolf A. F. Witzsche
• The disownment of Lyndon LaRouche Austin Meredith, 2005, Brown University, the Kouroo Contexture: The History of Quakerism (PDF)

Critical:

• Dennis King on LaRouche An archive of dozens of articles on LaRouche by Dennis King and others; reviews of King's book on LaRouche from the mainstream and alternative press; interviews with King by Neenyah Ostrom and other journalists
• The Cult Controversy includes a 1995 series on LaRouche by John Mintz and links to other Washington Post articles on LaRouche
• Larouche Exposed – Pasadena City College
• Letter on LaRouche Youth Movement – UC San Diego forum
• Articles about LaRouche from Political Research Associates by Chip Berlet and others.
• Partners in Bigotry: The LaRouche Cult and the Nation of Islam by Nizkor Project
• Lyndon Larouche/Executive Intelligence Review Series of articles from the Rick A. Ross Institute for the Study of Destructive Cults
• Pre-1990 Larouche quotes, from primary-source documents
• LaRouche: Sex Maniac & Demagogue by Clara Fraser, a former colleague of LaRouche in his Trotskyist days—reproduced in the second part of this email to the Marxmail e-list.
• True History of Lyn Marcus (Lyndon LaRouche) and the Labor Committees 1975 article published by the International Workers Party whose members joined LaRouche's NCLC for a period in the early 1970s.
• Lyndon LaRouche: Fascist Demagogue: A '60's Socialist Takes a Hard Right by Tim Wohlforth who worked closely with LaRouche in 1964 and 1965 and also observed him afterwards.
• No Joke (the effect LaRouche has on young recruits) – Washington Post, October 2004
• The cult and the candidate by Terry Kirby, July 2004 (The Independent of London)