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The National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC) is a political cadre organization in the United States founded and controlled by political activist Lyndon LaRouche, who has sometimes described it as a "philosophical association." It originated as the Labor Caucus of the radical student organization Students for a Democratic Society, and became the NCLC in January 1969 after the group was expelled from SDS. By 1972 the NCLC had approximately 1,000 members.
LaRouche is the NCLC's founder and, since the expulsion of oppositional factions in 1973-74, the political views of the NCLC are virtually indistinguishable from those of LaRouche. For more information on these views see the article "Political views of Lyndon LaRouche" as well as the main article titled "Lyndon LaRouche".
The NCLC was originally a New Left organization influenced by Trotskyist ideas as well as those of other Marxists such as Rosa Luxemburg. The NCLC became embroiled in conflicts with other leftist groups, culminating in "Operation Mop-Up" which, according to the Village Voice, the Washington Post and various former members of the NCLC, consisted of a series of physical attacks on members of rival left wing groups.
By the late 1970s, the NCLC had abandoned Marxism altogether, in favor of what its members described as an American System approach. Critics such as Chip Berlet, Russ Bellant and Dennis King accused it of adopting an essentially neo-fascist world view.
Some NCLC members, in addition to their fundraising and political duties, carry out research in areas such as science, history, classical music, etc. NCLC members who have produced research that is highly regarded by other NCLC members (and that is almost entirely published by LaRouche periodicals and publishing outfits rather than recognized scholarly journals or presses), include:
- The late Allen Salisbury, author of The Civil War and the American System. Salisbury attempted to demonstrate the importance of 19th century protectionist economist Henry Carey. However, according to LaRouche critic Dennis King, the outside expert on Carey whom NCLC members were in touch with in the late 1970s, economic historian Michael Hudson, denounced them as extremists, sued them in federal court for allegedly stealing money from him, and was a witness against them in New York State Supreme Court in a trial that resulted in several LaRouche followers being found guilty of loan fraud. (Dennis King, "Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism," pp. 249, 266, 305, 345.) King and Hudson were both participants in a meeting held at the home of investment banker John Train, according to LaRouche's Executive Intelligence Review. A former NCLC researcher alleged that Hudson had told him that the purpose of the meetings was to "coordinate national magazine stuff about you guys, and work with Federal law enforcement to deny you funding and tax exemption, is the delicate way to put it."
- Anton Chaitkin, co-author of The Unauthorized Biography of George Bush, which claimed to expose the ties of Prescott Bush and Averell Harriman with the Nazi Party of Germany. The other co-author, Webster Tarpley, has quit the LaRouche organization.
- Jonathan Tennenbaum, Ph.D., has written extensively on physics and classical music for LaRouche publications such as "21st Century Science and Technology."
- Helga Zepp-LaRouche, wife of Lyndon, has written extensively on the ideas of Friedrich Schiller and Nicholas of Cusa.
- Michael Billington, who was sentenced to a 77-year prison term for "conspiracy to fail to register as a securities broker" as part of the "LaRouche trials." He served 11 years before being paroled. During that time he taught himself to read and write Chinese, and became knowledgable about the history of Chinese philosophy. He also wrote the book Reflections of an American Political Prisoner (ISBN: 0943235170) He is now the Asia editor for the LaRouche publication Executive Intelligence Review.
Electoral politics
The NCLC launched the U.S. Labor Party (USLP), a registered political party, as its electoral arm and ran LaRouche for President of the United States on the Labor Party ticket in 1976. The USLP was described by its founders as "an independent political association committed to the tradition of Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Henry C. Carey, and President Abraham Lincoln."
In 1979 LaRouche changed his political strategy to one of running in Democratic primaries rather than as a third party candidate. This resulted in the USLP being disbanded.
International work
The International Caucus of Labor Committees (ICLC) was founded as the philosophical nucleus for LaRouche movement operations worldwide.
For a number of years the ICLC operated in Canada as first the North American Labour Party and then the Party for the Commonwealth of Canada. The ICLC has affiliates in France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, along with Mexico and several South American countries. In Australia LaRouche operatives took over an older extreme-right group, the Citizens Electoral Council (CEC), and regularly contest elections. The most recent significant addition to the network of active ICLC affiliates is in the Philippines. The LaRouche organisation publishes a weekly newspaper, The New Federalist and a weekly newsmagazine, Executive Intelligence Review. The real membership of LaRouche's organisation is not known.
External links
- The Moral Obligation to the Virginia Prisoners provides a statement of the philosophical principles of the NCLC
- Lyndon Larouche: Fascism wrapped in an American flag tracks the evolution of the NCLC in the 1970s.
- Archive of Dennis King's articles on the NCLC includes the 1979-80 Our Town series and later writings