Misplaced Pages

LaRouche movement

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an accepted version of this page

#588411

161-633: The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting the late Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas . It has included many organizations and companies around the world, which campaign, gather information and publish books and periodicals. LaRouche-aligned organizations include the National Caucus of Labor Committees , the Schiller Institute , the Worldwide LaRouche Youth Movement and, formerly,

322-402: A "Nazi", and has linked him to the murder of Aldo Moro . His followers heckled and disrupted Kissinger's appearances. In 1982, a member of LaRouche's Fusion Energy Foundation , Ellen Kaplan, asked Kissinger at an airport terminal if it were true that he slept with young boys; Kissinger and his wife, Nancy, were on their way to a heart operation. In response, Nancy Kissinger grabbed the woman by

483-1026: A "Woodcocksucker". The leadership of the AFL–CIO was also attacked. During the same period, the LaRouche movement was closely associated with the Teamsters union which was in a jurisdictional dispute with the UFW. LaRouche put substantial effort into his first Democratic Primary, held February 1980 in New Hampshire . Reporters, campaign workers, and party officials received calls from people impersonating reporters or ADL staff members, inquiring what "bad news" they had heard about LaRouche. LaRouche acknowledged that his campaign workers used impersonation to collect information on political opponents. Governor Hugh Gallen , State Attorney General Thomas Rath and other officials received harassing phone calls. Their names appeared on

644-650: A 13-room Georgian mansion on a 250-acre section of the Woodburn Estate , near Leesburg , Loudoun County , Virginia . The property was owned at the time by a company registered in Switzerland. Companies associated with LaRouche continued to buy property in the area, including part of Leesburg's industrial park, purchased by LaRouche's Lafayette/Leesburg Ltd. Partnership to develop a printing plant and office complex. Neighbors said they saw LaRouche guards in camouflage clothes carrying semi-automatic weapons, and

805-588: A Democrat. In its 2019 obituary of LaRouche, New York magazine reported that LaRouche's attempts to pose as a Democrat were originally an attempt at a spoiler operation to divide the opponents of Ronald Reagan . LaRouche's campaign platforms advocated a return to the Bretton Woods system , including a gold-based national and world monetary system; fixed exchange rates; and abolishing the International Monetary Fund . He supported

966-557: A Hitler-style mustache" picture at her stand, regarding a LaRouche opponent allegedly telling her "Look at me again and I'm going to punch your face." In another case, in June 2011, "the same officer was called to investigate an incident in which a man threatened to rip down several political signs displayed by LaRouche supporters." Police investigated the incident as malicious harassment – the state's hate-crime law. At one widely reported event, Congressman Barney Frank referred to

1127-421: A LaRouche organization, Royko said that leaflets appeared, alleging he had had a sex-change operation. He also said his assistant found a note with a bullseye and a threat to kill her cat on her door; Also according to Royko, LaRouche supporters picketed the newspaper offices, calling Royko a "degenerate drug pusher" and demanding he take an AIDS test. LaRouche supporters denied such charges, saying they were part of

1288-453: A campaign against them by the "drug lobby." In 1984, Patricia Lynch co-produced an NBC news piece and a TV documentary on LaRouche. She was then impersonated by LaRouche followers who interfered with her reporting. LaRouche sued Lynch and NBC for libel, and NBC countersued. During the trial followers picketed the NBC's offices with signs that said "Lynch Pat Lynch", and the NBC switchboard received

1449-530: A code of ethics he helped draft. Stevenson was also chairman of a Special Senate Committee which led the first major reorganization of the Senate since its Committee system was formed in the early 19th Century. Stevenson was sworn in as senator on November 17, 1970. Stevenson opposed the Vietnam War . He condemned Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson ’s Indochina policies and the violent police tactics at

1610-496: A conduit for communications to LaRouche from "Mr. Ed", an alleged CIA contact who did not exist in reality. Blum wrote, at around this time, that LaRouche's Computron Technologies Corporation included Mobil Oil and Citibank among its clients, that his World Composition Services had one of the most advanced typesetting complexes in the city and had the Ford Foundation among its clients, and that his PMR Associates produced

1771-595: A death threat. A LaRouche spokesman said they had no knowledge of the death threat. An editor of the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pennsylvania reported that a LaRouche TV crew led by Stanley Ezrol talked their way into his house in 1985 implying they were with NBC, then accused him of harassing LaRouche and producing unduly negative coverage. At the end of the interview, Ezrol allegedly asked, "Have you ever feared for your personal safety?", which

SECTION 10

#1732782889589

1932-484: A failed punch card system for tabulation of votes. Three days before the gubernatorial inauguration, the court denied the recount in a 4-3 ruling, asserting that the Illinois recount statute was unconstitutional. In the 1986 statewide Democratic primaries, Democratic voters nominated allies of Lyndon LaRouche for lieutenant governor and secretary of state. Stevenson objected to their platform and refused to appear on

2093-499: A federal agent who had been assigned to infiltrate right-wing and left-wing groups, and that he had evidence that these groups were actually being manipulated or controlled by the FBI and other agencies. LaRouche and his associates considered Frankhouser to be a valuable intelligence contact, and took his links to extremist groups to be a cover for his intelligence work. Frankhouser played into these expectations, misrepresenting himself as

2254-665: A fellow soldier, also from Lynn, who converted him to Trotskyism . Back in the U.S., he resumed his education at Northeastern University but dropped out. He returned to Lynn in 1948 and the next year joined the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) to recruit at the GE River Works there, adopting the name "Lyn Marcus" for his political work. He arrived in New York City in 1953, where he worked as a management consultant . In 1954 he married Janice Neuberger,

2415-547: A follower shook hands with President George H. W. Bush at a campaign visit to a shopping center. The follower would not let go, demanding to know, "When are you going to let LaRouche out of jail?" The Secret Service had to intervene. During the 1988 presidential campaign, LaRouche activists spread a rumor that the Democratic candidate, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis , had received professional treatment for two episodes of mental depression. Media sources did not report

2576-465: A former Office of Strategic Services operative, paramilitary trainer, and arms dealer. Some members allegedly took a six-day "anti-terrorist" course at a training camp operated by WerBell in Powder Springs, Georgia. In 1979, LaRouche denied that the training sessions took place. WerBell introduced LaRouche to covert operations specialist General John K. Singlaub , who later said that members of

2737-488: A full-length biography published in 1989. King alleges numerous instances of anonymous harassment and threats. Leaflets appeared from the NCLC accusing King, a newspaper publisher, and Roy Cohn , the newspaper's lawyer, of being criminals, homosexuals, or drug pushers. One leaflet included King's home address and phone number. In 1984, a LaRouche newspaper, New Solidarity , published an article titled "Will Dennis King Come out of

2898-597: A group of fellow G.I.s led him to define his "principal lifelong political commitment, that the United States should take postwar world leadership in establishing a world order dedicated to promoting the economic development of what we call today " developing nations ". LaRouche wrote that he discussed Marxism in the CO camp, and while traveling home on the SS General Bradley in 1946, he met Don Merrill,

3059-646: A high-speed railroad to connect Russia and the United States, including a tunnel under the Bering Strait . In 2009, a volunteer table in Mattituck, New York had a picture of Obama with a "drawn-in Hitler moustache" and "a picture of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi with Frankenstein-style bolts in her head." In July 2011, Seattle police were called by a LaRouche volunteer displaying "Obama with

3220-671: A local mandate). The Danish LaRouche Movement (Schiller Instituttet)'s first newspaper distributed 50,000 copies around Copenhagen and Aarhus . The Movimento Solidarietà – Associazione di LaRouche in Italia (MSA) is an Italian political party headed by Paolo Raimondi that supports the LaRouche platform. Ortrun Cramer of the Schiller Institute became a delegate of the Austrian International Progress Organization in

3381-472: A member of the SWP. Their son, Daniel, was born in 1956. Twenty to thirty students would ... sit on the floor surrounding LaRouche, who now sported a very shaggy beard ... LaRouche gave them esoteric assignments, such as searching through the writings of Georges Sorel to discover Rudd 's anarchistic origins, or studying Rosa Luxemburg 's The Accumulation of Capital. — Tim Wohlforth By 1961,

SECTION 20

#1732782889589

3542-488: A movement", said Moynihan. Moynihan had faced a primary challenge in 1982 from Mel Klenetsky, an associate of LaRouche. In 1986, the LaRouche movement worked to place an AIDS initiative, Proposition 64 , on the California ballot, which lost by a 4–1 margin. It was re-introduced in 1988 and lost again by the same margin. Federal and state officials raided movement offices in 1986. In the ensuing trials , some leaders of

3703-464: A paranoid preoccupation with Nelson Rockefeller and the CIA." The movement strongly opposed Rockefeller's nomination for U.S. vice president and heckled his appearances. Federal authorities were reportedly concerned that the situation might turn violent. One target of LaRouche's attention has been Henry Kissinger . LaRouche allegedly has called Kissinger a "faggot", a "traitor", a British or Soviet agent and

3864-463: A path that I believe misrepresents both my and Mr. LaRouche's positions." and has stated that LPAC and Boyd do not represent the LaRouche movement. She has taken legal action against LPAC to "immediately cease and desist, both now and in the future" from "using Mr. LaRouche's name, likeness, and potentially other confusingly similar terms." LaRouche-affiliated political parties have nominated many hundreds of candidates for national and regional offices in

4025-619: A photocopied "New Hampshire Target List" acquired by the Associated Press , found in a LaRouche campaign worker's hotel room; the list stated, "these are the criminals to burn – we want calls coming in to these fellows day and night". LaRouche spokesman Ted Andromidas said, "We did choose to target those people for political pressure hopefully to prevent them from carrying out the kind of fraud that occurred in Tuesday's election." New Hampshire journalist Jon Prestage said he

4186-527: A policy of malicious lying" against him. LaRouche married again in 1977. His wife, Helga Zepp , was then a leading activist in the West German branch of the movement. She went on to work closely with LaRouche for the rest of her career, standing for election in Germany in 1980 for his Europäische Arbeiterpartei (European Workers Party), and founding the Schiller Institute in Germany in 1984. From

4347-430: A reference to their anti-communist campaign of 1973 and to UAW president Leonard Woodcock . The movement staged demonstrations that allegedly turned violent. They issued pamphlets attacking the leadership as corrupt and perverted. The UAW said that members had received dozens of calls a day accusing their relatives of homosexuality, reportedly at the direction of NCLC "security staff". Leaflets called an Ohio local president

4508-701: A second time. In March 2014, Rogers received 22% of the vote in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary, placing her into a runoff election with David M. Alameel. The Schiller Institute and the International Caucus of Labor Committees (ICLC) are international organizations associated by some with the LaRouche Movement. Schiller Institute conferences have been held across the world. The ICLC is affiliated to political parties in France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Mexico,

4669-657: A six-day anti-terrorist training course run by Mitchell WerBell III , an arms dealer and former member of the Office of Strategic Services , who said he had ties to the CIA . Journalists and publications the party regarded as unfriendly were harassed, and it published a list of potential assassins it saw as a threat. LaRouche expected members to devote themselves entirely to the party, place their savings and possessions at its disposal, and take out loans on its behalf. Party officials decided who each member should live with, and if someone left

4830-711: A team of ten people, headed by James Bevel , to Omaha, Nebraska , to pursue the Franklin child prostitution ring allegations in 1990. Among the charges investigated by the grand jury was that the Omaha Police Chief Robert Wadman and other men had sex with a 15-year-old girl at a party held by the bank's owner. The LaRouche groups insisted there was a cover-up. They distributed copies of the Schiller Institute's New Federalist newspaper and went door-to-door in Wadman's neighborhood, telling residents he

4991-415: A trio of singers that included Fairchild and Chicago Mayoral candidate Sheila Jones. Illinois Attorney General Neil Hartigan 's home was visited late at night by a group of LaRouche followers who chanted, sang, and used a bullhorn "to exorcise the demons out of Neil Hartigan's soul". Before the primaries a group of LaRouche supporters reportedly stormed the campaign offices of Hart's opponent and demanded that

LaRouche movement - Misplaced Pages Continue

5152-472: A worker "take an AIDS test". In 1984, a reporter for a LaRouche publication buttonholed President Ronald Reagan as he was leaving a White House press conference, demanding to know why LaRouche was not receiving Secret Service protection. As a result, future press conferences in the East Room were arranged with the door behind the president so he can leave without passing through the reporters. In 1992,

5313-452: A worker's persona had to be stripped away to arrive at a state he called "little me", from which it would be possible to "rebuild their personalities around a new socialist identity", according to The Washington Post . The New York Times wrote that the first such session – which LaRouche called "ego-stripping" – involved a German member, Konstantin George, in

5474-604: A wrong, reductionist turn under British empiricists like Locke and Hume . In 1976, LaRouche campaigned for the first time in a presidential election as a U.S. Labor Party candidate, polling 40,043 votes (0.05%). It was the first of eight consecutive presidential elections in which he ran between 1976 and 2004. It enabled him to attract $ 5.9 million in federal matching funds ; candidates seeking their party's presidential nomination qualify for matching funds if they raise $ 5,000 in each of at least 20 states. His platform predicted financial disaster by 1980 accompanied by famine and

5635-584: A zoning matter went into hiding after threatening phone calls and a death threat. In leaflets supporting his application of concealed weapons permits for his bodyguards in Leesburg, Virginia, he wrote: I have a major personal security problem ... [Without the permits] the assassination teams of professional mercenaries now being trained in Canada and along the Mexico border may be expected to start arriving on

5796-599: Is headed by Helga Zepp-LaRouche , LaRouche's widow. It has nominated candidates for elective office and publishes the Neue Solidarität newspaper. Zepp-LaRouche is also the head of the German-based Schiller Institute . In 1986, Zepp-LaRouche formed the "Patriots for Germany" party, and announced that it would run a full slate of 100 candidates. The party received 0.2 percent of the 4 million votes and "failed to elect any candidates to

5957-454: Is headed by Élodie Viennot. Viennot supported the candidacy of Daniel Buchmann for the position of mayor of Berlin. Sweden has an office of the Schiller Institute (Schillerinstitutet) and the political party European Worker's Party (EAP). In Denmark, four candidates for parliament on the LaRouche platform (Tom Gillesberg, Feride Istogu Gillesberg and Hans Schultz) received 197 votes in the 2007 election (at least 32,000 votes are needed for

6118-618: Is it possible that the major media, with all of their access to information, could possibly be mistaken in that way?" Democratic gubernatorial candidate Adlai Stevenson III was favored to win this election, having lost the previous election by a narrow margin. He refused to run on the same slate with Hart and Fairchild, forming the Solidarity Party and running with Jane Spirgel as the Secretary of State nominee. Hart and Spirgel's opponent, Republican incumbent James R. Thompson , won

6279-531: The 1968 Columbia University protests , he organized his supporters under the name National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). The aim of the NCLC was to win control of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) branch – the university's main activist group – and build a political alliance between students, local residents, organized labor, and the Columbia faculty. By 1973,

6440-598: The 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago , renewed his attacks on Republican President Richard Nixon ’s prosecution of the war. He also introduced legislation requiring an end to all aid to South Vietnam by June 30, 1975. Stevenson was highly critical of Republican President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal . He called on Nixon to answer for the integrity of the country’s leaders. “All of us — Republicans and Democrats — have an interest in clearing

6601-604: The Communist Party that the movement "must dispose of this stinking corpse". Armed with chains, bats, and martial-art nunchuk sticks, NCLC members assaulted Communist Party, SWP, and Progressive Labor Party members and Black Power activists on the streets and during meetings. At least 60 assaults were reported. The operation ended when police arrested several of LaRouche's followers; there were no convictions, and LaRouche maintained they had acted in self-defense. Journalist and LaRouche biographer Dennis King writes that

LaRouche movement - Misplaced Pages Continue

6762-625: The Democratic National Committee refused to seat his delegates and barred LaRouche from attending the Democratic National Convention . LaRouche was born in Rochester, New Hampshire, the oldest of three children of Jessie Lenore ( née Weir) and Lyndon H. LaRouche Sr. His paternal grandfather's family emigrated to the United States from Rimouski , Quebec, whereas his maternal grandfather

6923-745: The FBI may have tried to aggravate the strife, using measures such as anonymous mailings, to keep the groups at each other's throats. LaRouche said he met representatives of the Soviet Union at the United Nations in 1974 and 1975 to discuss attacks by the Communist Party USA on the NCLC and propose a merger, but said he received no assistance from them. One FBI memo, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act , proposes assisting

7084-752: The Hollinger Corporation , which has taken over The Jerusalem Post for that purpose." Left-wing anti-war groups were divided over the LaRouche movement's involvement. In the United States Senate election in Wyoming, 2000 , the Democratic Senatorial nominee, Mel Logan, was a LaRouche follower; the Republican incumbent, Craig Thomas , won in a 76–23% landslide. In 2001, a "national citizen-candidates' movement"

7245-476: The Illinois House of Representatives in the 1964 Illinois House of Representatives election , which was held at-large due to the state's failure to redistrict. With 2,417,978 votes, he received the most votes of any candidate (by a margin of 7,613 more votes than the next candidate). More than half of ballots cast in the statewide general election included a vote for Stevenson. Stevenson served in

7406-676: The Korea Institute for International Economic Policy . He was also chairman of the international Adlai Stevenson Center on Democracy housed at the family home, a national historic landmark, near Libertyville, Illinois . Stevenson was also a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One . On December 8, 2012, aged 82, Stevenson endorsed the proposal for the United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA), one of only six persons who served in

7567-634: The LaRouche movement and its main organization, the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspiracy theorist and perennial presidential candidate . He began in far-left politics in the 1940s and later supported the civil rights movement ; however, in the 1970s, he moved to the far-right . His movement is sometimes described as, or likened to, a cult . Convicted of fraud, he served five years in prison from 1989 to 1994. Born in Rochester, New Hampshire , LaRouche

7728-669: The National Association of Japan–America Societies Society of Chicago, the Midwest U.S.-Japan Association, and the Midwest U.S.-China Association, and as president of the U.S. Committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC). He was also co-chairman of the PECC's Financial Market Development Project, a member of the U.S.-Korea Wisemen Council, and sat on the board of directors of

7889-577: The Post wrote that the house had sandbag-buttressed guard posts nearby, along with metal spikes in the driveway and concrete barriers on the road. One of his aides said LaRouche was safer in Loudoun County: "The terrorist organizations which have targeted Mr. LaRouche do not have bases of operations in Virginia." LaRouche said his new home meant a shorter commute to Washington. A former associate said

8050-495: The Times , "[t]here are sounds of weeping, and vomiting on the tapes, and Mr. White complains of being deprived of sleep, food and cigarettes. At one point someone says 'raise the voltage', but [LaRouche] says this was associated with the bright lights used in the questioning rather than an electric shock." The Times wrote: "Mr. White complains of a terrible pain in his arm, then LaRouche can be heard saying, 'That's not real. That's in

8211-646: The Transaqua project to divert water from the Congo River to replenish Lake Chad . The North American Labour Party (NALP) nominated candidates in federal elections in the 1970s. Its candidates only had 297 votes nationwide in 1979. LaRouche himself offered a draft constitution for the commonwealth of Canada in 1981. The NALP later became the Party for the Commonwealth of Canada and that ran candidates in

SECTION 50

#1732782889589

8372-401: The U.S. Labor Party . The LaRouche movement has been called " cult -like" by The New York Times . The movement originated within the radical leftist student politics of the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of candidates ran in state Democratic primaries in the United States on the 'LaRouche platform', while Lyndon LaRouche repeatedly campaigned for presidential nomination . From

8533-588: The U.S. National Security Council , said in 1984 that LaRouche's staff comprised "one of the best private intelligence services in the world. ... They do know a lot of people around the world. They do get to talk to prime ministers and presidents." Several government officials feared a security leak from the government's ties with the movement. According to critics, the supposed behind-the-scenes processes were more often flights of fancy than inside information. Douglas Foster wrote in Mother Jones in 1982 that

8694-713: The United States Army and served with the Medical Corps in India and Burma during the Burma campaign . At the end of the war, LaRouche was working as a clerk in the Ordnance Corps , and later described his decision to enlist as of the most important decision of his life. In his 1988 autobiography, LaRouche claimed that being asked to express his views on the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to

8855-693: The Worldwide LaRouche Youth Movement . His printing services included Computron Technologies, Computype, World Composition Services, and PMR Printing Company, Inc, or PMR Associates. LaRouche wrote in his 1987 autobiography that violent altercations had begun in 1969 between his NCLC members and several New Left groups when Mark Rudd 's faction began assaulting LaRouche's faction at Columbia University. Press accounts alleged that between April and September 1973, during what LaRouche called "Operation Mop-Up", NCLC members began physically attacking members of leftist groups that LaRouche classified as "left-protofascists"; an editorial in LaRouche's New Solidarity said of

9016-432: The " October Surprise " allegation, namely that in October 1980 Ronald Reagan's campaign staff conspired with the Iranian government during the Iran hostage crisis to delay the release of 52 American hostages held in Iran, with the aim of helping Reagan win the 1980 United States presidential election against Jimmy Carter . The Iranians had agreed to this, according to the theory, in exchange for future weapons sales from

9177-419: The "LaRouche-Teller proposal," though they had never met. Teller said LaRouche was "a poorly informed man with fantastic conceptions." LaRouche later attributed the collapse of the Soviet Union to its refusal to follow his advice to accept Reagan's offer to share the technology. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld reported in his 2011 memoir that at a 2001 dinner in Russia with leading officials, he

9338-522: The 1980s. LaRouche founded the U.S. Labor Party in 1973 as the political arm of the NCLC. At first, the party was "preaching Marxist revolution"; however, by 1977, it shifted from left-wing to right-wing politics . A two-part article in The New York Times in 1979 by Howard Blum and Paul L. Montgomery alleged that LaRouche had turned the party (at that point with 1,000 members in 37 offices in North America, and 26 in Europe and Latin America) into an extreme-right, antisemitic organization, despite

9499-438: The 1980s. It was noted for disguising its candidates as conservative Democrats and harassing opponents. It reached its height in electoral success when Larouchite candidates won the Democratic primaries for the 1986 Illinois gubernatorial election and related state offices; this alarmed Democratic Party officials, whose national spokesman called the Larouchites "kook fringe". The defeated mainstream Democratic candidates ran in

9660-478: The 1982 campaign, Stevenson complained that Thompson was trying to portray him as an ineffectual elitist by famously stating, "He is saying 'Me tough guy,' as if to imply that I’m some kind of wimp." The initial vote count showed Stevenson winning; however, the final official count showed him losing by 0.14 percent. Stevenson promptly petitioned the Illinois Supreme Court for a recount and presented evidence of widespread election irregularities, including evidence of

9821-429: The 1984 presidential election. In 1984, media reports stated that LaRouche and his aides had met Reagan administration officials, including Norman Bailey, senior director of international economic affairs for the National Security Council (NSC), and Richard Morris, special assistant to William P. Clark, Jr. There were also reported contacts with the Drug Enforcement Administration , the Defense Intelligence Agency, and

SECTION 60

#1732782889589

9982-493: The 1984, 1988 and 1993 elections. Those were more successful, gaining as many as 7,502 votes in 1993, but no seats. The Parti pour la république du Canada (Québec) nominated candidates for provincial elections in the 1980s under various party titles. The LaRouche affiliate now operates as the Committee for the Republic of Canada. The LaRouche Movement has a major center in Germany. The Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität (BüSo) (Civil Rights Movement Solidarity) political party

10143-457: The 1990s, but there is no sign of ongoing relationship. Nataliya Vitrenko , leader of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine , has stated multiple times that she supports LaRouche's ideals. The LaRouche movement has been accused of violence, harassment, and heckling since the 1970s. In the 1960s and 1970s, LaRouche was accused of fomenting violence at anti-war rallies with a small band of followers. According to LaRouche's autobiography, it

10304-448: The CIA and British spies had tortured and drugged his associates to brainwash his associates into killing him. According to The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, LaRouche said he had been "threatened by Communists, Zionists, narcotics gangsters, the Rockefellers and international terrorists." LaRouche later said: Since late 1973, I have been repeatedly the target of serious assassination threats and my wife has been three times

10465-442: The CIA. The LaRouche campaign said the reporting was full of errors. In 1984 two Pentagon officials spoke at a LaRouche rally in Virginia; a Defense Department spokesman said the Pentagon viewed LaRouche's group as a "conservative group ... very supportive of the administration." White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the Administration was "glad to talk to" any American citizen who might have information. According to Bailey,

10626-491: The CPUSA in an investigation "for the purpose of ultimately eliminating him [LaRouche] and the threat of the NCLC" (see image to left). LaRouche's critics, such as King and Antony Lerman , allege that in 1973, with little warning, LaRouche adopted more extreme ideas, a process accompanied by a campaign of violence against his opponents on the left, and the development of conspiracy theories and paranoia about his personal safety. According to these accounts, he began to believe he

10787-425: The Closet?", copies of which were distributed in his apartment building. Jeffrey Steinberg denied the movement had harassed King. LaRouche said that King had been "monitored" since 1979, "We have watched this little scoundrel because he is a major security threat to my life." Lyndon LaRouche Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded

10948-489: The Collection and Production of Intelligence, leading to introduction of the Comprehensive Counter Terrorism Act of 1971. He warned of "spectacular acts of disruption and destruction" and an amendment that proposed reducing assistance for Israel by $ 200 million. His amendment received seven votes. Stevenson was a strong supporter of Israel, but was critical of the influence of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on US politics. Stevenson had sharp differences with

11109-643: The Communist Party and Socialist Workers Party, including an April 23, 1973 incident at a debate featuring Labor Committee mayoral candidate Tony Chaitkin that erupted in a brawl, with chairs flying. Six people were treated for injuries at a local hospital. In the mid-1973 the movement formed a "Revolutionary Youth Movement" to recruit and politicize members of street gangs in New York City and other eastern cities. The NCLC allegedly trained some members in terrorist and guerrilla warfare. Topics included weapons handling, explosives and demolition, close order drills, small unit tactics, and military history. In November 1973,

11270-452: The Democratic presidential candidate, Michael Dukakis , in favor of LaRouche. The LaRouche movement opposed the UN sanctions against Iraq in 1991 and the Gulf War in 1991. Supporters formed the "Committee to Save the Children in Iraq". LaRouche blamed the sanctions and war on "Israeli-controlled Moslem fundamentalist groups" and the "Ariel Sharon-dominated government of Israel" whose policies were "dictated by Kissinger and company, through

11431-401: The FBI and local police regarding members of left-wing organizations. In 1977, he wrote, commercial reports on U.S. anti-apartheid groups were prepared by LaRouche members for the South African government, student dissidents were reported to the Shah of Iran's Savak secret police, and the anti-nuclear movement was investigated on behalf of power companies. Johnson says the intelligence network

11592-406: The FBI issued an internal memorandum, later released under the Freedom of Information Act . Jeffrey Steinberg, the NCLC "director of counterintelligence", described it as the " COINTELPRO memo", which he says showed "that the FBI was considering supporting an assassination attempt against LaRouche by the Communist Party USA." LaRouche wrote in 1998: The U.S. Communist Party was committed to putting

11753-635: The FBI, testified before the House Appropriations Committee that the NCLC was "a violence-oriented organization of 'revolutionary socialists' with a membership of nearly 1,000 in chapters in some 50 cities". He said that during the previous two years its members had been "involved in fights, beatings, using drugs, kidnappings, brainwashings, and at least one shooting. They are reported to be armed, to have received defensive training such as karate, and to attend cadre schools and training schools to learn military tactics". In 1975, under

11914-512: The Fusion Energy Foundation, which held conferences and tried to cultivate scientists, with some success. In 1979, FEF representatives attended a Moscow conference on laser fusion . LaRouche began to promote the use of lasers and related technologies for both military and civilian purposes, calling for a "revolution in machine tools ." According to King, LaRouche's associates had for some years been in contact with members of

12075-549: The Illinois House from 1965 to 1967. During his time in the state house, he won a Best Legislator award from the Independent Voters of Illinois. In 1966 , Stevenson was elected treasurer of Illinois . As state treasurer, he quadrupled earnings on the investment of state funds while cutting the budget each year. Following the death of incumbent U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen in 1969, Stevenson ran for

12236-665: The Israeli lobby on issues concerning the Middle East, including a 1979 vote to cut military assistance to Israel by 10 percent and support of a 1978 weapons sale to Saudi Arabia. AIPAC also criticized his meeting with PLO leader Yasser Arafat . In a letter to Jewish leader Hyman Bookbinder in 1980, Stevenson wrote: "It is the Israeli lobby, led by AIPAC, which I deplore. It does not speak for all Jewry, including Israeli Jewry. Yet it exercises an inordinate degree of influence with weak public officials. I deplore their subservience to

12397-724: The LaRouche organization had assembled a worldwide network of government and military contacts, and that his researchers sometimes supplied information to government officials. Bobby Ray Inman , the CIA's deputy director in 1981 and 1982, said LaRouche and his wife had visited him, offering information about the West German Green Party. A CIA spokesman said LaRouche met Deputy Director John McMahon in 1983 to discuss one of LaRouche's trips overseas. An aide to Deputy Secretary of State William Clark said when LaRouche's associates discussed technology or economics, they made good sense and seemed qualified. Norman Bailey, formerly with

12558-602: The LaRouches were living on Central Park West in Manhattan , and LaRouche's activities were mostly focused on his career and not on the SWP. He and his wife separated in 1963, and he moved into a Greenwich Village apartment with another SWP member, Carol Schnitzer, also known as Larrabee. In 1964 he began an association with an SWP faction called the Revolutionary Tendency , a faction later expelled from

12719-469: The Labor Committees out of existence physically... Local law enforcement was curiously uncooperative, as they had been during prior physical attacks on myself and my friends. We knew that a 'fix' was in somewhere, probably from the FBI... We were left to our own resources. Tired of the beatings, we decided we had better prepare to defend ourselves if necessary. The FBI was allegedly concerned that

12880-734: The Liberty Lobby and George Wallace 's American Independent Party , adding that the "racist" policies of LaRouche's U.S. Labor Party endeared it to members of the Ku Klux Klan. George Michael , in Willis Carto and the American Far Right , says that LaRouche shared with the Liberty Lobby's Willis Carto an antipathy towards the Rockefeller family . The Liberty Lobby defended its alliance with LaRouche by saying

13041-472: The NCLC had over 600 members in 25 cities – including West Berlin and Stockholm – and produced what LaRouche's biographer, Dennis King, called the most literate of the far-left papers, New Solidarity . The NCLC's internal activities became highly regimented over the next few years. Members gave up their jobs and devoted themselves to the group and its leader, believing it would soon take control of America's trade unions and overthrow

13202-853: The National Caucus of Labor Committees, there was the Citizens Electoral Council (Australia), the National Democratic Policy Committee, the Fusion Energy Foundation , and the U.S. Labor Party . In 1984, he founded the Schiller Institute in Germany with his second wife, and three political parties there – the Europäische Arbeiterpartei , Patrioten für Deutschland , and Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität  – and in 2000

13363-760: The Philippines and several Latin American countries. Members engage in political organizing, fund-raising, cultural events, research and writing and internal meetings . On February 24, 2021, Zepp-LaRouche denounced the LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC) and its treasurer, Barbara Boyd, for going "in a direction which I consider contrary to the central policies that my husband stood for. ... [S]ince he passed away in February 2019, Mrs. Boyd and her associates ... have embarked on

13524-622: The Philippines, and several South American countries. Lyndon LaRouche, who was based in Loudoun County, Virginia , United States, and his wife, Helga Zepp-LaRouche , based in Wiesbaden , Germany, regularly attended these international conferences and met foreign politicians, bureaucrats, and academics. According to London-based SciDev.Net, the LaRouche movement has "attracted suspicion for circulating conspiracy theories and advocating for grand infrastructure projects." The movement supports

13685-561: The Reagan administration about LaRouche's space-based weapons ideas. LaRouche proposed the development of defensive beam technologies as a policy that was in the interest of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, as the alternative to an arms race in offensive weapons and as a generator of spin-off economic benefits. Between February 1982 and February 1983, with the NSC's approval, LaRouche met with Soviet embassy representative Evgeny Shershnev to discuss

13846-707: The Reagan administration. The first publication of the story was in LaRouche's Executive Intelligence Review on December 2, 1980, followed by his New Solidarity on September 2, 1983, alleging that Henry Kissinger , one of LaRouche's regular targets, had met Iran's Ayatollah Beheshti in Paris, according to Iranian sources in Paris. The theory was later echoed by former Iranian President Abolhassan Banisadr and former Naval intelligence officer and National Security Council member Gary Sick . The Washington Post wrote that LaRouche and his wife moved in August 1983 from New York to

14007-460: The SWP, and came under the influence of British Trotskyist leader Gerry Healy . For six months, LaRouche worked with American Healyite leader Tim Wohlforth , who later wrote that LaRouche had a "gargantuan ego" and "a marvelous ability to place any world happening in a larger context, which seemed to give the event additional meaning, but his thinking was schematic, lacking factual detail and depth." Leaving Wohlforth's group, LaRouche briefly joined

14168-714: The Sacred Treasure with gold and silver stars and was an honorary Professor of Renmin University of China . Adlai Stevenson III was born in Chicago to Ellen Stevenson and two time Democratic Party presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson II . He attended Milton Academy in Massachusetts, Harrow School in England, and Harvard College . He received a law degree in 1957 from Harvard Law School . Stevenson

14329-687: The Senate, Stevenson served on the Commerce Committee (Chairman of the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space), Banking Committee (Chairman of the Subcommittee on International Finance) and Intelligence Committee (Chairman, Subcommittee on the Collection and Production of Intelligence). He was the first Chairman of the United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics charged with implementing

14490-550: The Soviet Union and supported a military buildup to prepare for imminent war; supported the screening and quarantine of AIDS patients; and opposed environmentalism, deregulation, outcome-based education, and abortion: No more will the United States fight World Wars to save the British Empire in any shape or guise. No more will the United States tolerate the British system, whether colonial or neo-colonial . No more will

14651-551: The U.S. Labor Party had been able to "confuse, disorient, and disunify the Left". Gregory Rose, a former chief of counter-intelligence for LaRouche who became an FBI informant in 1973, said that while the LaRouche movement had extensive links to the Liberty Lobby, there was also copious evidence of a connection to the Soviet Union . George and Wilcox say neither connection amounted to much – they assert that LaRouche

14812-487: The U.S., Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Australia and France, for almost thirty years. In countries outside the U.S., the LaRouche movement maintains its own minor parties, and they have had no significant electoral success to date. In the U.S., individuals associated with the movement have successfully sought Democratic Party office in some elections, particularly Democratic County Central Committee posts, and been nominated for state and federal office as Democrats, although

14973-467: The United States . He ran in every election from 1976 to 2004 as a candidate of third parties established by members of his movement, peaking at around 78,000 votes in the 1984 United States presidential election . He also tried to gain the Democratic presidential nomination. In the 1996 Democratic Party presidential primaries , he received 5% of the total nationwide vote. In 2000, he received enough primary votes to qualify for delegates in some states, but

15134-501: The United States Congress ever to do so. Stevenson died from complications of Lewy body dementia at his home in Chicago on September 6, 2021, at age 90. Stevenson's great-grandfather Adlai E. Stevenson I was Vice President of the United States (1893–1897) during Grover Cleveland 's second term. His grandfather Lewis Stevenson was Illinois secretary of state (1914–1917). His father, Adlai Stevenson II ,

15295-508: The United States tolerate the economics of Adam Smith in any part of the world. We are going to take this aching, poor, hungry world and we're going to transform it with American methods. We're going to transform it through the export and development of high technology, we're going to have Manhattan Projects and NASA projects and every dirigiste , Federally-directed, scientific crazed program that we deem necessary. In December 1980, LaRouche and his followers started what came to be known as

15456-575: The assassination of Jimmy Carter , Zbigniew Brzezinski , Joseph Luns , and David Rockefeller . In 1984, LaRouche said that he had employed WerBell as a security consultant, but that the allegations coming from Werbell's circle were fabrications that originated with operatives of the FBI and other agencies. In 1974 and 1975, the NCLC allegedly targeted the United Auto Workers (UAW), United Farm Workers (UFW), and other trade unionists. They dubbed their campaign "Operation Mop Up Woodcock",

15617-474: The autumn of 1979, the LaRouche movement conducted most of its U.S. electoral activities as the National Democratic Policy Committee (NDPC), a political action committee. The name drew complaints from the Democratic Party's Democratic National Committee . Democratic Party leaders refused to recognize LaRouche as a party member, or to seat the few delegates he received in his seven primary campaigns as

15778-407: The briefings consisted of disinformation, "hate-filled" material about enemies, phony letters, intimidation, fake newspaper articles, and dirty tricks campaigns. Opponents were accused of being gay or Nazis , or were linked to murders, which the movement called "psywar techniques". From the 1970s to the first decade of the 21st century, LaRouche founded several groups and companies. In addition to

15939-439: The candidate for lieutenant governor position, Mike Howlett, won 40% of the vote. After leaving the Senate, Stevenson was active in business and cultural relations with East Asia . He was chairman of SC&M Investment Management Corporation, and co-chairman of HuaMei Capital Company (the first Chinese-American investment bank). He also held many positions with non-profit organizations in this area. He served as chairman of

16100-471: The contacts were broken off when they became public. Three years later, LaRouche blamed his criminal indictment on the NSC, saying he had been in conflict with Oliver North over LaRouche's opposition to the Nicaraguan Contras . According to a LaRouche publication, a court-ordered search of North's files produced a May 1986 telex from Iran–Contra defendant General Richard Secord , discussing

16261-521: The context of the 1986 Illinois gubernatorial election , when movement members Janice Hart and Mark J. Fairchild won the Democratic Primary elections for the offices of Illinois Secretary of State and Illinois Lieutenant Governor respectively. Until the day after the primary, major media outlets were reporting that George Sangmeister , Fairchild's primary opponent, was running unopposed. More than two decades later, Fairchild asked, "how

16422-624: The editor found to be "chilling". Another LaRouche group, including Janice Hart , forced their way into the office of The Des Moines Register ' s editor in 1987, haranguing him over his paper's coverage of LaRouche and demanding that certain editorials be retracted. Dennis King began covering LaRouche in the 1970s, publishing a twelve-part series in a weekly Manhattan newspaper, Our Town , and later writing or cowriting articles about LaRouche in New Republic , High Times , Columbia Journalism Review , and other periodicals, culminating in

16583-517: The election with 1.574 million votes. After that primary Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) accused his own party of pursuing a policy of ignoring the "infiltration by the neo-Nazi elements of Lyndon H. LaRouche", and said that too often, especially in the media, "the LaRouchites" are "dismissed as kooks". "In an age of ideology, in an age of totalitarianism, it will not suffice for a political party to be indifferent to and ignorant about such

16744-539: The gathering of information to be used against LaRouche. According to King, LaRouche's Executive Intelligence Review was the first to report important details of the Iran–Contra affair, predicting that a major scandal was about to break months before mainstream media picked up on the story. The LaRouche campaign supported Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Dennis King wrote that LaRouche had been speculating about space-based weaponry as early as 1975. He set up

16905-564: The general election as members of the Illinois Solidarity Party ; the Larouchite Democrats all finished a distant third. Later in the 1980s, as part of the LaRouche criminal trials , criminal investigations led to convictions of several LaRouche movement members, including LaRouche himself. He was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment but served only five. LaRouche was a perennial candidate for President of

17066-1323: The government. Robert J. Alexander writes that LaRouche first established an NCLC "intelligence network" in 1971. Members all over the world sent information to NCLC headquarters, which would distribute the information via briefings and other publications. LaRouche organized the network as a series of news services and magazines, which critics say was done to gain access to government officials under press cover. The publications included Executive Intelligence Review , founded in 1974. Other periodicals under his aegis included New Solidarity , Fusion Magazine , 21st Century Science and Technology , and Campaigner Magazine . His news services and publishers included American System Publications, Campaigner Publications, New Solidarity International Press Service, and The New Benjamin Franklin House Publishing Company. LaRouche acknowledged in 1980 that his followers impersonated reporters and others, saying it had to be done for his security. In 1982, U.S. News & World Report sued New Solidarity International Press Service and Campaigner Publications for damages, alleging that members were impersonating its reporters in phone calls. U.S. sources told The Washington Post in 1985 that

17227-446: The later 1970s, the U.S. Labor Party came into contact with Roy Frankhouser , a felon and government informant who had infiltrated a variety of groups. The LaRouche organization believed Frankhouser was a federal agent assigned to infiltrate right-wing and left-wing groups, and that he had evidence that these groups were being manipulated or controlled by the FBI and other agencies. Frankhouser introduced LaRouche to Mitchell WerBell III ,

17388-479: The link as part of a "genocidal policy". His campaign included a paid half-hour television address, which allowed him to air his views before a national audience, something that became a regular feature of his later campaigns. There were protests about this, and about the NCLC's involvement in public life generally. Writing in The Washington Post , Stephen Rosenfeld said LaRouche's ideas belonged to

17549-660: The man who proposed the SDI. Adlai Stevenson III Adlai Ewing Stevenson III (October 10, 1930 – September 6, 2021) was an American attorney and politician from Illinois . A member of the Democratic Party , he served as a member of the United States Senate from 1970 to 1981. A member of the prominent Stevenson family , he also served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Treasurer . He unsuccessfully ran for governor of Illinois in 1982 and 1986 . He had been awarded Japan’s Order of

17710-695: The mid-1970s, the LaRouche network would adopt viewpoints and stances of the far-right . During its peak in the 1970s and 1980s, the LaRouche movement developed a private intelligence agency and contacts with foreign governments. In 1988, LaRouche and 25 associates were convicted on fraud charges related to fundraising. The movement called the prosecutions politically motivated. LaRouche's widow, Helga Zepp-LaRouche , heads political and cultural groups in Germany connected with her late husband's movement. There are also parties in France, Sweden and other European countries and branches or affiliates in Australia, Canada,

17871-548: The move also meant his members would be more isolated from friends and family than they had been in New York. According to the Post in 2004, local people who opposed him for any reason were accused in LaRouche publications of being communists, homosexuals, drug pushers, and terrorists. He reportedly accused the Leesburg Garden Club of being a nest of Soviet sympathizers, and a local lawyer who opposed LaRouche on

18032-424: The movement implied in discussions with him that the military might help "lead the country out of its problems", a view which he rejected. WerBell also introduced LaRouche to Larry Cooper, a Powder Springs, Georgia police captain. Cooper, Frankhouser and an associate of Frankhouser named Forrest Lee Fick later made allegations about LaRouche. Cooper said in an NBC broadcast interview in 1984 that LaRouche had proposed

18193-527: The movement might try to take power by force. FBI Director Clarence Kelly testified in 1976 about the LaRouche movement: A "violence-oriented organization of 'revolutionary socialists' with a membership of nearly 1,000 located in chapters in some 50 cities ... involved in fights, beatings, using drugs, kidnappings, brainwashings, and at least one shooting. They are reported to be armed, to have received defensive training such as karate, and to attend cadre schools and training schools to learn military tactics..." In

18354-563: The movement received prison terms for conspiracy to commit fraud, mail fraud, and tax evasion. In 1988, Claude Jones won the chairmanship of the Harris County Democratic Party in Houston , and was stripped of his authority by the county executive committee before he could take office. He was removed from office by the state party chairman a few months later, in February 1989, because of Jones's alleged opposition to

18515-456: The movement, the remaining member was expected to live separately from the ex-member. LaRouche questioned spouses about their partner's sexual habits, the Times said, and in one case reportedly ordered a member to stop having sex with his wife, because it was making him "politically impotent". LaRouche began writing in 1973 about the use of certain psychological techniques on recruits. In an article called "Beyond Psychoanalysis", he wrote that

18676-606: The movement. One activist said he attended meetings where members were writhing on the floor saying they needed de-programming. In two weeks in January 1974, the group issued 41 separate press releases about brainwashing. One activist, Alice Weitzman, expressed skepticism about the claims. LaRouche established contacts with Willis Carto 's Liberty Lobby and elements of the Ku Klux Klan in 1974. Frank Donner and Randall Rothenberg wrote that he made successful overtures to

18837-471: The name Lyn Marcus , LaRouche published Dialectical Economics: An Introduction to Marxist Political Economy , described by its only reviewer as "the most peculiar and idiosyncratic" introduction to economics he had ever seen. Mixing economics, history, anthropology, sociology and a surprisingly large helping of business administration , the work argued that most prominent Marxists had misunderstood Marx, and that bourgeois economics arose when philosophy took

18998-549: The night to the general counsel of the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) when the FEC was investigating LaRouche's political contributions. During the grand jury hearings followers picketed the courthouse, chanted " Weld is a fag", distributed leaflets accusing U.S. Attorney William Weld of involvement in drug dealing, and "sang a jingle advocating that he be hanged in public". The Schiller Institute sent

19159-521: The nomination before the 1976 Democratic National Convention , in New York City . Stevenson was, however, one of the finalists for vice president at the convention, though Carter eventually chose U.S. Senator Walter Mondale from Minnesota. Stevenson opted to not run for reelection in 1980 and returned to Illinois to practice law. Stevenson ran for governor of Illinois in 1982 and 1986 , losing both elections to James R. Thompson . In

19320-695: The number of Jews and members of other minority groups in his organization, and did not consider LaRouche an ally. George Johnson, in Architects of Fear , similarly states that LaRouche's overtures to far right groups were pragmatic rather than sincere. A 1975 party memo spoke of uniting with these groups only to overthrow the established order, adding that once that goal had been accomplished, "eliminating our right-wing opposition will be comparatively easy". Howard Blum wrote in The New York Times that, from 1976 onward, party members sent reports to

19481-471: The parliament". Solidarité et progrès (Solidarity and Progress), headed by Jacques Cheminade , is the LaRouche party in France. The party was previously known as Parti ouvrier européen (European Workers' Party) and Fédération pour une nouvelle solidarité (Federation for a New Solidarity). Its newspaper is Nouvelle Solidarité . Cheminade ran for President of France in 1995 , 2012 and 2017 , finishing last each time. The French LaRouche Youth Movement

19642-478: The party leadership has periodically voiced its disapproval. LaRouche ran for U.S. president eight times, in every presidential election from 1976 to 2004. The first was with the U.S. Labor Party . In the next seven campaigns he ran for the Democratic Party nomination. He received federal matching funds in 2004. LaRouche candidates who ran in various Democratic primaries, generally sought George Wallace voters. The LaRouche movement attracted media attention in

19803-741: The party's publications and some high school newspapers. Around the same time, according to Blum, LaRouche was telling his membership several times a year that he was being targeted for assassination, including by the Queen of the United Kingdom , Zionist mobsters, the Council on Foreign Relations , the Justice Department, and the Mossad . LaRouche sued the City of New York in 1974, saying

19964-515: The pen name Hezekiah Micajah Jones. LaRouche and his mother resigned in sympathy for his father. LaRouche attended Northeastern University in Boston and left in 1942. He later wrote that his teachers "lacked the competence to teach me on conditions I was willing to tolerate". As a Quaker, he was a conscientious objector during World War II and joined a Civilian Public Service camp in lieu of military service. In 1944, he decided to enlist in

20125-415: The pornographic." In 1986, two LaRouche candidates, Janice Hart and Mark Fairchild, won in the Democratic primaries for two statewide positions in Illinois, Secretary of State and Lieutenant Governor. Campaign appearances by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Adlai Stevenson III , who refused to share the ticket with them and shifted instead to the "Solidarity Party" formed for the purpose, were interrupted by

20286-569: The posters as "vile, contemptible nonsense." In March 2010, LaRouche Youth leader Kesha Rogers won the Democratic congressional primary in Houston, Texas' 22nd District. The following day, a spokeswoman for the Texas Democratic Party stated that "La Rouche members are not Democrats. I guarantee her campaign will not receive a single dollar from anyone on our staff." In June 2012, Rogers won the Democratic congressional primary for

20447-426: The presence of Jewish members. LaRouche denied the newspaper's charges, and said he had filed a $ 100 million libel suit; his press secretary said the articles were intended to "set up a credible climate for an assassination hit". The Times alleged that members had taken courses in how to use knives and rifles; that a farm in upstate New York had been used for guerrilla training; and that several members had undergone

20608-522: The program'." LaRouche told the newspaper White had been "reduced to an eight-cycle infinite loop with look-up table, with homosexual bestiality". He said White had not been harmed and that a physician – a LaRouche movement member – had been present throughout. White ended up telling LaRouche he had been programmed by the CIA and British intelligence to set up LaRouche for assassination by Cuban exile frogmen. According to The Washington Post , "brainwashing hysteria" took hold of

20769-493: The proposal. During this period, Soviet economists also began to study LaRouche's economic forecasting model. But after Reagan's public announcement of the SDI in March 1983, Soviet representatives broke off contact with LaRouche and his representatives. Physicist Edward Teller , a proponent of SDI and X-ray lasers, told reporters in 1984 that he had been courted by LaRouche but had kept his distance. LaRouche began calling his plan

20930-543: The radical left, he embraced radical right politics and antisemitism . At various times, he alleged that he had been targeted for assassination by Queen Elizabeth II , Zionist mobsters, his own associates (who he said had been drugged and brainwashed by CIA and British spies), in addition to others. It is estimated that the LaRouche movement never exceeded a few thousand members, but it had an outsize political influence, raising more than $ 200 million by one estimate, and running candidates in more than 4,000 elections in

21091-493: The radical right, neo-Nazi fringe, and that his main interests lay in disruption and disinformation; Rosenfeld called the NCLC one of the "chief polluters" of political democracy. Rosenfeld argued that the press should be "chary" of offering them print or airtime: "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." LaRouche wrote in 1999 that this comment had "openly declared ...

21252-744: The record," he said a year before Nixon resigned in disgrace. “The faith of the people in their system and their leaders — a faith that has already been shaken enough — is at stake." Stevenson authored the International Banking Act of 1978 , the Stevenson–Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 and its companion, the Bayh–Dole Act , to foster cooperative research, organize national laboratories for technology utilization and commercialization, and permit private sector interests in government-funded research. He

21413-514: The replacement of the central bank system, including the U.S. Federal Reserve System, with a "national bank"; a war on drug trafficking and prosecution of banks involved in money laundering; building a tunnel under the Bering Strait ; the building of nuclear power plants; and a crash program to build particle-beam weapons and lasers, including support for elements of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). He opposed

21574-461: The rival Spartacist League before announcing his intention to build a new Fifth International . In 1967, LaRouche began teaching classes on Marx's dialectical materialism at New York City's Free School, and attracted a group of students from Columbia University and the City College of New York , recommending that they read Das Kapital , as well as Hegel , Kant, and Leibniz. During

21735-546: The rumor initially to avoid validating it. However, at a press conference a reporter for a LaRouche publication, Nicholas Benton , asked President Reagan whether Dukakis should release his medical records. Reagan replied "Look, I'm not going to pick on an invalid." Within an hour after the press conference Reagan apologized for the joke. The question received wide publicity, and was later analyzed as an example of how journalists should handle rumors. Republican candidate Vice President George H. W. Bush's aides got involved in sustaining

21896-487: The same ticket. Instead, he organized the Illinois Solidarity Party to provide an alternate slate for governor, lieutenant governor, and secretary of state, which was endorsed by Democratic Party of Illinois . Persuading Democrats to vote for most of the Democratic ticket as well as the Solidarity candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, and secretary of state was an unconventional strategy; however, Stevenson and

22057-498: The same year, LaRouche raised enough money to purchase 14 television spots, at $ 330,000 each, in which he called Walter Mondale —the Democratic Party's presidential nominee—a Soviet agent of influence, triggering over 1,000 telephone complaints. On April 19, 1986, NBC's Saturday Night Live aired a sketch satirizing the ads, portraying the Queen of the United Kingdom and Henry Kissinger as drug dealers. LaRouche received 78,773 votes in

22218-417: The seat. He faced former state representative Ralph T. Smith in the general election, who was appointed to the seat by Gov. Richard B. Ogilvie . Stevenson defeated Smith in a 1970 special election by a 57%-42% margin to fill Dirksen's unexpired term. In 1974 , Stevenson ran for re-election, and faced Republican George Burditt in the general election. He defeated Burditt by a large margin 62%-37%. In

22379-607: The story, and Dukakis was obliged to deny having had depression. To avoid the negative backlash on his own campaign, Bush made a statement urging Congress to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act , which he signed upon gaining office and which became one of his proudest legacies. At a 2003 Democratic primary debate repeatedly interrupted by hecklers, Joe Lieberman quoted John McCain , "no one's been elected since 1972 that Lyndon LaRouche and his people have not protested". The first reported incidence of heckling by LaRouche followers

22540-408: The streets of Leesburg ... If they come, there will be many people dead or mutilated within as short an interval as 60 seconds of fire. Of LaRouche's paramilitary security force, armed with semi-automatic weapons, a spokesperson said that it was necessary because LaRouche was the subject of "assassination conspiracies". Helga Zepp-LaRouche founded the Schiller Institute in Germany in 1984. In

22701-488: The summer of 1973. LaRouche said that during the session he discovered that a plot to assassinate him had been implanted in George's mind. He recorded sessions with a 26-year-old British member, Chris White, who had moved to England with LaRouche's former partner, Carol Schnitzer. In December 1973 LaRouche asked the couple to return to the U.S. His followers sent tapes of the subsequent sessions with White to The New York Times as evidence of an assassination plot. According to

22862-522: The target of attempted assassination. ... My enemies are the circles of McGeorge Bundy, Henry Kissinger, Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov , W. Averell Harriman , certain powerful bankers, and the Socialist and Nazi Internationals, as well as international drug traffickers, Colonel Gaddafi , Ayatollah Khomeini , and the Malthusian lobby. In March 1975, Clarence M. Kelley , director of

23023-465: The throat. Kaplan pressed charges and the case went to trial. In 1986, Janice Hart held a press conference to say that Kissinger was part of the international "drug mafia". Asked whether Jews were behind drug trafficking Hart replied, "That's totally nonsense. I don't consider Henry Kissinger a Jew. I consider Henry Kissinger a homosexual." A LaRouche organization sold posters of Illinois politician Jane Byrne described by Mike Royko as "border(ing) on

23184-449: The vagaries of a foreign government." Stevenson was encouraged to run for president in 1976 , which was fueled by Richard J. Daley of Chicago, who resented the senator’s liberal reforms, but who recognized Stevenson as being a vote-getter. The senator declined to campaign, but as the nominating process got underway, Daley forces ran him as a favorite son candidate. Despite this, former governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia locked up

23345-443: The virtual extinction of the human race within 15 years, and proposed a debt moratorium; nationalization of banks; government investment in industry especially in the aerospace sector, and an "International Development Bank" to facilitate higher food production. When Legionnaires' disease appeared in the U.S. that year, he said it was a continuation of the swine flu outbreak , and that senators who opposed vaccination were suppressing

23506-535: The woods and identifying in his mind with great philosophers. He wrote that, between the ages of 12 and 14, he read philosophy extensively, embracing the ideas of Leibniz and rejecting those of Hume , Bacon , Hobbes , Locke , Berkeley , Rousseau , and Kant . He graduated from Lynn English High School in 1940. In the same year, the Lynn Quakers expelled his father from the group, for reportedly accusing other Quakers of misusing funds, while writing under

23667-539: Was "definitely not a Soviet agent" and state that while the contact with the Liberty Lobby is often used to imply " 'links' and 'ties' between LaRouche and the extreme right", it was in fact transient and marked by mutual suspicion. The Liberty Lobby soon pronounced itself disillusioned with LaRouche, citing his movement's adherence to "basic socialist positions" and his softness on "the major Zionist groups" as fundamental points of difference. According to George and Wilcox, American neo-Nazi leaders expressed misgivings over

23828-458: Was a child molester. When Wadman took a job with the police department in Aurora, Illinois , LaRouche followers went there to demand he be fired, and after he left there followed him to a third city to make accusations. In the 1970s, Nelson Rockefeller was a central figure in the movement's theories. An FBI file described them as a "clandestinely oriented group of political schizophrenics who have

23989-468: Was at the Watergate hearings in 1973. Since then, LaRouche followers have repeatedly disrupted speaking events and debates featuring a large variety of speakers. In the 1980s, journalists including Joe Klein and Chuck Fager from Boston's alternative weekly, The Real Paper , and Chicago Tribune columnist Mike Royko alleged harassment and intimidation by LaRouche groups. After Royko wrote about

24150-578: Was born in Scotland . His father worked for the United Shoe Machinery Corporation in Rochester before the family moved to Lynn, Massachusetts . His parents became Quakers after his father converted from Catholicism . They forbade him from fighting with other children, even in self-defense, which he said led to "years of hell" from bullies at school. As a result, he spent much of his time alone, taking long walks through

24311-587: Was commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1952, served in Korea and was discharged from active duty in 1954. He continued to serve in the Marine Reserve and was discharged in 1961 as a captain. In 1957, Stevenson went to work as a clerk for a Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois and worked there until 1958 when he joined the law firm of Brown and Platt. Stevenson was elected to

24472-608: Was created, advancing candidates for a number of elective offices across the country. In 2006, LaRouche Youth Movement activist and Los Angeles County Democratic Central Committee member Cody Jones was honored as "Democrat of the Year" for the 43rd Assembly District of California, by the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. At the April 2007 California State Democratic Convention, LYM activist Quincy O'Neal

24633-436: Was drawn to socialist and Marxist movements in his twenties during World War II . In the 1950s, while a Trotskyist , he was also a management consultant in New York City. By the 1960s, he became engaged in increasingly smaller and more radical splinter groups. During the 1970s, he created the foundation of the LaRouche movement and became more engaged in conspiratorial beliefs and violent and illegal activities. Instead of

24794-484: Was elected vice-chairman of the California State Democratic Black Caucus, and Wynneal Innocentes was elected corresponding secretary of the Filipino Caucus. In November 2007, Mark Fairchild returned to Illinois to promote legislation authored by LaRouche, called the "Homeowners and Bank Protection Act of 2007", establishing a moratorium on home foreclosures and establishing a new federal agency to oversee all federal and state banks. He also promoted LaRouche's plan to build

24955-451: Was governor of Illinois, Ambassador to the United Nations , and two-time Democratic presidential nominee. Actor McLean Stevenson was his third cousin . Stevenson met his future wife, Nancy Anderson, in 1953 while he was in tank training at Fort Knox in preparation for his deployment to Japan and then Korea. The couple was married in 1955 at Nancy’s home outside of Louisville. Together, they had four children. His son Adlai Stevenson IV

25116-553: Was in 1969 that violent altercations began between his members and New Left groups. He wrote that a faction of Students for a Democratic Society which later became the Weathermen began assaulting LaRouche's faction at Columbia University, and there were later attacks by the Communist Party , and the SWP . These conflicts culminated in "Operation Mop-Up", a series of physical attacks by LaRouche's National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC) on rival left-wing groups. LaRouche's New Solidarity reported NCLC confrontations with members of

25277-416: Was made up of "obnoxious devotees commandeering WATS lines and tricking bureaucrats into giving them information". By the late 1970s, members were exchanging almost daily information with Roy Frankhouser , a government informant and infiltrator of both far right and far left groups who was involved with the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party . The LaRouche organization believed Frankhouser to be

25438-402: Was the first chairman of the United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics charged with implementing a code of ethics he helped draft. Stevenson was also chairman of a special Senate committee that reorganized the Senate and served on the United States Senate Democratic Policy Committee . He also conducted the first in-depth congressional study of terrorism as chairman of the Subcommittee on

25599-401: Was threatened after a tense interview with LaRouche and his associates, and found several of his cats dead after he published an account of the meeting. A LaRouche associate denied responsibility for the dead cats. According to courtroom testimony by FBI agent Richard Egan, Jeffrey and Michelle Steinberg, the heads of LaRouche's security unit, boasted of placing harassing phone calls all through

25760-413: Was told by General Yuri Baluyevsky , then the second highest-ranking officer in the Russian military, that LaRouche was the brains behind SDI. Rumsfeld said he believed LaRouche had had no influence on the program, and surmised that Baluyevsky must have obtained the information off the Internet. In 2012 the former head of the Russian bureau of Interpol, General Vladimir Ovchinsky, also described LaRouche as

25921-428: Was under threat of assassination from the Soviet Union, the CIA, Libya, drug dealers, and bankers. He also established a "Biological Holocaust Task Force", which, according to LaRouche, analyzed the public health consequences of International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity policies for impoverished nations in Africa, and predicted that epidemics of cholera as well as possibly entirely new diseases would strike Africa in

#588411