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, 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 1960s United States. 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 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, the Philippines and several Latin American countries. Members engage in political organizing, fund-raising, cultural events, research and writing.
Main goals of the Lyndon LaRouche movement
Restoration of Glass-Steagall. Since 2007, the movement has actively campaigned to restore the Glass-Steagall Act, to separate commercial banking from speculative investment banking, protecting the former and not bailing out the latter. New Bretton Woods. Advocates the abandonment of floating exchange rates and the return to Bretton Woods-style fixed rates, with gold, or an equivalent, used as under the gold-reserve system. This is not to be confused with the gold standard, which LaRouche did not support. American System. Espouses the "American System" of infrastructure projects, a "regulated banking system" and tariffs. Named for the historical American System of Henry Clay, but owing more to the ideas of the expansive American School. Eurasian Land Bridge. Lectures and writes on behalf of a "Eurasian land-bridge", a massive high-speed maglev railway project to span continents and re-invigorate industry and commerce. Scientific pitch. Argues in favor of what they call "Verdi tuning" in classical music, in which A=432 Hz, as opposed to the common practice today of tuning to A=440 Hz. Mars colonization. Recommends colonization of the planet Mars, on similar basis as many others in the field, that human survivability depends on territorial diversification. Strategic Defense Initiative. Supported directed beam weapons for use against ICBMs, and claims credit as the first to propose this to Ronald Reagan. LaRouche did not support rocket-based defensive systems such as anti-ballistic missiles. Fusion Energy Foundation. The LaRouche movement proclaimed an interest in fusion energy and "beam weapons"while some scientists such as John Clarke praised the movement, it was generally seen as a front for LaRouche's political aims. According to Fusion, two members of the FEF went to the Soviet Union to attend a conference on "laser interaction" in December 1978.
Political organizations LaRouche-affiliated political parties have nominated many hundreds of candidates for national and regional offices in 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 the party leadership has periodically voiced its disapproval.
United States Political activities
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 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 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 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 a movement", said Moynihan.See also, 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 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 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 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" 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 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 a high-speed railroad to connect Russia and the United States, including a tunnel under the Bering Strait."LaRouche follower returns to Capitol" The State Journal-Register, November 2, 2007, archived on January 25, 2008 from the original
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."Schultz, Erin, "Obama's plan blasted as Nazi-like ", Suffolk Times, 23 July 2009. Retrieved 28 May 2012 In July 2011, Seattle police were called by a LaRouche volunteer displaying "Obama with 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 harassmentthe state's hate-crime law.McNerthney, Casey. LaRouche supporter threatened for linking Obama to Hitler , Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 14, 2009. At one widely reported event, Congressman Barney Frank referred to the posters as "vile, contemptible nonsense."Barney Frank goes toe to toe at health care town hall , CNN, August 19, 2009; video
In March 2010, LaRouche Youth leader Kesha Rogers won the Democratic congressional primary in Houston, Texas' 22nd District., Galveston County Daily News, March 3, 2010 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."Victory for the Democrat who wants Obama impeached , Houston Press, March 2, 2010. In June 2012, Rogers won the Democratic congressional primary for a second time.Primary Results , Texas Tribune 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.
International The Schiller Institute and the International Caucus of Labor Committees (ICLC) are international organizations associated 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, 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 the Transaqua project to divert water from the Congo River to replenish Lake Chad."Three major canal schemes criticised over use of science" , SciDev.Net, April 22, 2015
Canada