![LaRouche members 2019](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/LaRouche_members_2019.png)
The Worldwide LaRouche Youth Movement (WLYM or LYM) and the LaRouche Political Action Committee (LaRouche PAC or LPAC) are part of the political organization of controversial American political figure
Lyndon LaRouche
Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspiracy ...
. The LYM's "
war room
A command center (often called a war room) is any place that is used to provide centralized command for some purpose.
While frequently considered to be a military facility, these can be used in many other cases by governments or businesses. ...
" is in
Leesburg, Virginia
Leesburg is a town in the state of Virginia, and the county seat of Loudoun County. Settlement in the area began around 1740, which is named for the Lee family, early leaders of the town and ancestors of Robert E. Lee. Located in the far northea ...
, also the headquarters of LPAC.
[archived April 3, 2011]
/ref>[ The LaRouche Youth Movement describes itself as an international political movement of young adults, led by Lyndon LaRouche, who promote the revival of classical humanist thought, organize politically to establish a new world economic system based on the power of human creativity to increase the power of the human individual in relation to the universe, and fight for a physical economy which can promote the general welfare of humanity, to develop and move towards better living conditions.
On February 24, 2021, ]Helga Zepp-LaRouche
Helga Zepp-LaRouche (born 25 August 1948) is a German political activist. She is the widow of American political activist Lyndon LaRouche, and the founder of the LaRouche movement's Schiller Institute and the German ''Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solid ...
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. .. nce he passed away in February 2019, Mrs. Boyd and her associates ..have embarked on 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
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. ...
. 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 Youth Movement
History
Barbara Boyd, spokesperson for the LYM and treasurer of LPAC, says that LYM was founded in 2000. According to Harley Schlanger, a LaRouche spokesperson, LYM's first major campaign was during the 2003 recall of California Governor Gray Davis
Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (born December 26, 1942) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 to 2003. In 2003, only a few months into his second term, Davis was recalled and remov ...
, when it distributed over a million leaflets across the country, opposing the recall and depicting Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...
alongside Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
. They also distributed tens of thousands of other pamphlets in California.
In a 2004 article in the University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
independent student newspaper, ''The Daily Californian
''The Daily Californian'' (''Daily Cal'') is an independent, student-run newspaper that serves the University of California, Berkeley, campus and its surrounding community. It formerly published a print edition four days a week on Monday, Tuesd ...
'', reporter David Cohn described the local chapter of the LYM as "30 college-aged youths" who spent several hours each day undergoing instruction provided by the LaRouche organization. One member, 23-year-old Jason Ross, told Cohn that he had dropped out of Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in his junior year to join the movement. "We are in a complete breakdown of the financial system and we know that. We can use our time in a more appropriate manner than going to school," he said. Cohn also talked to three other members who had all quit school to join the movement. ''The Daily Californian'' reported the movement's numbers as "about 100 young people from Los Angeles to Oakland" who "travel to dozens of college campuses aggressively recruiting members and not hesitating to ask newcomers to quit school". As a result of the Internet, there are active chapters in nations like Japan where LaRouche has no official organization. The LYM has also expanded its activity into the African nations of South Africa, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
, and Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
.
Democratic Party involvement
LYM members have been active in the Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
at the state and local levels. 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. O'Neal is also president of the LYM's Democratic Party Club, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Legacy Club, which is affiliated with the California Democratic Council The California Democratic Council (CDC), is an independent California non-profit founded at conferences at Asilomar and Fresno conferences in 1952-53 by future U.S. Senator Alan Cranston, State Senator George Miller, Jr. and other liberal Democra ...
. In March 2010, LaRouche Youth leader Kesha Rogers
Lakesha D. Rogers (born December 9, 1976) is an American political activist in the Lyndon LaRouche Youth Movement, a former candidate in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Texas, and a two-time Democratic Party nominee for Texas's 22nd con ...
won the Democratic congressional primary in Houston, Texas' 22nd District.
Pedagogy and campaigns
LaRouche is highly critical of contemporary college curricula, and has designed his own pedagogy for members of his youth movement, which he describes as "the reliving of the crucial discoveries of universal physical-scientific principle by, successively, the ancient Pythagoreans
Pythagoreanism originated in the 6th century BC, based on and around the teachings and beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans. Pythagoras established the first Pythagorean community in the ancient Greek colony of Kroton, ...
and Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
and the modern science of Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws ...
," combined with the performance of classical vocal music, particularly Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...
's ''Jesu, meine Freude
"" (; Jesus, my joy) is a hymn in German, written by Johann Franck in 1650, with a melody, Zahn No. 8032, by Johann Crüger. The song first appeared in Crüger's hymnal in 1653. The text addresses Jesus as joy and support, versus enemies ...
''. They spend time in what are called "Monge
Gaspard Monge, Comte de Péluse (9 May 1746 – 28 July 1818) was a French mathematician, commonly presented as the inventor of descriptive geometry, (the mathematical basis of) technical drawing, and the father of differential geometry. Duri ...
brigades," which emphasize readings of Vladimir Vernadsky
Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (russian: link=no, Влади́мир Ива́нович Верна́дский) or Volodymyr Ivanovych Vernadsky ( uk, Володи́мир Іва́нович Верна́дський; – 6 January 1945) was ...
, Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795.
Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
, Carl Gauss
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; german: Gauß ; la, Carolus Fridericus Gauss; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and science. Sometimes refer ...
and Bernhard Riemann
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (; 17 September 1826 – 20 July 1866) was a German mathematician who made contributions to analysis, number theory, and differential geometry. In the field of real analysis, he is mostly known for the first rig ...
. The LaRouche Youth have been assisted around the U.S. in performance workshops on classical music, as well as African-American spirituals, by well known musicians William Warfield
William Caesar Warfield (January 22, 1920 – August 25, 2002) was an American concert bass-baritone singer and actor, known for his appearances in stage productions, Hollywood films, and television programs. A prominent African American artist ...
and Sylvia Olden Lee
Sylvia Olden Lee (June 29, 1917 – April 10, 2004) was an American vocal coach and accompanist. She was the first African-American to be employed by the Metropolitan Opera. Her fields of expertise were European classical music and Negro spiritua ...
, and in drama performance by actor Robert Beltran
Robert Adame Beltran (born November 19, 1953) is an American actor, known for his role as Commander Chakotay on the 1990s television series '' Star Trek: Voyager''. He is also known for stage acting in California, and for playing Raoul Mendoza ...
.
The LYM has disrupted university lectures to distribute their material. On October 23, 2006, a group of LaRouche Youth Movement members twice disrupted a Connecticut U.S. Senate debate between Alan Schlesinger
Alan Schlesinger, (aka Alan Gold) (born January 4, 1958) is an American attorney, entrepreneur, and Republican Party (United States), Republican politician from Florida. He has previously served as the Mayor of Derby, Connecticut from 1994 to 19 ...
, Ned Lamont
Edward Miner Lamont Jr. (born January 3, 1954) is an American businessman and politician serving as the 89th governor of Connecticut. He has served in this position since January 9, 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a Greenwi ...
, and Joseph Lieberman
Joseph Isadore Lieberman (; born February 24, 1942) is an American politician, lobbyist, and attorney who served as a United States senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013. A former member of the Democratic Party, he was its nominee for Vi ...
. According to ''The Day'', as Joe Lieberman spoke, the hecklers "sang a harmonized ode targeting Vice President Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...
, which, according to the group's website, is unofficially titled 'The Fat-Ass Nazi Song'."
During the election campaign of 2006, the LYM came into conflict with organizations including the Ayn Rand Institute
The Ayn Rand Institute: The Center for the Advancement of Objectivism, commonly known as the Ayn Rand Institute (ARI), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank in Santa Ana, California, that promotes Objectivism, the philosophy developed by Ayn Rand ...
, which the LYM accused of promoting genocide in speeches by its representatives at various campuses. LYM members confronted Institute executive director Yaron Brook
Yaron Brook ( he, ירון ברוק; born May 23, 1961) is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, writer, and activist. He is an Objectivist and the current chairman of the board at the Ayn Rand Institute, where he was executive director from 2000 to ...
at various universities across the US, heckling him and calling his policies "fascist". In one case, at the University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...
, 15 LYM members, some of whom violently resisted, were arrested.
LYM members frequently combine political activity with choral music performance. They sang outside the Democratic Party Convention in Boston in 2004, and in 2007 they performed choral music with lyrics about impeaching Dick Cheney in classrooms at Harvard and Boston University.
During 2007, LYM members have been seen in on the streets, campuses and conferences emphasizing two issues in particular: a call by LaRouche for the impeachment of Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...
, and the assertion that the theory of human-caused global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
is a fraud motivated by Malthusianism
Malthusianism is the idea that population growth is potentially exponential while the growth of the food supply or other resources is linear, which eventually reduces living standards to the point of triggering a population die off. This event, c ...
. On this latter issue, LYM have confronted Al Gore
Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...
on several occasions at his public events. In the Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, LYM members debated a variety of spokespersons for the Global Warming theory. In Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, LYM leader Betiana Gonzalez disrupted Gore's speech at a Biofuels conference. A similar incident took place earlier in the year in Montreal, Canada.
In November 2007, the LYM launched a campaign against social networking
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
websites such as MySpace and Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
, with the mass distribution of the pamphlet "The Noosphere
The noosphere (alternate spelling noösphere) is a philosophical concept developed and popularized by the Russian-Ukrainian Soviet biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky, and the French philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Vernads ...
vs. The Blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can p ...
: Is the Devil in Your Laptop?" The pamphlet says that Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
, owner of MySpace, and Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
, owner of Facebook (Microsoft owns only 2.5% of Facebook), are involved in social engineering to destroy the cognitive
Cognition refers to "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...
powers and potential for political leadership among young people.
TIME magazine's coverage of Kesha Rogers' campaign says that "The LYM espouses LaRouche opposition to free trade and 'globalism' (the UN, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund) and it also calls for a return to a humanist classical education, emphasizing the works of Plato and Leibniz."
Criticism and accusations
Journalists, former members and law enforcement officials have made a wide variety of accusations of the LaRouche organizations, including a Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...
report that called them a political cult.[ In 2006, college officials in Boston told a reporter that the LYM was one of the two leading high-pressure groups on area campuses, and that it engaged in strong-arm tactics to induce students to leave college and help recruit new members.][ Boyd called the charges "gossip" and said the movement was working "for ideas and real policies" and was a "youth movement in the Democratic Party".][ Investigative journalist and LaRouche biographer Dennis King has described the founding of the WLYM by LaRouche as a way of maintaining his legacy after his death by " oingback to his roots, the roots of his movement in the radical campus movement in the late 1960s." Avi Klein of the '']Washington Monthly
''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alternat ...
'' describes this as an element of a campaign LaRouche created to blame the "first generation" of his own movement for fundraising failures, and to appeal to young members by channeling "the rage new acolytes felt toward their parents at a nearby, internal enemy".[
]
Jeremiah Duggan
After spending six days at a Schiller Institute
The Schiller Institute is a German based political and economic think tank founded by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, with stated members in 50 countries. It is among the principal organizations of the LaRouche movement. The institute's stated aim is to app ...
conference and LYM cadre school in Germany, 22-year-old Jeremiah Duggan, a Jewish student from London who was studying in Paris, was believed to have run onto a busy road in what the British coroner called a "state of terror," and was killed. The German police investigation concluded that it was a suicide. A private forensic consultant said that he had found evidence of serious assault with a blunt instrument, but no public authorities have given credence to this claim. A LaRouche spokesman has said the young man killed himself because he was disturbed. In October 2004, a British inquest into Duggan's death heard allegations from his mother that LYM and the Schiller Institute may have used brainwashing
Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwash ...
techniques on her son to persuade him to join the movement.[Samuels, Tim]
"Jeremiah Duggan and Lyndon LaRouche," part 1
''Newsnight'', BBC, February 2004, at 3:49
part 2
an
part 3
Michael Winsted
An ex-member of the LaRouche youth movement has asserted that the LaRouche Youth Movement calls parents "brainwashed baby boomers."[ Ex-member Michael Winsted says that although members are convinced that they are involved in important political work, the job of most members is only to collect money and recruit more members.][ He says that group leaders "were constantly asking us if we would die for these ideas" and that members that become critical or disillusioned by the movement often become the focus of brutal psychological attacks by the other members, including accusations of having "mother issues," of homosexuality, sexual deviance, and allegiance to anti-LaRouche conspiracies.][ They are often encouraged and even led by the group's managers. Winsted recounts:
]I'm caught off-guard, like, what the hell just happened?...The yelling goes on for maybe five or 10 minutes while I'm furiously backpedaling...They call it making somebody a self-conscious organizer...It is about getting somebody to break down and cry, just to have an emotional collapse. Once you do that, then people are malleable.
Jeffrey Steinberg, a top security aide in the LaRouche movement, responded by portraying Michael Winsted as an agent of the ''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' who "briefly infiltrated the Baltimore chapter of the LYM".
LaRouche PAC
The Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee was previously registered with the Federal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency of the United States whose purpose is to enforce campaign finance law in United States federal elections. Created in 1974 through amendments to the Federal Election Cam ...
as "FDR PAC" and by "Spannaus in '96". In 2000, LaRouche's FDR PAC made news when, forbidden from soliciting on U.S. Post Office property, it demanded that the Salvation Army
Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...
be treated the same way. As of 2002, Nancy Spannaus was the executive director of the PAC.
LPAC and LYM members targeted Senator Joe Lieberman
Joseph Isadore Lieberman (; born February 24, 1942) is an American politician, lobbyist, and attorney who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013. A former member of the Democratic Party (Uni ...
's reelection campaign in 2006. At one campaign appearance three members sang loudly "If you want a third world war, vote for Joe, Bill Buckley's whore".
In 2007, two associates of LPAC, Robert Lucero and Tony DeFranco, were escorted off Post Office property in Naperville, Illinois
Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is in the Chicago metro area, west of the city.
Naperville was founded in 1831 by Joseph Naper. The city was ...
, by police. The two were carrying signs calling President George W. Bush "dumb" and calling for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce Cheney ( ; born January 30, 1941) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 46th vice president of the United States from 2001 to 2009 under President George W. Bush. He is currently the oldest living former U ...
.
During his 2007 campaign for the New Jersey General Assembly
The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature.
Since the election of 1967 (1968 Session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts for ...
, Gordon M. Johnson's contributions to LPAC became a subject of criticism. Johnson reportedly made seven contributions in 2005 and 2006 totalling $1,850. He apologized repeatedly, saying he regretted that he was not "aware of the LaRouche record of anti-Semitism" and was asking for the contributions to be refunded.
LPAC members promoted LaRouche's "Homeowners and Bank Protection Act" in 2009. One report says the act "would establish a federal agency that would place federal- and state-chartered banks under protection, freeze all existing home mortgages for a period of time, adjust mortgage values to fair prices, restructure existing mortgages at appropriate interest rates, and write off speculative debt obligations of mortgage-backed securities". According to one opponent, Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski
Paul Edmund Kanjorski (born April 2, 1937) is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for from 1985 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
The district included the cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and Hazleton, as ...
, on closer inspection the act "calls for seizure by the government" of all U.S banks.
In 2009 LPAC members were noted for their posters which depicted Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
with a Hitler-style toothbrush mustache
The toothbrush moustache is a style of moustache in which the sides are vertical (or nearly vertical) rather than tapered, giving the hairs the appearance of the bristles on a toothbrush that are attached to the nose. It was made famous by such ...
. They asked pedestrians "Do you want to stop Obama from killing people?" and "Want to fire our Nazi president?" The posters led to violent reactions from passersby, including one man who had lost family members in World War II. LPAC spokesperson Nancy Spannaus said that the posters were an "honest emblem of what the administration policy represents".[ A 2009 report says that the LPAC website]
LaRouchePAC.com
appeared to have deliberately copied the look of the Barackobama.com website, though the contents were entirely different. The LPAC website reportedly contained satires of Democratic Party leaders and an attack of wind power.[
Following complaints from customers, ]Kroger
The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States.
Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincin ...
, a national grocery store chain, received an injunction in 2009 barring LPAC activists from soliciting donations or distributing literature on their Ralphs
Ralphs is an American supermarket chain in Southern California. The largest subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Kroger, it is the oldest such chain west of the Mississippi River. Kroger also operates stores under the Food 4 Less and Foods Co. names ...
and Food 4 Less
Food 4 Less is the name of several grocery store chains, the largest of which is currently owned by Kroger. It is a no-frills grocery store where the customers bag their own groceries at the checkout. Kroger operates Food 4 Less stores in the ...
properties in Southern California. Another grocery chain, Trader Joe's
Trader Joe's is an American chain of grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia, California. The chain has over 569 stores across the United States.
The first Trader Joe's store was opened in 1967 by founder Joe Coulombe in Pasadena, California ...
, also sought an injunction after customers allegedly complained that the LPAC members had called them "bitches" and "Hitler lovers". Stater Brothers
Stater Bros. Markets is a privately held supermarket chain, based in San Bernardino, California, consisting of 171 stores located throughout Southern California. It was founded in Yucaipa, California, on August 17, 1936, by twin brothers Cleo and ...
also sought an injunction to bar LPAC members from soliciting in front of their stores. Lyndon LaRouche, LPAC, and its treasurer Barbara Boyd were sued in 2009 by the widow of Kenneth Kronberg, who alleges that they had defamed her in an LPAC article. Kronberg and his wife had been longtime members of LaRouche movement before his suicide.[
By 2010, LPAC members were calling for Obama's impeachment. Members of the ]Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. Members of the movement called for lower taxes and for a reduction of the national debt and federal budget defic ...
distanced themselves from the LPAC members, who often appeared at Tea Party rallies. One Tea Party official complained that the "Obama as Hitler" posters "trivializes the travesties that occurred under the Fascist regime of Nazi Germany". In 2010, LPAC members said the PAC staffed from 80 to 100 tables across the country every day.
Several confrontations between supporters of LPAC candidates and local residents were reported in April 2011 in Healdsburg, California
Healdsburg is a city located in Sonoma County, in California's Wine Country. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 11,254. Owing to its three most important wine-producing regions (the Russian River, Dry Creek, and Alexander Valley ...
. The police were called repeatedly, but no one was cited. Other LPAC workers report receiving a positive reception in San Francisco in March 2011.
The LaRouche PAC on November 16 2022, gave its Endorsement to the Donald Trump 2024 presidential campaign
On November 15, 2022, the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced his campaign for a second non-consecutive presidential term in a speech at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump reportedly had been considering a 20 ...
.
Funding and locations
LPAC received about $6 million during the 2009-2010 election cycle, according to public records and ''Out of the Storm News'', a publication of The Heartland Institute
The Heartland Institute is an American conservative and libertarian public policy think tank known for its rejection of both the scientific consensus on climate change and the negative health impacts of smoking.
Founded in 1984, it worked wit ...
. Donations came from nearly 5000 individuals, a large percentage of them from employees of the PAC or its affiliates. The largest donation, $12,425, came from Kathy Magraw, listed as a supervisor at LaRouche's ''Executive Intelligence Review
''Executive Intelligence Review'' (''EIR'') is a weekly newsmagazine founded in 1974 by the American political activist Lyndon LaRouche. Based in Leesburg, Virginia, it maintains offices in a number of countries, according to its masthead, incl ...
''. Magraw is also the largest individual recipient of funds from the PAC, receiving $129,705 during the cycle.[
LYM received $3,142,142 from LPAC in the 2009-2010 election cycle.] The Center for Public Integrity
The Center for Public Integrity (CPI) is an American nonprofit investigative journalism organization whose stated mission is "to reveal abuses of power, corruption and dereliction of duty by powerful public and private institutions in order to c ...
reports that almost $6 million of the $13 million raised by LPAC since 2007 went to LaRouche Youth, to pay for "grassroots lobbying and advocacy". The LaRouche Political Action Committee paid the group $462,850 in 2006, $2,732,851 during the 2008 election cycle, and $4,186,068 in the 2010 cycle.
According to Boyd, the payments to LaRouche Youth LLC are for web content, field organizing, canvassing, and public advocacy, all of which are categorized as "grassroots lobbying and advocacy".[ Boyd said the nearly $500,000 in uncategorized "petty cash" payments went to political organizing activities across the country, mostly vehicle operating expenses.][ In 2006, LPAC paid $7000 in fines to the FEC for failing to file mandatory disclosure forms.][
LPAC gave $11,000 in contributions to three candidates in the 2009-2010 election cycle: $4000 each to "Kesha Rogers For Congress" and "Summer Shields for Congress", and $3000 to "Rachel Brown For Congress".
The LYM website lists 21 offices in the U.S. and Canada. The LPAC website lists 12 offices in the U.S.]
Publications
LPAC produces pamphlets which carry suggested donation requests. Publications include:
*''The People of the U.S. No Longer Accept Their President or Congress'' August 2009
*''President Obama’s ‘Narcissus Syndrome’'' April 2009
*''The Last Chance For Civilization?'' November 2008
*''LaRouche’s Trip to Moscow: A Strategy For War Avoidance'' June 2007
*''Implications of the Gore Hoax for International Policy'' March 2007
*''Organizing the Recovery from the Great Crash of 2007'' December 2006
*''Is Joseph Goebbels On Your Campus?'' October 2006
*''PROLEGOMENA FOR A PARTY PLATFORM: Franklin Roosevelt’s Legacy'' March 2006
*''Children of Satan IV: Cheney’s ‘Schmittlerian’ Drive for Dictatorship'' January 2006
*''‘Pulling This Nation Together Now!’'' September 2005
*''Soldiers of Satan'' August 2005
*''LaRouche on ‘The Case of a Vice-President’s Mass Insanity’'' August 2005
*''Dialogue with The Senate on Economic Policy: LaRouche’s Historic Webcast Of June 16, 2005'' Jun 2005
*''Earth's Next Fifty Years '' March 2005
Videos and animations
The "Basement team" is variously described as belonging to the LYM or to LPAC. According to Boyd, LPAC pays LYM to produce videos.[ Most of the videos on Kesha Roger's campaign website were created by LPAC.
From 2006 to 2007, members of the team produced a set of computer animations described as a pedagogical tour through ]Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws ...
's '' New Astronomy'' and '' Harmony of the World'', plus another set on the discovery of the orbit of Ceres
Ceres most commonly refers to:
* Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid
* Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture
Ceres may also refer to:
Places
Brazil
* Ceres, Goiás, Brazil
* Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás ...
titled ''The Mind of Gauss''. After another website
keplersdiscovery.com
appeared that discussed the same works by Kepler, team members asserted that it was a plagiarized and inferior copy of their own work. In August 2008, the team released an hour-long video, ''The Harvard Yard'', in which they elaborate their claim of plagiarism and charge that the "Kepler's Discovery" site was the work of Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. In 2008 they issued ''Firewallin Defense of the Nation State''. This was followed by the release on July 3 of the feature-length sequel ''1932'', narrated by Robert Beltran
Robert Adame Beltran (born November 19, 1953) is an American actor, known for his role as Commander Chakotay on the 1990s television series '' Star Trek: Voyager''. He is also known for stage acting in California, and for playing Raoul Mendoza ...
, and a December production on scientific method
The scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific m ...
, ''The Matter of Mind''. They are also producing regular short videos on topical issues.
Notes
External links
WLYM official website
LaRouche PAC official website
Video: LaRouche Youth at Texas Democratic Convention nominating LaKesha Rogers for state Party Chair
2006
Lyndon LaRouche PAC
at OpenSecrets.org
OpenSecrets is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks data on campaign finance and lobbying. It was created from a merger of the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) and the National Institute on Money in Politics (NIMP). ...
Critical
Letter on LaRouche Youth Movement at UCSD
"LaRouchiacs" an Ever-Present Element On Howard's Campus
atthew Robinson, ''Pasadena City College Courier'' November 15, 2001
{{DEFAULTSORT:Worldwide Larouche Youth Movement
LaRouche movement
United States political action committees