Worldwide LaRouche Youth Movement

The Worldwide LaRouche Youth Movement (WLYM or LYM) is part of the political organisation of controversial American political figure Lyndon LaRouche. Journalists, cult experts, former members and law enforcement officicials have made a wide variety of accusations of the LaRouche organizations, including calling them a political cult. [Avi Klein, "Publish and Perish: The mysterious death of Lyndon LaRouche's printer," "New Republic", [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0711.klein.html online here] ] [http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2006/10/04/Spotlight/Lyndon.Who-2330946-page3.shtml] [http://web.archive.org/web/20050828232911/http://www.pcc-courieronline.com/news/111501/larouche.html] [http://web.archive.org/web/20031120111606/http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/archived/2003/1114/news/asp/p4news2.asp] The LaRouche Youth Movement's "war room" is in Leesburg, Virginia. [http://www.larouchepub.com/lym/2007/3435lym_africa.html LaRouche Youth Movement in Africa: Reconstruct the World Economy!] ]

History

Investigative journalist and LaRouche biographer Dennis King has described the founding of the WLYM by LaRouche as a means to maintain his legacy after his death by " [going] back to his roots, the roots of his movement in the radical campus movement in the late 1960s". [http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2006/10/04/Spotlight/Lyndon.Who-2330946-page5.shtml] Avi Klein of the "Washington Monthly" 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 channelling "the rage new acolytes felt toward their parents at a nearby, internal enemy". [ [http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2007/0711.klein.html "Publish and Perish: The mysterious death of Lyndon LaRouche's printer"] By Avi Klein, "The Washington Monthly", November 2007]

In an article in the University of California, Berkeley independent student newspaper, The Daily Californian on February 11, 2004, 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 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. Most recently the LYM has expanded its activity into the African nations of South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique.

LYM members have been active in the Democratic Party at the state and local levels. The group received $462,850 in 2006 from the LaRouche Political Action Committee. ["The LaRouche Youth Movement", Scott McLemee, "Inside Higher Ed" July 11, 2007 [http://insidehighered.com/views/2007/07/11/mclemee] ]

Campaigns and pedagogy

The LYM has disrupted university lectures to distribute their material. [http://www.smc.edu/corsair/Archives/CorsairOnline/Archives/91102/News/lbi_91102.htm] On October 23, 2006, a group of LaRouche Youth Movement members twice disrupted a Connecticut U.S. Senate debate between Alan Schlesinger, Ned Lamont, and Joseph Lieberman. According to "The Day", as Joe Lieberman spoke, the hecklers "sang a harmonized ode targeting Vice President Dick Cheney, which, according to the group's website, is unofficially titled 'The Fat-Ass Nazi Song'." [ [http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=9df1b5f0-4ea4-42fc-a689-0be6fb129de7 Selected Item ] ]

During the election campaign of 2006, the LYM came into conflict with organizations including the Ayn Rand Institute, which the LYM accused of promoting genocide in speeches by its representatives at various campuses. LYM members confronted Institute executive director Yaron Brook at various universities across the US, heckling him and throwing meat [http://media.www.dailytrojan.com/media/storage/paper679/news/2006/10/31/News/Activists.Lob.Meat.Condoms-2411743.shtml?sourcedomain=www.dailytrojan.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com] and "liquid-filled condoms". In one case, at the University of California, Irvine, 15 LYM members, some of who violently resisted, [http://www.newuniversity.org/main/article?slug=ayn_rand_institute_director17] were arrested. [Paul Backus, " [http://www.newuniversity.org/main/article?slug=fifteen_arrested_at_ayn17 Fifteen Arrested at Ayn Rand Club Event] ", "New University", 13 November 2006 (accessed 24 February 2007).]

LYM members frequently combine political activity with choral music performance. [http://www.larouchepac.com/pages/youth_movement_files/articles_lym/2004/040730_counterpoint_bost.htm Counterpoint As Political Strategy Classical Organizing in Boston | LaRouche Political Action Committee] ] 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. [Noah S. Bloom, " [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=516761 Singing LaRouchians Interrupt Class] ", "The Harvard Crimson", 2 February 2007 (accessed 3 February 2007).] [Christa Majoras, " [http://media.www.dailyfreepress.com/media/storage/paper87/news/2007/01/31/News/Activist.Group.Trespasses.On.Bu.Property-2688148.shtml Activist group trespasses on BU property] ", "The Daily Free Press", 31 January 2007 (accessed 3 February 2007).]

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, and the assertion that the theory of human-caused Global warming is a fraud motivated by Malthusianism. On this latter issue, LYM have confronted Al Gore on several occasions at his public events. In Argentina, LYM leader Betiana Gonzalez disrupted Gore's speech after he recommended that Argentina reduce its population. [ [http://www.larouchepac.com/pages/breaking_news/2007/05/11/argenitineLYM_gordo.shtml "LYM Delivers One-Two Punch to Al Gordo in Argentina"] - LaRouche PAC] A similar incident took place earlier in the year in Montreal, Canada. [Penev, Pavel, [http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2007/2007_10-19/2007-13/pdf/24-28_713_dossier.pdf "The Gore Dossier"] - EIR, March 30, 2007] In the Philippines, LYM members debated a variety of spokespersons for the Global Warming theory. [ [http://www.larouchepac.com/pages/youth_movement_files/articles_lym/2007/0404_phillipines.shtml "Philippines LaRouche Society Flanks Gore's Minions on IPCC Slide Show"] - LaRouche PAC]

The LYM has criticized Campus Watch and the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, claiming that they act as "thought police" to stifle opposition to the Iraq war and the Bush administration. [" [http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2006/3341goebbels_campus.html John Train's Press Sewer: Is Goebbels on Your Campus?] ", "Executive Intelligence Review", 13 October 2006 (accessed 3 February 2007).]

Criticism and accusations

According to Scott McLemee: "The emergence of the group is all the more surprising, given that LaRouche himself has long since become the walking punchline to a very strange joke. He is known for some of the most baroque conspiracy theories ever put into circulation. Members of the LYM now deny that he ever accused the Queen of England of drug trafficking – though in fact, he did exactly that throughout the 1980s. At the time, he won admirers on the extreme right wing by denouncing Henry Kissinger as an agent of the KGB and calling for AIDS patients to be quarantined." [Scott McLemee, ["The LaRouche Youth Movement," http://insidehighered.com/views/2007/07/11/mclemee] "Inside Higher Ed.," July 11, 2007.] LaRouche and his organization, in fact, dispute all three of McLemee's characterizations of LaRouche's ideas ("see LaRouche vs. the media.")

After spending six days at a Schiller Institute 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, and the London Metropolitan police concurred. 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. [ [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2042209,00.html New evidence shows 'suicide' student was beaten to death] ] . 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 brain washing techniques on her son to persuade him to join the movement. [Witt, "No Joke".]

An ex-member of the LaRouche youth movement has asserted that the LaRouche Youth Movement calls parents "brainwashed baby boomers"."No Joke"., April Witt, "The Washington Post", October 24, 2004; Page W12. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A46883-2004Oct20?language=printer] ] 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. [April Witt, " [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46883-2004Oct20.html No Joke] ", "The Washington Post", 24 October 2004 (accessed 3 February 2007).]

Jeffrey Steinberg of the LaRouche Movement responded by portraying Michael Winsted as an agent of the "Washington Post", who "briefly infiltrated the Baltimore chapter of the LYM." [ [http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2004/site_packages/3125symons.html "A Concise Timeline of the Symons-Duggan Affair,"] "Executive Intelligence Review", June 25, 2004]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.wlym.com Official website]

Youtube videos

* [http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Lieberman+larouche&search=Search Videos: LaRouche Youth interrupt Joe Lieberman at Connecticut debate]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45uxEuC8Cq4&search=texas%20democrat%20convention Video: LaRouche Youth at Texas Democratic Convention]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3HaaPz8hgQ Short Video Documentary on LaRouche Youth and Global Warming]

Critical

* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46883-2004Oct20.html "Washington Post": "No Joke" (a long article on LaRouche and the YLM)]
* [http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=14111 Article about LYM in campus newspaper, The Daily Californian]
* [http://youcsd.com/archives/000086.php Letter on LaRouche Youth Movement at UCSD]
* [http://www.thehilltoponline.com/news/2004/02/27/Politick/larouchiacs.An.EverPresent.Element.On.Howards.Campus-620942.shtml "LaRouchiacs" an Ever-Present Element On Howard's Campus]
* [http://www.marco.org/203 Article on Dealing with a LaRouche recruiter]
* [http://www.cultsoncampus.com/larouche.html Information about LaRouche on the Cults on Campus website]
* [http://www.rickross.com/reference/larouche/larouche21.html Larouche Exposed] ndash Pasadena City College