Lyndon Who?

Walking down Commonwealth Avenue past Marsh Plaza or Warren Towers, it’s hard to miss the political organizers holding signs and handing out literature to passersby.

They are often the supporters of a man named Lyndon LaRouche, and despite their presence at Boston University and on other college campuses as part of the LaRouche Youth Movement, many students remain unaware of who LaRouche is and what he stands for.

His supporters describe him as a visionary leader whose movement seeks to liberate minds from the oppressive constraints of society. Much of LaRouche’s current literature fiercely opposes the Bush administration.

His opponents denounce him as a cult leader and conspiracy theorist with strongly anti-Semitic tendencies. […]

The LaRouche movement casts its leader as an influential political and economic thinker with a tremendous gift for forecasting world crises.The LaRouche movement casts its leader as an influential political and economic thinker with a tremendous gift for forecasting world crises.

The website of the LaRouche Political Action Committee claims that LaRouche ranks “among the most controversial international political figures of his time,” and that his ability as a forecaster “has placed him at the center of the presently erupting, global systemic crisis of the world’s economy.” […]

At the heart of the LaRouche movement today are the student activists, though it is uncertain how many members belong to the LaRouche Youth Movement, which began in 1999. […]

[Barbare Boyd, treasurer of the LaRouche Political Action Committee] declined to comment on specific aspects of the LYM’s recruiting practices and the connection between the LYM and the main LaRouche PAC.

Many experts believe the LaRouche movement displays the traditional structure and methodology of a cult.

Steve Hassan, director of the Somerville-based Freedom of Mind Center, said he thinks the movement is a cult because it is an “authoritarian, pyramid-structure group, with a charismatic figure at the top who has all the answers [and] dictatorial control.”

Hassan said the LaRouche movement follows what he calls the “BITE” model of mind control, standing for behavior, information, thought and emotion.

“They are not allowed to think negative thoughts about LaRouche; that’s behavior,” he said. “They’re not allowed to talk to ex-members or critics; that’s information. You pretty much go through the BITE model and you see that it fits.”

Priscilla Coates, a former director of the Cult Awareness Network who has dealt extensively with LaRouche, also said the movement fits the mold of a cult. […]

In addition to the cult accusations, critics of LaRouche have also focused on what they see as questionable aspects of his past.

In 1988 LaRouche was found guilty of conspiracy, mail fraud and tax code violations. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but was released in 1994 on parole.

Chip Berlet, a senior analyst at the Political Research Associates think tank who has covered LaRouche for thirty years, said he interviewed “scores of people who … told the same stories over and over again about a systematic fundraising mechanism that clearly was violating the law,” he said.
In addition to the cult accusations, critics of LaRouche have also focused on what they see as questionable aspects of his past.

In 1988 LaRouche was found guilty of conspiracy, mail fraud and tax code violations. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but was released in 1994 on parole.

Chip Berlet, a senior analyst at the Political Research Associates think tank who has covered LaRouche for thirty years, said he interviewed “scores of people who … told the same stories over and over again about a systematic fundraising mechanism that clearly was violating the law,” he said. […]

This is a summary extract of the full article as it appeared in The Daily Free Press, Oct. 4, 2006

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