[lbo-talk] Berlet Joins Call for Probe into Death of Student who Attended LaRouche-Group Conference

[Andy F]

On 3/27/07, Michael Smith <mjs at smithbowen.net> wrote:
> On Tuesday 27 March 2007 09:59, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> > I first heard of LaRouche around 1977 or 1978, from a member of a far
> > left party in Virginia whose comrades had been beaten up by his goons.
>
> Since that time, he's provided steady (though, I imagine,  poorly-compensated)
> employment for a small cottage-industry sector of indignant Democrats: Dennis
> King, Kalev Pehme, Berlet himself. I remember when these guys were running
> around New York back in the early 80s accusing anybody to the left of Jerrold
> Nadler of being a Larouchie. You were particularly likely to get tagged this
> way if you opened your mouth about Israel.

My favorite Larouche story was the infamous Illinois state election of 1986:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_Party>

The Solidarity Party was an American political party in the state of Illinois.

The party was founded in 1986 by Senator Adlai Stevenson III in
reaction to the Democratic Party's nomination of two followers of
Lyndon LaRouche in the race for high state offices. These candidates
were Mark Fairchild, who was running for Lieutenant Governor, and
Janice Hart, who was running for Secretary of State. Stevenson, a
Democratic Gubernatorial candidate, did not want to run alongside
anybody associated with LaRouche's organization. The Solidarity
Party's candidate for Lieutenant Governor was Michael J. Howlett, a
Chicago lawyer.

There are a number of explanations as to how the LaRouche followers
became nominees. Some believe that it simply boiled down to the names
of the LaRouche candidates, which sounded less "ethnic" than those of
their opponents George E. Sangmeister and Aurelia Pucinski. Hart's
victory over Pucinski was likely helped by a voter reaction to
Pucinski, whose father, Roman Pucinski, was a prominent opponent of
Chicago Mayor Harold Washington.

Many criticized the Democrats for their failure to inform voters
exactly who the candidates were, and this allowed campaigning efforts
in rural areas to be very effective. "LaRouche Democrats" claimed that
the Democratic Party (especially chairman Charles Manatt) was under
the influence of Mikhail Gorbachev. LaRouche maintains that the
population voted for his followers to take the party back from elitist
bankers. In any case, most analysts (including Stevenson himself)
agreed that the whole ordeal confused voters, resulting in Republican
James R. Thompson winning the election. The "Solidarity Democrats" and
the LaRouche supporters blame one another for the subsequent decades
of Republican control in Illinois. Stevenson left politics and went on
to become an investment banker.

[...]

-- 
Andy