National Caucus of Labor Committees

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The National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC) is a political cadre organization in the United States founded and controlled by political activist Lyndon LaRouche, who has sometimes described it as a "philosophical association".

LaRouche is the NCLC's founder and the political views of the NCLC are virtually indistinguishable from those of LaRouche. For more information on these views see the article "Political views of Lyndon LaRouche" as well as the main article titled "Lyndon LaRouche".

The highest group within the NCLC is the "National Executive Committee" (NEC), described as the "inner leadership circle"[1] or "an elite circle of insiders"[2] which "oversees policy".[3]The next most senior group is the "National Committee" (NC),[4] which is reportedly "one step beneath the NEC".[5]

Contents

[edit] History

A 1973 internal FBI letter recommended that, as part of its COINTELPRO, the FBI provide anonymous aid to a background investigation by the Communist Party USA.
A 1973 internal FBI letter recommended that, as part of its COINTELPRO, the FBI provide anonymous aid to a background investigation by the Communist Party USA.

According to LaRouche, the term "Labor Committee" was first used in 1967 at Columbia University by friends of LaRouche, to differentiate their faction of the student organization Students for a Democratic Society from that of Mark Rudd, whom they regarded as anti-labor. Other chapters were formed in New York City and at Swarthmore College in Philadelphia. [6] It became the NCLC in January 1969. By 1972 the NCLC had approximately 1,000 members. It was originally a New Left organization influenced by Trotskyist ideas[citation needed] as well as those of other Marxists such as Rosa Luxemburg, but opposed other New Left organizations which LaRouche said were dominated by the Ford Foundation, Institute for Policy Studies and Herbert Marcuse.[7] According to the Los Angeles Times, LaRouche writes in his autobiography that in 1971 the NCLC formed "intelligence units", and the following year started training members in paramilitary tactics.[8]

By the mid-1970s, the NCLC had abandoned Marxism altogether, in favor of what its members described as an American System approach. Some press accounts alleged that there was a shift to the right, and that the NCLC established ties to the Ku Klux Klan and the Liberty Lobby.[9] The conservative Heritage Foundation issued a report which states that "neither the Left nor the Right has a thoroughly-documented explanation of the organization's nature or purposes."[10]

In November 1973, the FBI issued a COINTELPRO memorandum, later obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, which according to LaRouche spokesperson and NCLC "director of counterintelligence"[11] Jeffrey Steinberg showed "that the FBI was considering supporting an assassination attempt against LaRouche by the Communist Party USA."[12] The NCLC established a paramilitary "officers training camp" in Argyle, New York in 1974, according to an FBI report. Members learned about "small unit tactics and strategy", and trained with nunchaku. The FBI documents reportedly also mention "beatings" and "brainwashings", claim that the group moved from far-left to far-right, and complain that NCLC sent in tips about wild conspiracies.[13]

According to the Village Voice and the Washington Post the NCLC became embroiled in the early 1970s in conflicts with other leftist groups, culminating in "Operation Mop-Up" which consisted of a series of physical attacks on members of rival left wing groups.[14]

During "Operation Mop-Up," LaRouche's New Solidarity, reported NCLC confrontations with members of the Communist Party and Socialist Workers Party. One incident took place April 23, 1973 at a debate featuring Labor Committee mayoral candidate Tony Chaitkin.[15] The meeting erupted in a brawl, with chairs flying. Six people were treated for injuries at a local hospital. Following this incident, New Solidarity warned:

  • "The clown show is over. The Labor Committee warns the Socialist Workers Party and its comrades-in-hysteria: when you did all the fighting for the Communist Party at the mayoral forum, we held back -- we gave you a mild warning, though several of your members were bloodied and broken. But should you repeat as goons for the CP, we will put all of you in the hospital; we will deal with you as we are dealing with the Communist Party."[16]

LaRouche writes, "The U.S. Communist Party was committed to putting the Labor Committees out of existence physically... Local law enforcement was curiously uncooperative, as they had been during prior physical attacks on myself and my friends. We knew that a 'fix' was in somewhere, probably from the FBI... We were left to our own resources. Tired of the beatings, we decided we had better prepare to defend ourselves if necessary."[17]

In Buffalo, two NCLC organizers were arrested and charged with 2nd degree felonious assault after an attack that left one person with a broken leg and another with a broken arm.[18]

According to the Los Angeles Times, LaRouche said he met with representatives of the Soviet Union at the United Nations in 1974 and 1975 in order to discuss attacks by the Communist Party USA on the NCLC, and to propose that the CPUSA should be merged into the NCLC. He denied receiving any assistance from the Soviets.[19]

In 1975, the FBI received a warning that "NCLC Boston region members are planning a campaign of telephone harassment against" the FBI "complaining that dogs owned by anonymous callers were being taken by FBI agents" for the purpose fo sexual gratification.[20]

According to LaRouche, during the period 1976-1978 the NCLC ceased being a dues-paying membership organization, and made the transition to a "purely philosophical-legal organization," whose principal activities were either philosophical or in connection with legal cases against the COINTELPRO and related offenses of the FBI and associated agencies.[21]

In 1977, Costas Axios, NCLC chief of staff for New York, said of the NCLC: "We are socialist, but first we must establish an industrialist capitalist republic and rid this country of the Rockefeller anti-industrial, antitechnology monetarist dictatorship of today." According to the Washington Post, FBI memoranda of the time described the NCLC as a "clandestinely oriented group of political schizophrenics who have a paranoid preoccupation with Nelson Rockefeller and the CIA", and as a "violence-oriented Marxist revolutionary organization."[22]

The Los Angeles Times reported that by 1981, the NCLC was overseeing a network of companies and organizations that were budgeted to bring in $11.7 million in gross receipts annually. One company, Campaigner Publications Inc., was reported to have grossed $4.5 million in a four month period. In a purported internal memo from 1981 LaRouche explained his position within the organization by saying, "I do not wish to hear, ever again, that I must wait until our legal council (sic) has assessed the wisdom of one of my decisions or that some members personal sensitivities must be taken into account...I promise you that I shall function, unrestrained, as a commanding general of a combat organization. Anyone who opposes my orders will, in the moral sense, be shot on the spot for insubordination."[23]

In 1984 the headquarters were moved from Manhattan to Leesburg, Virginia, a suburb of Washington D.C.[24]

The NCLC was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice in 1986 and its offices were searched. Federal prosecutors alleged that LaRouche "dominates and controls" the NCLC. A U.S. government memo reportedly said that the "the primary purpose" of the NCLC is to support LaRouche in a lavish lifestyle and to "courier large sums of cash to secret depositories."[25] Over a dozen NCLC members, including LaRouche himself, were eventually indicted. [26] (See also United States v. LaRouche)

[edit] Electoral politics

The NCLC launched the U.S. Labor Party (USLP), a registered political party, in 1972[27] as its electoral arm and ran LaRouche for President of the United States on the Labor Party ticket in 1976. The USLP was described by its founder as "an independent political association committed to the tradition of Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Henry C. Carey, and President Abraham Lincoln."[28]

In 1979 LaRouche changed his political strategy to one of running in Democratic primaries rather than as a third party candidate. This resulted in the USLP being replaced by the National Democratic Policy Committee (NDPC,) a bipartisan[29] political action committee.[30]

[edit] International work

The International Caucus of Labor Committees (ICLC) was founded as the philosophical nucleus for LaRouche movement operations worldwide. According to LaRouche the ICLC follows the "model of American founding father Benjamin Franklin's 'junto' organization."[9]

For a number of years the ICLC operated in Canada as first the North American Labour Party and then the Party for the Commonwealth of Canada. The ICLC has affiliates in France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, along with Mexico and several South American countries. In Australia LaRouche operatives took over an older extreme-right group (formally the Australian League of Rights), the Citizens Electoral Council (CEC), introducing traditional left ideals such as; repeal of anti-union laws and establishment Banks loans at 2% or less for family farms and now they regularly contest elections. The most recent significant addition to the network of active ICLC affiliates is in the Philippines. Until 2007, the LaRouche organisation published a weekly newspaper, The New Federalist. Its weekly newsmagazine, Executive Intelligence Review, has been converted mostly into a web publication although continuing to print a small number of copies per issue. The real membership of LaRouche's organisation is not known.

LaRouche movement
Helga Zepp-LaRouche
Lyndon LaRouche
Views of Lyndon LaRouche
United States v. LaRouche
U.S. Presidential campaigns
Political organizations
Bürgerrechtsbewegung
Solidarität (BüSo)
Citizens Electoral Council
European Workers Party
LaRouche movement
LaRouche Youth Movement
National Caucus of
Labor Committees
Schiller Institute
People
Amelia Boynton Robinson
Anton Chaitkin
Jacques Cheminade
Janice Hart
Jeremiah Duggan
Kenneth Kronberg
Michael Billington
Defunct
California Proposition 64
North American Labour Party
Party for the
Commonwealth of Canada
U.S. Labor Party
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[edit] Selected members

Included are present and former NCLC or ICLC members who have authored books, edited publications, or led LaRouche-affilated organizations or companies.

  • Michael Billington, author of Reflections of an American Political Prisoner, Asia editor for Executive Intelligence Review[31][32]
  • Mark Calney, Northwest coordinator for the NDPC[33], author of Robert Burns and the Ideas of the American Revolution[34]
  • Claudio Cesani, editor-in-chief of New Solidarity magazine.[35]
  • Anton Chaitkin, founding member of the NCLC[36], author of Treason in America, co-author of The Unauthorized Biography of George Bush,[37] and history editor for Executive Intelligence Review
  • Marsha Freeman, associate editor of 21st Century Science & Technology[38], author of How we got to the moon : the story of the German space pioneers
  • Paul Gallagher,[39] executive director of the former Fusion Energy Foundation (FEF)[40][41]
  • Khushro Ghandhi, president of Prevent AIDS Now Initiative Committee (California state ballot initiative, 1986)[42]
  • John Grauerholz, head of the Biological Holocaust Task Force[43]
  • Nora Hamerman, EIR editor-in-chief[44]
  • Warren Hamerman, chairman of the NDPC[45]
  • Laurence Hecht, editor-in-chief of 21st Century Science and Technology magazine[46][47]
  • Linda de Hoyos, president of EIR News Service[48]
  • Konstandinos Kalimtgis (AKA Costas Axios[49]), NCLC chief of staff[50], co-author of Dope, Inc.: Britain's Opium War Against the U.S.
  • Kenneth Kronberg (1948 – 2007), former editor of Fidelio[10], member of the National Committee from 1974 to 2007.[51]
  • Helga Zepp LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute[52]
  • H Graham Lowry, author of How the nation was won : America's untold story, 1630-1754
  • Quincy O'Neal, chairman of the Franklin Roosevelt Legacy Democratic Club[53]
  • Amelia Boynton Robinson, vice president of the Schiller Institute, author of Bridge Across Jordan
  • J. Philip Rubinstein, president of Caucus Distributors[54], New York regional NCLC leader[55], National Committee member[56]
  • Allen Salisbury, head of the Revolutionary Youth Movement[57], author of The Civil War and the American System.
  • John Sigerson, president of the Schiller Institute in the U.S.[58], director of the Schiller Institute Chorus[59], co-author[60] of A Manual on the Rudiments of Tuning and Registration.
  • Edward Spannaus, founding member of the NCLC[61], treasurer of LaRouche's 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns[62], LaRouche's legal coordinator[63]
  • Nancy Spannaus, editor-in-chief, New Federalist, former Editor-in-Chief, New Solidarity[64], founding member of the Schiller Institute[65], co-author of The Political economy of the American Revolution
  • Jeffrey Steinberg, [66], counterintelligence director for Executive Intelligence Review, co-author of Dope, inc. : Britain's opium war against the U.S.
  • Jonathan Tennenbaum, head of the European Fusion Energy Forum[67], scientific advisor[68] to the Schiller Institute, the Executive Intelligence Review, and Lyndon LaRouche, member of the scientific advisory board of 21st Century Science & Technology[69], author of Kernenergie: das weibliche Technik,
  • Carol White,[70] former editor-in-chief, 21st Century Science & Technology,[71] author, The New Dark Ages Conspiracy : Britain's Plot to Destroy Civilization and Energy Potential: Toward a New Electromagnetic Field Theory
  • Christopher White,[72] EIR Director,[73], co-author of The Political economy of the American Revolution
  • Kathy Wolfe, spokeswoman of U.S. Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche[74], co-author[75] of A Manual on the Rudiments of Tuning and Registration.
  • Criton Zoakos,[76], NCLC intelligence director, EIR editor-in-chief[77]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Rt. 28 Suicide Jumper Was Long-Time Associate of LaRouche", Nicholas F. Benton, Falls Church News-Press. 19 April 2007
  2. ^ "Breaking the Silence: An Ex-LaRouche Follower Tells Her Story", LINDA RAY, In These Times, Oct. 29, 1986
  3. ^ "Raid Stirs Reports of LaRouche's Dark Side" Kevin Roderick, Los Angeles Times Oct 14, 1986. pg. 1
  4. ^ "Breaking the Silence: An Ex-LaRouche Follower Tells Her Story", LINDA RAY, In These Times, Oct. 29, 1986
  5. ^ "TEAMSTERS FOR LaROUCHE", DENNIS KING,Our Town. http://lyndonlarouchewatch.org/ourtown5.htm
  6. ^ LaRouche, Lyndon, The Power of Reason: 1988, pp 114-115
  7. ^ LaRouche, Lyndon, The Power of Reason: 1988, p. 115
  8. ^ "LaRouche Trying to Lose Splinter Label". ELLEN HUME, Los Angeles Times Feb 16, 1980, pg. A20
  9. ^ "In Spotlight After Illinois Victories LaRouche: Cult Figure or Serious Political Leader?" PAUL HOUSTON. Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, Calif.: Apr 29, 1986. pg. 1
  10. ^ The U.S. Domestic Issues: Labor Party
  11. ^ "Five LaRouche Groups, Aides Charged in Fraud". KEVIN RODERICK, 'Los Angeles Times Oct 7, 1986, pg. 1
  12. ^ Steinberg, Jeffrey, "The Washington Post's and KKK-Katie Graham's 25-Year War Against LaRouche" [1]
  13. ^ Syndicated column. Jack Anderson and Les Whitten. January 30, 1974. Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC), formed "goon squads" whose members are trained in military tactics and indoctrinated in violence. An internal memo from FBI Director Clarence Kelley tells of "beatings" and "brainwashings." Back in 1974... the NCLC set up an underground "officers training camp" at Argyle, N.Y.,. where members allegedly'were tutored in military history, close order drill, weapons handling and "small unit tactics and strategy." They have also received instructions, according to the FBI, in the delicate use of the numbachutka: This is a strangulation weapon, a deadly Korean device, composed of two sticks connected by a chain...Then the group moved to the far right and began "cooperating" with the FBI. But the cooperation consisted of burdening the FBI with tips about wild conspiracies that existed only in their minds.
  14. ^ Nat Hentoff, Of Thugs and Liars, the Village Voice, 1/24/74, p. 8; Paul L. Montgomery, "How a Radical-Left Group Moved Toward Savagery," New York Times, 1/20/74, p. 1; James C. Hyatt, "A Communist Group Uses Fists and Epithets To Battle U.S. Unions," Wall Street Journal, 10/7/75; "An Introduction to NCLC: "The Word is Beware," Liberation New Service, #599, 3/23/74; Charles M. Young, "Mind Control, Political Violence & Sexual Warfare: Inside the NCLC," Crawdaddy, June 1976, p. 48-56; Chronology of Labor Committee Attacks, issued by New York Committee to Stop Terrorist Attacks, 1973; Articles and photographs in the Daily World, the Militant, Workers Power, the Fifth Estate, the Boston Phoenix, and the Drummer.
  15. ^ "Look at This: Communist Party Needs 'Trotskyist' Goons!," New Solidarity, Vol. IV, No. 4, April 30-May 4, 1973 (Published Weekly by the National Caucus of Labor Committees), pp. 1, 4-5.
  16. ^ Ibid., quote from p. 4.
  17. ^ LaRouche, Lyndon, The Power of Reason: 1988, p. 138
  18. ^ Ibid., p. 5.
  19. ^ "LaRouche Elbowing Into Limelight". JEFFREY A PERLMAN, Los Angeles Times May 27, 1984. pg. A16
  20. ^ Teletype: To Director and New Haven from Boston, April 7, 1975, image online here.
  21. ^ The Virginia Political Prisoners, by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. (Aug. 26, 1995)
  22. ^ "When Left Reaches Right". Paul Valentine, Washington Post, August 16, 1977, p. A1
  23. ^ "Authorities See Pattern of Threats, Plots Dark Side of LaRouche Empire Surfaces" KEVIN RODERICK. Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, Calif.: Oct 14, 1986. pg. 1
  24. ^ "Raid Stirs Reports of LaRouche's Dark Side" Kevin Roderick. San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, Calif.: Oct 14, 1986. pg. 1
  25. ^ "Federal Papers Suggest LaRouche Evaded Taxes; Documents Point to an Elaborate Scheme' by Political Extremist, Associates", John Mintz. The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: Feb 25, 1987. pg. a.11
  26. ^ "LaRouche offices raided; 10 aides indicted on fraud and plot charges", PHILIP SHENON. Houston Chronicle. Houston, Tex.: Oct 7, 1986. pg. 5
  27. ^ "Nuclear group raises funds for right-wing party in U.S." Ross Laver. The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.: Jan 2, 1980. pg. P.5. Formed in 1972, the U. S. Labor Party is an arm of the National Caucus of Labor Committees, a group that emerged from the remains of the left-wing Students for a Democratic Society.
  28. ^ A Brief Biography of Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
  29. ^ Meet the Candidates - Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
  30. ^ "Candidate’s wife arrested" Dennis King, Our Town, Sept. 29, 1985
  31. ^ Schiller Institute- Interview with Mike Billington- American political prisoner
  32. ^ The Virginia Political Prisoners, by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. (Aug. 26, 1995)
  33. ^ "LAROUCHE BACKERS TO JOIN STATE RACES AFTER ILLINOIS WINS" DOUG UNDERWOOD. Seattle Times. Seattle, Wash.: Mar 22, 1986. pg. A.14
  34. ^ "Republished: Robert Burns and the Ideas of the American Revolution". Schiller Institute, November 2007. [2]
  35. ^ http://www.ilnuovogiornaledibergamo.it/Inserti/bgeconomia9.pdf
  36. ^ LaRouche Connection Biographies
  37. ^ "Look at This: Communist Party Needs 'Trotskyist' Goons!," New Solidarity, Vol. IV, No. 4, April 30-May 4, 1973 (Published Weekly by the National Caucus of Labor Committees), pp. 1, 4-5.
  38. ^ The LaRouche Show 2003
  39. ^ The Virginia Political Prisoners, by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. (Aug. 26, 1995)
  40. ^ SDI and the Jailing of Lyndon LaRouche
  41. ^ The Virginia Political Prisoners, by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. (Aug. 26, 1995)
  42. ^ "The State AIDS Test Measure Near OK for Ballot", Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, Calif.: Jun 23, 1986. pg. 2
  43. ^ "Surprising number of voters undecided on Prop. 64", Gerry Braun. The San Diego Union. San Diego, Calif.: Sep 24, 1986. pg. A.3
  44. ^ LaRouche Connection Master List 1991-1995
  45. ^ "Democrats now take LaRouche seriously" William Osborne. The San Diego Union. San Diego, Calif.: Mar 23, 1986. pg. A.1
  46. ^ Magnetrain:A 600-mph Railroad Suspended by Magnets
  47. ^ The Virginia Political Prisoners, by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. (Aug. 26, 1995)
  48. ^ BvDEP - MINT GLOBAL. Company report on EIR NEWS SERVICE, INC. Accessed January 26, 2008.
  49. ^ Dennis King
  50. ^ "Institutional Analysis #7 The U.S. DOMESTIC ISSUES: LABOR Party" by Watson, Francis M., Heritage Foundation. July 19, 1978 [3]
  51. ^ Obituary for Kenneth L. Kronberg, Fidelio Editor
  52. ^ Helga Zepp LaRouche Bio
  53. ^ California Democratic Leaders Respond to LaRouche's Ibero-American Webcast at FDR Legacy Club Meeting | LaRouche Political Action Committee
  54. ^ "LAROUCHE GROUP BLAMES PRESS, FEDERAL PROBE FOR ITS CASH WOES". Seattle Times. Seattle, Wash.: Jun 9, 1986. pg. A.6
  55. ^ King, Dennis (1989) Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism, Doubleday [4]
  56. ^ "Conference of the International Caucus of Labor Committees and the Schiller Institute", August 31 - September 1, 2002 [5]
  57. ^ "Marx & the Outlaws: Recruiting in the ghetto", Howard Blum, Village Voice, June 6, 1974
  58. ^ The Hitler Book, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, ed., New Benjamin Franklin House Publishing, 1984
  59. ^ ICLC-Schiller Institute Labor Day 2001 Conference
  60. ^ LaRouche Connection Master List 1991-1995
  61. ^ LaRouche Connection Biographies
  62. ^ "12 LaRouche Followers Arrested in Fraud Case". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, Calif.: Mar 19, 1987. pg. 9
  63. ^ "LaRouche and 6 Aides Guilty of Cheating IRS and Campaign Backers;" Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, Calif.: Dec 18, 1988. pg. 38
  64. ^ LaRouche Connection Master List 1991-1995
  65. ^ The Lessons of Schiller's Wallenstein Trilogy for Today
  66. ^ NYT 9/23/87
  67. ^ "LaRouche Movement Meets in U.S.: Determines to shift U.S. strategic policy, bring down Pike statue", Nancy Spannaus, [6]
  68. ^ "MOSCOW ECONOMIC CONFERENCE DRAWS 200 FROM RUSSIA, GERMANY, MID EAST AND ASIA", From The Wilderness March 31, 2001 http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/economy/us_econ_threat.html]
  69. ^ "The Scientific Basis Of the New Biological Paradigm, by Vladimir Voeikov, introduciton by Jonathan Tennenbaum. 21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, v. 12, No.2, pp. 18-33, Summer 1999 [7]
  70. ^ The U.S. Domestic Issues: Labor Party
  71. ^ LaRouche Connection Master List 1991-1995
  72. ^ The U.S. Domestic Issues: Labor Party
  73. ^ LaRouche Connection Master List 1991-1995
  74. ^ http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~caplabtb/dprk/LaRouche_mahl.doc
  75. ^ Schiller Institute Wm Warfield, 1920-2002
  76. ^ "LaRouche's Conviction May Change Organization". Caryle Murphy. The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: Dec 18, 1988. pg. b.03
  77. ^ King, Dennis (1989) Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism, Doubleday [8]

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