I just discovered the existence of this thing (i dont even know what to call it, party? movement? cult?). So what i understand is the founder Lyndon LaRouche was a trotskyst whose faction was part of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a radical communist student group of the 1960s USA New Left. He was then expelled and founded the National Caucasus of Labor Committees (NCLC), a trotskyst group.

However, in the mid 1970s, his group suddenly turned more and more right wing. They declared that the enemy was now “on the left”, and set up paramilitary street gangs that would violently attack members and meetings of CPUSA and other communist parties. The group became quite rich somehow, which makes me think that they function like a cult, an accusation that has been leveled against them many times. With this money they set up more organizations, like the Schiller Institute think tank, which promotes LaRouches ideas.

This same institute would invent and push in the early 90s the conspiracy theory of “cultural marxism”, that “Frankfurt school cultural marxists” are infiltrating western society through “blacks, feminists and homosexuals” and pushing “political correctness” to “destroy western civilization”. If youve ever heard this conspiracy theory, you know its a favourite of the far right/alt right, and often has antisemitic derivations.

With this in mind, my instincts are to say that its a far right/fascist cult. However, the LaRouche Movement also heavily supports Russia, Iran, China and the Belt and Road Initiative. They have defended Russia now with the whole Ukraine fiasco. For this, they have often appeared on antiimperialist media like RT, PressTV and CGTN (an example of this: https://youtu.be/X2H0RP547gM ) criticizing the west.

What do you make of all of this? I really dont know what to make of it.

  • @SaddamHussein24OP
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    92 years ago

    Yes i did know that, the Congress for Cultural Freedom and all that. However LaRouche is very weird. Hes anticommunist and preaches the “cultural marxism” conspiracy theory that Ben Garrison and the far right love, but at the same time supports China, Iran and Russia, all while supporting Trump too. Very bizarre.

    • @aworldtowin@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      They’re very similar to the incoherent psycho Infrared, he even wanted to do a weekly show with a guy he platformed a lot from the larouche party. I was a bit confused on their stances til I saw that- seems like they’re socially right and “against the bourgeois degenerate LGBT agenda” in addition to supporting some basic soc dem reforms, with a foreign policy goal of capitalist multipolarity. Very pro small business and middle class rhetoric tying LGBT issues to the ultra rich.