Lyndon LaRouche facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lyndon LaRouche
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LaRouche circa 1988
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Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr.
September 8, 1922 Rochester, New Hampshire, U.S.
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| Died | February 12, 2019 (aged 96) |
| Other names | Lyn Marcus |
| Education | Northeastern University (no degree) |
| Organization | National Caucus of Labor Committees |
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| Movement | LaRouche movement |
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Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Jr. (September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019) was an American political activist who founded the LaRouche movement and its main organization, the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). He was a prominent conspiracy theorist and perennial presidential candidate. He began in far-left politics but in the 1970s moved to the far right. His movement is sometimes described as or likened to a cult. Convicted of fraud, he served five years in prison from 1989 to 1994.
Born in Rochester, New Hampshire, LaRouche was drawn to socialist and Marxist movements in his twenties during World War II. In the 1950s, while a Trotskyist, he was also a management consultant in New York City. By the 1960s, he became engaged in increasingly smaller and more radical splinter groups. During the 1970s, he created the foundation of the LaRouche movement and became more engaged in conspiratorial beliefs and violent and illegal activities. Instead of the radical left, he embraced radical right politics and antisemitism.
It is estimated that the LaRouche movement never exceeded a few thousand members, but it had an outsize political influence, raising more than $200 million by one estimate, and running candidates in more than 4,000 elections in the 1980s. It was noted for disguising its candidates as conservative Democrats and harassing opponents. In 1986, it reached its height in electoral success when Larouchite candidates won several Democratic primaries for state offices in Illinois, alarming Democratic Party officials. Later in the 1980s, criminal investigations led to convictions of several LaRouche movement members, including LaRouche himself. He was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment, but served only five.
LaRouche was a perennial candidate for President of the United States. He ran in every election from 1976 to 2004 as a candidate of third parties established by members of his movement, peaking at around 78,000 votes in the 1984 presidential election. He also tried to gain the Democratic presidential nomination. In 1996, he got 5% of the total nationwide vote in Democratic primaries. In 2000, he received enough primary votes to qualify for delegates in some states, but the Democratic National Committee refused to seat his delegates and barred LaRouche from attending the Democratic National Convention.
Early life
LaRouche was born in Rochester, New Hampshire, the oldest of three children of Jessie Lenore (née Weir) and Lyndon H. LaRouche Sr. His paternal grandfather's family emigrated to the United States from Rimouski, Quebec, whereas his maternal grandfather was born in Scotland. His father worked for the United Shoe Machinery Corporation in Rochester before the family moved to Lynn, Massachusetts.
His parents became Quakers after his father converted from Catholicism. They forbade him from fighting with other children, even in self-defense, which he said led to "years of hell" from bullies at school. As a result, he spent much of his time alone, taking long walks through the woods and identifying in his mind with great philosophers. He wrote that, between the ages of 12 and 14, he read philosophy extensively, embracing the ideas of Leibniz and rejecting those of Hume, Bacon, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Rousseau, and Kant. He graduated from Lynn English High School in 1940. In the same year, the Lynn Quakers expelled his father from the group, for reportedly accusing other Quakers of misusing funds, while writing under the pen name Hezekiah Micajah Jones. LaRouche and his mother resigned in sympathy for his father.
University studies
LaRouche attended Northeastern University in Boston and left in 1942. He later wrote that his teachers "lacked the competence to teach me on conditions I was willing to tolerate". As a Quaker, he was a conscientious objector (CO) during World War II and joined a Civilian Public Service camp. In 1944 he joined the United States Army as a non-combatant and served in India and Burma with medical units. He ultimately worked as an ordnance clerk at the end of the war. He described his decision to serve as one of the most important of his life. While in India he developed sympathy for the Indian independence movement. LaRouche wrote that many GIs feared they would be asked to support British forces in actions against Indian independence forces and characterized that prospect as "revolting to most of us".
LaRouche wrote that he discussed Marxism in the CO camp, and while traveling home on the SS General Bradley in 1946, he met Don Merrill, a fellow soldier, also from Lynn, who converted him to Trotskyism. Back in the U.S., he resumed his education at Northeastern University but dropped out. He returned to Lynn in 1948 and the next year joined the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) to recruit at the GE River Works there, adopting the name "Lyn Marcus" for his political work. He arrived in New York City in 1953, where he worked as a management consultant.
Movement
Estimates of the size of LaRouche's movement have varied over the years; most say there is a core membership of 500 to 2,000. The estimated 600 members in 1978 paid monthly dues of $24. Johnson wrote in 1983 that both the Fusion Energy Foundation and the National Democratic Policy Committee had attracted some 20,000 members, as well as 300,000 magazine subscribers.
According to Christopher Toumey, LaRouche's charismatic authority within the movement was grounded on members' belief that he possessed a unique level of insight and expertise. He identified an emotionally charged issue, conducted in-depth research into it, and then proposed a simplistic solution, which usually involved restructuring of the economy or national security apparatus. He and the membership portrayed anyone opposing him as immoral and part of the conspiracy.
Description as a cult
The LaRouche movement has been described as a cult or cult-like by critics and anti-cult organizations.
A 1987 article by John Mintz in The Washington Post reported that members of the LaRouche movement lived hand-to-mouth in crowded apartments, with their basic needs paid for by the movement. They worked raising money or selling newspapers for LaRouche, doing research for him, or singing in a group choir, spending almost every waking hour together.
Personal life
Lyndon LaRouche was married twice in his lifetime. In 1954 he married Janice Neuberger, a psychiatrist. Their son, Daniel, was born in 1956. They divorced in 1963. He then married Helga Zepp in 1977.
Death
LaRouche's death was announced on the website of one of his organizations. He died on February 12, 2019, at age 96. Neither the place nor cause of his death was specified.
See also
In Spanish: Lyndon LaRouche para niños
