Gunder Frank Contributions to Public Discussions
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Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 17:43:27 -0400
From: Andre Gunder Frank
Reply-To: Discussions on the Socialist Register and its articles
To: SOCIALIST-REGISTER@YORKU.CA
Subject: Re: Lyndon LaRouche, neo-fascism and Vancouver activism
from gunder Frank
Larouche is a cameleon. I have a 20 page PERSONAL LETTER from him dated 1971 or 1972
trying to recuit me into his TROTSKYISTA ORGANIZSATION - separate from the institutional
and 4th International one of course , since one thing has not changed- he has to run
everything as a caudillo - .Fortunately for you, I can not [yet?] find it, or i would make
lengthy quotes from it. Still in the early 1970s he ran the Workers Party, i forget the
precise name, and recruited serious organizations of fanatics in eg. Mexico, Germany etc.
Two of his militabts had an apartment next to mine in Germany - i always wondered if that
was accident or purpose - and once when i was in Mexico- having come from Canda in 1974 -
they informed my wife of my trip BEFORE I could. Such was his inteRNATIONAL ORGANIZATION
ALREADY THEN."If I may say so before being accused of guilt by association, i dunno
why he selected me as a possible recruit and I was never caught by his attempted embrace
and did not join his organizations. on the contrary, I was already openly critical of them
already then.
what i HAVE found is his THE EMERGING WORLD ORDER nyc MARCH 15, 1972, TYPESCRIPT 162 pp.
that he sent me in/to chile before the coup. It is a serious analysis- never mind if we
agree or not- sayuing this is the 3rd crisis of capitalism by the destruction of the
Bretton Woods regime [only a year before by Nixon in 1971!] , the previous one having been
in the 1860s and the 1870s econ crisis, and the second in the 1930s. Already then he was
on his nuclear fusion bent.
but the point is that at least in words, the Ms is openly anti-imperialist,
anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-fascist [i can quote to that effect '' dangerous form
of fascist ideology ...a mass appeal], and a warning of the rising tides of these as a
result of this new crisis of capitalism. He idenmtifies 3 importamt manifestations,
racism, ecologism- the Rome Limis to Growth was just published, behaviorism - which are
rampant amongintellectuals/social scientists, and among ''officla marxists". He
especially criticises attempts at wage cutting, undeer cover of various econ theories and
political ideologies -- which was only just beginning in 1972!
On Thu, 1 Aug 2002, Macdonald Stainsby wrote:
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 12:12:58 -0700
From: Macdonald Stainsby
Reply-To: Discussions on the Socialist Register and its articles
To: SOCIALIST-REGISTER@YORKU.CA
Subject: Lyndon LaRouche, neo-fascism and Vancouver activism
Fascism comes in many forms, from the openly anti-Semitic neo-Nazi movements led by the
now-dead William Pierce (may he rest in peace) and Jean Marie le Pen in France and his
anti-immigrant ravings. There is also the pseudo insane rants of the anti-Semitic paranoid
lizard chaser, David Icke.
Then, we have the "populist" Lyndon LaRouche- fighter against globalisation, big
government ...and the immigration "problem".
Lyndon H LaRouche, a known anti-Semite neo-Fascist, has had a number of his followers
infiltrating our movement for some time. My own first run-in with these scum was back on
October 27, at a teach-in that the now-dormant MAWAR gave against the War on Terror out on
the grounds of UBC. They were there distributing their "newspaper" and we asked
them to leave. They tried to disseminate the papers en masse and then took off. We tossed
these in the garbage. That was then.
LaRouche-ite pigs apparently then went into long term, ground breaking tactical thinking,
as they joined the End Legislated Poverty group (a local anti-poverty NGO) and attended
meetings for a number of weeks before being spotted again, wandering around distributing
their filth at the G8 ministers meeting in Whistler on the 12th of July. This was
worrisome, but when they were loudly exposed and brought forward for what they were, they
did what the new fascists do all the time- they denied their affiliations. Now, how did it
come out they were racist LaRouche supporters? I asked a simple few questions about
immigration of one of the men. He refused to answer several vague questions, but the one
he liked enough to answer was "How do you feel about immigration from places like
Pakistan and Israel?" He responded by alerting me and about 5 or 6 others within
earshot that "the country was going down the tubes".
> The infiltration doesn't stop there, as they attended our victory against Gordon
Campbell on Friday July 14- when the APC-led demonstration chased Gordo away from the
Vancouver Art Gallery. Yes, our friendly fascists were running around there trying to
convince people "they are just like us" again. Considering the relaxed attitude
of MobGlob (in itself, a good thing!) towards who can and cannot join, I expect they are
on this list serve, and that they have also attended meetings.
Again, by using "anti-corporate" and "libertarian" rhetoric, they
attempt to appeal to people within our movement as we are young, have a lot of questions
to ask and are full of righteous anger against the forces that currently are running the
world (except most of us aren't pining to stop "the ZOG", but that's another
matter...). In such circumstances, if not just plain ALWAYS, it is incumbent upon us to be
very careful to make it well known to all people of good conscience that we have nothing
to do with their racist conspiracy driven nonsense. We are about an end to a world order
that is so bleak it might lead some otherwise good people towards racist conspiracy driven
nonsense. Yet, LaRouche appears to be very similar to a Ralph Nader, David Orchard and
other "harmless" anti-globalisation populists. He is not.
Unfortunately, in addition to Paul Fromm articles about immigration being the cause of
September 11, Gordon Watson "debating" abortion (before target practice, one
would guess) and the regular carrying and promoting of Protocols-of-the-Elders-of
Zion-quoting David Icke, the Radical Newspaper has been carrying LaRouche articles as
well. The lead-in to the reprinted LaRouche article, showing a familiarity with the author
and the content, written by editor Arthur Topham includes the following:
"... Ed John exemplifies this great conspiracy to remove Canada's water and its
sovereignty from out of the hands of the people and into the waiting mouths and bank
accounts of the ruling NWO elites. This document below will put in context what is planned
and is currently being implemented using the "Salami Tactics" that Hans Krampe
refers to in earlier instances of implementing global corporate fascism.
Read on and please do comment. -Editor [Arthur Topham]"
--- Now, to sum up who Lyndon LaRouche and his followers are, here is a clip from a great
article written by one Chip Berlet:
"Unraveling the Gordian Knot that is LaRouche is not difficult when you realize the
multi-faceted nature of LaRouche and his organization. LaRouche is the Elmer Gantry of
American politics; mixing equal parts of cynical con and fanatic fervor. The terms to
describe LaRouche can be gleaned from the pages of any political science textbook.
LaRouche's political ideology is authoritarian. His view of history is paranoid. His
economic theories are similar to Italian Fascism. His conspiratorial views are laced with
racial and cultural bigotry and a large dose of anti-Jewish hysteria. His zealous
stormtroopers are motivated by an internal organizational structure that is to politics
what the blitzkrieg was to international diplomacy--that distinctive twentieth century
phenomenon...the totalitarian movement. History teaches us that to ignore or dismiss such
a person as an ineffectual crank can have devastating consequences." (clip) [the
whole article and explanation of Lyndon LaRouche can be found here:
http://www.publiceye.org/larouche/nclc1.html ]
The article run in the Radical was just one more article promoting a known-racist, a known
anti-Semite and there is no doubt as to the Editors' own personal allegiance to exactly
the types of politics that the article and author produces.
We need to be a movement that takes itself seriously and the threats of hate-mongerers
infiltrating our meetings and our ranks, and the Radical continues to associate itself
with these characters. As has been said before, this isn't a matter that would take any
real trouble in being cleared up by Arthur Topham. He simply has to publicly assert that
these racists and neo-fascists are not a part of his immediate circle, they are not
welcome in his paper and we never see them and their anti-people garbage (wrapped in
"anti-globalisation" rhetoric) on the pages again. That's simple. Or, we have to
do what has been done by many different places and distributors and organisations across
Vancouver, all of BC and now into Alberta (and anywhere else the Radical is trying to move
into): We need to make it known this is not a paper that has anything to do with the world
we are trying to build. The People's Co-Op Bookstore has refused to carry it, as have all
but one of the progressive book and magazine retail outlets. We should ask people within
our movement to make a choice: either openly distribute the paper, or work within our
movement. We need to be very careful not to become paranoid, thinking there are skinheads
and fascists under our collective beds. Nonetheless, this isn't a matter of paranoia- if
we do not make this stand, we will have no legitimacy in the communities of colour we
state we want to work directly with. Moreover, what "alliance" will we really be
actively promoting?
Let me make it clear: I'm not talking about people who once read the paper, or those even
who still would. We should all read what the far-right is up to- I read the National Post
regularly. Also the Globe and Mail... and it carries Naomi Klein and Michael Moore
occasionally. What is different is when people actively use their time to promote this
paper, and then want to simply switch shoes and work with those who oppose the very
principles being espoused here.
This is not a game. This is not about personal anything; such actions are not fun, do not
raise anyones "ego" or anything else. They are as simple as keeping the house
clean. If you don't, soon you have ants all over the floors, eating away a lifetime of
hard work, a bit at a time. We have (in and out of any one organisation) left alone these
things for too long, in the name of diversity. That was a good choice, we shouldn't have a
culture of paranoia. Nonetheless, we do have to have a strict guideline about how people
deal with those of "us" who are known associates of the world we are fighting
against, whether they stand in the shadows or in the sun.
In addition to the statement against racism and for inclusivity, we also need to have a
statement about how we deal with those who associate themselves *on a personal,
organisational level* with groups/individuals who either deliberately or unwittingly
promote these neo-fascist upsurges. The lives of people in our movement could, ultimately,
depend on it. At the very least does our credibility.
LaRouche-ites we have, I hope, no time for and never will. However, seeing as how many
people want to work with the Radical, I hope the Editor Mr Topham chooses to use this
opportunity to disassociate himself with these scumbags and racists- and firmly comes down
in the camp of diversity, racial, gender and sexual equality-- and never again do we need
to re-visit these matters. The choice remains with the paper- and those who knowingly
ignore the smell of fascism and work with it.
Macdonald
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