Editor, Daily Nexus,

In the past few weeks, I have seen an information table from Lyndon LaRouche’s organization – the International Caucus of Labor Committees/LaRouche in 2004 – in front of the Arbor. Because this organization and its founder have advertised themselves as opposing the war in Iraq, there has been interest from students, who stop to talk with the organizers at the table. I am a strong advocate of free speech as one of the most important civil liberties available to people. But if the LaRouche organization feels that it is OK to advertise itself on this campus as liberal and anti-war, and encourage students to consider joining the organization, then I feel that I need to exercise my free speech rights and give some much needed information.

The premise that LaRouche is a liberal is patently untrue and designed to mislead people. Lyndon LaRouche actually started out as a socialist and student protest organizer in Students for a Democratic Society in the 1960s, but his increasingly authoritarian rhetoric and activities, including violent tactics against rival protest groups, eventually got him kicked out of the leftist community. He then turned to the radical right-wing area of U.S. politics, advocating a misogynistic, homophobic and anti-Semitic ideology that blamed the current economic and political environment on the machinations of Zionism and the Jewish-influenced British banking community. If this seems fantastic, I urge you to do a bit of web surfing and look at both the LaRouche sites as well as those of his critics, who quote many of his writings.

LaRouche has run for president several times, and his most recent notable political move was the Proposition 64 initiative during the 1986 election in California, which would have imposed severe public health restrictions on people with HIV had it passed. LaRouche also served five years in prison due to 1989 convictions in Virginia for tax evasion and mail fraud. But all this is ancient history in the political world; this is why a LaRouche group can appear on a university campus, tout itself as liberal and anti-war, and hope to gain students’ attention. I urge all my fellow students to keep an open mind on political advertising such as this.