My testimony on the
Lyndon LaRouche Youth Movement in France.
Introduction:
After several months
inside Solidarity Progres a movement presided over by Jacques Cheminade I left this
movement in 2003.
Today I feel very strongly that I want to warn people of all the dangers
attached to their activities in France and in the world.
Here is the testimony:
You meet them outside
the underground exit, near University when going to work or just wondering in
the centre of the town.
They introduce
themselves as a political movement Solidarity and Progres. One often stops,
just out of interest for all the questions relative to our world or just out of
curiosity.
Summary:
The US are in the
hands of a small group of “satanic individuals” who want to create a worldwide
empire: They invented “rock n roll” that make it common practice to go in for
for drugs and sex. The media is in their hands as well as the political men,
the academics, even their alternative movements are under their control. In short
we have been told lies about the World Trade in order to impose on us a feudal
world where everything is planned in order to prevent us to think for
ourselves.
All this seems
believable to young people. You remember 1984? But what should we do? There, they
give us “THE SOLUTION”, the only one: a new economic system, (a new Bretton
Woods) this involves a road to be built from Europe to China ( the Eurasian
terrestrial bridge) But it is not so simple when faced with omnipresent
“Synarchy” an obscure international
group the aim of which is would be to prevent the creation of Republics in this
world. The only way out is “to join up and fight with LaRouche” an American
opponent, 80 years old, who has sacrificed the whole of his life in order to
find out THE TRUTH, a real Socrates of modern times. To prove how important
LaRouche is, we are told that he has been made a prisoner in the States for
five years on order of Henry Kissinger and George Bush.
After this sort of
talk there is no respite “Do you want to change this world?” One thinks a
little. Effectively everything does not go as well as that, economic crises,
underdevelopment…can one make oneself useful? After making us discover the
Truth in this world after telling us how exceptional Martin Luther King, Gandhi
and De Gaulle are, they will tell us that we too can get into “the resistance”
that the world needs new GREAT MEN.
All this seems a
little confusing for us, but for “the militants” no doubt : “LAROUCHE CAN SAVE
THE WORLD THANKS TO US” Now they are going to estimate our morality
and our seriousness. If we accept that the world is not going well, we must do
something for them, the only ones who want to change things. This “something”
goes through our purse “money is the nerve of war.” They ask us for 100-250 euros. But they have different systems
for every person, the essential one is to subscribe to their paper “Nouvelle
Solidarite” in order to learn about their information “on the real world.” And of course to give them our telephone
number. Discussions between the members are often about this: what should we do
so that people subscribe straight away, how can we reach us so that they give
more money?
The main activity of
the LaRouche organization is the recruitment, especially of young people. The
older ones deal with the financing.
The days are organized
very strictly: Compulsory meetings at 8.30 and 18.30 each
day setting up tables in the street to politically recruit people, then
telephoning the people who have been met at the tables in the street.
The final goal of all
the meetings of members with young people is to recruit them to work for the
organization full time. From then on: either you are “moral person” and you
join the group full time, or if you are not such a “moral person” then you can
make up for it by giving a lot of money.
Often the movement of
the young people are to politically “organize” (recruit) near to universities:
In France these include: Nanterr, la Sorbonne or the University of Saint Denis
in Paris, the Campus of Villejean in Rennes; and those of Grenobles and
Lyons. (They
were also at Assemblée Nationnale’s metro
station near the British Institute, part of
London University in Paris when Jeremiah Duggan met them)
In order to evoke
interest in the LaRouche cadre, the member explains to you how “grand” his
movement is, “present in 30 countries in the world, and what a good person
LaRouche is. The members and Lyndon LaRouche himself often say that this man
“is a genius” The aim is that you
realise that everything that happens in the world has something to do with
Lyndon LaRouche. The member himself is absolutely convinced of that. The
members of this group are quite astonishing at first sight, they seem to know a
lot of things (even if they are incapable of explaining them all) They are
idealistic and want to build a NEW RENAISSANCE. They have an answer for
everything.
Their method of
recruiting starts by making you disgusted in the Society in which you live.
They need to destroy your old basic thoughts in order to replace them by
theirs. They depict “an apocalyptic picture of the world. As far as they are concerned, we are
entering a NEW DARK AGE which is due essentially to the cultural decadence of
the “baby boomers” ( the parents of the young students are aimed at)
In this way, the
member makes you feel guilty and responsible, pushing you to act so you do not
despise yourself. You must question everything again: your education, what the
media tells you… “you must change so that the world changes.” Therefore little by
little they become your only thought. The only thing where you feel some hope.
That way you come to
modify your change – your musical taste. “Satanic rock” must disappear from
your disc collection to be replaced by Jean Sebastien Bach. Your political and
religious landmarks change. Everything changes : your clothes, your physical
aspect, beard and hair if they do not correspond to those of the group. You
accept that because you are told that the future of the world depends on it: “You
must at all costs avoid a third world war” they keep repeating over and
over.
The members think that
LaRouche and therefore they too on the rebound are in the centre of the world.
They also are paranoiac. The fact that the Press in general denounces this
movement is seen as proof of the corruption of the media and politics by “the
financial oligarchy.”
Lyndon LaRouche uses
this situation as a proof of its importance.
Financial oligarchy is
a current term in LaRouche’s vocabulary.
As far as he is
concerned, History is summarized in a fight between on one side the financial
forces which want to enslave\control Man and on the other side current which he
calls “Republican” and of which he would be the only representative.
He sees himself as the
Socrates of Modern Times, the saviour of Humanity. Thus, he wants to make young
people supposedly capable of thinking for themselves. But for their methods
they only create people capable and apt to repeat the doctrine without
necessarily understanding it. A typical example is the LaRouchist concept of
“simultaneity of eternity” a very vague idea that even Cheminade acknowledges
not to fully understand. But its consequence on its members is a greater
intellectual submission to Lyndon LaRouche, there “Universal Genius.”
The recruiting is
based on methods of Psychology:
This is proved by his
writing about the methods recommended in the book called “Beyond
Psychoanalysis.” In that text Lyndon defines how to “organize” as the way to
destroy all that makes up the “persona bourgeois” of the individual. Thus
having got rid of his past, the individual submits to the movement, the parent
of his new identity.
This is why Lyndon
LaRouche has members who do not trust anything except the possibility for
Lyndon LaRouche to change the world.
In France Jacques
Cheminade has instigated a process which amounts to the corruption of the
identity of the members. As a surrogate of Lyndon LaRouche holds full authority
over the French organization. He controls the member’s schemes either directly
or indirectly with his “henchmen.” His
aim is to know everything about the members in order to play on their
weaknesses. This technique is used by many sects.
Often Cheminade
summons a member one by one to his office to make them talk and above all to
make certain himself that the members submit absolutely. Sometimes he gets a
third person to participate in the interview in order to draw up a special
report on the person. During those meetings most of the time they question the
psychological and even the sexual problems of the member. It has happened that
Cheminade has sometimes called in a member in order to ask him if he was
homosexual. This is seen as an immoral “deviance” even a psychological illness.
All this processes
brings forth mistrust between members. One no longer knows whom to trust,
knowing that everything you will say will be known and will be used, in one way
or another to “destabilize” you.
It is habitual in the
Lyndon LaRouche movement to control the private life of the members. In the
80’s, the leadership forced members to have abortions. Later, when some of them
decided to have children they went underwent multi-pressures, and still to-day
several years later the leaders still reproach them with this choice,
preventing them from taking part in decision making. To be a good member, you
must not have a child, the movement must be your only pre-occupation. The member must be available all the time to
the leaders.
The most flagrant case
of this “conveability” touches those who are in charge of Cheminade’s
“security.”
Feeling himself
important, he always has somebody with him. This task is ensured by three
persons one after the other. One person goes and fetches him in the morning at
his flat, follows him all day long and often waits until 9 or 10 p.m. to bring
him back. Those people are also responsible to get his papers, his meals, to do
his errands….They are real slaves for which Cheminade has the greatest
contempt.
Cheminade despises
everybody except Lyndon LaRouche. It happens often that he will humiliate the
members in public, even his wife. He often makes fun of the foreign members,
above all the Americans. Sometimes he may make disobliging remarks against
Helga Zepp LaRouche, his higher authority. This may
appear normal, even quite sane in certain conditions, but this attitude is
forbidden for the members who
must show allegiance towards their seniors in rank and even more so towards the
LaRouche couple, their true saviours.
The members are asked
to question themselves if they dare to disagree with LaRouche. “As a human being one can make a mistake…but
not Lyndon LaRouche”
*****
From the very
beginning, they warn you “ you will loose
all your friends!” as you learn quite quickly the rhetoric never to be
wrong and you are convinced that the noblest thing in the world is to be a
member of the Lyndon LaRouche movement.
Therefore the
discussions with the people who do not totally agree with you blow up quite
easily.
In any case, we do not
have much time to devote to our old friends. In the evenings it is forbidden to
meet – too much alcohol and drugs. It is better for us to spend our time
reading the books written by the movement. It is dangerous to wander away from
the path laid down already by the leaders.
There is list of
fundamental books to read- Plato’s dialogues, Rabelais, Leibnitz, Schiller,
Martin Luther King and De Gaulle, amongst the most important ones. The kind of
books we have rarely time to read.
For the most important
thing is to understand LaRouche’s thought. LaRouche would have made the famous
discovery LaRouche-Riemand which allows us to know if the country’s economy is
on the right track or not. It is this discovery that made him say that we are
in a period of economic collapse.
Maybe, the problem
being that no man knows what it is in the discovery that has allowed LaRouche
to make these economic predictions.
Thus we linger over the texts of LaRouche in order to try and
understand, but nothing happens and one does not discover any more. Two topics are always present in LaRouche
texts. He often speaks of History, making it fit his own views, the second
topic is about human psychology, it is often presented as the difference
between man and animal.
If you read too many
things external to the movement, you become the object of remarks often
expressed in an ironic way.
If you go out too
much, somebody comes to talk to you and discuss with you this. Its not a good
thing to see your parents too often. For the true LaRouchists Christmas must
not be celebrated. War is perhaps happening tomorrow.
Cheminade thinks that
for a “good mental hygiene” it is necessary that the members must not have too
many contacts with his parents; one or two telephone calls a month is ample.
The goal is to be
alone with the movement, The people from the movement must be the only
associates of the member, but not real friends. ( Cheminade thinks there are no
friends in politics)
The only subjects of
concern must be only be related to the movement itself, which is seen as the
only one situated in the real world. So, when the member returns to his family
he gets bored. This world has become foreign to him. Nobody outside the
organization can really understand him.
There are two
different worlds, but for them the real world is the one they talk about in all
their briefings. The people who are around them in their district, in their
country are nothing but puppets. People who do not yet know the Truth that
they hold, only partly. LaRouche
himself, knows much more than all the others together.
***
Lyndon LaRouche
launched this movement for young people in Los Angeles about five years ago.
Three of his closest collaborators had the assignment to recruit young people
around the campuses of the town. It was a radical change of strategy: For
twenty years their first concern had been money, the recruiting was done in a
sporadic way. A young French girl Elodie Viennot, was recruited there during
her architectural studies. The leaders of the movement of the young in Los
Angeles, Harvey Schlanger and Lenie Rubinstein represent for these young people
a kind of parents, of confidence. They solve all their problems. The young
people of the Los Angeles are taken care of from A-Z by the three persons with
whom they are in constant communication. Even when these youngsters travel
abroad the American leaders ask them to remain in close contact.
From Breakfast to
bedtime, the members are together. There are three meetings a day so that the
youngsters remain under pressure.
The
young members are completely
“infantilised” by the organization and are incapable of taking any
decisions without consulting their superiors
Back in France Elodie’s mission was to reproduce
everything that had been done in Los Angeles. She stayed about one year in
Paris. She is the only French member, apart from Cheminade, to have a direct
and permanent contact with Helga Zepp LaRouche, Lyndon LaRouche’s wife, and the
European Manager of the organization.
Feeling the danger of
these young member who had just been made responsible of the movement of the
young LaRouchist in France by Helg Zepp LaRouche, Cheminade managed to isolate
her. He sent her to Rennes in order to open a new office there, prohibiting
certain members to go there.
In private Cheminade
despises Elodie as he despises all his collaborators, but in public, Rennes was
the spearhead of this movement in France Elodie having become the new Joan of
Arc who was to liberate France.
The young members of
Rennes were exhausted by the constant rhythm of life. They worked continually
from 8.30 till 10 p.m. everyday without any real rest. They often fell ill. As
they only sold a few newspapers per day they lived miserably. In February or
March 2003 a Parisian member had to send them 100 Euros so that they could buy
food. The rent of the apartment where they lived first three of them, then five
of them, was paid out of the social benefit payments of a member from Rennes.
The members from
Rennes lived in a real material precariousness but also a moral one.
Elodie slept only 4-5
hours per night. The clearest part of her day was divided between reading the
Briefing ( 32-50 pages in English sent by internet every morning by the centres
Leesburg, Virginia USA and Wiesbaden in
Germany) and communicating by telephone with the USA. She did not talk to anybody
except about the Briefing of what LaRouche wanted:
She had very little
human rapport with the people present.
Elodie does not trust
her own judgement, Cheminade has manipulated her very easily. All the decisions
she took were in fact Cheminades. That way Cheminade took control of the young.
For several members, it was clear that Cheminade acted only for his personal
interest, using the LaRouche campaign for the American Presidential election of
2004 as a way to recruit young people who might be useful later on for his own
Presidential campaign.
Any opposition was
banished. If one tried to question a decision from the leaders or the managers,
one was treated as “anti-authority” A serious insult which involves
systematically “an isolation” and a lot of pressure.
Unconditional
allegiance to Cheminade and Lyndon LaRouche is obligatory.
***
Morning briefing sent out by LYN reproduces extracts from articles from
the worldwide Press. It allows us to be
informed of the declarations of the Minister of State as well as their
interpretation, either directly by Lyndon LaRouche or by anonymous sources. As
well as all the economic figures. This gives us the impression to understand
the world better than anyone else. All the
texts of Lyndon LaRouche are diffused to the members this way. It is a means of
direct communication between LaRouche and the members, At the end of the
Briefing are the reports of the operation where the young people report back
what they are doing and where they intervene….
The members motivation is pumped up twice a year through international
conferences (two in the USA and two in Europe) For the young people they are
more of them. One about every two months, the school for militants (cadres) are
reserved for them. It is a privileged time when you can discuss with members
from other offices. These meetings raise your spirit and give you enthusiasm.
The fact that we know that all over the world there are people like us who are
doing the same thing, who are fighting for the same cause is very stimulating.
One feels less lonely. Moreover those meetings are an effective way of
recruiting new members “
“In fact the spectacle of a great
number of individuals sincerely committed is much more convincing for the new
person than any doctrine or structure.”
(Quote from Steven Hassan in "Protect yourself against sects").
The feeling that we
understand this world and its leaders gives us a feeling of power. One feels
part of an elite. When this feeling of being so powerful and this is coupled
with the feeling of being in contempt of Society it might become dangerous.
The members indeed, have no longer any limits – their judgement is more
just than the one of any individual you met in the street.
It has already to me to see a member trying very hard with a girl,
forcing her to subscribe though he knew very well that she was not at all
interested. To comfort himself he told us afterwards that it was necessary to
give her a chance that “everybody could change when reading the paper” This
kind of behaviour is common practice in the movement.
***
The main lesson I have
learnt from twentieth century events is that the end never justifies the means:
if one wants to work Humanity one must respect every individual dignity.
This is the cause of my breaking away from the
movement.
For me this
organization has no political goal, they recruit people using mental
manipulation techniques which are typical in sects.
Their indoctrination
brings about in members a contempt of Society and of everything that is outside
of the organization.
They even scorn those
who help them financially or give them some of their time. Thus the member
becomes a “prisoner “ of the movement. He
refuses to think outside the movement because he is constantly told a world war
may start
tomorrow!
Members are urged to
make a psychological profile ( list their strength and weaknesses) in order to
be able to manipulate people better. These manipulations, this psychological
pressure, these public humiliations urged me to leave this organization.
I have witnessed a
real “Stalinesque trial”
organized by Cheminade. This kind of situation was like a law case, however
strange, is a typical occurrence in the LaRouche. organization. ( See Don Veitsch testimony “Beyond
Commonsense. Psycho-politics in Australia”)
Being too free and
having no confidence in Cheminade, the young people in Paris have become the
target. Their leader had to be crushed or eliminated.
For ten days another
member and myself had alternative attacks and pressure to subjugate us. Cheminade
organized a one to one meeting. During this meeting he confessed: “You have
never accepted me Jacques
Cheminade” Flattery, laughing, then
breaking out in wild rage he let out his real view and that was the problem all
stemmed in his opinion from the young woman who managed the youth movement in
Paris.
As he was not
succeeding the other youngsters were summoned one by one. The aim was to divide
them in spirit and this worked beautifully.
One Friday afternoon
we attended a meeting set up like a law suit where everything had to be thought
out before hand. Cheminade started thus – “ I asked you to meet here, because
something serious is happening in Paris. You think you know what it is but this
is false. I want you to listen to me to
the end without interrupting me, as a classical music composition.”
But later on he goes
on “I want to make changes and I will use shock tactics if necessary. A change
must come in the behaviour in some members. It is a question of life or
death.” This gives you a good idea of
his one hour monologue.
Afterwards, the
members marched one by one to spit out their venom on the one singled out
member in question. This person did not have any possibility to defend herself.
Even the members who shared our opinions about Cheminade did not react. They
had already undergone that kind of treatment and had given up.
From that day, we
didn’t go back to the office except a month later to meet Helga Zepp LaRouche.
She received us with her feet on the desk and said to us – “We are perhaps only
two days away from a nuclear world war I do not believe what you are saying
Cheminade has all my trust.”
We asked her to
question other people and we answered that the people we alluded to were
frustrated, jealous, depressive, and even some of them mad. As for our
intention to go to the States, there was no question of it. Lyndon LaRouche’s
wife did not want to add “another burden” to her husband’s Presidential campaign. What she asked us was to go straight away to
Germany to stop that supposed world war.
You must know that it
is not the first time that this kind of situation happens, and every time the
couple renews its trust in Cheminade, the members accept by nodding their
heads, having an infallible trust in Lyn and Helga.
Several people have
tried to keep me and this other member
in the group urging us to leave for Germany. A lot of them know that the
French leaders are immoral but they do not do anything, even admit the
hypothesis that it is the same for the LaRouche couple. An Italian lady member
told us that she trusts her own opinion, but in a case of disagreement with
LaRouche’s it is he that would win. So the members of this organization are the
victims who do not realise who is Lyndon LaRouche.