AUGUST 12, 2007--Author Dennis King has just issued a revised HTML edition of his critically acclaimed book on the Lyndon LaRouche cult. The full text can now be searched and downloaded for free at http://dennisking.org/newamericanfascism.htm.
"Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism" was first issued by Doubleday in 1989, garnering highly favorable reviews from a wide range of magazines and national and regional newspapers. See http://dennisking.org/kingreviews.htm.
That same year, LaRouche began serving a five to 15 year sentence in federal prison for loan fraud, and many observers believed his cult would fade away. But LaRouche, after being released from prison in 1994, founded the LaRouche Youth Movement, or LYM, and began targeting college campuses with the aim of recruiting a new generation of followers.
Today, the LYM is the most visible cult on the American college scene, with hundreds of college dropouts turned organizers traveling from campus to campus with their literature tables and with signs attacking Vice President Dick Cheney as a "beast-man" and Al Gore as an agent of the British monarchy.
The LYMers focus on persuading potential recruits to attend a "cadre school"--an ideological boot camp that utilizes a tactic known as "ego stripping." If the indoctrination succeeds, the attendee will end up leaving college, severing ties with his or her family, and becoming a full-time LaRouche follower.
Most LYM members live in crowded group apartments and work 16 hours a day or more for tiny stipends promoting the theories of self-styled world statesman LaRouche. Those who've succeeded in escaping from the LYM describe their experiences as a nightmare of nonstop guilt-tripping, intimidation and paranoia. See
http://dennisking.org/formermems.htm.
Most of the LYM members know little or nothing about the reasons LaRouche went to prison almost 20 years ago--they believe the organization's official line that LaRouche was a "political prisoner" jailed for conspiratorial reasons by then president George H. Bush. Most also are unaware of LaRouche's past dealings with the Ku Klux Klan, organized crime, apartheid South Africa's Bureau of State Security, and the cocaine-fueled Noriega regime in Panama (all of which is documented in King's book).
But while LaRouche continues to recruit naive young people, he is having trouble with his older, Baby Boomer followers. Two death--that of a British student from the U.K. at a 2003 cadre school in Germany (he died while fleeing and may have been beaten before his death) and that of a longtime LaRouche follower in Virginia (he committed suicide at the suggestion of LaRouche after being singled out for years of special harassment and abuse)--have shaken many long-time members and stimulated a number of ex-members to start speaking out, urging their friends still inside the organization to hurry up and leave. Both of the victims were Jewish. You can read about the death in Germany at http://justiceforjeremiah.com and about the Virginia suicide at http://dennisking.org/suicide.htm.
Says Dennis King: "I hope that making the full text of my book easily accessible in HTML format will result in its finally being read by LYM members and older LaRouche followers who until now have bought into LaRouche's claim that I'm just a propagandist for a mythical dope lobby."
King added, "If they do sneak a peek at my book--when their team leaders aren't looking--some will be amazed at the vast wealth of empirical evidence that LaRouche is in fact an arch manipulator, a crook, a fascist, and a clinically paranoid personality. If the result is even a single LaRouche follower dropping out of the cult and returning to his or her normal life, the publishing of this web edition will have been worth the effort."
King can be contacted at dennisking@safe-mail.net. He welcomes suggestions from ex-LaRouchians--and others with special knowledge--regarding material to be added as footnotes, appendices or additions to the text.
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