Lyndon LaRouche on the attack

"Against violence in the workers movement" is a pamphlet published by the Educational Department of the U.S. Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in April 1974. It contains articles from SWP's publications "The Militant" and "Intercontinental Press" dealing with intra-mural violence on the American left. To their credit, the SWP opposed all forms of goon tactics on the left and in the labour movement. Many other leftist groups didn't. The pamphlet contains articles about physical attacks on the SWP or SWP-dominated meetings by the Communist Party, the Progressive Labor Party and the NCLC. Some of it is pretty scary reading!

Of particular interest are the reprinted articles about NCLC's "Operation Mop-Up". The National Caucus of Labor Committees, led by Lyndon LaRouche (then known as Lyn Marcus) was a direct forerunner to the LaRouche Movement. Today generally regarded as right-wing extremist or fascist, in 1974 the NCLC still claimed to be "leftist". In 1974, this bizarre cult decided to physically attack both the Communist Party and the SWP in full force, and even bragged about it. The purported goal was to completely "mop up" and destroy the two groups, which would supposedly give the NCLC hegemony on the left and leadership of a revolution which was expected to happen within five years. One of the NCLC leaflets had the absurd headline "Operation Mop-Up: The class struggle is for keeps!". Interestingly, when the NCLC thugs were arrested, two of them turned out to be police officers. Another NCLC goon was a CIA agent in Vietnam before joining the LaRouchians! The "class struggle" is for keeps? Right.

I recommend "Against violence in the workers movement" mostly due to the LaRouche-related material. For a more extensive comment on Lyn and his erratic cult, see my review of Dennis King's "Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism".