LaRouche movement

The LaRouche movement is a political and cultural network promoting Lyndon LaRouche and his ideas. It has included many organizations and companies around the world, which campaign, gather information, and publish books and periodicals. The movement promotes a revival of classical art and a greater commitment to science; advocates the development of major economic infrastructure projects on a global scale; and calls for a reform of the world financial system to encourage investment in the physical economy and suppress financial speculation.

The movement originated in radical leftist student politics of the 1960s. It is often viewed now as an unclassifiable group. In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of candidates, some with only limited knowledge or connection to LaRouche or the movement, ran as Democrats in the United States on the LaRouche platform.

In 1988, LaRouche and 25 associates were convicted on fraud charges related to fund-raising. The movement called the prosecutions politically motivated.

LaRouche's wife, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, heads political and cultural groups in Germany connected with her husband's movement. There are also parties in France, Sweden, and other European countries, and branches or affiliates in Australia, Canada, the Philippines, and several Latin American countries. Estimates of the movement range from five hundred to one thousand members in the United States, spread across more than a dozen cities, and about the same number abroad. Members engage in political organizing, fund-raising, cultural events, research and writing, and internal meetings. The movement has had a number of notable members.

LaRouche-affiliated political parties have nominated many hundreds of candidates for national and regional offices in the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Australia and France, for almost thirty years. In countries outside the U.S., the LaRouche movement maintains its own minor parties, and they have had no significant electoral success to date. In the U.S., individuals associated with the movement have successfully sought Democratic Party office in some elections, particularly Democratic County Central Committee posts, and been nominated for state and federal office as Democrats, although the party leadership has periodically voiced its disapproval.

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