A MESSAGE TO THE MASSES OF THE PEOPLE:
BEWARE OF THE MOVEMENT!

By Fred Newman

Right on Time, March 7, 1974

This infantile, rambling and extraordinarily divisive editorial attack on the American Left was published March 7, 1974, in the CFC street newspaper, "Right On Time: The Revolutionary Worker" (Vol. III, No. 4). The unsigned polemic was written by Fred Newman and anticipates Newman's decision two months later to place his CFC followers under the incipient fascist dictates of NCLC chairman Lyndon LaRouche (who at that time called himself Lyn Marcus). Arguably, this diatribe, simple-minded and juvenile as it sounds almost thirty years later and taken together with the unusual events surrounding its publication, may provide an objective indicator of the point in time at which Fred Newman may be said to have carried his disciples over the edge into cultdom.During February 1974 (the month before this piece was published) I was removed from editorship of Right On Time and from membership on CFC's governing Central Committee after Chairman Fred mobilized his committee loyalists to try to force me to publish several unsupported and destructive propaganda pieces "planted" by NCLC. Soon thereafter Newman called a meeting of the entire organization to read and demand unconditional group support for the diatribe which you see below. For Chairman Fred the net gain of this gambit was a roomful of servile followers who had confirmed unanimously through this crude litmus test of blind obedience that they would literally follow their master into hell. Equally important, he got rid of anyone who was skeptical of his infallibility and unafraid to challenge his rapidly emerging demagoguery (several of CFC's most principled and outspoken workers-myself included-resigned rather than endorse Newman's infatuation with a proto-fascist.

I have tried to present the article as it first appeared, complete with misspellings, and sophomoric grammatical errors, but I have added bracketed textual interpolations where typographical errors impede clarity.

-James Retherford, 2002

Proletarian revolution-the overthrow of the bourgeois capitalists by the mobilized working masses-is a long process. It has been underway for many, many decades now, throughout the entire world. It is an international process-a world wide process. For the proletarian revolution is the overthrow of one international class-the small minority bourgeois capitalist-fascist class-by another international class-the majority brainwashed proletarian working masses of the world.

At certain times and in certain geographical locations during this long process, there have been periods of severe economic-social crisis. During these times of crisis, there is the opportunity for insurrection. Insurrection is the actual seizing of control by the vanguard revolutionary party on behalf of and supported by the masses of the people. For example, the so-called Russian Revolution of 1917 was actually one small, localized moment (a moment of local insurrection) in the long process of world wide proletarian revolution. Likewise, the so-called Chinese Revolution of 1949 was actually one small, localized insurrectional moment in the long process of international proletarian revolution.

Not all periods of economic-social crisis lead to insurrection. For not only must the economic-social material conditions be "ripe," but the masses and the vanguard party must be ready to move. For example, there was, in the 1930's, in the United States, a period of severe economic crisis which did not produce insurrection. There have been hundreds of such extended moments in the world history of the last 100 years, in various countries throughout the world. On only some occasions does an insurrection occur.

It is clear that we are just now moving into such a period of economic-social crisis in this country, as well as in other countries. The CIA controlled capitalist-fascist government of this country has developed several powerful techniques for preventing insurrection during these times of crisis. Here we speak of one such technique. It is a technique developed by bourgeois psychologists who study mass group behavior in this bourgeois society and provide their bosses, the CIA, with the information to further destroy the masses by deterring socialist revolution which alone can save the masses of this society from fascism, death, and oppression. This powerful technique for preventing insurrection during time of crisis is called "The Left Movement" or "The Radical Movement" or "The Movement."

The Movement, which is just now beginning to grow again, is not a direct response to the growing crisis of the American economy. Rather, it is the CIA developed deterrent to the development of a vanguard party which is needed by the masses to seize the time in this new crisis. Hence, the movement and the crisis appear at the same time. But we must not suppose that this is because the Movement is a response to the crisis. Hardly! It is in fact developed by those in control, the ruling class and its fascist friends, the CIA, in light of the crisis, to make sure that no vanguard party emerges to lead the broad masses during this time of crisis. When two things go together it does not mean that one causes the other. It often means that something else, a third thing, (in this case the capitalist-fascists) causes both.

How does the Movement deter revolution? As we have said, it deters revolution by deterring the development of a vanguard party which is needed by the masses if there is to be insurrection. How does the movement deter the development of a vanguard party?

The Movement is a large, amorphous group of groups, separated from the people because it has no power base amongst the people and no programs for the entire class, and separated from each other by bourgeois competitive ideological disputes. This mass group of groups functions as a CIA watchdog. It is not necessarily infiltrated by actual CIA agents-though sometimes, when needed, actual CIA agents will directly infiltrate (see Right On Time, Vol. III, no. 21).[1] Very few individuals in the Movement are CIA operatives. Rather, the Movement is a process developed by and encouraged by the CIA, using well-known techniques of mass behavior, discovered by bourgeois academic lackeys. The CIA, through front organizations, triggers the renewed development of the Movement by supporting liberal organizations-largely liberal community action organizations. This "validating" of the liberal left by the authority stamp of money produces a group dynamic which leads to the movement of the left of those "unvalidated" liberal groups. In a group of left minded progressives, those who are not validated by authority will move further left. The Movement, as has often been pointed out by working people, is a group of rejects. This group of rejects, the Movement, is not a response to economic-social crisis. It is a response to the CIA's response to the economic-social crisis. The Movement must be distinguished from the Traditional Left. The Traditional Left are those communist organizations which function continuously independent of the Movement.

The Movement works in the manner of a Tavistock group (Tavistock groups were developed at Tavistock Clinic and Institute in England. The connection between Tavistock and the CIA is well substantiated in New Solidarity,[2] Vol. IV, No. 46). In a Tavistock group a totally impersonal authoritarian leader makes periodic impersonal aphoristic announcements about group behavior. The leader will not speak to members of the group. The leader is the embodiment of impersonal authority. The effect of this in groups is total group impotency! The group cannot overthrow its leader because the leader is "above being human." On the other hand if someone in the group steps forth as a leader the group devours her or him because the group is too fearful of the impersonal but therefore "godlike power" [of?] the authoritarian leader. The Movement is guided by an impersonal authoritarian leader, viz. the Movement! The Movement is an impersonal moralistic entity that leads those in the Movement. It is a Tavistock group. And it is the design of the CIA.

The mass group of groups-the Movement-watches each other carefully, to make sure no group steps out and declares itself the vanguard party. If a group does step out and declare itself the vanguard party, the Movement steps in and devours that group. Thus, the Movement serves the fascists by making impossible the development of a vanguard party. Why must there [be] a vanguard party?

There must be a vanguard party to lead the broad masses. For with every passing day Fascism draws closer and closer. A substantial feature of the brainwashing imposed on the masses is that the people are constantly told that the bourgeois-fascist government is the people's government. The masses of the people are brainwashed by billions of hours of lies into thinking that it is the people who are served by the fascist government. In reality, big business (the bourgeois ruling class) is served. The masses know this, but are brainwashed into a distorted reality by techniques of mind control never before seen in human history. Never before has a ruling class had at their disposal such advanced technology to destroy the minds of the slaves. (See New Solidarity, Vol. IV, no. 46.) The masses have been brainwashed to the extent of not knowing any longer the difference between lies and truth. We have never experienced a party which served us rather than the ruling class, and therefore we are cynical that there could be such a thing. Our cynicism comes from our living for so long in a system that said it was for us but wasn't. The vanguard party must break through this deep cynicism by functioning day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, as apart which truly serves the broad masses. Only in this way will that brainwashed cynicism be overcome.

The vanguard party must step forward however before it has mass support. This is hard to do. For it is frightening to be the vanguard without a mass following. But it is the responsibility of those who claim to serve the masses to do so. A party which truly serves the masses must declare itself to be such a party in order that the masses may choose. If there is no identifiable alternative, the masses cannot choose to make revolution. It is time for a revolutionary vanguard party to declare itself, in order that the masses may be given the opportunity to seriously engage in their own mobilization for socialist revolution.

And the CIA fascists know this. They do not fear any movement-no matter how large. They fear a declared vanguard party! The movement is one of their techniques for destroying the possibility of a vanguard party. The movement organizes loose popular front coalitions which create the illusion of leftism, but are really nothing more than bourgeois liberalism which works for the fascists. A good current example of such organizing is the Movement's dump Nixon organizing. The masses cannot dump Nixon. Nixon is being dumped by the CIA. The dump Nixon strategy is being dictated by the ruling classes through its political lackey's on the right!

That's who wants Nixon out. And if he is dumped-as he probably will be-it will be the right which dumps him. The CIA is the engineer of the dumping. But the Movement, as always, works with the fascists. They organize "college students" to dump Nixon, thereby creating the illusion of mass power. This is not power. It is infantile. There is no power for the working masses in this system-with or without Nixon.

In the late 1960's, the Black Panther Party was destroyed. It still exists, and will, we hope, revive itself from its current parochial position to assume revolutionary leadership. But it was destroyed. Who destroyed the Black Panther Party? The Movement! For the BPP moved away from the quibbling ideologs [sic] and went to work to organize the broad masses-black and white-as a vanguard party. And they were destroyed by that mass called the Movement. For as the Panther's stood out in front demanding that the Movement follow, they were killed! Heroically, yet stupidly, they tried to organize the Movement! Trying to organize the Movement is like trying to organize Nelson Rockefeller. You don't organize the enemy-you overthrow the enemy.

The Black Panther Party knows this now. And they are understandably mistrustful of the Movement. They are split in two, and each segment is hidden from the masses, in its own way. We believe the BPP will again be a vanguard force. We believe they must be!

The National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC) has stepped forward as the vanguard party. One reason they have stepped forward is that their National Director, Lyn Marcus, is clearly aware of what is being said in this statement. It is a proper political move for the NCLC to step forward. In other issues of Right On Time and in working together with the NCLC, CFC has seriously criticized the NCLC on political issues. Yet it is important that we state here for all to see, that the NCLC is the vanguard party. Not because they have mass following. That is not the issue. They are the vanguard party because they have stepped forward and declared that nothing short of class wide revolutionary change to socialism will free the oppressed working masses. They have declared their position, and act in accordance with that declaration, and that makes them the vanguard party.

The Movement is now doing its thing! They are out to destroy the NCLC. That should be no surprise. That is what the CIA has designed the Movement to do. In the last several weeks, CFC has seen the rapidly developing movement at work. It is the 1960's all over again-for the movement. Fortunately, there are some around who learned from those days, and are working to destroy the CIA controlled Left Movement. Lyn Marcus and the NCLC are such a group. Others, like CFC, The Black Panther Party, the Southern Conference Educational Fund, El Comité, Rising Up Angry, White Lightning,[3] are also more aware of the CIA phenomena called the Movement. Some of the dealings that CFC has had with the Movement over the last several weeks are worth revealing. For they let the masses of the people know about the Movement.

CFC attended several meetings of a coalition organizing around dumping Nixon, and the energy crisis. The "leading movement" groups in this coalition were Revolutionary Union, and the Guardian (two groups which strain themselves in declaring that they are not the vanguard party), the Attica Brigade, Anti-Fascist Commentator, and the Asian Study Group. The coalition was the usual bourgeois farce. Essentially, what was discussed was how to sell out every political principle possible, and thereby, how to sell out the people. After several meetings, CFC presented a statement to the coalition. CFC proposed that this statement be read to the people at the planned rally. Here is that statement:

UNITY, CRITICISM, UNITY

"This democratic method of resolving contradictions amongst the people was epitomized in 1942 in the formula 'Unity, Criticism, Unity.' To elaborate, it means starting from the desire for unity, resolving contradictions through criticism or struggle and arriving at a new unity on a new basis. In our experience this is the correct method of resolving contradictions among the people."

Mao Tsetung

This formula of Mao Tsetung is very instructive. It tells us not only the proper method of resolving contradictions; it tells us how to know when there is no unity. When there is not unity there can be no criticism. Instead there will be bourgeois lack of seriousness; bourgeois blaming and scolding; bourgeois lack of clarity; bourgeois temper tantrums; and ultimately bourgeois withdrawal. The formula tells us that there must be a commitment to unity in order for there to be true criticism. The formula tells us that without a commitment to unity, there can be no criticism which means there can be no unity at a higher level of consciousness.

Coalitions of revolutionary organizations are invariably bourgeois. There is no initial commitment to unity. The political organizations which enter these coalitions are typically committed to revolution in the abstract. Moreover, their "private practice" might appear revolutionary. But they are not revolutionary because whether an organization is revolutionary can be ascertained by how they enter into coalition. If a revolutionary organization cannot enter coalition with other political groups in the spirit of "Unity, Criticism, Unity" then it cannot enter into coalition with the masses to lead revolution. The relationship between the revolutionary vanguard and the mobilized masses is not an authoritarian relationship. It is properly a coalition; a united relationship growing to higher and higher levels through Unity, Criticism, Unity.

This coalition of which we are all a part is a bourgeois coalition. There is no commitments [sic] to unity and therefore criticism is not possible. Instead we see blaming and scolding, temper tantrums and withdrawal.

Yet, as Mao Tsetung says, we must transform failure into success. We must honestly and openly share that this coalition is a failure. We must see that it fails because there is no unity, and therefore, no criticism. Without criticism, the very lifeblood of communistic revolutionary growth is stifled.

As communists, we are not afraid to honestly share our mistakes with the masses. For in doing so we recommit ourselves to the power of the people.

The real issue today is not the impeachment of Nixon, or the energy crisis. It is the disunity of the working masses. If revolutionaries are to provide real leadership and proper analysis of the complex issues of this bourgeois fascist, oppressive society, we must learn to unite.

WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE.

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE

The reaction of the movement coalition was predictable. They essentially said: "Are you crazy? You mean you think we should tell the people about how disunited we are?" The bourgeois lackeys are forever putting down the people. They patronize the masses and justify it by saying: "The masses aren't ready yet, and we mustn't move ahead of the masses! That would be left wing infantilism." The "political" argument is simply bullshit. There can be no left wing infantilism until there is a vanguard party. Without an identifiable party, there is no dialectical interaction between the masses and the left and therefore there can be no position which is too extreme for there is nothing identified as the position of the left!

No. Their position has not political justification. It is bourgeois, competitive, classism. It is the Movement in their CIA role as deterrents.

Another episode involved the Attica Brigade, which is the campus organization of the Revolutionary Union, and sees itself as the SDS of the 70's. CFC is working with the NCLC on Operation Nuremburg. We are working together to expose the CIA brainwashing of the people. CFC has been working mainly at the NYU campus. We worked to set up a meeting on campus. In order to do so we needed a NYU organization to sponsor the meeting. The Attica Brigade agreed to be that organization. When our leaflet appeared, it contained a one-line statement at the bottom which said "Sponsored by the Attica Brigade." CFC had been led to believe that there must be such a statement in order for us to distribute. Moreover, it was true. When the Attica Brigade saw the leaflet, they responded in characteristic petit bourgeois fashion. The[y] said: 'We don't want to be on the same leaflet with the NCLC." They think the NCLC is full of cops and/or crazy. We think the Movement is a CIA phenomena.

Another incident involved the October League. They were the center of the Movement coalition to organize around International Woman's Day. CFC attended this coalition by invitation. We were thrown out of that coalition because of our association with the NCLC. They said that people would be afraid to come to our building (we offered its use for the program) because they are afraid of the NCLC. The Movement is beginning to move on CFC. As the masses move closer and closer to CFC, the Movement works more and more to devour us. No surprise. That is its function.

How does CFC view itself on these matters? We accept the vanguard position of the NCLC. We see the Movement for what it is-a CIA supported phenomena designed to destroy the masses. We have struggled as have such groups as The Black Panther Party, El Comité, Rising Up Angry, White Lightning, the Southern Conference Educational Fund, with the Movement. We have spent years analyzing the phenomena of the Movement and have finally come to see it for what it is. CFC views itself as a vanguard organization. We follow the leadership of the NCLC, not as slaves, but as revolutionaries. We criticize the vanguard leadership. More particularly, CFC functions as revolutionary rear guard. For we recognize that proper leadership requires both a vanguard and a rear guard. All leadership is not in front. We stay close to the masses by our form of organizing. We do so not as a movement community organization, but as a mass line vanguard-rear guard organization, in united front coalition with the NCLC and other progressive groups that are now beginning to step forward. We urge those groups, groups like El Comité, The Black Panther Party, White Lightning, Rising Up Angry, Southern Conference Educational Fund, to denounce the Movement, and join the vanguard. For only in clear honest declaration of who we are can we serve the masses of the people. We must not conceal who we are from the bewildered brainwashed masses. We must step away from the Movement which destroys the masses, and stand again with the working masses. We must recommit ourselves to the reality expressed so simply in the Communist Manifesto:

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

WORKING PEOPLE OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!

NOTES BY JAMES RETHERFORD

[1] The article cited was submitted to the CFC newspaper by NCLC sources and attempts to spin Lyndon LaRouche's already circulating "Manchurian Candidate"-style conspiracy fantasy into a call to bring together all left and progressive organizations and individuals under NCLC leadership for a Movement-wide "emergency court of inquiry" called Operation Nuremberg. As stated in the February 5, 1974, issue of Right On Time:

The incredible details of the plot were uncovered by the NCLC intelligence staff during the "de-programming" of British Labor Committee member Chris White. White was sadistically tortured and brainwashed over a three month period by the British intelligence agency the MI-5 working under direction of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. He was then "programmed" to come to the U.S. and set up an assassination against L. Marcus [Lyndon LaRouche], National Chairman of the NCLC, to be carried out by a seven man "hit" squad. Unhappily for the CIA's sadistic morons, an NCLC team under the direction of Marcus was able to successfully bring White out of his programmed state. After a process of "debriefing" over several days in at least 3 different languages the following monstrous picture emerged. As a decoy, Chris White was programmed to simulate a person who had been brainwashed by the KGB. (the Russian secret police) with additional clues linking the plot to the Russians. At least 6 other NCLC members and former members were also programmed by the CIA to assassinate White, his wife and other NCLC leaders after the Marcus "hit." Had the assassinations been successful the CIA would have used the mass media to create a hysterical "red scare" among the population, calling White and others crazed Soviet agents who are assassinating U.S. individuals. Second, the CIA would have stirred up even more panic by "activating" their gaggle of paid police agents and assorted psychos know as the Weathermen. A few well placed bombs to create just the type of terror necessary to declare a "National Emergency" with of course a suspension of the Constitution, individual rights, and mass jailing of revolutionaries and subversives... [p. 6]

LaRouche's fantastic account of international intrigue fails to reveal one important detail: Chris White's "wife" was LaRouche's longtime common-law wife Carol Schnitzer LaRouche, who had broken up with LaRouche and run off to England with White the preceding year. According to former NCLC members, LaRouche did not handle rejection well; in fact, close associates describe him as being emotionally out of control during the ensuing months. Consequently Chris White was understandably anxious about returning to the U.S. for a December 1973 national conference [a conference which I attended as a CFC "observer"] and facing his wife's vindicative former lover/cult übermensch.

For an in-depth account of NCLC's (and CFC's) bizarre trip into the depths of LaRouche's paranoia-producing machinations, see Dennis King's Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism (Doubleday, 1989). King notes that Fred Newman believed that LaRouche was not emotionally unstable and "knew exactly what he was doing. After splitting with the NCLC in 1974, Newman "wrote a pamphlet analyzing how LaRouchians believe what LaRouchians believe. He charged that LaRouche had a 'systematic plan' to transform his followers' ordinary middle-class values into an explicitly fascist consciousness, chiefly through the generating of an artificial paranoia at every level of the organization." King goes on to note that Newman "went on to build his own political cult, the New Alliance Party, which through the years has mimicked LaRouche's tactics to an uncanny degree.

[2] New Solidarity, a twice weekly newspaper, was NCLC's principle propaganda organ until 1986 when it became known as the New Federalist.

[3] The list of organizations which Newman lumps together with NCLC and CFC as "victims" of the CIA's Movement cover is very interesting. The Black Panther Party needs no introduction, but the Panthers had inspired other groups to militancy-among them the Latino Young Lords of Chicago and New York City, the American Indian Movement, and Chicago's hillbilly Young Patriot Party. Rising Up Angry was a group of North Chicago young radical white working class "greasers" who were loosely aligned with the Young Patriots and whose primary organizing tools were humor and an excellent color tabloid newspaper called Rising Up Angry. White Lightning was a Bronx-based community-organizing project roughly based on the RUA model, also including an effectively written and produced color tabloid newspaper. El Comité was a Upper West Side community action group which emerged from the squatters' movement, worked as advocates for housing, health, and education issues for the neighborhood's Hispanic residents, and was often aligned with the South Bronx-based Young Lords; as editor of the CFC newspaper, I worked to develop respectful political relationships with El Comité and published frequent articles supporting the ongoing struggle for decent affordable housing and health care.

The most enigmatic group on Newman's list is the Southern Conference Educational Fund. How did this almost thirty-year-old left-liberal southern civil rights group draw Newman's attention as a potential ally in the NCLC-led war against the so-called CIA-inspired Movement? Headed by veteran civil rights activists Anne and Carl Braden during the mid 1960s into the 1970s, Louisville-based SCEF forged close ties with regional and local southern civil rights groups, worked to keep civil rights issues in the national media, and worked closely with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In July of 1973, a group alleged to be Black Panthers kidnapped, at gunpoint, two SCEF officials. The two eventually escaped, but the incident caused deep divisions within SCEF. At a SCEF board meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, in October of 1973, a board member denounced several Communist Party members, including one of the "kidnap" victims, arguing that they had placed the policies of the CP-USA over the interests of SCEF, thus causing the disputes with the Panthers. Over the opposition of the Bradens, the board voted to oust the Communists. So Chairman Newman may have quoting NCLC party line in regard to SCEF's Communist purge, which occurred at about the time when Marcus/LaRouche was launching his own brutal Operation Mop-up against the Communist Party USA and the Socialist Workers Party.