◆ SpookStack

“OMT Lorre? 1970’s in light of their subsequent activities. All three white male political leaders saw Marxist revolution through the prism of ego-mania, and used psychologically manipulative techniques to enforce obedience in the institutions they have * built—institutions which sought political hegemony over other groups. All three groups share many elements of a totalitarian movement as outlined by Hanna Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism. In recent years there has been a revisionist interpretation of Arendt’s work, linking nazism and communism as two sides of the same ideological coin, or claiming that all communist or Marxist movements are totalitarian, or that only nazi and communist ideologies can become totalitarian. Arendt specifically repudiates this simplistic interpreta- tion of her work when she writes “...ideologies of the nineteenth century are not in themselves totalitarian,” and that although fascism and com- munism became “the decisive ideologies of the twentieth century they were not, in principle, any ‘more totalitarian’ than others.” According to Arendt, the ideological victory of fascism and communism over other twentieth century belief structures was “decided before the totalitarian movements took hold of precisely these ideologies” as a vehicle, for seizing and holding state power. A totalitarian movement is correctly defined by its style, structure and methods not by its stated or apparent ideology. The Intellectual Vanguard The early theoretical writings of LaRouche and the early and current theoretical writings of New- man reflect a derivative (and heretical) form of Trotskyist Marxism that is both unusual and vir- tually unique on the American Left. This shared theory is best described as an aberrant “Mes- sianic” form .of Trotskyism with an ego-centric view of the importance of the individual leader in =4 zin the ° ; Journalist Dennis King has studied numerous internal documents from the Newmanites and 8 - Political Research Associates izing “nob concluded that in terms of their political theory of organizing, they make a-c.acial distinction-be-— - - - tween the core cadre (primarily white intellec- tuals) and the “organic” members ( primarily people of color). According to King, the primari- ly-white intellectual vanguard trained by Newman through “therapy” is in the process of using “therapy” to raise the consciousness of the primarily Black and Latino recruits so that some day in the future they will have the wherewithal to actually lead the organization...but not yet. King has described this as “paternalistic racism.” Institutes for Social Therapy Dr. Fred Newman's doctorate is not in a health- related field, but in the philosophy of science and foundations of mathematics. For several years psychologists and groups concerned about cults have questioned the ethics of the process used by the Institutes for Social Therapy. These criticisms are crystallized in the following statement by an East Coast Latina activist working in the area of support for Central Americans: I first came into contact with the So- cial Therapy Institutes through a friend who...said there was a group that offered therapy for people with progressive views, so I went to see what they offered. I was told everybody has problems, which is true everyone does, but they usé that as an excuse to recruit people. People with emotional problems think they are going wr be helped but they don't help people. Before or after the therapy session, they would say ‘why not sell the newspaper’, or ‘maybe you could do us a favor and hand out these leaflets.’ The therapy offices are full of their political propaganda. In the group therapy some- political party. They want people to get they don't really give any treatment. This was something I didn’t like. Some people get involved because they think the political work will help