LaRouche and Operation Mop-Up
Operation Mop-up officially raged from May to September of 1973.
Less organized fistfights and other acts of violence continued into 1974.
In 1973, the predominantly White LaRouche group, the National Caucus
of Labor Committees (NCLC), attempted to take over the Black-led National
Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO). When the Communist Party USA (CPUSA),
objected and tried to assist the NWRO, LaRouche's followers in NCLC were
ordered to brutally assault members of the CPUSA. When members of the Socialist
Workers Party (SWP), helped defend victims of the attacks, they were added
to the enemies list. NCLC thugs used bats, chains, and martial arts weapons
in a campaign to establish "hegemony" over the American revolutionary movement.
There were many injuries and some persons required hospitalization.
"Our hearts were not in it," a former NCLC member says about his participation
in Operation Mop-Up. "But with LaRouche it was all or nothing; the attacks
were supposed to harden the membership." Forcing student intellectuals
into violent confrontations was an exercise in self-degradation which cemented
their loyalty to NCLC, ex-members say, Their working-class Marxism gave
way to an unquestioning, cult-like devotion to LaRouche. "Most of us now
find the whole thing was crazy," says a seven-year NCLC veteran who left
the group in the mid-1970's.
Nat Hentoff, Of Thugs and Liars, the Village Voice, 1/24/74,
p. 8.
"based on more than 30 interviews…"
"A series of beatings were taking place
on the streets, in left-wing party offices, and on college campuses. The
perpetrators were members of the National Caucus of Labor Committees. "
"To cite only some of the incidents:
"
"Michael Maggio, a graduate student
at Temple University: hospitalized. "
"Steve Rasmussen, a student at Temple:
nose broken. "
"Two members of the Young Workers Liberation
League…and one member of the Communist Party, at a meeting of the NAACP
in Buffalo: all hospitalized, one with a deep head cut. "
"Jesse Smith, a member of the Socialist
Workers Party in New York, attacked by members of the NCLC on Broadway
in lower Manhattan: hospitalized with a severely fractured arm, along with
face and head gashes requiring 11 stitches."
Charles M. Young, "Mind Control, Political Violence & Sexual Warfare:
Inside the NCLC," Crawdaddy, June 1976, p. 48-56.
"Incidents are too numerous to mention,
but among the choicer ones were disruption of a Martin Luther King Coalition
meeting in Buffalo where they beat a women who was seven months pregnant;
a riot at Columbia where about 60 NCLCers stormed a stage during a mayoral
debate in a failed attempt to assault the CP candidate, and an attack on
an SWP meeting in Detroit where they beat a paraplegic with clubs."
According to the Chronology of Labor Committee Attacks, issued by New
York Committee to Stop Terrorist Attacks, 1973, after the attack at Columbia,
LaRouche's New Solidarity, (4/3-5/5, 1973) wrote:
"The clown show is over. The NCLC
warns the SWP and its comrades-in-hysteria: when you did all the fighting
for the CP at the Mayoral forum, we held back - we gave you a mild warning,
though several of your members were bloodied and broken. But should you
repeat as goons for the CP, we will put all of you in the hospital: we
will deal with you as we are dealing with the CP."
References:
Nat Hentoff, Of Thugs and Liars, the Village Voice, 1/24/74,
p. 8.
Paul L. Montgomery, "How a Radical-Left Group Moved Toward Savagery,"
New York Times, 1/20/74, p. 1.
James C. Hyatt, "A Communist Group Uses Fists and Epithets To Battle
U.S. Unions," Wall Street Journal, 10/7/75.
"An Introduction to NCLC: "The Word is Beware," Liberation New Service,
#599, 3/23/74.
Charles M. Young, "Mind Control, Political Violence & Sexual Warfare:
Inside the NCLC," Crawdaddy, June 1976, p. 48-56.
Chronology of Labor Committee Attacks, issued by New York Committee
to Stop Terrorist Attacks, 1973.
Articles and photographs in the Daily World, the Militant,
Workers
Power, the Fifth Estate, the Boston Phoenix, and the
Drummer.
Interviews by author with former LaRouche cadre and witnesses to the
attacks.
Operation Mop-Up Photos
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