 LaRouche Youth chorus performing Bach The LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) is a political body linked to controversial American political figure Lyndon LaRouche. It has been developed since 1999, and is perhaps the most significant change in the LaRouche movement since his 1993 release from prison. The recruitment of young people in the 18-25 year old age bracket has reportedly brought more members into the LaRouche organization than at any time in the past, and as a result of the Internet, there are active chapters in nations like Japan where LaRouche has no official organization.
In an article in the University of California, Berkeley independent student newspaper, The Daily Californian on February 11, 2004, reporter David Cohn described the local chapter of the LYM as "30 college-aged youths" who spent several hours each day undergoing instruction provided by the LaRouche organization. One member, 23-year-old Jason Ross, told Cohn that he had dropped out of Stanford University in his junior year to join the movement. "We are in a complete breakdown of the financial system and we know that. We can use our time in a more appropriate manner than going to school, he said. Cohn also talked to three other members who had all quit school to join the movement. The Daily Californian reported the movement's numbers as "about 100 young people from Los Angeles to Oakland" who "travel to dozens of college campuses aggressively recruiting members and not hesitating to ask newcomers to quit school."
The LaRouche youth claim that they are fighting for an "intellectual Renaissance," and in addition to conventional political activity such as distributing literature in the streets, they spend time in what are called "Monge brigades," described as leaderless discussion groups where the members work to master important discoveries in classical science and art. Among the topics frequently pursued are the ideas of Plato, Friedrich Schiller, and Carl Friedrich Gauss. There are also performance workshops on the dramas of William Shakespeare and choral compositions of J.S. Bach and other classical composers, as well as African-American Spirituals. Regular "cadre schools" are held in the United States and Europe, where Lyndon LaRouche and other senior members of LaRouche organizations give lectures and take questions from LYM youth.
After spending six days at a Schiller Institute conference and LYM cadre school in Germany, 22-year-old Jeremiah Duggan, a Jewish student from London who was studying in Paris, ran onto a busy road in what the British coroner called a "state of terror," and was killed. A LaRouche spokesman has said the young man killed himself because he was disturbed. In October 2004, a British inquest into Duggan's death heard allegations from his mother that LYM and the Schiller Institute may have used mind control techniques on her son to persuade him to join the movement [1] (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46883-2004Oct20.html).
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