askchapo

Here's a good piece on LaRouchites.

It is true that LaRouchites do not fit into the typical archetype we usually associate with a far-right wingers: someone who is very socially conservative, ultrareligious, ultranationalist, anti-science, and is highly neoliberal and pro-free market capitalism. But in reality LaRouchites fit into all of these boxes, except for one: they are not neoliberals. This might seem like a minor distinction, but it puts them pretty heavily at odds with most right-wingers, and has been the bridge that has allowed them to build some left-wing support as well.

Liberals tend to place vague “principles” above real-world material development, and care very little about real economic growth. In fact, they often praise the destruction of entire countries if it means these vague principles can be met. Take, for example, the dissolution of the USSR, or the destruction of Libya — both were humanitarian disasters that led to a complete collapse in living standards and the economy, but are praised by liberals as necessities because these countries were violating sacred laws of “individual freedom” and liberal “democracy.”

LaRouchites, on the other hand, drastically differ from the typical liberal in that they actually place economic development first-and-foremost. (Kind of… We will get into more detail on this in a second.) But the point is, the fact they reject neoliberal principles of “individual freedom” and support state intervention for the purpose of material development has put them at odds with typical liberals and, at times, even aligned them with Marxists.

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Sometimes, on some issues, LaRouchites might be allies of Marxists. But I must make it very clear that LaRouchites are incredibly reactionary. In many ways, I would compare LaRouchites to the Strasserites in Nazi Germany. The Strasserites were part of the Nazi party, and they were just as anti-Semitic as all the other Nazis, but differed on economic issues, with Otto Strasser proposing democratizing the economy directly to Hitler.

Does this mean that the Strassersites were allies of Marxists? No. Their ideology was incredibly contradictory. They allied with fascists on pretty much every issue but the nationalization of industry, and so they worked with the fascists to get the fascists into power. The moment the fascists got into power, they purged them in the Night of the Long Knives. Gregor Strasser was killed, Otto Strasser fled the country.