[Marxism] From The Nation: "Nader and the Newmanites"

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have no idea and don't care a great deal what Nader was doing with
the latest incarnation of the bizarre and rightist  Fred Newman
group -- the former New Alliance Party, International Workers Party
and a couple other incarnations since it emerged out of the
ex-leftist-turned-fascist-minded LaRouche sect in the late 1970s. (I
believe they split over a basic programmatic question -- the identity
of the "me" referred to in the First Commandment.)

This is clearly intended to be part of the Democratic Party-led
campaign to beg, bribe, and bully the Green Party into submitting to
Anybody But Bush this year. The Nation, which thinks Dean has a real
shot (and they might be right -- the Republicans' cries of "We Want
Dean" are clearly aimed at preventing his nomination) is playing a
leading part in this effort.  I'm not sure of my history but I don't
think that any "third party" that caved into such pressure has ever
made a comeback subsequently.

Still, I think its important for activists to know that the rightist
Newman group is still out there and still working the "independent
third party" turf.
Fred Feldman


The Nation Jan. 26
Nader and the Newmanites
by Doug Ireland


What in the world is Ralph Nader doing in bed with the ultrasectarian
cult-racket formerly known as the New Alliance Party?

That's the question raised by Nader's January 11 appearance as the
featured speaker at a conference in Bedford, New Hampshire, of
so-called "independents" that is nothing more than a front for the New
Alliance crazies. The conference was arranged by something called the
Choosing an Independent President 2004 Campaign ("ChIP"). ChIP's
organizers--or "convenors," as they style themselves--are none other
than Dr. Fred Newman, the cult's guru, a master manipulator and former
associate of mad Lyndon LaRouche; and Dr. Lenora Fulani, the
Afro-American former presidential candidate of the New Alliance Party,
whom Newman describes as his "greatest creation."

Newman controls his followers through a brainwashing scheme--which he
baptized "Social Therapy"--that has been described by one deprogrammed
former member of his group as a "sophisticated indoctrination
methodology which impairs critical thinking skills and which uses
repression, dependency and guilt-inducing techniques to control and
lure patients into political activity and, ultimately, into blind
allegiance to Newman."

There's nothing at all "independent" about Newman and Fulani's latest
creation, ChIP. It's just the latest in a skein of more than two dozen
front groups and rackets Newman has created, all of which have as
their ultimate goal nothing more than enlarging the cult and
subsidizing Newman's and Fulani's lavish lifestyles.

When the Newmanites and Fulani took over New York's Independence
Party, they turned it into their most recent cash cow, renting
themselves out to billionaire Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg in
his first campaign (Bloomberg wanted an additional ballot line as a
hedge in case he lost the GOP primary). Before that, the Newmanites
had helped Pat Buchanan in his putsch that took over the remnants of
the Reform Party for Pat's last presidential run. And they hired
themselves out to help perennial candidate and multimillionaire real
estate developer Abe Hirschfeld, the meshuganeh who was jailed for
trying to murder a former business associate and who then tried to
hire a hitman to off the judge who sentenced him.

The long and sorry history of the Newmanites and their lucrative
political con-jobs has been well chronicled (see, for example, two
probing Nation articles by Bruce Shapiro: "Buchanan-Fulani: New Team?"
Nov. 1, 1999, and "Dr. Fulani's Traveling Snake-Oil Show," May 4,
1992; and a report by Political Research Associates' excellent
director, Chip Berlet, "Clouds Blur the Rainbow--How Fred Newman &
Lenora Fulani Use Totalitarian Deception to Manipulate Social and
Political Activists. Historical Background on the New Alliance Party,"
available on PRA's website, "The Public Eye," at www.thepubliceye.com,
along with a ton of other material on the Newmanites; there are also
reports available by the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith).

Now, I'm no knee-jerk Nader-basher. Indeed, I wrote columns in support
of Nader's 2000 presidential candidacy, and I was even one of some two
dozen hardy souls who signed a 1996 New York Times ad supporting
Nader's campaign that year, as my protest against the endless
corruptions of Bill Clinton. But a Nader presidential candidacy this
year makes no sense to me, for a host of reasons. It wouldn't have
been justifiable even if Ralph had decided once again to become the
Green Party's candidate, a course he has now rejected; it will have
even less of a rationale if he decides to run as an independent.

Nader's flinging himself into the embrace of the Newmanites--the dregs
of extremist political culture--is, to borrow Talleyrand's celebrated
phrase, worse than a crime, it's a mistake. And a mind-bogglingly dumb
one at that. The only press coverage I could find of the Bedford
meeting was some cub reporter's article in the January 12 Manchester
Union-Leader, which completely ignored that the conclave was a New
Alliance operation. But one cannot believe that a politically
sophisticated chap like Ralph doesn't know exactly who Newman and
Fulani are, and why they are so despicable. For Ralph to grace a
Newman front group with his presence is the equivalent of cuddling up
to Scientology, another cult-racket. I wanted to ask him why he is so
desperate for applause that he has to turn to these dangerous loonies,
but he didn't return my calls. It's a pathetic way for Nader to begin
a last, counterproductive campaign.

And despite Ralph's important, decades-long contributions to citizen
activism, it's a sign that in his eerie isolation he may be losing his
political judgment. I find that sad--and I pray that he will in the
end decide against another run that would be immensely damaging to his
image and his legacy.


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