PRESS RELEASE
Expose Attempt To Shut
LaRouche Youth Out of the
Democratic Convention
July 22, 2004 (EIRNS)—This release was issued today by the LaRouche in 2004 Presidential campaign committee.
Representatives of the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) will be joined by leading Democrats from around the country at a press conference on Sunday, July 25, at 4:30 p.m., to expose attempts to lock members of the LaRouche Youth Movement out of Boston during the Democratic National Convention.
The press conference will be held in the George Washington room at the John Hancock Conference Center in downtown Boston.
Signs of the attempted lockout against the LaRouche Youth surfaced on July 12, when the LaRouche Campaign had rooms at the Marriott Copley Hotel cancelled, for which it had already paid and contracted. The rooms were intended to be used as a central coordinating center for the LaRouche Youth Movement during the Democratic Convention.
The campaign was told by hotel personnel that the rental had been cancelled upon the decision of the Democratic National Committee, whose representative had conveyed the idea that the LaRouche campaign and youth were some kind of security threat. When a campaign representative called another hotel, after hearing this news, she was told by a hotel employee that the DNC had also denied their ability to rent to the LaRouche Campaign, with an "explanation" also citing "security" concerns.
In pursuing this matter, the attorney for the LaRouche Campaign, Odin Anderson, was told by a representative of the DNC that it had the right to cancel the rooms under their contract with the Copley, and that they also had a contract with the other hotel. They were determined to exercise that right, although they said they would not interfere with rentals at a facility with which they did not have a contract.
Subsequent checking with the Kerry Presidential campaign resulted in a denial that it had anything to do with this decision.
Reliable sources, however, reported to LaRouche in 2004 that they suspected that the attempted lockout was a product of intervention by the Homeland Security Department, which is all over the place in Boston. Such an intervention would implicate LaRouche's leading enemies in the Bush Administration, specifically Vice-President Dick Cheney.
The DNC's move was clearly aimed at locking the LaRouche Youth Movement out of Boston. The question that arises is whether the DNC's attitude stems from the fact that the LYM has spearheaded LaRouche's drive to oust Dick Cheney, while the DNC's McAuliffe has avowed, directly to the LYM, that he wants to keep the Vice-President in place.
McAuliffe is aware, of course, that, if Cheney were to be removed before or during the Democratic Convention, all the credit would go to LaRouche.
The Democratic elected officials who will join LYM representatives at the press conferences are indicative of a larger group which was outraged when they learned that young people were being kept out and harassed. Expected to attend and speak are:
- Rep. Harold James, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Rep. Perry Clark, Louisville, Kentucky
- Rep. Joe Towns, Memphis, Tennessee
- Rep. James "Billy" McKinney (former), Atlanta, Georgia
- Councilman Robert White, Cleveland, Ohio
- Barbara Lett-Simmons, Democratic National Committeewoman, District of Columbia
