`Proof of Principle':
Defeating the Recall

California LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) leader Cody Jones briefed an internet radio webcast on Oct. 11 on the LYM's mobilization which turned around and defeated the Recall in Los Angeles County, in particular. The entire webcast is archived at www.larouchepub.com/radio.

We had a number of things going on. I mean, what it really was, was proof of principle: That the only way you're going to be able to defeat fascism is to go with what Lyn [LaRouche] is saying, to go with Lyn's ideas and and method. And that's what we did.

And we saw that as opposed to what the Democratic Party tried to do—which is to try to "play by the rules" which had been established by these Synarchists, to try to appeal to popular opinion and emotion; you're going be completely helpless that way—and they were.

Los Angeles Campuses Shifted

For example, we did a lot of rallies on campuses—50-people rallies, going through with banners, getting out a lot of literature. I think, over the period of a couple weeks, we got out several hundreds of thousands of pieces of literature, principally the Who Robbed California? pamphlet, which went through, very explicitly, who is the network that's behind this Recall; that Schwarzenegger's really just the front-man, the inflated front-man for Cheney, for the energy pirates, for Enron. We exposed the whole nine yards. Hundreds of thousands of these went out during these rallies, which included a lot of singing, bull-horn chants, Negro Spirituals. We had also taken some other songs, and re-worded them: Took things like the "Signor Abbate" canon [a joke canon by Beethoven] and reworded it to talk about Dick Cheney as a fascist, and Schwarzenegger as his puppet, and whatnot.

So, we did a lot of that. We got a reflection of the impact that was having when, for instance, [LaRouche West Coast coordinator] Harley [Schlanger] was in one of these strategy meetings of the Davis campaign, to stop the Recall campaign; and one of the statisticians brought up the fact that there was this unusual increase in opposition to the Recall amongst college-age people in the Los Angeles County area—which, to them, was just a totally unexplainable phenomenon. All of a sudden, young people were becoming politicized. But, this was wholly a function of what we were doing, in intervening into the student population, with the rallies, with the pamphlets.

Now, in the last two weeks, we then escalated: There were a lot of 6:00 a.m. deployments, where we would go down to the Metro stops, and get out many, many bundles at a time—10, 20, 30 bundles in an hour shot—of the Who Robbed California? to the people riding the Metros. Some big rallies in the downtown, in the business districts; also a lot of riding through the Hispanic districts, where we had the Who Robbed California? in Spanish. Because there was a lot of confusion there—where, for example, you had [Lt. Gov. Cruz] Bustamante, who was supposed to be the "fall-back option" for the Democrats; who ostensibly was saying he was against the Recall; but in case it went through, "You should vote for me, because I'm still a Democrat." Well, it turns out: This guy, who was being endorsed by Joe Lieberman—no friend of ours—was mailing out these flyers to people's houses which said nothing about "No on Recall," but simply said, "Yes on Bustamante."

Now, the only "yes/no" question on the ballot was yes or no to the Recall; and then the second question is, if the Recall goes through, who would you choose [as governor]. So, there was intentional confusion, particularly into the Hispanic population in general, to sabotage the whole anti-Recall campaign.

So, we were down on the subway stops, getting out hundreds of thousands of these, there. Then, the last week, some people were doing all-night deployments, meaning from sunset to sunrise, where we were riding around. Particularly, we got one van down here, where people would have sort of an assembly line in the back of the van, where they were bundling up papers and leaflets, and putting a rubber band on them and throwing them on people's porches and on lawns and things—doing that kind of thing throughout the entire night; and just really blanketing the entire Los Angeles County Area, with the Who Robbed California? pamphlet.

And in the last few days, we had the leaflet on Schwarzenegger, with the "beast-man" quotes, his admiration-for-Hitler quotes.

From 60% For, to 51% Against Recall

And then coupling this with our usual student meetings, the table organizing, making phone-calls to labor unions, arranging drop-offs of literature to unions for them to get out to their constituents, and whatnot.

So, we waged a real fight, where, as Phil [Rubinstein] had mentioned previously: Up until a few weeks ago, it was looking like it was going to be a 60/40 vote in favor of the Recall in L.A. County. And, it ended with 51% against the Recall. This was largely due to what we were doing, in intervening into the situation, and proving it is Lyn's method that is going to be successful.

Whereas the Democratic Party—I mean, if you just look at the past four-year sweep, from the 2000 election: Lyn said, "If you go with Gore, you're going to get Bush." They didn't listen; Lyn was right. He said, "You've got to wage a fight against Ashcroft. Here's how you do it." They didn't listen. They half-assed it. Ashcroft is in there, to play the perfect fascist role under a crisis. [LaRouche] said, in the Iraq War: Everything that these guys are saying about weapons of mass destruction, the need for pre-emptive strike, whatever—it's all bullcrap, you've got to wage a fight; you've got to stop this thing. They didn't listen. They got the war. We now see Lyn was right.

Then, in California: He said, "Look, if you want to stop this thing, expose the fact that it was Enron; it was the friends of Cheney; it's the backers of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the backers of the Recall, that ripped off California for $70-plus billion during the energy crisis; that created the economic collapse in California." Schwarzenegger, in 2001, during the peak of the energy crisis, was meeting with Ken Lay at some posh Beverly Hills Hotel—"Expose that! Get out there!"

We told [Gov. Gray] Davis, "Tell them you made a mistake. You didn't create the crisis; you made a mistake in how you responded, but now you're willing to change it. You're going to go with LaRouche's plan for infrastructure." They didn't listen. They tried to play by the rules. Davis was advised by Gore's adviser, not to touch the economy, "Don't touch those kinds of sensitive subjects." And they got crushed.

And so, though we may have lost that particular battle, in terms of not defeating the Recall, we proved to a lot of people who are on the streets: We're the ones who know how to win, and we're the ones who are going to wage a successful fight.