July 15, 2008 (LPAC)--At the peak of the fight by members of the LaRouche Political Action Committee for the Homeowners and Bank Protection act to be passed, the Boston LaRouche Youth Movement sent people clear across New England in order to organize support among cities and states. Organizing elected officials face to face challenged the LYM to think as statesmen. There were battles waged over many months granting them the tools of patience and persistence, summoning the creativity to organize what were at times stubborn leaders clinging to tradition.
With a more developed insight into organizing institutional layers the LYM expanded their outreach around the food crisis, gathering some of the same support from the HBPA mobilization for Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s call to double world food production. This included the calling of consulates, agricultural organizations, University Agriculture programs and more. One individual who was met was from a community organization. This individual having attended college in Washington D.C. already knew LaRouche from years ago and developed a sense of respect for his policies. Never having been a supporter before, it was when LPAC organizers approached him in the midst of the food crisis hitting his nation that he responded by taking on a level of responsibility of his own. Not only did he sign the petition written by Helga Zepp LaRouche to double the world’s food production, he also offered the center where his organization meets as a venue for the next LPAC town meeting. In all, 27 attended.
This venue is located in Roxbury Massachusetts: the location of one of first six villages in the Massachusetts Bay colony. It became a predominantly African American community in the 1960s following a mass migration from the south and subsequently was hard hit by gang violence and the crack epidemic of the 1980s. We began the venture out into this community a couple of weeks before the July 12th town meeting bringing to them Lyndon LaRouche’s assessment of the current elections with a pamphlet titled “Your Enemy George Soros” (PDF). What we found on our first day of organizing door to door were people who saw it as their duty to get to know who the guys destroying the Democratic Party are. Others responded with pessimism,”You can’t change anything this way.” Meanwhile 15 organizers are all around challenging people to change themselves. Door to Door deployment coupled with sound cars decked in Posters, and a Chorus with a literature table at the T-stops all contributed to a mass effect in this area. As the town meeting approached many people had already received the leaflet and or had been called by our organizers.
At the event the majority of the audience consisted of people from said community organization, but others attended including youth contacts, 30-year-long supporters and other international guests from outside Africa. We had passed out so many fliers in the neighborhood that one woman happened upon one that was crumpled up on the ground as the meeting was going on. She came over late and grabbed some literature. She had been in contact with our movement years prior. Another just found it on her doorstep the week before and decided to come by.
Notable of the international guests was their strong concentration and seriousness. A woman from Yugoslavia drove an hour from Rhode Island to come to the event. A young man from Turkey just met the same afternoon of the event came all the way through to the end and stayed for discussions. Another young man from Saudi Arabia attended
The panel of three LPAC representatives gave a strategic overview of the election lead with some of Lyndon LaRouche’s remarks from his July 2007 Webcast along with a short history on the housing bubble and why only the HBPA will work. One of the first questioners, who was the head of said community organization, asked what was on everybody’s mind.
“What can we really do in such a short period of time before the election? We have the choice only between two candidates who are both the same.”
This question gave the LPAC panel the opportunity to bring up the non-linear effects of the economic breakdown, and why the elections will look nothing like it does now, by the time we get to November. They highlighted the context of what organizers have in operation at the moment.
One provoked by the work on the HBPA after being showed a video of our work in California asked us to help him revive the institution of the barber shop as a forum for political discussion. This is just one among many new ideas that have been opened up to us through this mobilization.
As a follow up the Boston LPAC team will continue to organize in the Roxbury neighborhoods as a build up to the webcast that Lyndon LaRouche will deliver on July 22nd. LPAC in Boston is also maintaining the monthly town hall meeting as a new institution. As Lyndon LaRouche has reiterated in recent discussions, we are all that the population has to turn to. We are now indispensable.
