CHICAGO -- Dennis Pollard, a mechanic who 'was never too interested in politics,' is running for school board as the candidate of a cult-like political organization that claims the Holocaust was a hoax, the British royal family deals drugs, and rich Jews put Hitler into power.
Pollard, 50, said he got involved in the organization because he shares its interest in laser beams.
'I'm kind of futuristic. I like the 'Star Wars' concept,' said the National Democratic Policy Committee's candidate in suburban Oak Park District 200.
'They (the NDPC) said we should increase the visibility of laser technology.'
The NDPC, which has no connection to the Democratic Party, was founded in 1968 by Lyndon LaRouche, then a Trotskyite known as Lyn Marcus. It started as a faction of the radical leftist Students for Democratic Society. After the faction was expelled from SDS, it became known as the National Caucus of Labor Committees and later the U.S. Labor Party.
In the 1970s, LaRouche's followers crossed the often-thin line from the extreme left to the extreme right, creating their own brand of conspiratorial theories and turning at times to violence. LaRouche ran for president in 1976 and 1980.
NDPC members are most visible in the nation's big airports, where they lobby travelers with placards and literature promoting exotic causes such as nuclear fusion research, and denigrate many traditionally liberal causes. 'Feed Jane Fonda to the Whales' was one of their more visible slogans.
Pollard linked up with LaRouche's organization even though a fellow conservative told him the NDPC's ideas sound 'like something Hitler came out with.'
His is not an isolated case.
At least 41 candidates in 26 suburban Chicago districts have agreed to run as NDPC candidates in the Nov. 8 school board elections.
They, in turn, are part of a nationwide NDPC effort to field slates in local elections. NDPC school board candidates have surfaced in New Hampshire and New York City, and the party's newspaper claims there are nearly 400 NDPC candidates running for municipal and Democratic Party races in 22 states.
Critics suggest the LaRouchites, having failed at 'big league' politics, are trying to capitalize on the relative ease of winning obscure municipal elections, such as school board posts, to build a political base.
Most NDPC candidates seem to have been recruited by party members who gather names from subscription and personal contact lists stored in the group's computer. They appeal to a prospective candidate's interest in specific educational issues.
Howard Smith, an NDPC candidate in the south suburban Palos District 230, said he was approached after taking out a subscription to the group's Fusion magazine at National Airport in Washington.
Smith, who distributes educational films, said he agreed to run because he liked the group's 'back-to-basics' approach to education.
'I'm a conservative and from what I've seen they seem to be conservative too,' he said. 'They're very interested in teaching science ... and their philosophy of classical music as opposed to rock I'm in line with all the way.'
Edward Vanscoy, a candidate in Maine Township District 207, described the organization's persistence in recruiting him. He said he was first asked to run by a party organizer calling to see if he wanted to renew his subscription to the NDPC newpaper New Solidarity.
'They want candidates for local positions. They want to broaden their base,' he said. 'They suggested it, but I resisted.'
Vanscoy was then invited to a series of meetings at a hotel near O'Hare International Airport. There he heard an NDPC lecture on 'the geometric patterns of the universe.'
'It was pretty deep stuff,' he said. 'They're a very literate organization, scientifically based.'
Finally he agreed to run and with the help of an NDPC worker submitted his nominating petitions last August.
'It'll be an experience,' he said of his candidacy. 'You like to see your name in print.'
Once recruited, the candidates are provided with generic policy statements that compare school closings to Nazi austerity measures or make the case for laser technology as the basis of the next industrial revolution.
The NDPC literature also portrays the group's support for lasers as support for President Reagan, pointing to his March 23 speech in favor of space weapons as the beginning of the laser era.
Critics of LaRouche's organization say they fear the NDPC is using 'back-to-basics' and 'high-tech' science issues to lure candidates - and possibly voters -- into the organization's orbit.
'Their strategy has been to seize on popular issues and use them,' said Abbott Rosen of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, which monitors extremist groups. 'Certainly there's a lot of criticism of American education, so they're for basics. Our concern is that this group will present appeals to people that are reasonable and then slip in ideas that are repugnant.'
The NDPC's 'use' of educational issues is only the latest chapter in the history of a group that has used a variety of names, philosophies and front groups to attract support.
LaRouchites were arrested in 1973 for attacks against members of left-wing groups. The NDPC was suspected of phone harassment of opponents during LaRouche's 1980 run for the Democratic presidential nomination.
LaRouche's followers formed a variety of front groups with names like the Fusion Energy Foundation, the National Anti-Drug Coalition, the Humanist Academy and the LaFayette Foundation.
With an estimated multi-million-dollar budget, the U.S. Labor Party and later the NDPC published as many at 10 newspapers and magazines.
Some of the publications, like the twice-weekly New Solidarity, are overtly political. Others, like Fusion, a pro-nuclear power magazine, and Executive Intelligence Review, a $400-a-year geo-political journal aimed at businessmen, appeal to a subscriber's interest in more technical matters.
Uniting these groups and publications is a cult-like allegiance to LaRouche, said Chip Berlet, a researcher who infiltrated the NDPC in 1979.
Berlet said the NDPC has been classified as a cult by the Citizens Freedom Foundation, a New York-based organization of the families of cult members.
NDPC cadre, he said, are subjected to intense psychological pressure to follow a party line that blames the world's problems on a conspiracy of 'the ADL, rich Jews, British oligarchs' and members of the Trilateral Commission.
'The basic problem with LaRouche's political viewpoint is his conspiratorial view of the world,' said Berlet. 'He says the problems of the world are caused by an evil cabal and the solution is to eliminate the cabal.'
LaRouche himself has identified this cabal as 'a treasonous conspiracy working in the interest of the United States' most consistent and dedicated adversary, Great Britain.'
A principal instrument of British subversion, LaRouche says, is its control of world drug trafficking. In a 1979 book entitled 'Dope Inc. - Britain's Opium War Against the U.S.,' the NDPC detailed what it said was the role of the British crown in directing the drug trade since the 19th Century.
Allied with the British in LaRouche's conspiracy theories are various Jewish groups.
'The problem among Jews is ancient,' he wrote. 'It was the Jewish Sadducees who crucified Christ and the same faction in Rome who prompted the Emperor Nero to launch the centuries-long 'holocaust' against the Christians ... anticipating the Nazis.'
In modern times, LaRouche said, Jewish families like the Rothschilds and Warburgs 'were directly responsible for Hitler's rise to power.' These same Jewish interests then created 'the 'holocaust' thesis,' a 'hoax' used to frighten Jews into supporting the 'hideous cult' of Zionism, NDPC publications have said.
Although most of the candidates knew little about the details of these conspiracies, some share the NDPC's conspiratorial bent.
'I think there are big strong people misinforming the American people,' said Guy McFolling, an Oak Park candidate. 'Somebody is behind it. The whole country is in a depressed state.'
Others were almost exclusively interested in the scientific and educational issues discussed in magazines like Fusion.
'I was never too interested in politics,' said Pollard, the mechanic running in Oak Park. 'They're (the NDPC) talking political issues I don't want to get into.'
School officials also said they are concerned the NDPC could help politicize contests that traditionally have been local and non-partisan.
Joan Eisenberg, of the Illinois Association of School Boards, said in the past Illinois school board candidates have been nominated by local caucuses representing parent-teacher groups and local civic organizations.
The NDPC, she said, has bypassed the caucuses and the local concerns they represent.
'I would be concerned with any special interest group that would want to take control,' she said. 'It's always a concern when you move away from candidates who are concerned with local issues.'
Fear that NDPC candidates could be successful stems from the fact it takes very little to win a school board race, said one school board member who asked not to be identified.
Turnouts are light, and candidates nominated by caucuses often run unopposed, clearing the way for any group to exploit possible dissatisfaction.
Berlet said these factors could have influenced the NDPC's entrance into school board politics.
'They tried and failed at major posts,' he said. 'Now they're running for public positions vulnerable to the money and leg work they can provide.'
Despite these logistical advantages, Rosen said the NDPC probably would not elect anyone because it had failed to recruit candidates who 'have been active citizens.
'Who needs them (the NDPC), if you have your own votes?' he said.
Rosen said some of the NDPC's New Hampshire school board candidates repudiated the organization after finding out more about it. He said the same thing could happen in Illinois.
'There is no question that this movement is rejected by people as they understand it.'
But Berlet cautioned against underestimating the NDPC.
'The LaRouche people are very weird and scary and hold opinions most Americans find repulsive,' he said.
'But they're like cockroaches developing a resistance to poison - they learn from their mistakes. With each push they get stronger, with each election they get more votes.'
Gerald Pechenuk, the NDPC's spokesman for the candidates, refused to answer questions from United Press International about the group's origins or goals.
Instead, he threatened to sue.
A few days later UPI's Chicago bureau was visited by five people who said they were from the NDPC, three wearing pig masks and one dressed in a mocking imitation of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. They asked to see 'the pig Silverman,' referring to Gary Silverman, the reporter who called Pechenuk.
They sprayed disinfectant on a receptionist's desk, claiming the reporter was diseased. They refused to leave when asked and were finally escorted out by police.
The NDPC unsuccessfully sued the Chicago Sun-Times for an article it published concerning the organization.
Several reporters for Chicago-area media outlets have been harassed at home. A female researcher for a local television station said letters were mailed to her neighbors claiming she was a prostitute.
