Positively Upminster

[redbird]

On Monday, rysmiel and I walked out of the Metro and saw a couple of people sitting behind a table with a sign saying "Impeach Cheney First." Underneath that, it said they were followers of Lyndon LaRouche, so I just muttered "them" as we headed for dim sum. Then we passed the table again, on our way to Maple Delight for ice cream, and noticed more of their signage, which advocated defeating the Bush agenda by building a land bridge across Beringia. (They didn't use the word Beringia, or any geographic names, but the illustration was clearly of Alaska, Siberia, and the island arc connecting them.) My only guess for what they were doing in Montreal at all is that the Old Port draws a lot of tourists: the harpist busking opposite the cathedral had a US dollar bill at the bottom of her case under the coins.

Friday morning, exiting Penn Station on my way to work, I passed people with a sign that started by asserting that "9/11 was a smokescreen," then went on to add that "Cabot was here before Columbus" (not implausible, depending on exactly how you define "here"--Columbus never came as far north as New York), and advocate annexing the U.S. to Mexico. They had a URL, but I just walked past muttering the phrase that's in the title of this post, and don't plan on checking out their web site. (One of the local dailies had the front-page headline "barking mad," which I think triggered me to think of these people's lunacy in terms of that London reference.)

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

oh, is *that* what the impeach cheney people are on? there were a bunch of them at pride in the cities, and i couldn't figure it out and wasn't willing to talk to them to do so. yuck!

[beginning.livejournal.com]

LaRouchies are terrifying.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

They're local here in Virginny, but I've always thought of them as annoying rather than terrifying.

[beginning.livejournal.com]

The ones around here (New England) tend to all but suck the blood of the college-aged population. A friend almost got sucked in at Berklee because they used to hang around outside his dorm room and classes, including at night, once they found out he had an interest in learning what they believed. The group in Hartford was known for a while for their fondness of locking their meeting room doors during all sessions. They've taken to attending meetings of the non-partisan political organization on my campus, even though they're not registered students and therefore not permitted to be there, in order to identify possible candidates for joining them. (They're also big on papering, including one memorable day when they left a copy of their national newsletter on every single student chair on campus – all nine buildings.) And so forth. They are basically political Scientologists.

So, I suppose for the general population, they're annoyances, but when they start trying to recruit you, it gets very different, very quickly.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Huh. I don't hear any stories like that from the campuses around here. They mostly set up in front of post offices.

If they're not allowed at the non-partisan meeting, why don't people check ID cards?

I wonder if they're more careful here since Virginia took most of their money and property away some years back.

[liv]

They seem like your standard annoying anti-establishment vaguely leftwing political campaigning machine, yeah. But they're actually extremely scary. They're responsible for the anti-semitic murder of someone I know personally. (Since I made that post, the case has been investigated further and it's clear that Jerry was already dead at the time that he was run over; they simply threw his body into a busy road to make his murder look like a traffic accident. I don't have references for that to hand, but I can look for them if you like.) It's unclear whom they hate apart from Jews; it's very clear that they are prepared to go to extremes for whatever their goals may be.

As far as I can work out, they're recruiting mostly young, idealistic, anti-authoritarian people with popular political positions like "stop the war" and "impeach Cheney". And then drawing said vulnerable people into a very scary cult, scary enough that they will react violently against a member who becomes disillusioned.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I hadn't realized how anti-semitic they were in Germany. That wasn't obvious here in the US, at least in the past. I suppose it works better in Germany. It certainly does seem like Jerry was murdered, but the Guardian articles (the Times' isn't there anymore) don't prove it was them. I'm not gainsaying your belief, I'm just saying I don't see enough proof. I do note that the Guardian says there was not enough investigating done. The best info is actually from the Wiki article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Duggan) on Jerry.

Young idealistic anti-authoritarian people have always been easy to recruit. The tricky part is to show them how their current passion is wrong without making them feel like idiots.

[liv]

I don't think this group was based in Germany. A lot of people kind of react to the story with "oh, Germany, not surprising that they're anti-semitic there", but Jerry encountered the New Solidarity group in France, and they were definitely American, they just happened to be holding a Europe-wide conference in Germany. The actual murderers might have been more or less directly connected to LaRouche's people, but at the very least the group are working closely with some seriously terrifying allies.

I do agree with you that everything is still in the judicial process and there's no clear proof. Certainly when I made that original post back in 2003, nobody really knew what had happened and it seemed plausible that the group had "only" tormented and terrified Jerry into killing himself. I don't know why the German authorities are being unhelpful in investigating things. But the British police keep conducting new investigations and every few months there's a new story in which more evidence emerges that points towards a deliberate, orchestrated murder. It's still unclear exactly who was behind it with all the tangled bits of cult in several countries trying to hide their connections to eachother.

Good point about giving young people the tools they need to protect themselves without making them feel stupid.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I quite like "barking mad", but am coming to prefer the phrase Digby used recently -- "screaming yellow zonkers". She used it in the context of people who favored the War On Iraq in the first place, but it seems appropriate for a whole lot of people -- and not just Conservative Radicals -- in the current political arena. (One of my Pet Peeves at the moment is the people who insist that we must carry Democracy to (oe impose it upon) Iraq... even though a large majority of the Iraqi people don't want us to do so. There appears to be a fundamental "Unclear about the Concept" factor in operation here.)

[(Anonymous)]

I am a regular reader and I protest, because I come from Upminster and may even return there (I have been living in Germany for 25 years).
I do remember that some years ago, a famous greyhound was stolen in London and one day someone said, 'You know they found that greyhound?' - question 'Where?' - answer 'Outside Barking'. I can't remember whether they did ever find it. Here is a rare blog entry of mine with pictures of Upminster as punishment:
http://www.margaret-marks.com/Transblawg/archives/001462.html
Please let me know if the expression 'Positively Upminster' has entered the language.
Margaret

[redbird]

I don't know what you mean by "has entered the language." I'd not expect someone who doesn't know London to understand it, but I could be mistaken: for all I know it's common throughout the UK. I'm fairly sure I got it from one of my London-area friends; it's not common New York slang.

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks - but I have never heard it. I thought you had invented it. I have now traced it:
>>There is a an old joke - based on the stations on London Underground's district line; "You've got mad, Barking Mad, and Upminster"... "Upminster ?" "Serveral stops beyond Barking".<<
http://blogs.technet.com/jamesone/
Ghits for "upminster mad" or "barking upminster".
Sorry, but I was completely mystified.

[redbird]

It didn't occur to me that you'd thought I'd invented that usage, or I'd have explained.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

No, but common usage among my friends is "He's gone totally Dagenham East - four stops beyond Barking". It's from... some TV or radio programme, I forget where originally.

[damashita.livejournal.com]

Hi there! i found you through a couple of friends' journals... hope you don't mind that i added you. :) If you decide to add me back and are interested in filters, just let me know.

Blessings...
inanna :)