Citizens Electoral Council - Youth Movement

Youth Movement

The CEC also includes the Australian LaRouche Youth Movement (ALYM), the Australian branch of the International LaRouche Youth Movement. It was founded in August 2002, and focusses on the economic thought of Lyndon LaRouche as well as what they regard as Australia's republican tradition, including figures such as John Curtin, King O'Malley, and John Dunmore Lang.

The ALYM's responsibilities have included managing the groundwork in Federal campaigns, aiding State Campaign efforts, collecting signatures for petitions and mobilising the public and Parliament against anti-terror laws. Members are often found on the streets of Melbourne, home of the National CEC office.

In October 2003 the members of the ALYM, with the help of some members of the International Youth Movement, organised its first "Cadre School". The ALYM hopes to "organize the youth population of the country and harness the enthusiasm and optimism that they offer." The ALYM works for CEC candidates in election campaigns, distributes LaRouche literature and collects signatures for petitions.

The ALYM claims that its membership grew during the 2004 federal election campaign, during which they worked for CEC candidates in three election campaigns in the Melbourne region, in Maribyrnong, Calwell and Melbourne Ports, where they went door-to-door handing out copies of the election edition of the New Citizen, which featured articles on the fight for a National Bank in Australia and the founding of the Australian Liberal Party in the 1940s, and explaining the potential of "LaRouche's New Bretton Woods" and the "dirty state of the Australian political scene".

Twelve ALYM members ran for the House of Representatives and for the Senate in Victoria at the 2004 election. They also managed three flagship campaigns in the Melbourne Region, including the campaign of Aaron Isherwood, himself a member of the ALYM, standing against Michael Danby (long parliament's only Jewish MP and a well-known LaRouche opponent) in the seat of Melbourne Ports. All candidates were unsuccessful.