NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/5794

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From: NLG Civil Liberties Committee <[e-mail]>
Subject: NAP Blasted by Latina Ex-Member
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/* Written  7:47 pm  Aug 13, 1992 by cberlet in cdp:publiceye */
/* ---------- "NAP Blasted by Latina Ex-Member" ---------- */

Former NAP Organizer Calls Group A Deceptive Cult

by Chip Berlet

8/14/92

A former leading organizer for the New Alliance Party now charges
the group "perfected the art of psycho-political cultism and
deception under the auspices of Lyndon LaRouche" and uses these
manipulative techniques to engage in the "obstruction of minority
empowerment."

Marina Ortiz, once singled out for praise in the New Alliance
Party (NAP) newspaper by NAP strategist Fred Newman, served as a
publicist for NAP presidential candidate Lenora Fulani before
leaving the organization several years ago. Ortiz now says that
NAP does not live up to its claims of promoting democracy, and
championing the rights of women, persons of color, and gay men
and lesbians.

While NAP calls itself "progressive," Ortiz points to a "two-
decade history of cooptation and infiltration efforts, legal
suits, and sectarian smear campaigns and petition challenges
against progressives and insurgents such as Edward Wallace in
1983, Jesse Jackson in 1984, David Dinkins in 1989, Jitu Weusi
and Timothy Evans in 1990, and Ron Daniels and Jerry Brown in
1992."

Ortiz also is troubled that "Gerald Horne, chair of the Black
Studies Department at the University of California and a Peace
and Freedom Party Senate Candidate [and] independent presidential
candidate Ron Daniels" failed NAP's "litmus test" for being real
progressives after they and others on the left questioned NAP's
embrace of Ross Perot's brief presidential bid. Ortiz felt NAP's
promotion of Perot was opportunistic and highly troubling, and
indicated a willingness by NAP to abandon gay men and lesbians as
allies in order to suggest a Perot/Fulani ticket. Ortiz says that
rather than honestly dealing with its critics, NAP frequently
resorts to nasty attacks, and has "viciously vilified" other
former NAP leaders who have resigned such as former NAP
presidential candidate Dennis Serrette and former NAP Georgia
state chair Alvin Munson.

Ortiz charges that while she was in the New Alliance Party she
was inducted into the secret International Workers Party where
she learned that she was expected to follow the orders of party
chairman Fred Newman, as were other members of IWP including NAP
presidential candidate Fulani. Ortiz says that as an IWP member
she was told to attend therapy sessions run by persons trained in
the "Social Therapy" technique invented by Newman.

The net result of these overlapping affiliations and commitments,
according to Ortiz, was the creation of an organizational control
mechanism that derailed criticism and enforced obedience. Ortiz
finally decided that NAP's pronouncements championing democracy
were a sham given the way the internal NAP hierarchy actually
functioned. After resigning, Ortiz spent many months putting her
energies into rebuilding her family which had been torn apart
during her time within NAP. She eventually decided to write a
book about her experiences in what she now calls a cult run by
Newman.

But Ortiz decided to break her self-imposed silence when in 1992
NAP sued two African-American women in Maryland who were
"challenging the party's internal hierarchy." That incident

involves an NAP lawsuit against a Baltimore African-American
environmentalist and community organizer named Morning Sunday and
another former NAP activist, Annie Chambers. Ms. Sunday became
active in NAP in 1988 and originally chaired NAP's 1992 Maryland
campaign organization for Lenora Fulani's presidential race.

Sunday became disillusioned after NAP ignored her requests that
NAP support local campaigns, increase local participation and
responsibility, and provide a mechanism for input into decisions.
Instead NAP repeatedly demanded more money be raised in
fundraising for NAP headquarters. "The bottom line was always
signatures and money for national," Sunday told Ortiz in an
interview Ortiz conducted for her book on NAP. Ortiz quickly
became a supporter of Sunday and Chambers for their attempts to
make NAP conform in actual practice to NAP's claim of championing
democracy.

Sunday told Ortiz she believed NAP's local Maryland operations
were in fact part of a "dictatorial hierarchy" controlled by
NAP's New York office staff, characterized by Sunday as "mostly
white elitists." After a series of frustrating and alienating
experiences, which Sunday recalls included a local art-gallery
fundraiser where all $3,000 was whisked away to NAP in New York,
and an episode where NAP sent her a volunteer who trashed her
house and stole her husband's car, Sunday contacted the two
former NAP Maryland State chairs, Doug Ross and Annie Chambers.
Both shared similar sentiments regarding NAP's lack of democracy.

In March 1992 Chambers contacted New York NAP headquarters and
suggested a meeting between the Maryland NAP committee and Fulani
to iron out a dispute arising from NAP's contention that Sunday
was refusing to file Fulani's nominating petitions, even though
the petitions were not due for over five months. Instead of
seeking to resolve the matter internally, NAP threatend a civil
lawsuit, and then had an NAP staffer file criminal charges
against Sunday and Chambers.

In an April 21, "Baltimore Sun" article on the dispute, Sunday
revealed she had been threated by NAP in several ways, and said
the same treatment had been accorded others "who have bucked the
national leadership" of NAP. Sunday said NAP had a "distinct
class system" and was "no different than the Democrats and
Republicans." NAP would send "marching orders" with no input from
local activists, according to Sunday, and "when we tried to
question their authority, all hell broke loose. They went into
severe attack phase."

A judge found Sunday and Chambers guilty of theft on June 9. Even
though Sunday turned over the petitions to NAP through a neutral
mediator from the community, both Sunday and Chambers were
punished with suspended jail sentences, placed on probation, and
ordered to perform community service. Ortiz was moved by Sunday's
argument prior to sentencing. Sunday told the judge her actions
had been dictated by her conscience, that she had been seeking to
prevent the maltreatment of Baltimore's Black community by a
flim-flam campaign, that NAP was motivated strictly by greed,
that NAP engaged in the political process for the sole purpose of
raising money. Ortiz said when she heard those statements she
recognized them as true, and she decided as a matter of
conscience to speak out before waiting to complete her book.

At first, Ortiz granted several interviews and provided a written
statement to this author to be included in an update of my 1987
study of NAP, "Clouds Blur the Rainbow," published by Political
Research Associates. That revised study is due out in September,
and includes new interviews with a number of former NAP members.

Ortiz agreed to be interviewed on the condition that any
discussion of her charges include the fact that she believes
there are many sincere people who have been pulled into NAP, and
that her criticisms not be used to hurt serious efforts to fight
for social change and equal rights.

But Ortiz became convinced that she had an obligation to air her
charges as quickly as possible, in a way that would encourage
public debate in the Latino and African-American communities
where NAP candidates are currently running for public office.
Ortiz wrote an article about the experiences of Sunday and
Chambers, but for a variety of reasons she could find no
publisher. So on August 9 Ortiz appeared on a Latino program on
New York's progressive radio station WBAI to make her charges
public. Ortiz hopes her charges will spark a spirited debate over
NAP's internal reality, but she hopes to fade back behind the
scenes as quickly as possible to continue research on her book
and find a publisher. That last task should be easier than usual
for a young author...Marina Ortiz has quite a story to tell.


                              -30-

Extracted from the forthcoming new edition of "Clouds Blur the
Rainbow" available from PRA, 678 Mass. Ave., #205, Cambridge, MA
02139. Copyright 1992 Chip Berlet. Permission to reprint granted
if used in its entirety. (For the record, this is a freelance
article and not a work product of PRA.)