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 8 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.)