NYHEDSORIENTERING FEBRUAR-MARTS 2021:
Derfor repræsenterer »LaRouchePAC« ikke længere LaRouches politik.
Pressemeddelelse af Helga Zepp-LaRouche
24. februar 2021 (EIRNS)— Helga Zepp-LaRouche, grundlægger og international leder af Schiller Instituttet og enke efter den kendte amerikanske økonom og statsmand Lyndon LaRouche, bekendtgjorde i dag, at hun, gennem sine advokater, har sendt et brev til Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Comittee (LPAC) og komiteens kasserer Barbara Boyd, hvori hun kræver, at de »omgående ophører med og afholder sig fra, både nu og i fremtiden«, at »gøre brug af LaRouches navn, billede og andre potentielt forvirrende og lignende begreber«. Brevet erklærer, at en sådan brug »sandsynligvis vil skabe forvirring blandt forbrugere, eftersom de kan blive forledt til at tro, at du [Boyd] (som person), LPAC og/eller de varer eller tjenester, som udbydes, i et eller andet omfang, er forbundet med, på licens fra, eller godkendt af vores klient [Helga Zepp-LaRouche]«. Blandt de påkrævede ændringer er, at Boyd og LPAC »omgående tager alle nødvendige skridt til at ændre navnet på jeres politiske aktionskomité, og navnene på enhver tilhørende enhed, til et, der ikke indeholder udtrykket »Lyndon« »LaRouche« eller noget forbundet med eller afledt deraf, og indvilliger i at afstå fra at bruge rettighedskrænkende udtryk nu og i fremtiden på nogen hjemmeside, firma-e-mails, brevhoveder, reklamer, eller andet marketingsmateriale eller korrespondance.«
For at belyse baggrunden for dette tiltag og sætte det i en konkret sammenhæng, fremsatte Fru Zepp-LaRouche følgende erklæring:
»Det, der siden 2004 har været den officielle hjemmeside for den politiske aktionskomité, der blev grundlagt af min afdøde mand Lyndon LaRouche, Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee (LPAC), har fået sit indhold overtaget af en gruppe individer forbundet med Barbara Boyd, aktionskomiteens kasserer, og sat i en retning, jeg betragter som værende i direkte modsætning til kernen i den politik, min mand stod for. Mens min mand stadig var i live, var han ansvarlig for den overordnede politiske retning for aktionskomiteen. Men efter hans død i februar 2019, har Fru Boyd og hendes samarbejdspartnere uden mit samtykke overtaget indholdet af hjemmesiden og aktionskomiteens aktiviteter som helhed og bevæget sig i en retning, som efter min mening misrepræsenterer både mine og Hr. LaRouches holdninger.
»Mine gentagne krav om, at aktionskomiteen skulle følge LaRouche-bevægelsens politik og ikke sætte LaRouches navn i forbindelse med politiske holdninger, der var og er i direkte modstrid med vores egne standpunkter, og som tog sin begyndelse i aktionskomiteen umiddelbart efter LaRouches død, blev afvist op til det punkt, hvor Fru Boyd og en gruppe af individer, der delte hendes holdninger, fremlagde et dokument i november 2020, hvori de proklamerede deres »uigenkaldelige« uafhængighed af lederskabet i LaRouche-bevægelsen, mig selv inklusive, der blev grundlagt af min mand for over 50 år siden.
»Mens de lovpriste visse af Lyndon LaRouches ideer, og fremviste videofilm med ham, så afveg aktionskomiteens politiske holdninger i stigende grad fra LaRouche-bevægelsens og min afdøde mands politik, eksempelvis ved at udelukke enhver substantiel vurdering af den internationale strategiske situation, for i stedet, næsten udelukkende, at fokusere på amerikansk indenrigspolitik, og frem for alt på emner, der var på linje med Donald Trumps politik. De undlod i stigende grad at publicere artikler og videoer, som var kritiske over for Trump, så som hans lovprisning af den finansielle boble på Wall Street og hans Kina-kritiske politik, der kom til at dominere hans præsidentskab. Her er et eksempel.:
»I en video der blev lagt ud den 26. januar 2021 på LPAC’s hjemmeside med overskriften »Få kampagnen for en rigsretssag til at give bagslag, byg en bevægelse for at redde republikken« udtalte Barbara Boyd: »Hvis man har den holdning, at mennesker er dyr, og at man kan have et socialt belønningssystem, og det er faktisk, hvad vi er ved at etablere herhjemme med ”Cancel Culture”-bevægelsen – altså, hvis man opfører sig på en bestemt måde, så får man social kredit for at gøre x, y, z, og w; men hvis du er ondskabsfuld eller kommer med dumme kommentarer, eller træder ved siden af, så får man negativ kredit. Det er det, de gør i Kina. Det er, hvad man gør i ethvert totalitært samfund«.
»Disse holdninger reflekterer alene Fru Boyds meninger, hverken LaRouches eller LaRouche-bevægelsens. Jeg er totalt uenig med en sådan karakteristik af Kina, og Lyndon LaRouche udtrykte gentagne gange gennem hele sit liv synspunkter i diametral modsætning til en sådan karakteristik.
»I takt med den voksende misrepræsentation af LaRouches politiske standpunkter, følte jeg og et stort flertal af medlemmerne i LaRouche-bevægelsen, både i USA og internationalt, at vi ikke havde andet valg end at støtte dannelsen af en ny organisation og en tilhørende hjemmeside: »The LaRouche Organization« (TLO), som blev grundlagt i december 2020, for at sikre, at LaRouches navn og ansigt kun forbindes med hans virkelige politik og holdninger. Klik her: The LaRouche Organizations homepage Forskellen mellem TLO og aktionskomiteen ses tydeligt ved f.eks. at sammenligne de intentioner, der kommer udtryk i den grundlæggende udtalelse »Hvem vi er«, som siger:
»»Det eneste formål med The LaRouche Organization (TLO) er at sprede Lyndon LaRouches idéer og kendskabet til hans livsværk, hans metode til analytisk og videnskabelig tænkning, med den hensigt at realisere de løsninger på de mange kriser, menneskeheden nu står over for, som han fremlagde.«
»Sæt dette op imod de »marchordrer«, der blev lagt op på aktionskomiteens hjemmeside den 14. februar under overskriften »Din rolle i »Ny Politik««: »Kæmp for det Republikanske Parti; tving forræderne og »de svage« ud, og før det tilbage til Abraham Lincolns tradition.«
»Fru Boyd og hendes samarbejdspartnere lancerede et nyt design for aktionskomiteens hjemmeside i februar 2021, som bemærkelsesværdigt udelader to sider eller emner, der tidligere var der:
»For det første den utroligt rige dokumentation af de 40 års organiseringsaktiviteter som Lyndon LaRouche og hans internationale samarbejdspartnere var involveret i på tværs af fem af planetens kontinenter. Hvad enten det var intetionen eller ej, så mener jeg, at man, ved at fjerne den historie, giver det falske indtryk, at Hr. LaRouche kun bekymrede sig om, hvad der foregik i USA. Det går imod hans passionerede engagement for menneskeheden som helhed.
»For det andet, så fjerner aktionskomiteens nye hjemmeside også den rolle Hr. LaRouche og hans internationale bevægelse har spillet i skabelsen af det nye paradigme omkring Den Nye Silkevej. LaRouche begyndte allerede i 1970’erne at skrive adskillige økonomiske programmer for Afrika, Asien, Latinamerika og Europa, og brugte en god del af sit liv på at arbejde og føre kampagne både i og for udviklingen af disse lande.
»Fru Boyd og hendes samarbejdspartnere har enhver ret til at etablere en politisk aktionskomité, der udtrykker Fru Boyds holdninger; men jeg mener, at de gør afdøde Lyndon LaRouche en stor uret ved at misrepræsentere hans holdninger – både gennem det, der bringes og det, der udelades – samt ved at forbinde hans navn med deres egne bestræbelser. Af alle disse årsager har vi entreret juridisk bistand for at stoppe aktionskomiteens brug af Lyndon LaRouches navn og ansigt, og for at bevare hans enorme arbejdes integritet.«
Læs LaRouche-organisationens grundlæggende dokument her: LaRouche-organisationen er grundlagt
For yderlig information:
I USA: press@laroucheorganization.com eller +1-551-209-3978
I Danmark: 53 57 00 51, si@schillerinstitut.dk
Klik her: The LaRouche Organizations homepage
Lyndon LaRouche: Et talent, der blev brugt godt;
live stream med mindehøjtidelighed på 2-året for hans død
14. februar (EIRNS) – 12. februar 2021 markerede toårsdagen for Amerikas største statsmand og filosof, Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr, der døde på Abraham Lincolns fødselsdag i 2019 i en alder af 96 år. LaRouche-organisationen og Schiller Instituttet, som blev grundlagt af hans hustru Helga Zepp-LaRouche, fejrede dagen med en 19-timers live stream af Lyndon LaRouches taler og foredrag; dagen blev indledt og afsluttet med den mindeværdige koncert, der blev afholdt i New York City den 8. juni i året for hans død.
Livestream'en indeholdt nogle af LaRouches mest afgørende, historieforandrende interventioner – men for dem, der kender ham og hans arv, ville det være nødvendigt med langt mere end 19 timer til at gense blot en brøkdel af de taler og lektioner han holdt, der ændrede historien. I den henseende var Lyn en ægte videnskabsmand, der altid udfordrede dagens fremherskende antagelser, inklusive sine egne, og udviklede en "højere hypotese".
For dem der begyndte at se med, uanset på hvilket tidspunkt i løbet af den daglange begivenhed, var det "næsten umuligt at løsrive sig", sagde flere af LaRouches medarbejdere, inklusive denne skribent. At tillade sig selv, gennem denne videotur, at tilbringe timer i nærværelse af et sådant sind, var en velkommen og glædelig kontrast til det forræderiske og bedrageriske skuespil, der fandt sted i USA's Senat i den anden rigsretssag mod tidligere præsident Donald Trump; retssagen er endeligt afsluttet med den forventede frifindelse, men fortsætter i pressen.
Lige så foruroligende er de nylige bemærkninger fra ’StratCom’-kommandør Adm. Charles Richard om nødvendigheden af at forberede sig på muligheden for atomkrig samt den fortsatte dæmonisering af Rusland og Kina. Den nye COVID-nødhjælpslov ville af LaRouche blive betragtet som en syg vittighed, og er blot en yderligere bekræftelse af hans 'Triple Curve'-funktion fra 1996, som blev illustreret i dagens næstsidste video.
Selv efter at have set blot et par minutter af Lyndon LaRouche, eller fra andre at have hørt om den dybtgående indflydelse han havde på deres liv, er det klart, at USA lider meget under manglen på en sådan inspirerende ledelse, som LaRouche legemliggjorde i årtier, herunder i særdeleshed gennem sine otte præsidentvalgkampagner. Og USA lider fortsat under hans uretfærdige, femårs fængselsdom som politisk fange, og det faktum, at han den dag i dag ikke er blevet renset og frifundet.
Som Helga Zepp-LaRouche beskrev sin afdøde mand i hendes introduktion til sin videoerklæring for 'LaRouche Legacy Foundation, så udviklede Lyndon LaRouche fra starten af en analyse af, på den ene side hvad der gik galt med systemet, og på den anden side den nødvendige løsning: "Jeg tror, at en af de vigtigste opfattelser var, at han i 1975 for første gang præsenterede en omfattende idé om, hvordan et sådant nyt verdensøkonomisk system skulle se ud: Den internationale Udviklingsbank – ideen om, at der skulle være en overførsel af teknologi til en værdi af 200 mia. dollar hvert år til at overvinde underudvikling gennem store projekter. Denne idé greb øjeblikkeligt om sig. I 1976 traf de ”Alliancefrie landes Bevægelse” på deres sidste konference i Colombo grundlæggende en mere eller mindre endelig beslutning om vedtagelsen af denne politik, ord for ord.
"I de følgende år arbejdede Lyn sammen med Indira Gandhi og med López Portillo om disse idéer. Jeg synes, det er en meget rig historie. Vi rejste i disse årtier til mere end fyrre lande. Vi mødtes med ledere fra praktisk taget hvert eneste land på planeten. Fra min egen erfaring kan jeg forsikre jer om, at alle disse mennesker så på Lyn med et utroligt håb om, hvad USA kunne være".
Videoen kan ses her
Se en videomaraton, der fejrer Lyndon LaRouches liv og arbejde i dag den 12. februar
Se en videomaraton, der fejrer Lyndon LaRouches liv og arbejde i dag den 12. februar
Til minde om Lyndon LaRouches bortgang den 12. februar 2019, inviterer vi dig til at stifte bekendtskab med, eller gense, LaRouche, et sind og en personlighed som var et af de største genier i de sidste 100 år.
Genialitet uden skønhed er slet ikke genialt.
Deltag i vores LaRouche-maraton, og tag dine venner med, både store og små. Den 24-timers videomaraton begynder kl. 12 dansk tid.
“Hvert træ i skoven vil falde”
Den 7. oktober 2020 (EIRNS) – Den 27. juli 2017 udgav LaRouche en rapport med titlen “Hvert træ i skoven vil falde”. Bill Binney, fhv. teknisk chef for USA’s NSA (Det Nationale Sikkerhedsagentur), havde da netop frigivet det kriminaltekniske bevis for, at historien om ‘russisk hacking’ af e-mails tilhørende det demokratiske partis nationale komite (DNC) og leveringen af disse e-mails til Julian Assanges Wikileaks var et svindelnummer.
Binney beviste der slet ikke havde været et hack, men at det rent faktisk var en læk fra en insider, sandsynligvis en demokrat, der var rasende over, at DNC havde saboteret en af sine egne kandidaters (Bernie Sanders) præsidentkampagne, for at sikre nomineringen af en anden (Hillary Clinton).
Rapporten citerede Schiller-Instituttets præsident Helga Zepp-LaRouche: “Vi er nået et punkt, hvor vi kan tilintetgøre hele Trump-Russiagate svindelnummeret på begge sider af Atlanterhavet og skifte den strategiske dynamik fra defensiv til offensiv. Denne offensiv vil sige at begrave Wall Street og Londons morderiske spekulative system og bringe USA og Europa ind i et samarbejde med Kina og Rusland i Bælt og Vej-initiativet”.
Nu, mere end tre år senere, er disse træer endelig klar til at falde takket være indsatsen fra præsident Donald Trump og hans nye direktør for den nationale efterretningstjeneste John Ratcliffe, der er begyndt at frigive dokumenterne der beviser forbrydelsen. Det vigtigste i blandt de der blev frigivet tirsdag er den håndskrevne note skrevet af den korrupte John Brennan, Obamas CIA chef, blev skrevet efter at Brennan havde orienteret Obama om, at Hillary Clinton (i Brennans ord) havde godkendt “et forslag fra en af hendes udenrigspolitiske rådgivere, om at bagvaske Donald Trump ved at vække en skandale med den påstand, at Ruslands sikkerhedstjeneste var indblandet”.
Et andet frigivet memo, adresseret til tidl. FBI direktør James Comey og FBI agent Peter Strzok, to ledere af Russiagate kupforsøget, var fra en leder i en CIA indsatsrapport, som sagde, at Hillary Clinton havde godkendt en plan “vedrørende præsidentkandidat Donald Trump og russiske hackeres underminering af valget, som en måde at distrahere offentligheden fra hendes brug af en privat e-mail server”. Obama var medvidende lige fra starten.
Som Trump tweetede i går “Kan ikke forstå, at disse svindlere endnu ikke er blevet retsforfulgt. Ynkeligt!”. Men Trump skrev også i et tweet “Jeg har for længst frigivet al information om Russia-fup skandalen. Desværre for vores land har folk handlet meget langsomt, især fordi det måske er den største politiske forbrydelse i vores nations historie. Agér nu!!”
Det er bemærkelsesværdigt at LaRouchePAC udstedte en underskriftindsamling i juni 2018 med titlen “Præsident Trump: Offentliggør alle dokumenter og al information om britisk undergravning af din kampagne”.
Her har vi ikke blot med forbrydelser begået af Obama og hans efterretningstjenester at gøre, men med de vedblivende forbrydelser af folk i efterretningstjenesterne i dag.
På den ene side har vi tidl. CIA direktør og nuværende Udenrigsminister Michael Pompeo og hans kammerat forsvarsminister Mark Esper såvel som FBI direktør Christopher Wray, som sammen har gjort alt, hvad der stod i deres magt for at forpurre præsident Trumps forsøg på at afslutte de “uendelige krige” og oprette venskabelige forhold med Rusland og Kina.
Da Pompeo var CIA direktør blev han, på Trumps opfordring, informeret af Bill Binney om svindelnummeret bag DNCs “hacking historie”, men Pompeo sørgede for at Binneys bevismateriale hverken nåede præsidenten eller massemedierne (som Præsident Trump kalder “the lamestream media”).
Så er der den nuværende CIA direktør, Gina Haspel, som var chef for CIA-basen i London fra 2014 til 2017, hvor hun hjalp til med at fremstille løgnene om Trumps “hemmelige samarbejde” med Rusland. Chris Farrell fra Judicial Watch, og en tidligere militær efterretningsagent, udgav en rapport den 6. oktober ved navn “Analyse: CIA direktor Gina Haspel og den britiske rolle i anti-Trump plottet” (https://worldisraelnews.com/analysis-cia-director-gina-haspel-and-the-british-role-in-the-anti-trump-plot/). Haspel mistænkes nu for at være nøglepersonen, der blokerer for Trumps gentagne krav om at frigive alle Russiagate-dokumenterne “uden ændringer!” (som Trump understregede).
Trump er klar over sabotagen fra hans administration. Han har allerede åbent fordømt det “militærindustrielle kompleks” og identificeret lederskabet af Pentagon som værende ansvarlig for ikke at adlyde hans ordrer om at bringe en ende på de “uendelige krige”.
Han ser ud til at tøve med at smide dem og skurkene fra efterretningstjenesten ud inden valget. Men ligesom LaRouchePAC brød igennem med Bill Binneys afsløring af Russia-fupnummeret, bryder vi nu igennem med historien om militærkupplanerne, udklækket af det demokratiske partis lederskab og de generaler, som gav os de sidste to årtiers morderiske regimeskifte krige – bogstavelig talt har hundredetusindvis af folk over hele verden hørt forhenværende Oberst Richard Black dokumentere de kriminelle forberedelser til at fjerne præsidenten ved brug af magt.
Se “En stærk advarsel om et forestående kup; opspor og arrester de sammensvorne!” https://larouchepac.com/20200916/stark-warning-impending-coup-track-and-arrest-conspirators
Faren for en global krig øges dagligt, så længe den “femte kolonne” har frie hænder til at spille deres dødelige spil. Trump arbejder på det, men som vi har set det før både på udenrigs- og indenrigsområdet bliver hans instrukser ofte ignoreret.
Nu da hele den kriminelle kabale og deres britiske partnere i stigende grad er afsløret af præsidenten for verdenen – som de også de sidste mange år er blevet udpeget og afsløret af LaRouche bevægelsen – er det op til den amerikanske befolkning, og folk med god vilje i resten af verden, at demonstrere over for præsidenten, at han har fuld opbakning til at “vælte alle træerne i skoven”.
Sejr er påkrævet inden valget
Den 25 august (EIRNS) – Demokraternes konvent i sidste uge demonstrerede for hele verden, at mindet om Franklin D. Roosevelt og John F. Kennedy er blevet fuldstændigt udslettet fra grødhovederne i partiets elite, både de ældre ‘boomere’ og den narkotikaplagede yngre generation. Der var ingenting om FDR’s store infrastrukturelle programmer, som skabte den elektrificerede nation, der var i stand til at frembringe “demokratiets arsenal”, som besejrede fascismen. Der var heller ikke tilnærmelsesvis en antydning af inspiration, som i JFK’s erklæring om, at ”Vi vælger at rejse til Månen i dette årti samt gøre de andre ting, ikke fordi de er lette, men fordi de er svære, fordi dette mål vil tjene til at organisere og målrette vores energier og færdigheder”. I stedet for dette præsenterede det smuldrende Demokratiske Parti et racistisk portræt af “identitetspolitik”.
Som Kamala Harris udtrykte det – giver vi folk chancen for at stemme på mennesker, der “ligner dem selv”. Eller som manikæiske Joe udtrykte det: stem på mig, fordi: “Jeg vil være en allieret med lyset, ikke med mørket.” (https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manik%C3%A6isme, –red.)
Nancy Pelosi rasede i dag i medierne, i en tilstand af høj ængstelse, at præsident Donald Trump og hans tilhængere i Kongressen er “statens fjender… indenlandske fjender”, der forsøger at “skræmme folk fra at stemme”, og til at ”bifalde russisk indgriben i vores valg ved at tillade Putin at beslutte, hvem der skal være præsident i stedet for det amerikanske folk”.
Til anerkendelse for det Republikanske Parti, modvirkede de den første aften af deres konvent demokraternes racistiske “identitetspolitik” med optimisme og tro på fremtiden. En række sorte valgte embedsmænd og personligheder pegede på præsident Trumps bekymring for den mest grundlæggende af de menneskerettigheder, der bliver nægtet mindretallene i USA – hvad FDR kaldte “frihed for mangel”. Senator Tim Scott fra South Carolina lukkede konventet og drøftede ”mulighedszoner”, som han og præsidenten har lanceret i de indre byer i Amerika med det formål at skabe job og jobtræning for nationens ”glemte mænd og kvinder”. Han talte om “udviklingen af det sydlige ’hjerte’ [af USA]” og pegede på sin valgsejr over sønnen til en berygtet racist og bemærkede, at hans bedstefar, der droppede ud af skolen i tredje klasse for at plukke bomuld, levede for at se sit barnebarn blive den første sorte mand, der blev valgt til Kongressen og derefter til senatet fra South Carolina. En anden sort valgt embedsmand, statsrepræsentant Vernon Jones, en demokrat fra Georgia, sagde, at det Demokratiske Parti “ikke ville have, at sorte mennesker skulle forlade plantagen,” og roste Trump for at yde finansiering til de historiske sorte universiteter og for at gennemføre kriminalretsmæssige reformer samt for at forsvare politiet mod anarkiet på gaderne.
Matt Gaetz, en republikaner fra Florida, bemærkede, at Donald Trump er den første præsident siden Ronald Reagan, der ikke har startet en krig.
Men republikanerne har endnu ikke taget fat i de foranstaltninger, der kræves for at vende den eksistentielle trussel, som nationen og verden nu står overfor, som LaRouche-bevægelsen præsenterede i programmet: ”The LaRouche Plan To Reopen the U.S. Economy: The World Needs 1.5 Billion New, Productive Jobs.” (LaRouche-planen for at genåbne den amerikanske økonomi: Verden har behov for 1,5 milliarder nye, produktive job).
Ironisk nok har præsident Trump selv på forskellige tidspunkter taget fat på flere af de vigtigste punkter i dette program. Han forsøgte at afslutte de ”uendelige krige”, alt imens han forsøgte at opbygge venskab og samarbejde med Rusland og Kina. Men det var ikke kun demokraterne, der samarbejdede med den britiske efterretningstjeneste i “Russiagate” og nu “Chinagate” for at stoppe ethvert amerikansk venskab med Rusland eller Kina – de republikanske kredse, der omgiver præsident Trump – med udenrigsminister Mike Pompeo i spidsen – er lige så opmærksomme på at bryde denne indsats, at dæmonisere både Rusland og Kina og drive verden til randen af krig.
Trump må tage ved lære af Ronald Reagan, der brød med det britiske imperiums kontrollerede miljø for den imperialistiske opdeling af verden i øst mod vest, ved at arbejde med Lyndon LaRouche, og vedtage LaRouches forslag om at samarbejde med russerne (det daværende Sovjetunionen) om opbygning af et rumbaseret forsvar mod atomvåben, for dermed at ”gøre kernevåben forældede”, som Reagan udtrykte det i sin berømte tv-tale til nationen den 23. marts 1983. Hvis præsident Trump fulgte dette eksempel og accepterede LaRouche-planen om et møde mellem lederne af USA, Rusland, Kina og Indien, for at stå op imod det britiske imperiums “del og hersk” og tackle de mange trusler mod civilisationen, som menneskeheden står overfor i dag, kunne disse problemer løses. Putin har foreslået en variation af LaRouches ”fire magts-forslag”, med et topmøde mellem de fem faste medlemmer af FN’s Sikkerhedsråd, hvilket er blevet accepteret af alle fem ledere, men uden en bestemt dato.
Schiller Instituttets konference, der er planlagt til 5.-6. september, vil være et eksempel på den slags samarbejde mellem nationer der er påkrævet, med en dagsorden der dækker hele spektret af den globale krise – strategisk, videnskabelig, økonomisk og kulturel. Mobiliser alle I kender til at deltage i denne virtuelle begivenhed. Tilmeld jer til konferencen: “På krigsstien mod Armageddon”, eller “Et nyt paradigme blandt suveræne nationer, der er forenet af de fælles mål for menneskeheden?”
Sprækker i dæmningen: Stop kuppet, rens LaRouches navn
Den 2. august (EIRNS) – Sprækkerne breder sig i inddæmningen omkring sandheden, der kommer frem vedrørende den russiske løgn, og hele statskuppet mod præsident Trump; et kup der har været afhængig af denne løgn; og om den relaterede, tidligere sag om den uberettigede fængsling og fortsatte bagvaskelse af Lyndon LaRouche. Denne dæmning må nu sprænges helt, hvis vi skal have held med at bryde en vej ud af de nuværende systemiske sammenbrudskriser, som planeten står overfor. Den raserende globale pandemi, den økonomiske nedsmeltning, den voksende fare for atomkrig… alle kræver de presserende handling.
Begivenheden hos LaRouchePAC den 1. august med Roger Stone og Bill Binney sammen med LaRouchePAC’s Barbara Boyd og Harley Schlanger bidrager allerede markant til at nå dette resultat. Fra søndag formiddag havde den historiske begivenhed over 6.000 visninger på YouTube, og Newsweek og Washington Times måtte dække Stones optræden, herunder – for Newsweeks vedkommende – hans eksplosive kommentarer om hvordan LaRouche blev fængslet af Bush-apparatet, samt at han havde arbejdet tæt sammen med Ronald Reagans præsidentskab. Mandag vil der blive bragt yderligere bemærkninger fra Stone i et eksklusivt interview med Harley Schlanger.
Den særlige nødvendighed af at give oprejsning til Lyndon LaRouche og hans ideer blev understreget i begyndelsen af arrangementet den 1. august, hvor uddrag af en international webcast med LaRouche selv fra den 8. september 2009 blev afspillet for publikum; en webcast hvor han viste ”det fremsyn, som gjorde LaRouche farlig” for det britiske imperium, der beordrede hans uretmæssige fængsling. LaRouche beskæftigede sig med betydningen af at menneskeheden begiver sig ud på en mission til Månen og Mars:
”Og det vil forandre karakteren af menneskets opfattelse af sig selv. Mennesket vil ikke længere tænke på sig selv som en jordbunden landstryger. (Ikke landkrabbe, men landstryger.) Mennesket vil opfatte sig selv som en del af solsystemet. Se, det betyder en ændring i menneskets forhold til andre mennesker. Man har et menneske på Mars, som arbejder deroppe, og et menneske på Jorden. Det tager en weekend at rejse derop og tilbage igen. Det vil forandre omstændighederne for menneskelivet. Nu vil alle de teknologier, der bruges til at gøre dette, afspejles i teknologiske revolutioner tilbage på Jorden, herunder dyrkning af føde, fødevarer. Jeg mener – at dyrke grøntsager på Mars: Dette er en virkelig ændring i landbruget. Det udvider ens opfattelse af, hvad landbrug indebærer…
”De [de unge generationer] bliver modtagere og formidlere af denne teknologiske fremgang, og hvad der måtte følge efter. Og så må vi tænke to eller tre generationer forud. Jeg mener, tænker I ikke på jeres børnebørn? Tænker I ikke endog på jeres oldebørn, hvis I er heldige? Er det ikke ens mission i livet? Er det ikke ens fornemmelse for kontinuitet i tilværelsen? Så, hvad er det? En generation, 25 år. Tre generationer, 75 år. Fire generationer, 100 år. Hvad skal I gøre i de næste 100 år, folkens?
”Hvis I tænker på fremtiden, hvis I interesserer jer for jeres børn og børnebørn, der kommer efter jer; hvis I tænker på menneskehedens fremtid og placerer jeres identitet i det I gør for dem, for at muliggøre deres liv, hvad tænker I så over? I tænker over, hvor vi skal være om 75, 100 år fra nu af, og tænker på hvor nøjagtigt vi kan forudsige, hvor vi er til den tid. Hvad er vores muligheder? Hvor er vi på vej hen? Hvad skal vi gøre? Halløjsa, hvad skal I gøre, når I når pensionsalderen i en alder af 75, 78 eller 85 år med forbedret sundhedsvæsen? Hvad skal I stille op med jer selv? Hvad er jeres fremtid? Hvilken slags verden vælger I? Hvilken slags solsystem vælger I at bo i?
”Og det er sådan det gøres. Man gør det ikke ved at komme med en liste over dette eller en liste over hint. Hvad er ens prioriteter? Man går ud med en mission, en mission for menneskeheden. Dette handler ikke om job. Det handler ikke om indkomst. Dette handler om menneskeheden, forskellen mellem mennesket og dyrene. Hvad skal man som menneske gøre, som bekræfter, at man er et menneske, og ikke skamfuld over resultatet set med dine børnebørns øjne? Hvad skal man udrette med sit liv? Vi opnåede noget, vi kom så langt. Hvor langt vil I tage os? Hvor langt videre bringer I den menneskelige race?
”Og det er hvad der får det til at fungere. Det er motivation. Hvordan I vælger at tilbringe jeres liv. Ikke blot få tiden til at gå, men at bruge det, anvende det. Til hvilket formål? Til hvilket endemål? Hvad vil man opdrage børn til, til hvilket endemål? For menneskehedens skyld! Hvorfor skal I huskes af mennesker om to generationer fra nu? Hvorfor skal I respekteres, en generation fra nu af? Hvad skal I gøre for at optjene denne respekt? Jeres identitet som mennesker.
”Og hvis I følger den tankegang og bruger spørgsmålet om rummet, rumforskningen, som en parameter, et paradigme fra vores nylige erfaringsgrundlag, der viser forskellen, så siger I: Vi taler ikke om industripolitik som sådan. Vi taler ikke om landbrugspolitik. Vi taler om menneskelig politik. Vi taler om den menneskelige arts udvikling og fremskridt til et bedre liv for kommende generationer. Og det kræver videnskabelige og teknologiske fremskridt, såvel som de kulturelle fremskridt, der fremmer kreativiteten i det individuelle menneskesind. Det er vores mission”.
Genopvågning af den moralske egnethed til at overleve
Den 28. juli (EIRNS) – De mange strategiske kriser foran os, der hver for sig og i kombination er fremkaldt af det igangværende systemiske sammenbrud af hele det transatlantiske system, bør minde os om Lyndon LaRouches hyppige advarsel om “den katastrofale vedholdenhed af oligarkiske former for samfund… som, hvad enten de dominerer igennem kortere eller længere tid, bedst karakteriseres som kulturer, der i sidste ende er dømt til undergang af deres iboende mangel på tilstrækkelig “moralsk egnethed til at overleve”.
I dag ser vi det systemiske sammenbrud udtrykt ved:
- den stigende fare for krig mellem USA og Kina, og også Rusland;
- fremvæksten af en voldelig “farverevolution” i Amerikas gader, der sigter mod et statskup imod præsident Trump;
- den “perfekte storm” af en økonomisk implosion, der især vil ramme den fjerdedel af den amerikanske arbejdsstyrke, som de facto er arbejdsløs;
- den voksende fare for sult og endda hungersnød blandt afrikanske og andre befolkninger; og
- i den stadig ukontrollerede spredning af COVID-19-pandemien, som truer med at blive et langt værre mareridt, når vi nærmer os efterårets influenzasæson på den nordlige halvkugle.
Hver eneste af disse kriser er resultatet af den dødsrallen gennem 50 år fra et bankerot system, som Lyndon LaRouche længe advarede om ville blive vores skæbne, hvis vi ikke ændrer vores grundlæggende politik. Og bag hver eneste af dem ligger den forsætlige, malthusianske politik fra det britiske imperium og deres medarbejdere på Wall Street og i Washington.
Tag det tiltagende skingre momentum for krig mod Kina, med udenrigsminister Mike Pompeo i spidsen, og nu med neokonservative tumper både i og uden for Trump-administrationen, samt i Kongressen, der mødes i Washington for at beskylde Kina for den væbnede vold i USA’s gader og for at støtte Steve Bannons farlige personlige trussel mod den kinesiske præsident Xi Jinping, som, sagde Bannon, befinder sig i USA’s “sigtekorn”.
Schiller Instituttets grundlægger, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, udsendte i dag en skarp advarsel:
“Konfrontationen mod Kina er, hvad angår fjendebilledet, ved at nå en førkrigstilstand. Dette er ekstremt farligt, og vi er nødt til at organisere politikere overalt i verden for at de virkelig må komme ud og fordømme dette. Fordi dette er en kurs, der kun kan føre til en komplet katastrofe. Det gavner ikke Trumps genvalg – faktisk er det den ene ting der garanterer, at det hele ender som en tragedie. Så dette må ikke skubbes til side og ikke nedtones uanset af hvilken grund, fordi det er en form for retorik man ikke har, medmindre man planlægger at gå rigtig i krig …
”Dette kan virkelig få blodet til at stivne i årerne – jeg kan ikke engang finde de rigtige ord til at karakterisere dette. Det er som at beskylde jøderne for alting; det er præcis, hvad nazisterne gjorde før Holocaust. Jeg synes virkelig, at dette går for langt: Det er på tide at tage et moralsk standpunkt om, at dette ikke er sandt. Det er klart udformet til at forårsage en krig, fordi – som jeg har sagt mange gange – der er ingen måde hvorpå man kan “inddæmme” et land med 1,4 milliarder mennesker, medmindre man vil gå i krig”.
Zepp-LaRouche understregede den organiserende tilgang, som hun og hendes medarbejdere i LaRouche-bevægelsen tager for at tackle denne eksistentielle krise.
”Dette er udfordrende tider, og man kan forvente, at det bliver endnu mere broget i den kommende periode. Men vi burde absolut gå videre med den hensigt at bringe Lyndon LaRouches programmatiske ideer ind i diskussionen, som vi har gjort ret vellykket med serien af Schiller Institut-konferencer i de seneste måneder. Vi har en anden Schiller Institut-konference den 15. august for et spansktalende publikum. Derefter afholder vi den 22. august en anden international ungdomsbegivenhed, der fokuserer på behovet for at give Lyndon LaRouche oprejsning. Og så planlægger vi at afholde en anden større international Schiller Institut-konference i begyndelsen af september med ideen om igen at fokusere på det presserende behov for et topmøde mellem de fem faste medlemmer af FN’s Sikkerhedsråd for at tage fat på alle disse kriser.
”Og jeg kan kun gentage, at af de årsager, som vi diskuterede i lørdags [25. juli] på den offentlige begivenhed med William Binney og andre, er det helt afgørende, at vi involverer spørgsmålet om Lyndon LaRouches oprejsning i enhver organisatorisk aktivitet. Det er omdrejningspunktet i Mueller-apparatet, der blev brugt mod Lyndon LaRouche i 1980’erne og 1990’erne; til at dække over 11. september; til kuppet mod Trump; og det er meget tydeligt, at det er det samme apparat, der står bag krigsfaren. Så det er vigtigt, at vi får folk til virkelig at forstå den fulde dimension af krisen og det akutte behov for at rense Lyndon LaRouches navn. Det er nøglen til at genopvække den moralske egnethed til at overleve”.
Sammendrag af panelerne fra konferencen (video)
1. Hvorfor et topmøde mellem USA, Kina, Rusland og Indien er så presserende netop nu
Helga Zepp-LaRouche leder en international dialog angående den øjeblikkelige nødvendighed af at bringe lederne af de ”fire stormagter” (USA, Rusland, Kina og Indien) sammen til et topmøde, for at håndtere pandemien, den finansielle nedsmeltning og økonomisk underudvikling. Udklippene er taget fra Schiller Instituttets internationale konference, d. 27. juni, 2020, med titlen: ”Vil menneskeheden blomstre eller gå til grunde? Fremtiden kræver et firemagts-topmøde nu”.
2. Lad os gøre en ende på krig, hungersnød, fattigdom og sygdom
Ledere indenfor landbrug, økonomi og videnskab fører en diskussion angående den skrækindjagende fare, som konfronterer verden, i form af hungersnød, krig og sygdom, pga. ødelæggelsen af produktivt arbejde, over de seneste 50 år. Dette efterfølges af en diskussion om perspektivet for at implementere LaRouche-planen; en økonomisk strategi for at skabe 1,5 milliarder produktive arbejdspladser verden over. Talerne deltog i det andet panel af Schiller Instituttets online konference, d. 27. juni.
3. LaRouches internationale ungdomsbevægelse opfordrer til frikendelsen af Lyndon LaRouche
Skriv under på begæringen for at frikende Lyndon LaRouche: Frikend Lyndon LaRouche. Et kor af stemmer svarede på forslagene fra Theo Mitchell, tidligere statssenator fra South Carolina, angående hvad der kan gøres for at frikende Lyndon LaRouche og rette op på den uretfærdighed som er ude af kontrol i mange dele af verden. Lederne fra LaRouches internationale ungdomsbevægelse adresserede Schiller Instituttets konference, d. 27. juni, angående det presserende behov for at rekruttere den næste generation af ledere, der kan tænke på samme niveau som Lyndon og Helga LaRouche.
Schiller Institute International Conference, June 27, 2020
-Will Humanity Prosper, or Perish? –
The Future Demands a ‘Four-Power’ Summit Now
Panel 2: “Why a 1.5 Billion Productive Jobs Program Can End War, Famine, Poverty, and Disease”
Panel 2: “Why a 1.5 Billion Productive Jobs Program Can End War, Famine, Poverty, and Disease”
DENNIS SPEED: Good afternoon. Welcome to the second panel of the Schiller Institute’s June 27th conference “Will Humanity Prosper or Perish? The Future Demands a ‘Four Power’ Summit Now!” This is the second panel of our conference and it is entitled “The World Needs 1.5 Billion New Productive Jobs To End War, Famine, Poverty and Disease.”
Our first panelist is Jacques Cheminade, President of Solidarité et Progrès in France. He’s speaking on “How Food Production Can Unite the World.”
JACQUES CHEMINADE: Good day. I’m very honored to be with you today, because of all you have done until now, and mainly because of what we all are going to do after this Schiller conference.
Food production unites the world: We are all conscious of the fact that the two first human rights to be upheld, are to be fed and to be kept in a good healthy condition, in order to contribute to the common good and the future of our societies. If we look at the world as it is we cannot but recognize that these two human rights are continuously and constantly violated and that the present policies of the main states and institutions, with a few remarkable exceptions, are leading us towards a world which is going to be much worse, if we allow it. We are set to become inhuman.
The question is therefore not to comment any more about what is happening or to complain, but to do something about it. That’s why we are here, to mobilize the best of our cultures and our nations to generate a world where the true creative powers of humanity will prosper, against all odds. It starts by food production which unites all people beyond and above cultural and language barriers. It seems commonplace to say such things, but the fact that we are morally and economically compelled to do so is precisely the sign of the inhuman condition in which we have been plunged, with the immediate threat that 100 million of our fellow human beings could die from hunger — 300,000 a day — while the farmers are trapped into a Malthusian world where they literally can’t breathe.
If we start from what humanity needs, taking into account the requirements for an adequate quantity and quality diet, sufficiency for everyone and the indispensable need to create food reserves, we must first double our food production. To produce 5 billion tons of grain, for example, means to more than double the present world harvest.
We hear in the Unites States “We American farmers can feed the world” and it’s true. We hear in Europe, “We European farmers can feed the world,” and it’s true. And we hear in the rest of the world, “We also can secure our food security and sovereignty,” and it’s true.
So what is happening? What’s happening, which makes this potential to not be actualized.
First, the whole world is ruled by the financial dictatorship of Wall Street and the City of London, which cannot care less for people and, in fact, openly promote world depopulation. Unable, in their own terms, to keep their power and to feed the world at the same time, they prefer to keep their power and envisage a world populated with less than 2 billion human beings. Their policy is to kill, either by murderous action, or by voluntary neglect. They let their ideologues openly front for it, under black or green colors.
Second, the outgrowths of this financial dictatorship, i.e., the food and farming cartels, dominate or control all the chains of transportation, distribution and sales in foodstuffs, including the property of vast domains of land.
Third, an anti-productivist ideology is promoted among the urban sectors of the service economy, dominant in numbers among Western countries, betting on both their ignorance of what a productive life is (they don’t even know what a productive life is!), and on their cultural pessimism, induced by the media and the entertainment sectors. There were no stocks of masks or tests in our Western states to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, just as there are almost no grain reserves today to deal with food shortages: the World Trade Organization and the cartels left it up to the marketplace. As a result, China has one-year grain stocks for its needs, Russia six months, the United States much less, and the European Union at best 45 days! Under its Green Deal, the European Commission has decided to cut by 50% the use of pesticides, by 20% the use of fertilizers and by 50% the use of anti-microbials for livestock and aquaculture. It expects to transform 25% of the land into organic bioproduction against 7.5% today. The point here is that, under the guise of caring for us, they obey their real financial masters and cut the means of production without providing any alternative to feed us and feed the world.
It’s criminal not to maintain food reserves. It is criminal to have brought farming prices below the cost of production. It is criminal to have pitted the producers of the world against each other, to lower the prices paid to them for the benefit of the worldwide cartels in grains, meat, seeds, seafood…. It is criminal, that in the poorest countries of the world, 70% of the production is allowed to be lost because there are no cold chains and too many rodents. It is criminal to compel those countries to pay more for the debt service to financial agencies than for building and maintaining hospitals or schools . It is, as Lyndon LaRouche repeatedly said, the model of the private British East India Company spread all over the world, controlling the chains of production, transportation and trade.
So this crisis should be the opportunity to recognize the absolute right to produce food and to get rid of the cartel monopoly system. This, of course, cannot be done as a thing in itself. It demands the shutdown of their source of money supply: the Wall Street and City of London rule, the British Empire. The criminal policies in the area of food and health, are, in that sense, for the people of the world the visible side of the oligarchy’s iceberg and our main weapon to fight the oligarchy. To show the peoples of the world that to fight for a new Glass-Steagall Act, a public credit policy, a National Bank, is not a technical question but a very concrete matter of life or death. The present financial system cannot be maintained through the rule of an unjust law and order, which has mutated into a system of chaos and disorder, based on an “everything bubble” which kills all the more as it inflates.
Therefore we have to come back and rethink about how we can inspire a strategy based on the Four Laws of Lyndon LaRouche, because they represent the architectural, unifying body for a change. To put it more concretely, the only possible exit door from the present fire.
As I am in Western Europe, I feel obliged to tell you how something which had a good start, failed because its environment was not shaped by a coherent principle corresponding to the Four Laws of Lyndon LaRouche: I am talking about the European Common Agricultural Policy, launched on July 30, 1962. It was based on four goals: increasing productivity; securing a fair living standard for food producers; establishing a sort of parity price including reinvestment; securing the food supplies and a reasonable price for consumers. It worked for about 30 years, based on a self-sufficient single market, with a productive priority connected to industrial progress (modern tractors, fertilizers, pesticides…), plus financial solidarity and a European preference. The financial aid and support were given in the form of a minimum price guaranteed to the producer, called “indirect aid.” As a result, the Common Market members, as it was called in those days, became self-sufficient and Western Europe grew to be the second world exporter of foodstuffs. The farms grew moderately in size, and the whole agricultural sector underwent a period of relative prosperity, despite its in depth and fast transformation.
Today, we have all the European farmers desperately protesting, hostages to the banks and living on subsidies, having become indebted, working hard and gaining very little, with their sons and daughters abandoning their farms to go to the cities. What happened?
First, under the pressure of the global financial deregulation, the Common Agricultural Policy was changed in the 1990s, the same period characterized by de-industrialization, banking rule and deregulation, mainly in France, but also in all Western Europe. The indirect aid based on price guarantees disappeared and were replaced by so-called direct aid, proportional to the surface of the farms. This was done under the pressure of the World Trade Organization with the pretext of avoiding “price distortions.” As a result, within a context of falling purchasing power of foodstuffs, the aid, decoupled from production, went mainly to the big landowners such as the Queen of England, the Prince of Monaco and the Duke of Kent. The small and medium-sized farmers were strangled through price decreases and the fall of aid. Their only option was either to leave or to be further strangled by the banks, including the farmers’ bank, the Crédit Agricole, which became a bank like all the others and even worse to its old clients! The European Union budget for agriculture was reduced in purchasing power and has decreased in percentage of the total EU budget. Add to that the vulnerability of all producers to the system of floating exchange rates, the middle-sized or small ones sinking and the big ones becoming more like “experts” of the Chicago market than real farmers!
Today, the main talk is to replace the “direct” aid based on farm surfaces, by “environment and climate aid,” of which only the very big ones can benefit. This is a policy of desertification and agricultural depopulation within a context of a green world depopulation. Within this system, there are a few Scotch tape measures proposed, which are maybe relatively helpful but not of a nature to change the situation. For example, it is proposed that the distribution of aid be based not on the surface of farms, but on the number of persons active in them. Others call for stocks of food security against the instability of the markets, fair prices and measures to fight against world hunger. Good intentions, but nothing tackling the depth of the challenge.
Our commitment is precisely to do that, to go to the roots of the problem. The Common Agricultural Policy failed because it did not deal with its global environment. Same thing for parity prices in the United States. You cannot do it within a system which creates all the conditions to go in the opposite direction. Besides, even in its best years, the Common Agricultural Policy was mainly defensive, in French terms, a kind of a Maginot Line doomed to fail under flanking attacks or attacks from above. And whereas it temporarily solved the food crisis within Western Europe, it did nothing to organize markets and food stocks at the needed level of an alliance of world nations of world population.
Clearly, we have now with the Four Laws of Lyndon LaRouche, not as mantra, but as a roadmap for the fight, the means to break with the existing rules of the game, which was not done under the Common Agricultural Policy. But for that we need to inspire and put pressure on the peoples of the world so that they pressure their governments, as was said in the preceding panel. That is for each of us an issue of life or death. And it can only win with a winner mind, with a tenacious commitment renewed every morning.
For that reason, let me tell you about two things, as a conclusion.
First on the way through which we can inspire. There are LaRouche’s Four Laws as a reference to explore, facing their numerous challenges for real, in the existing world. There is their application in our recent two programs: Build a global health system now! LaRouche’s “Apollo mission” to defeat the global pandemic crisis, and I would add “and beyond” the global pandemic crisis, and LaRouche’s Plan to reopen the U.S. economy: the world needs 1.5 billion new, productive jobs. It is only through this anti-parochial organizing, based on a dynamic development, that we can inspire people who are today so submerged by information and permanently thrown into situations leading them to emotional cop-outs as we see on both sides of the Atlantic. It is through our personal example, based on a tenacious directionality every single day of our lives, that we can lead them to become free organizers.
Second, I would like to give you an example of that, directly linked to our subject matter: It is that of the Maisons Familiales Rurales (Rural Family Houses), a project created by Abbot Granereau, a French countryside priest who introduced a new way of learning in the rural areas of France and beyond. There are now 432 of these MFR rural houses in Europe, 112 in Latin America, 118 in Africa (Mauritania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea…) and in the Indian Ocean and a few in Asia. In France this education is run in association with the state and the local governments, but with absolute emphasis put on the involvement of the families.
Abbot Granereau was the son of a peasant family, who at a very early age questioned both the Napoleonic, pyramidal organizing of the French education system and the fact that the public education system led the best sons of the farmers to quit farming, leave the countryside and often break with their traditionally-oriented families. He decided to solve the problem by launching a new system of his own, that the families could afford and that he called on “Our Lady of the Social Revolution” for inspiration. His idea was to have the high-school age students reside one week every month at an educational home for professional training, which he provided; he went around, buying places to have the students spend a week there, which he provided, not far from their homes and run jointly with the families and later with the teachers. The program ran from November to April, so that the parents could have their children the rest of the time to work at the farm. The education was to be paid by the parents and the status of the students was one of apprenticeship. During the three other weeks of the month, the students were provided with two hours of homework every day. The key to its success was the associative responsibility of the families family integration, and also the students educating their families; this concept of family integration which would be very useful today; the respect of the individual personality of every student, not as units but as persons; and the promotion of actions of social development: visits to farms, producing modern tools, tractors or fertilizers.
Granereau started in 1935 with three farmers, committed to support his project and four apprentices. And he managed in about 30 years to change the fate of the rural world and avoid, at the time, its debasement.
The secret behind his method was to be very rigorous and at the same time to make the students responsible. For every activity one of them was appointed to be responsible for all the others. His commitment was to give to all a good level of education, giving back their dignity to his brother farmers, a knowledge of the new methods of production within an education for their souls. For him, a good farmer had to be what he called “a scientist of the land.” When enough pupils and students came, he separated the functions of teaching, under a good and committed teacher from the Purpan high-level school of agriculture in Toulouse, from those of guidance, which was his full-time responsibility. Granereau wanted to create “peasant leaders” to enter the coming new world with Christian principles. He invented “in his way,” an active method based on exploration, cooperation, participation and mutual trust. He himself did change during all his life: he created a section for young women and girls, then organized a mixed-gender school, carefully promoting a mutual respect of the two sexes; and finally opened up his schools to all families, understanding that the notion of family and mutual respect was key and above religious affiliations. A lot of people were shocked, but he was delighted.
I am convinced that such an approach, based on the respect of every individual mind and the service to the other, should be thoughtfully considered as an inspiration to our methods of teaching today, those against which Lyndon LaRouche has so often polemicized. Not to copy it as such, of course, but to follow its spirit of exploration and creativity. In the countries with a longstanding family farming culture, like in Africa, it would be a model to ensure the transition of agricultural labor, as it has been in France.
The case of Granereau is also a good reference for how to change things. We should ourselves think much more about what Lyndon LaRouche did at the beginning: gathering a few persons in a pilot project addressing not academic questions but, from top down, the key challenges of our times, and sending memos and launching debates all the time. Then you have the best kind of excitement of actually discussing and enriching a program, all the time, and even the higher excitement to make it exist. Let’s do it.
Thank you.
SPEED: Thank you, Jacques.
We’re now going to hear from Diogène Senny, the founder of the Pan-African League — UMOJA. He is a Professor of International Intercultural Management, specialist in economic intelligence and international economic relations, Founder of the African School of Management (EAM) in Congo.
He’s speaking on the topic, “Prosper or Perish: An Introduction to the Geopolitics of Hunger and Poverty”
DIOGÈNE SENNY: Dear Speakers, Dear Participants, Dear Guests, First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the Schiller Institute for having associated me with this discussion at this very special time.
I. Introduction
Ladies and Gentlemen, far from the one-off event, the circumstances in which this conference takes place make of it an Historical Moment, because the enormous health, economic and social consequences connected to COVID-19, are like “Challenges” and “Confrontations” launched against societies and men in the sense of the British historian, Arnold Toynbee.
For once, we are going to connect the issues of Hunger, Poverty and Health with History; not only in a memorial function, but also and above all to view history as the most powerful manifestation of social energy and the will of man to survive.
STORICISMO, in other words Historicism, as the Italians would say, is the act by which one creates one’s own action, one’s own thought, one’s own poetry by moving from the present consciousness of the past. We know that at least 13 billion people, twice the world’s population today, could be fed by the world’s agriculture. Therefore, the destruction of tens of millions of women, men and children by hunger is unworthy of such a rich century! Can we seriously consider alternatives to Hunger, Poverty and Health while maintaining a historical amnesia on matters of the economic and social rights of peoples?
II. Fight against Amnesia
Ladies and Gentlemen, who remembers that a third of the civilian and military deaths of the Second World War were due to malnutrition, tuberculosis and anemia? Who remembers the heaps of coffins have piled up in the churches of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague because of hunger? And especially in Poland and Norway, the fact that some families survived by eating rats and bark of trees? 1947, two years after this appalling reality, who recalls still this attack by the ambassador of Great Britain, while working with the Commission responsible for drawing up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I quote: “We want free men, not well-fed slaves!” End of quote. Who recalls the direct response of his Ukrainian counterpart, I quote: “Even free men can starve to death,” end of quote? This exchange illustrates the beginning of a new geopolitical order, that is to say, the Cold War, and the defeat of the recognition of economic and social rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10, 1948.
However, how to believe that the civil and political rights can be effective, without the economic and social rights? It took 45 years, almost half a century, in June 1993 for the UN to adopt a new Declaration in Vienna, making all rights (civic, political, economic, social and cultural) indivisible and interdependent. Alas, what wasted time !
III. The Disappointments of the End of the Cold War
Ladies and Gentlemen, The hope raised by the end of the cold war in terms of economic and social rights was very quickly lost because of the fact that the planetary power of transcontinental agro-industrial companies and Hedge Funds, these funds that speculate on food prices, arable land, seeds, fertilizers, credits, etc., is significantly higher than that of states. Hunger is not inevitable, it comes from organized crime. 90% of peasants in the south, in the 21st century, only have the following working tools: hoe, machete and scythe. FAO reports in the 2010s indicate that 500 million farmers in the South have no access to selected seeds, mineral fertilizers, or manure, and do not own animals. The overwhelming majority of farmers in India, Peru, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ecuador, etc. have no irrigation system. How can you be surprised then that 1 hectare of cereals gives about 700 kilograms to Africans, against 10,000 kilograms for the same space for their colleagues from the Gironde in France. As we have already said, Hunger is not inevitable. It is the result of the will of a few. And it is by the determination of men that she will be defeated.
Some examples to illustrate predation situations by multinationals of the agro-industry in Africa:
In Cameroon: In 2006, we remember the admirable struggle lead by the Development Committee of the N’do region, which brought together farmers’ unions and civil society in the fight against the grabbing of 11,000 arable lands by SOSUCAM (Société Sucrière du Cameroun) , authorized by the Cameroonian government. It should be noted that SOSUCAM is the property of Alexandre Vilgrain, a French industrialist and that this company had already acquired 10,000 hectares in Cameroon in 1965. Here, the colonial continuum is still in full swing in the economic field.
In Senegal: Here it was the Great Senegalese estates (GDS), belonging to French, Spanish, Moroccan, etc. financial groups which acquired tens of thousands of arable land in Saint-Louis, depriving the peasants of necessary spaces for basic crops. As in Cameroon, the farmers of Walo reduced to modest harvests on only 1 hectare of rice, organize themselves to resist with much dignity. In Nigeria, Benin and Mali: International hedge funds also rely on local oligarchs to organize land grabs.
This is how the wealthy merchants of Sokoto and Kano got hold of tens of thousands of hectares of food land.
In Benin, it is the political and economic barons who accumulate hectares, voluntarily left fallow, while waiting to resell them for a higher price instead of investing in the region of Zou, the former breadbasket of Benin’s Wheat.
Finally, we note the same trading mechanism in Mali where wealthy businessmen from Bamako are used to acquire arable land at low prices for resale at gold prices to Saudi princes or Hedge New York Funds.
In Conclusion
Ladies and Gentlemen, The ruin of the economy and the disasters that are looming following the coronavirus pandemic are part of what is known as Cyclical Hunger. Its peculiarity lies in the suddenness and unpredictability of the highly visible damage generated. Its spectacular nature should not blind us to these real causes. However, what has been described throughout this intervention is structural hunger. Structural hunger has root causes. It is permanent and unspectacular, psychically and physically destroying millions of human beings. Structural Hunger exposes millions of malnourished mothers to give birth to deficient children.
Ladies and Gentlemen, We will precede the alternative presented by this conference “Prosper or Perish,” by the word Unity. Because, for us pan-Africanists, the question of Hunger is less about Food Security than Food Sovereignty. Only Political Unity will give us the weapons necessary to protect the immense resource of arable land all over the African continent. It is at this price that Food Sovereignty will be guaranteed to all Africans!
Umoja Ni Nguvu, Thank you.
SPEED: Thank you very much, particularly for that idea about food sovereignty. So people just know, we were listening to a translation from French.
We’re going next to Walter Formento, Director, Center for Political and Economic Research, Argentina. His topic is, “South America on the New Multipolar Road.”
WALTER FORMENTO: Good Afternoon: My name is Walter Formento. I’m the director of the Center for Political and Economic Research (CIEPE), and also a member of the Latin American Social Sciences Network, which is involved in all five continents.
It means a lot to us to be part of this conference, and we hope we can contribute to the dialogue that is beginning here.
In terms of the development and contributions of the New Silk Road and the World Land-Bridge which connects us all, we believe that South America—extending from Mexico to Argentina-Brazil, going through Colombia-Venezuela, Peru-Bolivia and Paraguay—has in its Hispano-American and South American history, a real and concrete accumulation of capabilities for building sovereignty, strategic industries, science and technology—both to contribute and to receive. This stems from each one of these nations individually and then, from an organized pluri-national, South American community, based on their common Hispano-American origins, but even more specifically, on the 2001-2015 period based on UNASUR (the Union of South American Nations), and CELAC (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States).
Looking first from Argentina: This South American nation launched the development of its strategic industries from the very moment of its battle against the British invasions of 1805-1807. At the beginning of the 20th century, the process continued with the development of its oil-related energy industries and hydroelectric projects, always interacting with the international context and receiving feedback from that framework.
From the Great Depression which was caused by the systemic crisis of 1929-1944, Argentina, together with Chile and Brazil—the ABC Alliance—deepened the process of sovereign development, strengthening their rail, maritime and river transportation as well as automobile and aircraft industries, which then became the basis for the development of their aerospace and submarine industries. While these industries maintained international ties, they always collaborated with each other, which allowed for their own joint scientific and technological development, This was once again a function of an international context favorable to South America, and particularly to Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
In the Argentine case, beginning in 1946, this positive process led to the creation, between 1963 and 1991, of a state-run, public-private industrial, technological and scientific matrix, in which 80% of the goods and services and parts required for national development were produced in our internal market. This also consolidated a social reality in which 90% of the labor forcé was formally employed, with a strong university-educated, technical-professional component, and in which the unemployed labor force was also formally recognized as well. So, from the standpoint of values, this was an integrated and committed social reality.
That is why South America (or Hispano-America), based on its own experience, recognizes the importance of developing a national strategic-industrial-technological complex, but also a South American community of nations as well.
The war and defeat which the London and New York-based Anglo-Dutch oligarchy imposed on Argentina and on South America, and did so with a vengeance, beginning with the 1976 coup d’état in Argentina, followed by the 1982-1991 Malvinas War period, put an end to this virtuous cycle and launched a cycle of decadence enforced by global financial neoliberalism.
Thus today, when we reflect on the New Silk Road and new multipolar financial system, and in that context the World Land-Bridge and its empowering the productive abilities of humanity and nature, including the Dialogue of Civilizations, we see this as auspicious and hopeful. We are called on to commit ourselves, to contribute to and transmit those initiatives promoting aerospace, transportation and new energy technologies.
In some ways, we’re already part of this. There’s the [bioceanic] rail transportation corridor from Brazil, traversing Bolivia and ending in Peru. We’re also involved in the modernization of a rail line, which extends from Buenos Aires (with its factories and workshops for maintenance of machinery and railroad cars), from the province of Santa Fe to Córdoba, Chaco, Salta and Jujuy in the north, then connecting to the main trunk line. In a joint effort, with Russia supplying components and new technologies together with Argentina, we are building a modern new railroad system capable of developing this area even further. We are also developing nuclear reactors, using Chinese and Argentine technology, as well as new hydroelectric projects in the southern Patagonia, close to Antarctica and the islands of the South Atlantic, with their natural interoceanic route that connects the three great oceans: the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic.
After 2008-2010, into 2014, the financial crisis of 2008-2009 again paralyzed the world, which revolved around speculative financial earnings.
But today there is another world, the multipolar world seen in the World Land-Bridge, the world of the New Silk Road, committed to interacting with all continents, and with all nations for a peaceful, harmonious development integrated into a new reality for all humanity—and for nature. We are a committed part of this process; we see ourselves as committed—in thought, in practice and in action—committed through our entire history.
This is our first contribution to these conferences you have been holding, and connecting us to the five continents and with the actors who are the great historical power— in this new commitment to humanity and nature in terms of social and integral inclusion.
I send you a warm abrazo and hope to be able to contribute further to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.
SPEED: Thank you very much, Dr. Formento.
We have gone from Europe, to Africa, to South America, and now we go to the Caribbean. Dr. Kirk Meighoo, political economist, broadcaster, and former Senator, Trinidad and Tobago: “The Caribbean’s True Importance in the Making and Re-Making of the Modern Global Economy”
KIRK MEIGHOO: Hi. My name is Dr. Kirk Meighoo, I’m a political economist, broadcaster, and former Senator from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. It’s a real pleasure to be here, to be part of this conference, with the Schiller Institute and I thank the organizers for inviting me.
I’ve been friendly with the LaRouche movement and the Schiller Institute for a number of years now. There are so many things that we share in common, and there’s a lot of projects that I want us to collaborate on, and this certainly is one them.
Now, I’m also a member of the official opposition party. We do have an election coming up this year, and we hope to take government. The platform, the manifesto of our party — and this is from before the COVID crisis — was to create 50,000 new jobs in the economy. And in our small economy, we have 1.3 million people in our island, and the labor force is about 650,000, so 50,000 was a big number. However, with the COVID-19 lockdowns and what it’s done to our economies and the whole global economy, we need to increase that number, at least to 150,000 and by combining it with this program from the LaRouche movement for 1.5 billion productive jobs around the world, there is an incredible synergy that we must take advantage of.
Now, one of the things that I’m always concerned about, is that we small states in the Caribbean, we are actually one of the bigger islands, with over a million population; like Jamaica has 2 million, a little over 2; many of the other islands are much, much smaller; there’s a tendency for us to be overlooked, for us to be forgotten in such schemes, and that is part of our lack of development here. But it is not just a matter of a lack of development, it’s also the type of development we’ve been undergoing.
I’m also part of a tradition of intellectuals here, started in the 1960s, soon after our formal independence, called the “New World Group.” And it’s incredible, the overlap with the LaRouche movement in terms of our analysis and our goals and our solutions. I have always found that to be an amazing thing, and it’s just another illustration on how the truth is one, and we can all arrive at the same truth from our very different points in time, space, and circumstance, and this is certainly one of those instances.
For the Caribbean, the point I’m making about the inclusion of the Caribbean in this global program that the Schiller Institute and the LaRouche movement is proposing, is not just a matter of charity. Because what the LaRouche movement is proposing is an end to the trans-Atlantic system, what might traditionally be called “imperialism,” to the imperial system, to the post-Columbus system, if you want to put it in those terms, and that is precisely what we have been calling for, for decades ourselves. Because, you see, the Caribbean has a special place in this 500-year modern world economic system, that we need to understand, because our participation in it was central. The Caribbean was where the modern world began: It’s where Columbus came in this voyage, it’s where the first global production of sugar, rum, alcohol, etc., which enriched New York, Boston, the East Coast of the United States, fed into the industrial revolution. The organizing of these huge plantations in the Caribbean was a forerunner to industrial capitalism in Europe, and our great intellectuals, such as Dr. Eric Williams, our first Prime Minister spoke about that in his seminal book from 1944, Capitalism and Slavery.
So, we’ve had a long experience, analyzing this, our own experiences. Because we represent the dark side of this modernity. Of course, modernity has brought a lot of good to the world. But in the Caribbean, this type of economy now has become, let’s say since the 1980s and ’90s, the neo-liberal system, but it really starts from the system of slavery in the Caribbean. Because, think about it: These economies were founded on slave labor, which is imported farm labor at cheap or free cost. It decimated local economies. We made nothing for ourselves here. Everything was around sugar production, mainly; sometimes some other people had other crops, but whatever the early English colonists had here for their own self-development — tobacco, food crops, etc.—local settlements, colonies in the true sense of the word, where you’re making your own settlement elsewhere — part of this imperial system that the Caribbean was central to, and this global sugar production, the triangular trade where we were central — this is actually what’s going on in the rest of the world. Because when they established it here, they had to gut out the independent farmers; they had to buy out all the independent landowners, so that the big sugar interests could own all the land, control all the production, in a global system of raw-materials export, where the value added would be done elsewhere, and you break up the whole chain of production.
What did that mean? That meant no manufacturing here. What did that mean? That meant that we were connected to the metropole, rather than to ourselves. So, for example, it’s easier for us in Trinidad to go to New York, and it’s cheaper for us to fly there, than it is to a neighboring island, like Curaçao, or even Antigua, or St. Kitts. Because our communications and infrastructure were always to the metropole. We did not have an internal economy with manufacturing: We did not make our own clothes, we did not make our own food, we did not make our own basic commodities and services for survival. They were all imported. We were a pure import/export economy and we remain so, whether it be in tourism or offshore banking, or oil and gas, like we have in Trinidad and Tobago.
So we’re been struggling with this issue and problem for a very long time. We have some great insight into it, which we can offer the world. And what we see is that this same process is happening around the world, to other countries. So it’s as if they took this early model, pioneered in the Caribbean, which produced tremendous inequality, tremendous misery, tremendous underdevelopment, this is what the trans-Atlantic system is projecting to every country in the world.
Now, solving the problems here will help us solve the problems for the rest of the world. This is where it started. We pose some challenges because of our size, but there are also some opportunities. Our small societies in the Caribbean are like the small city-states of ancient Greece, where Plato and Aristotle and the great philosophers flourished. It’s like the Florentine city-states: These places were 40,000 people at their maximum population. We live in human-scale societies, and these massive, mega-cities which are part of the whole trans-Atlantic system, mainly financial centers processing these huge, global, faceless corporations, those are inhuman environments. And I think it is not coincidental, that much of the violence that we’re seeing in the world is happening in these big cities, where there’s so much anomy, so much alienation, and a lack of humanity, of the face-to-face societies that we have here in the Caribbean, that have produced such amazing creativity, such amazing thinkers, like V.S. Naipaul, like Sir Arthur Lewis, like Derek Walcott, like C.L.R. James, from such tiny, tiny, small islands.
So, this is a plea, a reminder, to think of how we can take our outlying territories, which seem like outliers are the world system, but were essential for the development of the modern world system, and I daresay, we can play an essential part in the remaking of that world system to a more humane, global system.
I want to thank you for the opportunity to make our presentation. I look forward to questions and to interacting with you and also partnering in the future.
Thanks very much.
[Editor’s note: For time reasons, the prerecorded remarks of Mark Sweazy, former UAW trade union leader, were unable to be aired in the panel. We include here his complete remarks, on “Returning the U.S. Work Force to a Culture of Scientific Progress.”]
MARK SWEAZY: Hello, and welcome! My name is Mark Sweazy. I’m the Past President of Local 969 in Columbus, Ohio of the United Auto Workers’ Union. I learned a lot about the Labor Department and how labor works in the United States. With the international union, I chaired for six years the meeting of the 21 Delphi [auto parts] plants in Detroit. When we come together obviously we discussed our problems and the future. What we saw was, the door was shut on our future. 17 of those 21 plants closed. It changed people’s lives forever and ever. I also learned that our history, that you’ve heard some about, teaches us that the struggles and the conflicts and the wars have consequences that become a negative and seldom produce a positive or good result. So, we faced these things over a period of time.
What we face today is the need to put people back to work, regardless of where you live or what you do. We need to get people gainfully employed in the workforce so that we can make better lives for the people themselves, better lives for their families, and better lives for the area in which they live. So, this is a worldwide situation; it’s not just one locale, or one area of a country. This is worldwide. I hope you understand that little bit of an entry, because it’s important. This affects each and every one of us. If we have pride, we want to restore — let’s say we want to restore a great workforce as infrastructure projects have produced in the past. We’re looking to put people back to work regardless of occupation. You can start one place, and transfer to another. There’s nothing that says in the workforce that you have to continue to do something that you’re not fond of, or you just don’t like that job. You can always retrain and become trained to do another job. So, keep that in mind also.
What rewards do we expect? Our rewards in life are in direct proportion as to what we contribute. So, if we contribute something to life itself, we’re going to see the rewards. That’s important to me, because there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing a person who enjoys what they’re doing, and the fact that what they’re doing is productive to our culture. There’s nothing worse than seeing people that don’t have opportunities. As I visited Mexico, Mexico City, Monterrey, what have you, 9 cities in Mexico, I saw people who were educated, become college graduates. But the opportunity to work was not there, and it broke my heart because I’d look into the eyes of these graduating classes, and I’m saying to them, “Are you happy?” And they’d look at me, and they’re questioning — why would I ask them are they happy? Well, there’s no opportunities to work in Mexico; it’s a darn shame. Very few. They’ve got taxicab drivers that should be an attorney. You’ve got taxicab drivers who could have been an engineer. You’ve got taxicab drivers that could’ve been a doctor. I can’t imagine that. In the country I come from, the United States obviously, I can’t imagine somebody going to school and having that type of training, but not having the opportunity to use that training.
So, this is an opportunity to get worldwide training. Not just in the labor fields, but completely through skilled trades, machine tool trades, tech center trades, the building trades — of course, that’s plumbing, pipe-fitting, welding. There’s no end to what this can offer. And how the unions will actually gain, and all the independents who work without unions will gain as well. But who will gain in the end? The communities and the families. The opportunity is there; we just got to look for it. We’ve got to honestly make it happen. This is not a project that’s going to last one year, six months, one or two years. We’re talking 10-20-year projects.
So, LaRouche organization has lined up projects all over the world. And of course, now Helga’s at the helm, and we have a good leader. We want to continue to carry on with that leadership and get people to work so we have viable jobs. People doing what they can for their own families, and possibly in a few years we’ll see these results. And everybody will benefit. The unions will benefit, the independents will benefit, everybody will benefit on that spectrum. It’s a great opportunity for those that need to be employed, and that’s anybody that’s graduating from a high school or tech school or what-have-you. But take it from there. We’ve got people 30, 40, 50 years old looking for jobs. Everybody knows that; it’s not a secret. And not only in this country. So, the benefits are greater than we’ll ever imagine, and what an opportunity we’ve got today to do it in.
Our world deserves today, tomorrow, and in the future, an immediate effort to develop this program, or this type of program. So, the opportunity is ours; the hard work is yet to happen, but it can be done. And that’s what I want everybody to understand. The work can be done. The infrastructure projects are in front of us. So, let’s pick up our shovels, push out our chairs, let’s get up and go back to work. I think we’ll not only enjoy a better life, but I think we’ll enjoy a better future for our nations, as we work together to solve some of these worldwide problems that can be solved through cooperation. To me, I think that’s the real answer that I would have, is worldwide cooperation. We need that today, more than ever. Working together, forming solidarity, and hoping that we can stay employed because of what took place. This program was the beginning. As we look back, we’ll say, “Well, I was part of that in the beginning.” That’s to me the most rewarding aspect that we could ever say for each of our nations today.
So, with that, I’m not going to hold you to your chairs and hope that you take heed to this, but I pray you will. Because it’s necessary and needed. I want to thank you, take care, and remember, the LaRouche organization is there for you. All you have to do is ask the question; they’ll get you an answer. Thank you. Mark Sweazy over and out.
SPEED: Thank you, also.
Now, we’re going to hear from Bob Baker, who’s the agricultural desk for Schiller Institute, and he’s going to be introducing the next video which is by Mike Callicrate.
BOB BAKER: Thank you, Dennis, and thank you Schiller Institute, Mrs. LaRouche, panelists and participants throughout the world.
Image 1. Coronavirus
Look at the state of farming and food in the world, and you see huge disruptions. Just one little microbe—the new corona virus, coming on top of the system already in breakdown, has led to terrible things.
There is a disaster in the meat industry. The mega-global, cartelized packing houses from Australia to Germany to the Americas, are in a breakdown crisis, as workers are sick and living in poor conditions. Masses of meat animals are stranded. And the farmers were hit hard as they’re forced to kill their own livestock.
IMAGE: 2, 3, 4 Doctors Without Borders, or a migrant worker
There is a disaster in fruits and vegetables. Thousands of workers, who travel between countries, and work in hard and poor conditions in fields and orchards, are sick, from California, to Spain and the Middle East. It’s so bad, Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) went into Florida last month, to care for thousands of poor farmworkers who had nowhere to turn. In Canada, 60,000 such workers—one-half of them from Mexico—are getting hit, and with the sickness hitting so many Mexican workers in Canada, Mexico’s government suspended travel this week, until something can be worked out.
There is a disaster in the staff of life—wheat, corn, rice. It is—fortunately—not because of a bad crop failure somewhere, except for the locusts in Africa and South Asia, but because we are growing far too little grain. Period.
Lyndon LaRouche would say that the way to think of how much food the world needs, is to start from 24 bushels of total grains per person a year. What that would mean is, we should be having a world harvest of 5 billion tons of all kinds of grains together. Currently, the world is growing less than 3 billion tons. And that would mean enough for direct eating as bread, noodles, tortillas—whatever you like, and milk, meat, eggs and so on. Plus, another 25% for reserves, which now, because of the World Trade Organization, does not exist.
In Biblical terms, it’s seven lean years and seven fat years. We should have strategic storage reserves, we should have silos and warehouses all over the world, of grain, cheese, butter, sugar and other basics. Stockpiles in case of storms, epidemics, fires, locusts. We must double food production.
IMAGE 5: World Map of Hunger
Instead, we’ve had decades of what should be called a “famine policy.” The City of London/Wall Street circles have cartelized the farm-food chain so extremely, so they can “harvest money.” Yes: harvest money. They decide where and how anything is produced, and who gets to eat or not. They ripped off the farmers with below-cost of production prices and make record profits from the consumer by jacking up the retail price. And that is how you cause hunger for millions throughout the world.
IMAGE 6 & 7: June map of locust spread
No wonder we are vulnerable to locusts, and diseases. The locusts in South Asia and East Africa are now heading westward. By August they may reach Mauritania. This must be stopped. A fellow speaker today, from Kansas-Colorado area, will be talking more about the physical conditions connected with just “harvesting money” instead of food. And we will soon hear from the Mexican grain belt.
IMAGE 8, 9, 10: Astronaut farmer
How did we get this way? It is not because we had no alternatives.. We are in the age of the astronaut farmer. We can produce food for all. And it wasn’t like we were all given a pill to make us dumb—except that comes from the entertainment and news media: communication monopolies.
We are all played off against each other, and that must stop. Farmer vs. city people. Nation vs. nation. There is all the talk about “competition” in world food trade. And about having a “level playing field.” It’s all Bunk! It’s not a game. It’s not a playing field. It’s food. It’s the means to life! And farmers are on the streets again in Germany with tractorcades for the right to grow food!
In conclusion, I think of President Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s, when the whole United States nation was played off against each other. In fact, the British sent in forces to help bust up the new nation. Still, during Civil War and a great depression, in only a year, Lincoln and others implemented measures for science and hope. They created science-based farm colleges (the Land-Grant system), settle the entire Midwest with the Homestead Act, crossed the country with a new railroad and corridors of development, and issued a new credit called the Greenbacks.
In this same tradition, a hundred years later, with the help of the two fathers of the scientific Green Revolution, Henry Wallace and Norman Borlaug, a scientific Green Revolution spread from Mexico and the U.S. among international scientists, to make India food self-sufficient in 1974, and China self-sufficient in 1984. Let’s make the whole world self-sufficient in food! Let us begin with Africa right now on an emergency basis; and then, open up the universe!
Thank You.
I’d like to now take this opportunity to introduce Mike Callicrate, who is a board member of the Organization for Competitive Markets, a rancher, and a meat producer from the Kansas-Colorado area. His topic is “Food Unites People Around the Planet.”
MICHAEL CALLICRATE: I’m Mike Callicrate, I’m in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I have a company called Ranch Foods Direct. I also produce livestock on my operation in northwest Kansas, which I’ve done for the last 45 years. But my focus has really been to try to build an alternative food system to the industrial one that we have now.
When I’m asked the question, “Prosper or perish?” it makes me think of David Montgomery’s book Dirt. In his book, David Montgomery talks about the erosion of civilizations and the importance of soil. Without soil, we basically don’t have life. So, I’m going to kind of come at this question of “Will humanity prosperity or perish?” from that perspective, because I think soil is critical to our survival as human beings. The impoverishment and nourishment of a civilization is directly with the consolidation and industrialization of the food supply. Concentration of power and wealth is the greatest threat to any free society. Rather than creating new wealth from healthy soil, the current system is mining and destroying our land for the short-term benefit of a few global corporations. This is a photograph from northwest Kansas where I live. This photograph was taken in December 24, 2013, Christmas Eve. The dirt cloud extended 200 miles from Colorado Springs to the Kansas border. It was 12,500 feet high above sea level to the top; 4 miles across, moving at 50 miles per hour. This is soil; this is the blowing away, the destruction of civilization currently. Much of eastern Colorado’s topsoil is already gone. I fly back and forth between my rural community of St. Francis, Kansas and the urban center of Colorado Springs, where we market our meats that we produce. This is what you see across the eastern plains of Colorado, is the mining of these soils. The withering away of that topsoil. Previously, when it had fertility, it grew healthy plants that fed livestock, which in turn became food for human consumption.
We’re mining our water resources. HBO’s “Vice” did a documentary called “Meat Hook; End of Water” that talked about the global water supply being consumed and used up. This is another indication that humanity is going to perish if we don’t change our ways. We’re pumping the precious fossil water from the Ogallala Aquifer, just to name one of many around the world that is being pumped dry for the benefit of industrial agriculture. Again, an example of a mining operation.
We’re ravaging the environment; we’re building factory farms in low-lying areas. These low-lying areas on the East Coast of North Carolina, South Carolina, places where there’s a lot of rainfall. We’re locating these facilities in low-lying areas because it’s the cheap land. It’s also the place where the cheapest workforce resides. So, this is exploitation of the environment, of the workers. Think about being an animal in one of these facilities, inside one of these barns. Again, in Hurricane Florence, we flooded the factory farm facilities, and rather than let these animals out, they sort of learned their lesson. They kept the animals in the barn, where they starved and consumed one another before they died. This is the earlier Hurricane Floyd, where they let the animals out, and so we’ve got a total disregard of animals, which is another indication of a failing system in a failing society. St. Francis of Assisi said, “If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” Which is certainly what we’re seeing today.
“This global cartel, controlled food system rather than nourish the people who sustain it, consumes them. The result is a food system that concentrates money and power at the top, and poverty at the bottom, while compromising food access, quality, and safety in the process.” That’s a quote from Albert Krebs, Agribusiness Examiner.
With the help of the U.S. government, global gangsters have turned our agriculture into a massive agribusiness mining operation. Meet felons Wesley and Joesely Batista of JBS, who have been in prison, and have recently because they’re considered essential, been invited back to run the biggest meat company in the world — JBS. JBS is headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, and has been part of the four big meatpackers now under investigation for lowering prices to livestock producers at the same time they’re raising prices to consumers. These men should not be involved in anything to do with a critical industry, especially food; but our government allows them to operate.
Allan Savory I thought put it well. He said, “We have more to fear from USDA than any foreign power.” USDA refuses to enforce the Packers and Stockyard Act, which would have prevented the shared monopoly that the Batista brothers hold with Tyson, Cargill, and Marfrig (another Brazilian company). USDA makes life for small plants extremely difficult; making it impossible for them to operate, and giving the advantage to the biggest meat plants who have now failed us in this COVID-19 outbreak.
The industrial food system did fail the COVID-19 test. It has no resiliency. It has extracted, it does not create and build well, it extracts well. It destroys our very mechanisms that we create wealth from; that is, the soil. On the left, you see my store in Colorado Springs, on the same day — March 13, 2020 — on the right is the big box stores in Colorado Springs. Shelves were completely empty; no meat was available. Yet in my store on the left, which is about a 200-mile supply chain from St. Francis, Kansas to Colorado Springs, Colorado, you see full shelves. So far, our supply chain has held up well. We don’t stack employees on top of each other; we remain healthy in our operation.
So, let’s look at what I think we ought to be doing. I think we ought to be returning to a regenerative farming and ranching operation. One that’s made sustainable because it’s supported by consumers who care about the soil, who care about communities and people and the environment in general. So, I’ve set up what I call the Callicrate Cattle Company Regenerative Farming and Ranching concept, where basically it’s a circular economy, not a linear economy that extracts. It’s a circular economy that puts back into the soil, into the community, into the people. So, we start with the soil, and we return to the soil. Critical to this concept working is our ability to access a marketplace that demands what we produce.
“The soil is the great connector of lives; the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it, we can have no community, because without proper care for it, we can have no life” (Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture).
Creating community around local food will be essential in supporting this new regenerative approach to agriculture and food systems, where family farmers, ranchers, and small businesses can prosper, and consumers can have access to safe, dependable, and healthy food. Thank you.
SPEED: Thank you. Our final presentation today is by Alicia Díaz Brown, of the Citizens Movement for Water, Sonora, Mexico. We’re going to play an excerpt of this, because of time constraints. Her presentation is,
“Let Us Return to the Best Moments of the U.S.-Mexico Relationship.”
ALICIA DÍAZ BROWN: Let’s turn to the best moments in the U.S.-Mexico relationship. We thank the Schiller Institute and its President Helga Zepp-LaRouche for kindly giving us the opportunity to participate in this international gathering, in which special importance is given to the problem of food production. In every civilizational crisis the threat of hunger, epidemics and war appears. That is why we agree with the title which headlines this meeting: Will humanity prosper, or perish?
My name is Alicia Díaz Brown and I live in the Yaqui Valley in the south of the state of Sonora in Mexico. I belong to a family of agricultural producers, pioneers in this valley, and I am a member of the Yaqui Agricultural Credit Union and of the Citizens Movement for Water.
For many years, I have been involved in the discussion of problems related to the production of basic grains; but in the last decade I’ve been more intensely involved, because the public policies in Mexico have grown in their disregard of the countryside, to the point of proposing to take water from this region to divert it towards activities which they consider more profitable monetarily, even though that means reducing the land under cultivation and with it the production of food. They don’t care about harming a region that produces 50% of the nation’s wheat production, as well as a significant percentage of its corn production.
I recently saw a photograph that captures a very evocative moment of historical intimacy and common purposes that Mexico and the United States shared in the noble task of producing food to relieve hunger in the world. The picture takes us back to the decade of the 1940s, and the photo shows the then Vice President of the United States Henry Wallace touring a wheat crop in the Texcoco region of Mexico, and receiving a technical explanation from Dr. Norman Borlaug. accompanied by Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture and ex-President Lázaro Cárdenas. The government of President Ávila Camacho was just underway.
That was a time in which Mexico and the United States enjoyed governments with sufficient social strength to enforce the principle of the general welfare. Those efforts culminated with the Green Revolution, whose improvements in seed genetics made it possible for there to be substantial increases in yields per acre, principally of wheat and corn. The entire world benefited from this; the hunger of hundreds of millions of human beings was relieved for a time, and it turned out to be a fundamental experiment which demolished the Malthusian and anti-population theories which accept hunger and its aftermath of death as a matter of fate.
The Yaqui Valley in Sonora and the Texcoco region in the State of Mexico were experimental centers, in which Borlaug shared with Mexican researchers and producers his own research, his discoveries, but above all his human conviction that, with the systematic use of science, you can constantly maintain growth of production and combat the blights and fungus that damages plants. They proved that hunger is not an inexorable evil, but rather the result of twisted practices in economic and marketing criteria.
So Mexico and the United States share the prize that, at one point in history, we were able to relieve hunger in the world, because this knowledge was taken to India and to the countries most affected by hunger on the African continent.
But we lost that mission, and the production of food, as with other strategic areas of our economies, was trapped by the corporatization of the economy and by monetarist criteria, in which monetary profits comes first and foremost, and physical production is no longer a moral imperative, and instead becomes an optional element dominated by financial speculation. These policies took over at the beginning of the 1990s and they govern the free trade agreements among the United States, Canada and Mexico.
During the last 30 years, national grain production in Mexico has lacked a price policy which would guarantee the producer his capitalization. Parity prices were eliminated—they had been the cornerstone for the country to be able to achieve an important degree of self-sufficiency in wheat, corn, beans and rice. The state withdrew from the marketing process; the domestic market was abandoned; and national production passed into the hands of international corporations which monopolize world trade and speculate on grain prices on the Chicago Board of Trade
The result of all this is that Mexico has become an importer of basic grains. The current government talks about food self-sufficiency, but they confuse it with self-consumption, and they disperse resources to regions of the country that only consume what they produce, but which lack the ability to produce the food that the country needs. The regions with the greatest productive capabilities in wheat and corn have been left to the mercy of the big corporations that control the international markets, and they withdrew the compensatory support that allowed them to survive.
They try to make Mexican producers believe that these policies benefit North American producers. But at this meeting we see that authentic American producers are complaining about the same problems. If these policies are harming the producers of both countries, we should ask ourselves: Who are the big winners and predators under these rules of the game?
The big winners and predators are not engaged in producing food; they speculate with existing production. They control the prices on the Chicago Board of Trade, and they have turned the market into a dictatorial instrument. They are not interested in producing. Their preferred world is one of shortages and hunger. And what is sorrier still is that our governments have given in to those interests. In that way, the U.S. loses, Mexico loses, and the world loses.
When governments give in, we citizens have the moral and political duty to enforce the principle of the general welfare. At the beginning of my remarks, I referred to a photograph which bears witness to a historical moment of excellent relations between Mexico and the United States. For now, we do not have in our governments people of the moral stature and courage of those who were shown in that photograph.
For that very reason, I believe that now is the time for citizens to make their governments rise to the challenge. Let these meetings serve to begin to weave an alliance of Mexican and North American producers with the ability to exercise the required political and moral pressure on our governments, and in that way establish common goals in terms of how to increase food production; how to reestablish parity prices; how to increase yields per acre; how to build great infrastructure projects of a bi-national nature to manage increased quantities of water and power, which will allow us to significantly increase land under cultivation.
These are some of the tasks we have before us; but what is most urgent is to tell the world that we have initiated this relationship, that we are going to maintain it, and that we are going to resume the historical impetus of the best moments of the Mexico-U.S. relationship, to demand the required agreements among the world’s powers that are morally obligated to lift humanity out of the uncertainty in which the shocking economic crisis has placed us, with its inherent threats of pandemics, hunger and war.
Thank you very much.
Questions & Answers
SPEED: What we’re going to do now is bring our entire panel — everybody that’s live with us — up on screen. We’ve got one or two pieces of business from the first panel that we have to conclude. One question in particular which we are going to direct to Jacques Cheminade, which will get us started. Then Diane has two questions which will be addressed to the entire panel.
So, this question is from Ambassador Dr. A. Rohan Perera, former Permanent Representative of the Republic of Sri Lanka to the United Nations. I’m going to direct this to Jacques. He says:
“The biggest foreign exchange earner for Sri Lanka has been the tourism sector, which had been dependent on tourist arrivals from Europe, and on the garment export sector, mainly to the U.S. market. The total estimated loss as a consequence of the coronavirus lockdown is in the region of $10 billion. In the garment sector, recovery efforts will require liberal access to the U.S. markets.
“Overall, Sri Lanka will require debt restructuring arrangements with lending agencies like the World Bank and with the developed countries who determine their policies. It may be recalled that the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit Declaration — adopted in Colombo at the Fifth Summit in 1976 — cited the New International Economic Order which referred to, among other things, debt restructuring, debt moratoria, and the restructuring of multilateral financial institutions like the World Bank. The idea of BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — is a step in that direction.
“Please comment on the vital question of debt restructuring, amidst this coronavirus crisis, and new institutions that may be required. Thank you.”
JACQUES CHEMINADE: First, on this tourist issue. Very different countries, like Sri Lanka, Cuba, or France, had, because they were not able to develop industrially or to really have a fair development of agriculture, have to make money on tourism; on their beautiful things to see in Sri Lanka, in Cuba, or in France. But this tourism was of a kind not of an educational treatment of the culture of the country, but to a kind of servant economy transformation of the country where there was a service economy based on let’s say arranging things for people who wanted to have fun. This has been a complete disaster. This is because of a lack of a commitment to an economic physical development, like Lyndon LaRouche developed during all his life, and industrial development connected to, as part of representing this in-depth economic development. Therefore, what happened is that progressively, despite the benefits of tourism — I would say because of the type of economy what was created — the countries were trapped into a debt system. This affected first the countries of the Southern Hemisphere. It affected countries of Ibero-America, countries of Asia, and in particular Africa. Through a system of accumulation of interest over interest, this is what our friend Dennis Small calls the banker’s economy or free market. The free market becomes sort of a flee market where they rob you; it has become that. So, it has become debt that accumulates over debt, and you have normally, or if you follow this accumulation of debt because in an unfair economy, you have to pay two, three, four times more debt that what you got from the loans. This is what was imposed on the countries of the South. It is coming inside countries like Spain, Italy, or France at this point.
So, you have the whole world trapped into this debt system. And the whole economy now is an economy which is no more, I would say, a free market economy. It is a controlled free market economy by the laws of the British Empire imposed by central banks. So, this is only maintained through fake money. You have flows and flows of fake money dumped on the markets, which don’t go to the producers, don’t go even to the consumers. This fake money goes into the whole financial secrets of the oligarchy. So, this is what has to be forever eliminated. It’s the British system of Anglo-ization of Anglo-Dutch system of an economy which is not based on a human level and human development, but it’s based on financial dictatorship. Which I call now the system under which we are; a market economy without a market; a dictatorship of these financial interests in all sectors, including culture.
So, we have to free ourselves from that. All the life of Lyndon LaRouche in particular as a point of reference historically, was in 1982 with Lopez Portillo, and in 1976 with our friend Fred Wills in Colombo, was to say we need to be freed from the debt. And we need a bank organized for the development of whole countries of the world. This is what the World Bank was intended to be after World War II. But then, as the Bretton Woods system, it was miscarried by all the Western leaders. What we need now, is what the Chinese with the New Silk Road are doing by let’s say directing economies. It’s an economy based on real physical development, and a growth based on the development of the creative potential of the human being, including in culture. There are efforts in China for Classical culture, for Classical Chinese poetry. And all of this is connected to the whole — which the West would never tell about that — to the whole development of the New Silk Road concept of the Belt and Road Initiative.
So you have that as a reference. And you have the whole fight of our lives which comes into this direction. And now we have a big chance that this becomes for us a real point existing in reality and accomplished. So, we have to go much further, and we speak about the World Land-Bridge. There has been a World Land-Bridge, as we said it with the United States, China, Russia, India, and all other countries that would be connected to this system. So, it demands a mobilization of the leaders of the world, but also the populations everywhere to put pressure on the leaders of the world and the economic system. It’s very interesting from that standpoint that the Yellow Vests in France are calling some of us to be experts in this debt moratorium or debt amelioration, which would get rid of this debt system and see what’s fair and unfair debt.
So, the Glass-Steagall proposal is absolutely a part of that. It means that banks which are involved in giving credit or organizing deposit accounts would be separated from banks which are involved in the markets and which are becoming elements or scions of this whole British system. So, the separation would clean the system.
We need much more, that’s why we need a credit system for the future, developing this type of physical economy with increasing productivity per unit of surface per human being and per matter brought into it. So, this is a sense of a high flux density economy; high energy-flux density should be the choice of this economy.
Among the Four Laws of Lyndon LaRouche, this is the fourth law. What you should choose once you clean the system, and once you get rid of this debt system. That’s the key, because it’s there that you have to invest human creativity in things that put human beings at the border of this capacity to create. And it will connect the space programs — the astronaut, after all, has to work both with his brains and his hands; exactly like farmers have to work with their brains and their hands. The more advanced farmers in the United States or in Europe are, in their tractors, real astronauts on Earth. I liked a lot this presentation of our American farmer, Mike Callicrate, who said that the soil itself has to be seen as a living matter. It is something that is alive, and it has to be enriched and developed. It has not to be seen as a support or something that you take advantage of; it is something that you feed into for the future. I think that this concept is what links the astronaut and the farmer and which links all of us in this society. I raise this issue of farmer’s education, because I think, what we always discussed with Lyndon LaRouche, that the type of education that this requires is an education which creates or generates in human beings this constantly increasing capacity and this joy to create when you do something socially good for the others. It’s a big issue today, as Helga said before, is public health, because it’s a matter that involves the whole world. It demands world cooperation. And what I keep repeating is that instead of organizing hospitals through financial management, we should organize states as hospitals for the care and development of the people.
SPEED: Thank you, Jacques. Now, Diane, who is an orchestral conductor, has the following task. We have approximately 15 minutes all together. It means that what we have here is very little time for discussion. In fact, what’s going to happen is, she’s going to pose something that came from a couple of countries, and each of you is going to have approximately two minutes to say whatever you have to say, both to one another, you can choose to respond to the question or not, but that’s what you’re going to have. Diane will now take the floor, and if necessary, I will intervene.
DIANE SARE: OK. This question is from Ambassador Mauricio Ortiz, who is the Ambassador of Costa Rica to Canada. He says:
“In your proposal you mention ‘an emergency mission to build a fully functional health infrastructure for the world particularly in South America, Africa, and parts of Asia.’ This proposal is very much needed in those regions.
“Are the international financial institutions willing to invest in that proposal, and what will be the arguments from the Schiller Institute to these institutions to make it real?
“If your proposal is realized, you might note that our country, Costa Rica, has an efficient primary health system with more than 1,000 rural health posts and, along with Chile and Cuba, one of the best health programs in Latin America. This is a system that can be replicated in other countries, including developed countries.”
I’m going to ask the other question here as well. This one comes from the Mission from Colombia to the United Nations:
“Dear all, on behalf of the Permanent Mission of Colombia to the United Nations I would like to pose the following question: How can Latin America play a determining role in the consolidation of this new global configuration?”
“Best regards, Carolina Gutiérrez Bacci; Third Secretary”
SPEED: OK, so what we’re going to do is this. You can choose to address either of the questions or neither of the questions, because you only have, as I said, a couple of minutes. I’m going to start quickly with Bob Baker.
BOB BAKER: Thank you, Dennis. In terms of the health infrastructure and my particular focus on agriculture, I think it’s an absolutely vital situation to develop a food system where everybody can get a proper diet of nutritional food. That is the basis on which to build the argument why every community should have access to the most advanced healthcare that science has brought us to this day. But the driver in that obstacle behind the scenes is an international financial cartel that’s building world global monopolies to stop that. To the extent the nations of the world can expose that and unite the people to take a stand against it, that’s going to be a very important aspect of getting a healthcare system internationally. But this is also why this type of conference we’re having becomes very instrumental if not a key element of getting that done.
SPEED: Thank you. Now I want to go to Kirk Meighoo, whose presentation I particularly appreciated.
KIRK MEIGHOO: Thank you very much. I’ll quickly address the problem. We’re close neighbors of Costa Rica, and we have some links with them that we’ve established recently. This problem of self-sufficiency is something, especially for a small society, and all these small little islands, the question of self-sufficiency in everything is just simply not there.
So, people have even asked questions whether we deserve to be independent, or should we be permanent colonies? These are questions that stay with us, even after independence. It’s something we struggle with. We do have to have a system where we do access, just as the last speaker said, the best healthcare possible for all humanity. But we cannot simply be recipients, receivers of these things; dependents, colonial dependents as we have been for 500 years. We have to have a system where we are also producers.
So, what is the system of trading a local economy, of local production where we are contributing to our own development, as well as participating with others? That is the type of system that the global financial system has been against, and has never been for. It is the old imperial system, and they are just merely modern continuations of that. What we have to do, what our task is, is to create this new system. Not just money from the old system to create this, but how do we make the system where not only do we each benefit from the best the world has to offer, but that we are also contributors, as full human beings to it, as well. That is where I would like to leave it.
SPEED: OK, thank you. Walter Formento, you’re up.
WALTER FORMENTO: [as translated] All of the contributions that are made are very significant. It’s clear that for South America the call for the five nations that Putin made, which Helga also referred to, is a matter of great hope, because this would allow us to ensure that we could achieve peace. Therefore, it will be international politics that will allow us to decide things based on a dialogue of civilizations, a dialogue of peoples, of nations, what the future of mankind and nature will be. In Argentina in particular, the production of food — Argentina is a great producer of food, along with South America, along with Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Uruguay as well. The great multinational conglomerates involved in the food sector have taken control as of 30 years ago in Argentina, both in terms of our ability to produce as well as export.
Therefore, at this moment in Argentina and in South America, governments have changed, and with the backing of such an international conference that President Putin has called for, we can move forward in providing sovereign channels for both producing and exporting. The policies that can be carried out inside Argentina in the food sector have to do with allowing producers’ cooperatives to be a part of the great conglomerates that engage in production. We shouldn’t dissolve large-scale production and technology, but rather introduce the nations and all society through such cooperatives so that they participate in the solution, and to be part of the solution. Therefore, there is a way to democratize production.
SPEED: We’re going to have to stop. Thank you. Sorry, we’re going to have to move on. Mike Callicrate?
CALLICRATE: I was really moved by Dr. Meighoo’s comments about islands and the small economies on those islands. I can really get somebody pretty seriously depressed when we talk about the state of the world. But, I can also lift them and get them more excited when I talk about the possibility of going home. Going home to our communities and making them as good as we possibly can. Become wealth creators, grow things, make things, restore the primary wealth trading enterprises to societies around the world. Like with Kirk, if you can just stop the predators, the economic, financial, big food monopoly predators from extracting the wealth and leaving nothing but poverty behind, I think we can begin to repair this damage. Because we do control, as farmers and ranchers and citizens, we do to a large extent control our ability to create the wealth. It’s what happens to it after we create it. The last speaker talked about we shouldn’t dissolve the big corporations. I would argue yes, we should dissolve them. The big corporations should be broken up; not completely eliminate their facilities, but at least put them to where they have to perform in line with the public good. So, I love that analogy of those small islands of Trinidad and Tobago, and islands all across the Caribbean and how that is very much like the islands in rural America, in rural communities around the world. I’m saying let’s go back to making things and growing things, and teach that and kill this model of industrialization of these critical industries, like food.
SPEED: Thank you, very good. We’re trying to get Diogène Senny’s audio up. I don’t think we have it yet. So, let’s go to Jacques.
CHEMINADE: Just one word about Cuban doctors, to speak about that island. It’s proof that you can have the most advanced medicine, interferon, where French doctors have to go there to learn from them. Then you have the best doctors, because they stay and live where the patients stay and live. And third, they are involved in cooperation with other countries in the whole world. They send them, and they do a very good job. In particular, they are now in Doha, in Europe in Italy, and now in French Martinique, so the French have to recognize — and sometimes it’s difficult for them — that these were the best; a team of 15 Cuban doctors in Martinique now. So that’s proof that an island can do an excellent job in a very advanced field, and at the same time they are most human.
SPEED: Thank you. I hope that we have the audio for the Pan-African Congress representative. We are not going off until I hear that. We’re going to do a sit-in until we hear from him!
SENNY: [as translated] The global question of poverty is just a part of the world situation and the African situation. We all know that when we present the situation of the continent, we are more interested in the question of the debt, money, slavery, and we forget that, for example, monoculture which has been imposed by the international cartels have destroyed agriculture with the hedge funds that I denounce, because they want to make money with our land. They buy what we have in our continent, in our countries, to generate profit for them, for a small group of people. But not allow millions of lives of people to develop their land.
That’s why this question of agriculture and self-sufficiency in Africa is one of the most important problems. It’s not an agriculture, it’s a money culture; that’s the agriculture we have. If we want to have modern rice, we have to have modern developments. It’s very important for us, this agricultural question. We see that it is a world problem. What was used before by the African farmers are not in their own hands, because it is in the hands of the hedge funds, the speculative hedge funds.
It is very important to understand, and it is not very well known in the international debate now. That’s what I wanted to add. Thank you very much.
SPEED: Thank you very much. So, now Diane, you have 45 seconds, and I have 45 seconds. Do your postlude.
SARE: OK. I’ll be very brief. I think we should all remember that we have been blessed to have inhabit a beautiful, fertile planet which is very conducive to sustaining life, and in particular human life, if we are sane. But there are 2 trillion galaxies or more in the universe, and each of these many have many other planets. So, contrary to the views of the Malthusians and the money-changers, the creativity of each and every human being on this planet is urgently needed; because we are not capable of making too many discoveries to develop the universe as a whole. Therefore, we have to grow into a new era of mankind.
SPEED: Thank you. So, I will now conclude this panel — largely due to time — by just pointing out that we’ve had Europe, Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and the United States all on this panel in the form of discussion. This is the process that must be correlative to whatever happens among heads of state. And this process which the Schiller Institute is initiating, which is also bringing up various forms of important ideas and painful truths as well, is crucial to the actual success of the global Four-Power and related summit that we’ve been talking about. Finally, in the era of coronavirus, this is the only means by which people will be able to prosper and not perish; is this people-to-people dialogue we’ve conducted here.
I want to thank all of the panelists who were with us today. I think there’s a lot that can be done also in additional presentations that we may find in the future, pairing some of you together. I’d certainly like to see the Pan-African Congress together with Mr. Mike Callicrate. I’d like to see Kirk Meighoo involved in some discussions like that. Jacques is always welcome, and he’s always teaching us things. He had something new for us today; go back and take a look at his presentation afterwards, because he has some very interesting ideas that he put forward there.
So, we’re going to conclude now…
Ambassadør Jacques Bacamurwanko, fhv. ambassadør fra Burundi til USA
opfordrer til at rense Lyndon LaRouches navn
Et brev fra Helga Zepp-LaRouche den 8. juni 2020
Som reaktion på den forfærdelige forbrydelse, der blev begået i Minneapolis, modtog vi følgende meddelelse fra ambassadør Jacques Bacamurwanko, tidligere ambassadør for den afrikanske nation Burundi i USA. Lad hans erklæring anspore dig til at underskrive og cirkulere underskriftsindsamling for frifindelsen af Lyndon LaRouche:
”Jeg vil meget gerne nævne, at protestaktivisterne efter Minneapolis politibetjentens afskyelige drap på George Floyd bør gøres bekendt med, at det er det samme antiamerikanske system, der var ansvarlig for ‘stranguleringen’ af Lyndon LaRouche, Jr. Lyns hals blev bogstavelig talt kværket af den samme bande hvide racister, der ikke ønskede, at han udøvede sin ret til at stemme, bevæge sig rundt eller rejse udenlands.
”Den gode nyhed er, at denne morderiske bande ikke formåede at stoppe udbredelsen, vidt og bredt, af LaRouches frihed og idéer.”
”Verden af i dag ville være friere, hvis hr. Trump med en historisk præsidentiel befaling, underskrevet i Det ovale Kontor, kunne formå de antiamerikanske gangstere til at fjerne deres knæ fra Lyndon LaRouche ‘hals’.”
”Det er, hvad vores vedholdende forsvar og globale støtte for ‘at rense LaRouches navn’ faktisk indebærer. Hvis LaRouche fik fuld oprejsning, ville menneskeheden indlede en smuk æra med bæredygtig dialog for fred, borgerlige rettigheder og socioøkonomisk udvikling”.
Jeg kunne ikke være mere enig i disse magtfulde ord fra ambassadør Bacamurwanko.
De bedste ønsker,
Helga Zepp-LaRouche
’LaRouche dræbte Palme’ og ’Trumps russiske aftalte spil’ er én og samme skrøne
Den 10. juni (EIRNS) – Hver eneste amerikaner, og størstedelen af borgere verden over, ved nu, om de indrømmer det eller ej, at hele kampagnen om ”russisk aftalt spil med Trump”, og fortællingen om at ”Rusland hackede det demokratiske partis hjemmeside”, var opdigtede ud af den tynde luft med ét formål: at stoppe Donald Trump. I de geopolitiske hoveder, tilhørende britiske efterretningsfolk og deres allierede i USA, i begge politiske partier og i pressen, var Trumps valgtemaer – at gøre en ende på krige for regimeskifte, at etablere venskabelige forhold til Rusland og (senere) Kina, at gendrive de fantasifyldte løgne om menneskeskabt global opvarmning, og at genetablere amerikansk industri og infrastruktur – helt igennem uacceptable for de imperialistiske herrer i City of London og på Wall Street.
Men få husker, måske, at præcis de samme løgnhalse og bedragere igangsatte en massiv kampagne i 1986 for at ødelægge Lyndon H. LaRouche. LaRouche havde overbevist Præsident Ronald Reagan om at vedtage sit koncept for at gøre en ende på den britiske politik for ”gensidig garanteret udslettelse” (”mutually assured destruction”, MAD), hvor både ”øst” og ”vest” var klar til at springe hinanden i luften, ved at indføre ”gensidig garanteret overlevelse”, hvor amerikanske og russiske videnskabsmænd ville samarbejde om nye teknologier, som kunne ”gøre atomvåben forældede”. LaRouche havde også startet en ”Krig mod Narkotika”, der identificerede den direkte rolle som City of Londons og Wall Streets banker havde i den massive narkotikaafhængighed, som spredte sig i Amerika og i resten af verden, gennem hvidvaskningen af billioner af dollars på vegne af ”verdens største forretning” – A/S Narkotika – (Dope Inc.). LaRouche mobiliserede også udviklingssektorens ledere, inklusive Indiens Indira Gandhi og Mexicos José López Portillo, til at kræve industrialisering baseret på den hamiltoniske model, som truede den neo-kolonialistiske kontrol over disse nationer, gennem det britiske imperiums internationale bankkarteller.
Løgnekampagnen og angrebene på LaRouche havde været vedvarende og beskidte, selv før 1986 – beskidte tricks fra FBI og CIA, løgne i pressen, chikane af tilhængere og politiske venner. Men d. 28. februar, 1986, da Sveriges statsminister, Olof Palme, blev snigmyrdet på gaden i Stockholms, blev beskyldningen øjeblikkeligt rejst, fra London, fra Wall Street, fra Moskva, fra pressens skøger: LaRouche dræbte Palme. TV-udsendelser af NBC, store midtersideartikler i den amerikanske og britiske presse, svadaer i sovjetisk presse og TV: LaRouche stod bag. Der var ingen beviser, selvfølgelig, ligesom der ingen beviser var for russisk aftalt spil med Trump, eller for russiske hackerangreb på DNC’s e-mails. Metoden for den Store Løgn behøver ingen beviser.
Den efterfølgende måned vandt to LaRouche-medarbejdere statsdækkende, demokratiske primærvalg i Illinois, som viceguvernør og delstatssekretær. Frem for at fejre og rapportere om græsrodsmobiliseringen af LaRouches politiske aktionskomité, som havde omgået pressens og partilederskabets kontrol over valget, gik partilederne og medierne amok, og brugte løgnen om mordet på Palme til at sprede andre løgne om, at LaRouche var en racist, antisemit, en kommunist, en fascist, en kultleder, en demagog – hvad som helst, der kunne skræmme folk væk. Justitsministeriet oprettede en specialenhed for at få ram på LaRouche ved at fabrikere anklager mod ham og hans organisation, ledet af – bemærk dette – Robert Mueller, den selv samme Robert Mueller, som senere ville blive udpeget til at lede de ligeså løgnagtige undersøgelser af Præsident Donald Trump. Dette førte til en omfattende ransagning den 6. og 7. oktober, 1986, med føderale, statslige og lokale politistyrker af LaRouches kontorer i Leesburg, Virginia, og andre kontorer over hele landet. Flere års retssager og lynjustitsprocesser fulgte efter, hvor LaRouche og flere af hans medarbejdere blev erklæret skyldige, baseret på falske anklager som sendte LaRouche i fængsel i 5 år.
Tusinder af ledende personer fra hele verden – politikere, videnskabsfolk, klassiske musikere, fagforeningsledere, borgerrettighedsforkæmpere, diplomater – har mobiliseret for LaRouches frifindelse.
I dag blev den svenske undersøgelse af Palme-mordet, som har stået på i 34 år uden nogen konklusion, lukket ned. Chefadvokaten, Krister Petersson, sagde, at en af de mistænkte, som døde i 2000, sandsynligvis var morderen. Spurgt senere på radioen om andre organisationer, der var blevet undersøgt, svarede Petersson, at der var grupper i Sverige på den tid, ”såsom Stay Behind og EAP [den svenske LaRouche-organisation], men vi fandt ingen forbindelser til dem.”
Alt imens endnu en brik i beviset på LaRouches uskyld, samt den massive, ulovlige brug af retssystemet for at lukke munden på ham dukker op i offentlighedens lys, må rollen som hans idéer forsat spiller, selv i døden, gøres synlige for enhver, gennem Trumps renselse af hans navn. Som LaRouches enke, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, skrev, kort efter hans død, d. 12. februar, 2019: ”Om dette syn vil blive rettet, om denne uhørte overtrædelse af menneskerettighederne og af frihed vil blive straffet, og om borgerne i USA og resten af verden vil have fordomsfri adgang til Lyndon LaRouches idéer: dette, er jeg dybt overbevist om, vil bestemme, om fred i det 21. århundrede kan sikres og fastholdes, og om USA igen kan blive en ledestjerne for håb for hele verden.”
Videoer af tre paneler, invitation og afskrift af Panel I:
Schiller Instituttets internationale konference lørdag den 27. juni:
Vil menneskeheden blomstre op eller gå til grunde?
Fremtiden kræver et ‘Fire-magts topmøde’ nu
Et afskrift på engelsk af Panel I findes nedenunder.
Ovenover: Panel I: “Til erstatning for geopolitik: principperne for statsmandskab”
Schiller Instituttets stifter og præsident Helga Zepp-LaRouche og internationale diplomater, amerikanske valgte politikere, osv.
- Keynote speaker: Helga Zepp-LaRouche: “The Alternative to a Dark Age and a Third World War”
- Dr. Jin Zhongxia, Executive Director for China, IMF; Washington, D.C., United States: “The Fundamentals of East-West Philosophic Relations”
- Boris Meshchanov, Counselor, Russian Federation Mission to the UN, New York City, United States: “Russia’s Global Economic Perspective, Post COVID-19”
- Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former Surgeon-General of the United States
- Ding Yifan, Deputy Director, Research Institute of World Development, China Development Research Center, China: “A Chinese Perspective on a Post-COVID Paradigm”
- Daisuke Kotegawa, former Executive Director for Japan at the IMF; Research Director, The Canon Institute, Japan
- Mayor DeWayne Hopkins (fmr); Former Mayor, Muscatine, Iowa; The Mayor’s Muscatine-China Initiative Committee, United States: “A View from the Iowa Farm Belt: the Muscatine-China Cultural Connection”
- Question and Answer session
******
Panel II: ”Producenter i Verden, foren jer! Hvorfor et program for skabelse af 1,5 milliarder produktive job kan afslutte krig, hungersnød, fattigdom og sygdom”
Jacques Cheminade, lederen af LaRouche-bevægelsen i Frankrig og fhv. præsidentkandidat, og landbrug, fagforening og politiske ledere fra Afrika, Sydamerika og USA.
- Jacques Cheminade, President Solidarité & Progrès, France: “How Food Production Can Unite the World”
- Diogène Senny, Founder of the Pan-African League: “Thrive or perish: An Introduction to the Geopolitics of Hunger and Poverty”
- Walter Formento, Director, Center for Political and Economic Research, Argentina; “South America on the New Multipolar Road”
- Dr. Kirk Meighoo, political economist, broadcaster, and former Senator, Trinidad & Tobago: “The Caribbean’s True Importance in the Making and Re-Making of the Modern Global Economy”
- Mark Sweazy, former UAW trade union leader, United States: “Returning the U.S. Work Force to a Culture of Scientific Progress”
- Robert L. Baker, Schiller Institute, United States
- Mike Callicrate, Board of Directors, Organization for Competitive Markets, Owner Ranch Foods Direct, United States: “Food Unites People Around the Planet”
- Alicia Díaz Brown, Citizens Movement for Water, Sonora, Mexico: “Let Us Return to the Best Moments of the U.S.–Mexico Relationship”
- Question and Answer session
******
Panel III: Ungdommens opgave
Daniel Burke, senatorkandidat i New Jersey, USA fra LaRouche-bevægelsen, og universitets og andre ungdomsledere fra Frankrig, Yemen, Colombia, Mexico, Tanzania, og USA.
- Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute, Germany: Opening Remarks
- Keynote: Daniel Burke, Schiller Institute, United States: “If You Sat Where They Sit, What Would You Do?”
- Carolina Domínguez Cisneros, Mexico; Sebastián Debernardi, Peru; Andrés Carpintero, Colombia; Daniel Dufreine Arévalo, Mexico: “Getting Back the Great Ideas That Were Stolen From Us”
- Franklin Mireri, YouLead Partnerships Coordinator, Tanzania: “The Greatest Want of the World is for True Leaders.”
- Sarah Fahim, Student from Morocco Studying in Paris, France
- Chérine Sultan, Institut Schiller, Paris, France
- Lissie Brobjerg, Schiller Institute, United States: “Are You a Large-Scale Geological Force?”
- Areej Atef, Education Committee Vice President of BRICS Youth Parliament, Sana’a, Yemen: “Youth of the World Face Two World Systems: The Old and the New”
- Jose Vega, Bronx, NY: “A New Space CCC”
- Youth Day of Action Invitation Video
- Question and Answer session
Invitationen:
Efter vore vellykkede internetkonferencer den 25.-26. april samt den 9. maj på V-E-dagen, vil vores næste konference være den 27. juni, kl. 16:00. Hjælp venligst med at sprede denne meddelelse bredt blandt venner, sociale medier osv.
Siden januar har Schiller Instituttets formand Helga Zepp-LaRouche insisteret på, at USA, Rusland, Kina og Indien skal mødes. Deres ledere må vise det statsmandskab, der kræves for at overvinde åndsforladt koldkrigerisk propagandataktik og geopolitik, og tage del i en hastemission for at opbygge en fuldt funktionsdygtig sundhedsinfrastruktur for verden, især for Sydamerika, Afrika og dele af Asien, der kræver opførelse af hospitaler, vandværker, vejsystemer og uddannelsesfaciliteter til unge læger, sygeplejersker og lægeassistenter.
I over 35 år, og især i de sidste syv år, har Schiller Instituttet kæmpet for netop den slags statsmandskunst.
Verden må nu vælge mellem to modstridende syn på menneskehedens næste 50 år:
Et synspunkt kræver at vende den forestående affolkning af jorden på grund af globale pandemier. Disse pandemier er uden undtagelse resultatet af mislykkede finansielle, økonomiske og militære politikker, og især af den fuldstændige deregulering af de finansielle markeder igennem de sidste tre årtier. Det andet, modstridende synspunkt, kræver en ‘Green New Deal’ -energipolitik, som umiddelbart vil forværre planetens nuværende sundhedskrise og kunne muligvis endda resultere i døden for størstedelen af den menneskelige race.
Vi må tage afstand fra denne affolkningspolitik, organisere den transatlantiske verden for at tilslutte sig det nye kulturelle paradigme, der nu føres an af Kinas Bælte- og Vejinitiativ, og bevæge verden til det som Schiller Instituttet har kaldt ‘Verdens Landbroen’.
Netop mens Kina igennem præsident Xi Jinping´s Bælte- og Vejinitiativ har engageret 150 nationer i et forsøg på at stoppe fattigdom i hele verden, har malthusianske økonomiske kræfter i USA og Europa, der er imod dette, stigmatiseret Kina som ‘virussets udspring’ – en slet skjult genoplivning af den racistiske doktrin for 100 år siden kaldet ‘den gule fare’.
I 1923 skrev medlem af det britiske Overhus Lord Bertrand Russell:
”De hvide befolkninger i verden vil snart ophøre med at stige i tal. De asiatiske racer vil blive flere, og negrene stadig flere, før deres fødselsrater falder tilstrækkeligt til at stabilisere deres antal uden hjælp af krig og pestilens. Indtil det sker, kan fordelene som socialismen sigter mod kun delvist realiseres, og mindre reproduktive racer bliver nødt til at forsvare sig mod de mere reproduktive ved metoder, der er oprørende, selvom de er nødvendige”.
Verden, og især vores ungdom, der skal opbygge planeten i de kommende 50 år, må så stærkt som muligt afvise sådanne ideer og politikker for at pålægge systemisk tilbageståenhed globalt, herunder i forklædning af “Green New Deal”. Der kan ikke længere være nogen tvivl om, at verdens mest avancerede teknologier – i rummet, i fremstillingsindustrien, i minedrift, i landbruget – straks, i kraft af hasteprogrammer, må anvendes mod den globale pandemi og den økonomiske krise, som ellers kan føre til snesevis af millioner døde og fordrevne på kort sigt. En sådan massedød forekommer allerede i Brasilien og andre nationer. ‘Verdensfødevareprogrammet’ advarer om, at vi om nogle måneder vil kunne se så mange som 300.000 mennesker dø af sult dagligt, primært i udviklingslandene.
Et nyt dokument, ‘The LaRouche Plan to Reolen the U.S. Economic; The World Nees 1.5 Billion New, Produktive Jobs’, (LaRouche-planen til genåbning af den amerikanske økonomi; Verden har brug for 1.5 milliarder nye produktive job) skitserer, hvordan denne tragedie kan vendes ved at søsætte den største økonomiske ekspansion i menneskets historie, herunder 50 millioner produktive job i henholdsvis USA og Europa.
Da den sydafrikanske præsident Ramaphosa lykønskede Elon Musk, der har dobbelt sydafrikansk-amerikansk statsborgerskab, med den vellykkede gennemførelse af den amerikanske mission til Den internationale Rumstation, udtrykte han den form for nationalt lederskab, der kræves for endeligt at bringe globalt tyranni med globalisering og geopolitik til ophør. De seneste gennembrud inden for videnskab, gjort tilgængelig for de mest nødlidende, kan nu indlede en ny æra, der kunne kaldes ‘menneskelig økonomi’. Som Lyndon LaRouche redegjorde: “I stedet for disse for nærværende fejlslagne ideer, må vi antage en forestilling om økonomi, hvis målestok er funktionelt i overensstemmelse med det afgørende særpræg: princippet om kreativ fornuft”.
Denne stræben efter økonomisk retfærdighed, især for de af verdens børn, der er født ind i livstruende omstændigheder, vil have den yderligere fordelagtige virkning at tage fat på andre problemer med social retfærdighed, der for nylig har fået så megen international opmærksomhed.
Kontact os for at få tilsendt udgaver med tysk, fransk eller spansk oversættelse. Ring +45 53 57 00 51
*****
Panel I afskrift:
Panel 1: “Instead of Geopolitics: The Principles of Statecraft”
DENNIS SPEED: My name is Dennis Speed, and I want to welcome you to today’s international conference and webcast. We had a technical problem for a moment, and now we think we’ve solved that problem.
Today’s conference is called “Will Humanity Prosper or Perish? The Future Demands a ‘Four-Power’ Summit Now.” We’re going to begin today by the late economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche. He was keynoting a panel of the Schiller Institute — this was in Germany — and the name of the particular panel on that occasion was “Rescuing Civilization from the Brink: The Role of Classical Culture. An Imperative for Mankind.”
LYNDON LAROUCHE video:
This is truly the most important of all strategic questions we have to face today: the fact that the human species is absolutely unique in its capabilities. There’s no other known species in the universe, ever known to have existed, or could exist — even though we have not fully explored, of course, the Crab Nebula or similar parts of the great galaxy which we’re involved in, called the Milky Way. There may be many species with cognitive powers out there. Because the Solar System of which we are immediately a product, although always under the control of the galactic processes — and we know a good deal, today, about those kinds of things: Our organization in the United States has spent a good deal of effort on concentrating, inclusively, on just this question: How old is life? How long has life existed in this galaxy, or within some place in it? What is the nature of mankind, who’s been on this planet only for a few million years? There was no human being on this planet, to the best of our knowledge, until a few million years ago.
And yet, we’re talking about billions of years of this galaxy, during which all living processes known to us have come into existence. And all life is creative, but there’s a sad part: that over 95% of all known living species have been rendered extinct, as failures, in their time. The question, therefore: Why, in these times, when we have entered a period in which there will be more great kills of living processes, at this phase of the movement of the Solar System through the galaxy, why should we be so presumptuous as to imagine that human life is not about to disappear as the dinosaurs did in the last great kill?
What is there about human beings that says they’re not just another animal species, ready to get to the chop in the course of their time?
The answer is a very little-known question. Most people don’t have an inkling of what the answer is! As a matter of fact, our societies are run on the basis of people who have no inkling what the human species is! All they can come up with is an explanation of some kind of an animal, with animal characteristics of pleasure and pain, and things like that, that might control the behavior of this animal.
So why should we expect that we have a right to claim that the human species is going to survive the approaching point of a great kill in the course of the movements of the Solar System up and below and around the galaxy we inhabit? How do we know that this 62-million-year cycle is not going to take the human species away, as it’s taken so many away before? And then, before that, and then before that?
And here you have all these people talking about politics; they’re talking about issues of politics; they’re talking about “practical opinion,” and public opinion, and differentiations in customs, and all those kinds of things! And here we are: We’re approaching the time of the great kill, where everything about us may suddenly disappear; so what are we worried about? If we’re going to disappear, why do we worry? Why do we fight it? [laughter]
What is there in us, that is not in other living species known to us? That might, somehow, miraculously, pronounce a destiny for our human species which we grant to no other living species? The name for that specific quality, which we know in the human species, which does not exist in any other known living species: There’s a quality of creativity, which is absolutely unique to mankind. And if you’re not creative, and if you don’t understand creativity, you haven’t got a ticket to survival yet! Because creativity won’t save you, unless you use it. [end video]
SPEED: We’re continuing to experience highly unusual technical difficulties. There were some problems in some of our international connections….
As soon as we have this technical problem somewhat under control, we’re going to go directly to our keynote speaker, Helga Zepp-LaRouche. We are about now 15 minutes behind schedule, but we’ll be able to do certain things to make that up. We want to apologize again, so that people have an idea, this is a highly unusual circumstance, we’re not going to talk a lot about that right now. Let me simply say so that the format is known, we are going to have first our keynote speech, followed by representatives from China and from Russia, and several others. The topic of the panel, as we announced before, is “Instead of Politics, the Principles of Statecraft.”
Let me say about the Schiller Institute and what we’ve been doing with this conference, or this process of conferences, because it actually began back in April of this year. April 25th and 26th, we held the first of what is now the three conferences. These conferences were devoted to the idea of the creation of a Four-Power summit — Russia, China, India, and the United States. There are various processes that have been able to move in that direction already, and we are in a process today. In fact, among many of the things we’ll be talking about today is a new proposal that has been put forward by President Vladimir Putin of Russia to that effect. Let me also say that for people in the United States in particular, the crisis that has been on people’s minds, as exhibited in the social and political crises in the streets of America, is merely one predicate of a broader international process. And that’s what why we’re starting today with this first panel, to give that broader overview, and to allow you and others to become part of an international operation to reverse that circumstance.
Now, as I said, I think the primary problem that we are dealing with is that we are trying to make sure that the international contacts are also connected. We have translators and we have a need to make sure that everything is moving in sync; that’s one of the particular problems of this kind of international operation.
Let me say one other thing concerning the excerpt that you saw from Lyndon LaRouche, which was done in 2011. LaRouche’s conception there concerning the idea that was strategy; the idea of thinking about strategy from the standpoint of a galactic process, and then looking then — and only then — at the various political episodes that were occurring on Earth, was a way of trying to actually look at what he often also referred to often as intelligence. He was the founder in 1974, of Executive Intelligence Review. And that publication, which is still published to this day, specialized in trying to make his method of intelligence and investigation available generally in American analysis.
This was very successful, in particular, in the drive for certain policy changes that occurred in the United States; most notably, that of March 23, 1983, with the creation of the Strategic Defense Initiative. This was the product of a process of negotiation that LaRouche carried out as a back-channel negotiator with the then-Soviet Union, and with the knowledge of the National Security Council and then-President of the United States Ronald Reagan. That policy, and the creation of that policy, and that dialogue with the then-Soviet Union, is, in one sense, not a model for now, but is the same sort of process that must needs be allowed to continue and to happen between President Donald Trump, President Vladimir Putin, President Xi Jinping, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others. The idea of the Four-Power summit is not exclusionary. It doesn’t say that other powers are not involved. In fact, recent proposals have amplified or expanded the number of persons that might, in fact, be involved.
But what is important to understand is that, as LaRouche once said in another document published in 1980 called “A Dialogue with Leonid Brezhnev,” then the head of the then-Soviet Union, “The Content of Policy Is the Method By Which It Is Made.” So, in the clip that you’ve seen, there, today, the idea of culture and the idea of what a culture actually is, is a strategic matter. In the case of the United States, and in the case of the present-day United States, these matters of a cultural paradigm-shift are actually often far more important than the particular political issues that people talk about. For example, if you look at today’s United States, the issue of our having gone away from being a productive culture, in fact the most productive economy in the world’s history, between the period in particular of the 1933 resurgence of America that occurred under Franklin Roosevelt, through the period of 1945, and then the subsequent period of 1944 through 1971 with the Bretton Woods system. It’s been the need to return to that, and to return to these ideas — those that had come into currency under Franklin Roosevelt’s Presidency — that is the template for what we are saying should be the character of discussion between President Trump, President Putin, President Xi, and Prime Minister Modi.
I want to make one thing clear to everyone as we are about to transition, to get to the keynote, that in thinking about what we are all involved in today — namely, that global pandemic condition created by the coronavirus: Clearly what has happened is, there is a need for all of us to change our axioms. That the idea of international cooperation among sovereign, independent nation-states, for the purpose of creating a worldwide alternative to what’s otherwise going to be, perhaps, the destruction of civilization — not because absolutely everybody would die of the coronavirus or something like that — but the cascading effects and the interconnected effects of a global pandemic condition that we don’t really medically understand, plus the ongoing problem of the financial virus that has, of course, plagued humanity particularly since the time of the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, this combination would create a circumstance in which only all nations working together can possibly achieve an actual reconciliation of this process.
I think we’re about ready to begin.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche is the founder of the Schiller Institute — that was back in 1984. She also, of course, is the wife of the late economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche, who passed away in February 2019. She played a crucial, decisive role in a set of conversations and dialogues with the government of China during the period of 1993 to 1996; launching the process that became what we now know as the New Silk Road. And we’re happy and proud to present her to you now, to begin the dialogue again. The panel as a whole is, “Instead of Geopolitics, a New Form of Statecraft.” So, it’s always my honor to introduce Helga Zepp-LaRouche.
The Alternative to a Dark Age and a Third World War
HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: After this difficult beginning, I’m all the more happy that I’m finally connected to you. And I’m going to talk about the alternative to a Dark Age, or the danger of a new world war. And even if it’s inconceivable for most people at this point, if we do not succeed in the relatively short term in replacing the hopelessly bankrupt financial system by a New Bretton Woods system, exactly as originally intended by Franklin D. Roosevelt, that is, to create an instrument for forcefully overcoming the underdevelopment of the so-called developing sector, then the current orientation of the world….
I don’t know if you heard what I said before because there were some technical problems, but I was saying that even if most people cannot imagine that that can occur, that unless we, in the very short term, implement a New Bretton Woods system, exactly as Franklin D. Roosevelt had intended it, that the current orientation of the world towards ever more conflicts, both domestically in many states of the world, but also on a strategic level, threatens to escalate into a great new world, a Third World War, which because of the existence of thermonuclear weapons would mean the annihilation of the human species — the “great kill” even if it is meant in a slightly different way than Lyn just was heard on this video clip.
Although it is absolutely astounding how many misguided people still believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is either no worse than the flu or a just conspiracy of Bill Gates, the much more likely perspective is unfortunately what epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm has said: namely, that we still have an incredibly long journey ahead of us. Until now, 10 million people have been infected, half a million have died from COVID-19, and we have still not reached the peak of the first wave. The almost non-existent health systems of many developing countries are already hopelessly overstretched. The pandemic has ruthlessly exposed the fact that the neo-liberal economic system not only depends on cheap production in the so-called Third World, but has even created in the United States and Europe slave-labor conditions, as can be seen in the outbreak of the virus in the many slaughterhouses in Europe and the United States.
The economic shutdown has thrown a spotlight on the fragility of what is called “globalization.” In the U.S., around 40 million jobs were lost in three months; the central banks pumped an unbelievable over $20 trillion into the financial system and various government support programs could just barely cover up the timebombs still ticking until expiring of the short-work programs. The IMF currently expects global production to decline by 4.9% this year, and only China is expected to have an increase in production of 2%, which is obviously is much less than it used to be, but nevertheless it grows. Sectors such as air traffic, catering, tourism, the car industry, have suffered massive declines, some of them long-term, but also a large number of medium-sized companies fear they will not survive a second wave and another economic lockdown. The result would be a huge increase in unemployment, poverty and price deflation, while at the same time the central banks’ liquidity pumping is creating hyperinflationary bubbles. Bail-outs of large systemic corporations and banks, as well as politically explosive bail-ins would be further desperate options for governments to implement, but they could not prevent a collapse of the global financial system. A plunge into chaos and anarchy would follow.
In the meantime, a continuation of the current policy would not only lead to increased death rates as a result of the pandemic, but would do absolutely nothing to counter the hunger catastrophe, of which David Beasley of the World Food Program is warning that it will soon take the lives of 300,000 people a day.
Whoever may have thought that a dark age could be ruled out in our modern times, is in for a reality shock. And last but not least, the hedonism acted out by demonstrators who confuse liberties with freedom, is reminiscent of the flagellants and the descriptions of the 14th century as they are given by the writings of Boccaccio, and the paintings of Breughel.
Against this background, it is to be expected that the attempt, originally instigated by the British secret services, to oust President Donald Trump from office by a coup, impeachment or assassination — such was the headline of the British publication The Spectator on Jan. 21, 2017 — or by a “Maidan” coup, as President Putin warned in 2016, these will intensify. The instrumentalization of the outrage resulting from the murder of George Floyd by violent groups funded by George Soros is part of this campaign. The reason for the relentless hostility of the neo-liberal establishment and the mainstream media on both sides of the Atlantic against Trump after what, for them, what his unexpected election victory, was, and still is, the intention he expressed at the beginning of his term, to establish good relations with Russia and a good relationship with China. And of course, Trump’s promise to end the “endless wars” of his predecessors, to bring U.S. troops home.
What followed was a three-and-a-half-year witch hunt against Trump. The war cry “Russia, Russia, Russia,” based on grounds for which not the least shred of evidence subsists, was followed by an attempt at an impeachment, followed by the no less malicious war cry “China, China, China,” although there is just as little substance to the charges against China as there was for Russiagate.
During all that, the representatives of the neo-liberal system were not ready for one second to consider that it was the brutal consequences of their own policies for the majority of the population worldwide, that had triggered the global wave of social protest, which included the Brexit and Trump’s victory, as well as the mass protests worldwide from Chile to the Yellow Vests in France. But this establishment is never interested in discovering the truth, only in controlling the official political narrative, in compliance with Pompeo ’s principle, as he explained in his speech in Texas: “I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole … we had entire training courses for that.”
NATO’s official narrative about Russia’s allegedly increasing aggressiveness, accused of “redrawing borders by force in Europe,” fails to mention of course the broken promises made to Gorbachov, that NATO would never extend its borders all the way to Russia’s borders, and the preceding color revolutions that can be described as acts of war, and finally the coup in Kiev with the open support of Victoria Nuland, which triggered the referendum in Crimea in reaction.
China’s “crime” is not only that it has lifted 850 million of its own citizens out of poverty, and has become, with an economic policy based on scientific and technological progress and a population of 1.4 billion people, the second most powerful economic nation, and in some technological areas, such as high-speed rail systems, nuclear fusion, aspects of space exploration and 5G telecommunications, already the number one. In addition, China’s offer for cooperation on the New Silk Road, and the Belt and Road Initiative, is the first real opportunity for the developing countries since the time of colonialism, to overcome poverty and underdevelopment by building infrastructure.
NATO’s response to China’s regaining its role as a leading nation in the world, a role it played during many centuries of its 5,000-year-long history, has been global expansion into the Indo-Pacific region. This is the stuff of which world wars can be made. And yet, that is exactly the direction that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has indicated in his outline for “NATO 2030,” which he just presented in a video conference with the Atlantic Council and the German Marshall Fund. German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer took part in another webinar last Wednesday with Anna Wieslander, director of the Atlantic Council for Northern Europe, who, in opening the event quoted Lord Ismay, NATO’s first general secretary, who said that the purpose of NATO is “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” But AKK (as she is nicknamed) did not even seemingly realize the insult in these remarks. The geopolitical scenario of a globalized NATO, which is openly designed to instrumentalize NATO for the purposes of the British Empire, on based on the Commonwealth, and which would also rope the EU into playing that role, and would finally position India against China, must be totally rejected by all those who have an interest in maintaining world peace.
President Putin has just written, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, a striking article on the pre-history of the Second World War and the course of that war, and called on all nations to publish all the up to now classified historical documents from that time, so that by studying the causes of the greatest catastrophe in the history of mankind up to that point, the lessons will be learned for avoiding an even greater catastrophe today. Putin writes in a very personal tone, he speaks of the suffering of his own family, of the immense importance June 22nd has for the Russian population, the day on which “life almost comes to a halt,” and why May 9th, the anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War in which 27 million Russians lost their lives, is Russia’s most important holiday. But the indirect message is also that just as the Soviet Union defeated Hitler’s Germany with a gigantic effort, the Russian people will never surrender to renewed threats. Just as Napoleon was led through a long line of defense into the inhospitable Russian winter, and his army was finally as good as wiped out, the evacuation of the people and industrial capacity to the east from 1941 on allowed the Soviet Union to surpass the military production of the Nazis in only one and a half years.
But also the short-sightedness of the Versailles dictate, the support for Hitler from members of the aristocracy and the Establishment on both sides of the Atlantic, and above all the Munich Pact, which is simply called in Russia the “Munich betrayal” or “Munich conspiracy,” is considered as the real trigger for the Second World War. Because it was there, where not only the appeasement of Hitler, but also the joint divvying up of the booty took place, as well as the ice-cold geopolitical calculation, that focussing Hitler’s Germany on the East would inevitably lead Germany and the Soviet Union to tear each other to pieces.
According to Putin, what is the main message of the study of the Second World War for today? That it was the failure to take up the task of creating a collective security system that could have prevented this war was the most important piece! Putin’s article ends with an urgent reminder of the summit of heads of state of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which he has been proposing since January, and which should address precisely these principles of how to maintain world peace and overcome the world economic crisis.
The most important aspect of that is that this format will put the United States, Russia and China around the same table to negotiate the principles that must be the basis of international policy if mankind is to avoid wiping itself out! And yesterday after a long phone call between Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron, Macron said that he stands for a Europe from Lisbon to Vladivostok, which opens not only the perspective of an integration of the European Union, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Belt and Road Initiative, but also the establishment of a common security architecture based on common economic interests.
However, if we are to meet the gigantic challenges of the pandemic, the global economic crisis and the profound social shocks that have destroyed the trust of large parts of the population in their institutions in many countries around the world, further steps are necessary. Obviously, cooperation between the United States and China, as the two largest economies, is indispensable. Even if this currently appears to be an insurmountable hurdle, the extremely tense relationship between the United States and China must be replaced by cooperation on the common aims of mankind.
Who, if not the governments of the strongest economies, the countries with the largest populations and the greatest military potential, should solve the problems? The Boltons must be removed from these governments and replaced by responsible people who are able to find, in the cultural phases of their respective cultures, the starting points for cooperation on a higher level. Benjamin Franklin’s admiration for Confucian philosophy and Sun Yat-sen’s orientation to the ideals of the American Republic are better advisors than Gene Sharp’s “How To Start a Revolution” or Samuel Huntington’s different scribblings.
One has to define a plane on which the solutions for these quite disparate problems become visible. There is one philosopher, born in the 15th century, known in Russia as Nikolai Kusansky, Nikolaus of Cusa, who developed exactly that method of thinking: the coincidence of opposites, coincidentia oppositorum. This concept expresses the fundamental quality of human creativity, which is able time and time again and at increasingly more developed levels to find solutions on a higher plane, where the conflicts that have arisen on the lower levels, are dissolved.
This can only be the immediate implementation of a credit system, that provides the global economy with credit for industrialization, and thus the real development, of all nations on this planet. The entire life’s work of my late husband, Lyndon LaRouche, was primarily devoted to achieving this goal; he drew up his first plan for the industrialization of Africa in 1976, the Oasis Plan for the industrialization of the Middle East in 1975; then followed the 40-Year Plan for India in collaboration with Indira Gandhi, Operation Juárez with then Mexican President José López Portillo for Latin America; a 50-year development plan for the Pacific Basin; and then finally, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Eurasian Land-Bridge, as a peace plan for the 21st century. Many of these projects are being implemented today thanks to China’s New Silk Road, and all nations of the world are called upon to contribute to this World Land-Bridge! This is the blueprint for the creation of the 1.5 billion jobs, that are necessary today to overcome the crisis! It should begin with the establishment of a modern health system in every single country, in order to combat the current and future pandemics, which will not only benefit poor countries, but also the so-called developed countries, that can only avoid new waves of infections in that way. Most countries have a large number of unemployed or poorly employed youth, who can be trained as medical personnel and deployed to build up such health centers.
When millions of people are threatened with starvation, as the World Food Program warns, why can farmers not double their food production and be paid a parity price that guarantees their existence, including with regard to the expected increase in the world’s population to over 9 billion by 2050? Can we not consider ourselves as one single human species, and help to build mankind’s common construction sites with the same solidarity that the entire Chinese population helped the people in Wuhan and the province of Hubei? Is it not time that we stopped wasting trillions on military build-ups, as President Trump said he would soon take up together with Putin and Xi Jinping, when we could use those resources to overcome hunger, disease and poverty, and to develop the creative potential of the current and future generations?
I think it is time for us, as mankind, faced with an unprecedented disaster, to take the qualitative step of making the 21st century the first truly human century!
Thank you very much.
SPEED: Thank you very much, Helga.
Our next speaker is Dr. Jin Zhongxia, who’s the executive director for China of the International Monetary Fund, located in Washington, D.C.
DR. JIN ZHONGXIA: Thank you, Mr. Speed. I would like to thank Schiller Institute for the invitation to attend this important conference. Also, I thank Madame Helga for her excellent keynote speech.
2020 is a very special and challenging year. The trade war, the eruption and spread of coronavirus, the riots in the U.S., world economic recession, and escalated geopolitical tensions, I just name a few major ones. Global growth is projected by the IMF at negative 4.9% this year.
In the following discussion, some of my observations and comments are kind of thoughts in research and of academic by nature, I will speak in my personal capacity only.
Global challenge should be handled globally with a multilateral approach. No country will be safe until every country is safe.
When we start to discuss the multilateral approach in dealing with the pandemic and the global crisis, I recognize that there is a debate on the value of multilateralism and the multilateral institutions. Some people are talking about economic decoupling, a Cold War, and even a conflict of civilizations. Since I am from China, I ask myself: Is there any fundamental conflict between civilizations in the East and West?
Chinese civilization is unique in many aspects, but it’s not fundamentally different from Western civilization. One example: In the 6th century B.C., China had Taiji or Yin Yang concept, which is the co-evolution of two opposite forces. I found in surprise that this was also a core concept in physiological theory in Greek medicine in the same period of time. Another example: A core concept of Confucianism is the “middle course approach,” that also corresponds to the “doctrine of the mean” that was explored extensively by Hippocrates, Plato and Aristotle in ancient Greece.
In 16th century, the brilliant Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci, recognized the striking parallels in Confucius and Mencius to the Christian concept of man in the images of the God and devoted his life to building an “ecumenical alliance” between China and the West.
During the evolution of trade tension between the United States and China, some opinions in the media have demonized China as an evil trade partner that is systematically engaged in illegal subsidizing, cheating and stealing. That reminds me of the overwhelming public opinion in the media against Jewish people in some parts of Europe before World War II. The truth is that after more than 40 years’ market-oriented reform and opening-up, China has already been transformed into a market-based economy. In fact, the share of fiscal resources in GDP mobilized by some European governments is higher than that in China due to extensive social welfare arrangements, but no body in Europe complain that this welfare has distorted the market.
China has profound tradition of market economy both in theory and practice. In the 6th century B.C., Laozi, a famous philosopher and the founder of Daoism, advised his government to “rule without intervention,” which is an ancient version of the invisible hand of Adam Smith. Another famous economist and philosopher Guanzi, in the 7th century B.C., suggested that in the years of economic depression, government could increase expenditure to implement seemingly wasteful projects for the purpose of creating employment. That is the ancient Chinese version of Keynesian economics. Financially, China was also highly developed. As early as in 11th century, China introduced the first official paper currency in the world.
On the issue of economic and technology decoupling, the attempt to block a major people and civilization from competing fairly with other countries and getting access to new scientific and technological knowledge is morally wrong, and will help China to win sympathy around the world.
On the other hand, China has the largest pool of educated labor force, including a largest pool of engineers. That will enable the country to be more innovative, professional, practical and rational.
Compared with other multi-country free trade zones, China has already become the largest single-country retail market by itself. It is more than equivalent to a free trade zone with a highly integrated infrastructure network, centralized fiscal and monetary policy, and deep and liquid labor and capital market. The authorities have also determined to further open its economy, greatly enhance intellectual property (IP) protection, and implement structural reforms, including introducing competitive neutrality for state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In the end, it is the effectiveness and efficiency of China’s domestic resource allocation that will determine China’s international competitiveness.
I am not specialized in geopolitics. But I learned that the scenario of decoupling and a new cold war is based on an old strategy called “divide and conquer,” or “offshore balance.” It is very smart from the offshore players’ perspective. But it will benefit the offshore manipulator at the expense of onshore neighbors. I wonder whether those equally smart onshore players are willing to buy this, and how high a price the offshore player wants to pay to convince so many countries to engage a long-term conflict with their major trade partner.
It is not objective to exaggerate China’s conflict with India at the border. It is important to recognize that the current border is largely a stable equilibrium. The common interest of these two ancient civilizations is to cooperate and develop their economies and achieve a joint historical revival. The two countries should benefit from their common cultural heritage based on centuries of peaceful and friendly cultural exchanges, particularly the exchanges in the form of Buddhism.
The history issue between China and Japan often looks like a deadlock, but a forward-looking approach is the key. China has largely recovered its self-confidence, and it is very clear that China’s revival does not mean revenge. When new generations from China visit Japan as tourists, most of them feel they like Japan. Japan is China’s only neighboring country that has maintained a lot of Chinese characters in their written language, and they use chopsticks, eat rice, use soy sauce, and practice calligraphy, all of these are the typical reflections of East Asian culture.
A healthy and stable Sino-Russian relationship can be much more sustainable than many people’s imagination. Their stable cooperative relationship can be attributed to many factors. It is not a coincidence that their combined territory maps the Mongolian Empire in history. Toward the end of last century, China and Russian leaders reached a wise and visionary agreement to delimit and confirm their common border. Their mutual respect and support to core interest of each other can go a long way.
The biggest loss the United States could incur from a decoupling and a new cold war is that many of the 1.4 billion Chinese people, who are otherwise very friendly toward America, could turn into opponents. By contrast, a friendly and cooperative China will be definitely the Americans’ greatest fortune in Asia.
I believe a constructive competition and cooperation between China, the United States and other countries under a rules-based multilateral system should be the right choice. Fortunately, the IMF is still functioning normally and has played a constructive leading role, which is also supported by the World Bank and other multilateral banks.
In just a few months, recently, the IMF has implemented debt relief to more than 27 countries, supported by contributions from a group of better- resourced members, including China. The Fund has augmented its lending instruments to low-income countries by more than 10 billion SDR, and approved emergency financing (RCF and RFI) of 47 billion SDR for more than 74 countries. It has created a new short-term liquidity line (SLL), and is pushing for approval of new agreement of borrowing of 365 billion SDR, and preparing for a new round of Bilateral Borrowing Agreement of 138 billion SDR. China has actively participated in all the above efforts and made its own contribution.
The Fund and the World Bank jointly proposed a Debt Service Suspension Initiative that has been endorsed by the G20. China has further called for an extension of this initiative to 2021. A fair burden-sharing and full participation of all creditors is critical for a successful implementation of this initiative.
China has made more efforts outside the multilateral framework, including 1) additional $2 billion grant assistance to most affected countries, especially developing countries, to combat COVID-19 and recover social and economic development; 2) establish a Sino-Africa hospital cooperation program covering 30 hospitals in Africa, China has recently sent five emergency professional medical teams to Africa, which is in addition to the existing 46 Chinese medical teams in Africa; 3) in addition to implementing the G20 debt moratorium initiative, China will provide more assistance to countries that have been most heavily affected, together with other stakeholders; 4) China has promised that once it completes developing and testing its own vaccine, it will provide this product to developing countries as global public goods; 5) China will establish a comprehensive storage and transportation hub to support global medical supplies, under the direction of the United Nations.
The merit of multilateral assistance is that it is rules-based, approved by a collective board representing all its member countries; and the recipient countries are facing the multilateral institution, rather than a particular country or country group, therefore it can reduce (although not eliminate) geopolitical sensitivity. Although there are different views on many different issues, and even bilateral tensions between some member countries, the majority of the Fund’s membership have been able to find common ground on many issues.
The Bretton Woods institutions could do two more things, in my view.
First, a general allocation of SDRs that will increase the supply of international reserve asset, reduce the burden of any single country to supply its reserve currency excessively and provide low-income countries necessary resources to alleviate their debt distress.
Second, the multilateral banks should greatly expand their lending to include not only developing countries, but also developed countries, including the United States, itself. That will fully utilize the low interest rate environment and greatly stimulate global demand and pull up growth in receiving countries.
In conclusion, I wish the after-COVID-19 world a more cooperative and peaceful one. Thank you.
SPEED: Thank you very much.
Now we will hear from the Hon. Boris Meshchanov, Counselor, Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations
HON. BORIS MESHCHANOV: Dear and distinguished Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche,
Dear colleagues and friends from so many countries,
Our video broadcast audience,
The problems put in the center of today’s discussion are of high importance. We welcome highlighting acute questions of international relations through the prism of development, building physical infrastructure, cooperation between major powers in the interests of the poorest and most vulnerable, in accordance with the United Nations Agenda 2030. We fully share the crucial significance of industrialization, eradication of poverty, reforming of international credit-generating institutions and ensuring food security. Those are basically in the spotlight for the whole global community. We emphasize that the right to development persists as a basic human right. Development beats inequality, contributes to peace and is an indispensable condition for building just, peaceful and inclusive societies.
I would like to start my presentation, citing the report by the United Nations Secretary-General saying: “As we are facing multidimensional and multifaceted impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, global solidarity with Africa is an imperative — now and for recovering better. Ending the pandemic in Africa is essential for ending it across the world.” In the context of this challenging crisis we all seek to re-assess the model for development with the needs of the most vulnerable at its cornerstone. I would like to address this issue with respect to how our country deploys relations with the African continent.
It is justified that today more than ever before, our eyes are directed to the regrettable fortunes of populations in remote corners of the world, where governments are grappling with triple crisis of health and finance, trying to avoid widening social disparity and future economic distress. Aware of its historical responsibility for the formation of the modern system of international relations and its further improvement, the Russian Federation considers international development assistance as an effective mechanism to solve global and regional problems, and to respond to new challenges and threats. Our priorities have been the eradication of poverty and promotion of sustainable socio-economic development of partner states; influencing global processes in order to form a stable and just world order based on universally recognized rules of international law and partnership relations among states as well as responding to natural and man-made disasters and other emergencies.
In doing so, as it can easily be seen through the ideals of Russian philosophers and artists and classical Russian literature, assisting our friends abroad has always been based on the respect of the other’s dignity. It has been reflected in our national policies and priorities, and technical and humanitarian assistance has always been delivered at the request of the recipient side. We have proceeded from the assumption that any approaches in the spirit of colonial rule, like the General Act of Berlin of 1884, bringing about the principle of “effective occupation” that prejudiced the freedom of the Africans themselves, attempts to come to an agreement behind one’s back and act solely from the standpoint of mercenary calculation, will most likely not be accepted by these peoples themselves. On the contrary, we value and promote equitable partnership on the international arena ,upholding the principles of truth and justice, respect for the civilizational identity of each people, the path of development chosen by each people themselves.
As the Russian President Vladimir Putin recently emphasized, the development of relations with the countries of the African continent and their regional organizations is one of the priorities of Russian foreign policy. Links between us are based on the friendly relations between the Russian Federation and African states and the traditions of the joint struggle for decolonization and achieving the independence of African states, as well as on the rich experience of multifaceted and mutually beneficial cooperation that meets the interests of our peoples.
Dear colleagues and friends,
One of the main lessons learnt from this pandemic is an urgent need for international solidarity and cooperation, without exclusions and exemptions. In line with this objective, we have committed to giving Russian-African interaction a truly systemic and integrated character. African states are confidently gaining political and economic weight, affirming themselves as one of the important pillars of the multipolar world, and are taking an increasingly active part in working out the decisions of the international community on key issues of the regional and global agenda. We need to respect their rights to benefit equally from globalization, whatever shape it will take following the impacts of the pandemic.
In our strong opinion, the world needs Africa not just like a pantry of valuable minerals or a bread basket, but strong and sovereign region, developing an equal dialogue with its partners in accordance with the norms of the national legislation, based on the multilateral nature of the world order. Today, when proposals are made to reform the global governance system, we are consistently upholding the need to reflect the role of Africa in those structures that are engaged in global governance.
Our fundamentals are not only ensuring the wide global participation of African states, but also resolving conflict situations, on the principle of “African solution to African problems.” Together, we are able to counteract political dictatorship and currency blackmail in the course of international trade and economic cooperation, in order to put pressure on objectionable countries and unfair competition. Introduction of unilateral coercive measures not based on international law, also known as unilateral sanctions, is an example of such practices. Joint efforts are needed to promote trade, investment and sustainable development in order to make the global economic system more socially oriented, to oppose any manifestations of a unilateral approach, protectionism and discrimination, to support the world trade, based on the rules of the World Trade Organization.
Under this paradigm the first Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum took place in October 2019 in Sochi, with 92 agreements, contracts, and memoranda of understanding, worth $12 billion signed and problems of trade, investments and banking, industry and construction, transport and logistics, energy and high-tech addressed, among others.
We paid special attention to identifying promising areas of economic, trade and investment partnership of the Russian Federation, as a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, with the African Union, as well as with the leading regional organizations of Africa — the Arab Maghreb Union, the Sahel Five, the Southern African Development Community, the Common Market for East and South Africa, the East African Community, Economic Community of West African Countries, Economic Community of Central African States, and others.
In our movement towards Africa we need to be creative and promote new mechanisms for partnership, encourage active participation of business in exhibitions, fairs, and congress events, and develop the practice of exchanging business missions.
Moving towards Africa in this new old world would be impossible without learning each other better, taking into consideration local customs and traditions for our partners, rich cultural and linguistic variety. In Sochi in 2019, we have committed to develop cooperation in the field of education, implement vocational training, and academic exchange programs to promote social stability by protecting people, especially youth, women and persons with disabilities, and expand their capabilities by increasing the availability of education, technical and vocational training. Participants in the Russia-Africa summit confirmed that obtaining quality education and developing skills by young men and women can become a driving force for structural economic transformation and industrialization in African countries, as well as the basis for strengthening the industrial potential necessary to diversify the economy.
It so happened that our country has already contributed to the development of the African continent, in particular, in industry, infrastructure and energy security, areas promoted by the Schiller Institute as the fundamentals of the so-called physical economy, so I would focus on them briefly.
So far, Russia has been involved in the creation of the Russian industrial zone in Egypt. Among the key competencies of Russia for Africa, one cannot overestimate the role of rail infrastructure for the development of Nigeria, Egypt, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola. Under current conditions, it is important that the use of technologies such as medical trains in Africa will prevent the spread of infectious diseases and fight epidemics.
In energy, we count on the future construction of the first nuclear power plant in Egypt and the Russian Center for Nuclear Science and Technology in Rwanda facilitating the development of integrated solutions in the field of nuclear energy in agriculture, health, education, science and industry. Those two are not the only countries in Africa that intend to develop nuclear energy. Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Sudan and Zambia are also on this growing list. Most African countries suffer from severe electricity shortages. Accordingly, in the near future they should double their generating capacity to meet current needs. The current pandemic-caused crisis, apparently, has aggravated this challenge for them.
In saying this we should not forget about stepping up efforts to combat climate change in Africa, transfer relevant technologies, build the capacity of African states. Meanwhile, general greening of the economy, in our approach, needs to be based on responsibility, consistency and realism. Key to that is technological progress. Serious efforts are being deployed to improve energy efficiency in industry, agriculture, housing and transport. In our country, we have launched national project “Environment” to create incentives for Russian business to implement best “green” technologies, to ensure the environmentally friendly low-emission development. And we will proceed to provide assistance to developing countries, including Africa, to help them meet their own climate goals without prejudice to the objectives of ensuring inclusive and sustainable economic growth, industrialization of economies and leaving no one behind.
The pandemic is spreading across the world, threatening to backslide the efforts applied to build a more resilient architecture. It’s high time for humanity, responsibility and spirit of partnership to be demonstrated. A truly systemic issue with reference to today’s discussion, is food security, which holds a special place among Russia’s priorities in its efforts to achieve sustainable development globally. First of all, we believe that it has to be addressed at the level of supplying the world enough high-quality food to stabilize international markets, and make it more accessible and affordable for a maximum number of people. At the same time, the zero-hunger goal must be addressed as a matter of urgency for those countries that are food insecure. To that end, over the last 20 years, Russia has been steadily and consistently increasing its own production and export of food — grain, cereals, pulses, meats, poultry, oils, milk and dairy products, etc. Russia has become one of the world’s largest exporters of food.
During the pandemic, food supplies were transferred to the Union of Comoros (172 tons) and Madagascar (about 500 tons).
Apart from tackling the problem of food security, Russia donated hundreds of KAMAZ trucks, together with the necessary parts, equipment, and technical support, for key World Food Program operations in Africa. Starting from 2020, $10 million are being reserved exclusively for Africa. It is the first time that Russia assigns a geographic priority for its voluntary contribution to the World Food Program.
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, East Africa is experiencing its largest invasion of desert locusts in decades, and our country is making a $10 million contribution to support FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization] operations in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda.
In connection with the coronavirus pandemic, Russia received requests from a total of 29 African countries, as well as from the African Union, asking for assistance in combatting the impacts of COVID-19. To date, units of laboratory supplies and personal protective equipment have been provided to the Democratic Republic of the Congo; multi-purpose medical modules, tents and accessories to Djibouti; test systems to South Africa and Guinea.
At the same time, we believe that helping a sick person with a virus is paramount, but only part of the problem is solved. A fundamental factor is the availability of an effective preventive and educational system in the countries affected by the epidemic. As an example, I refer to the example of the Republic of Guinea, where two mobile hospitals have been deployed, and where mobile laboratories based on KAMAZ vehicles were transferred, and medications were delivered. With the participation of Russian experts in this country, more than 800 specialists have passed specialized training since 2015. Russia makes a significant contribution to the scientific research of the Ebola virus. With the support of one of the flagships of Russian business, the United Company RUSAL, the Russian-Guinean Research Center for Epidemiology and Prevention of Infectious Diseases was established in the Guinean city of Kindia.
Last, but not least, long and intensive discussion is ongoing concerning the unbearable debt burden of African states. Russia actively contributes to alleviating it under the debt-for-development program intergovernmental agreements. Those between Russia and Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania, are being implemented. For instance, as part of these arrangements, the Government of Mozambique in cooperation with the World Food Program, has launched a multi-disciplinary national school feeding program. It provides for the conversion of a part of the county’s debt to Russia amounting to $40 million during 2017-2021, into activities that address malnutrition among sick children and foster primary education in Mozambique.
With that, I deeply thank you for your attention, and look forward to your questions.
SPEED: And we want to thank you very much, also, Mr. Meshchanov, because we had some problems with the video as you were speaking. We’re going to first of all make sure the entire speech is made available immediately in terms of the actual text, and we’d like to also apologize. We’d like to have, at some point and I want to say this publicly, if we can actually re-do your video, because it was not quite in synch. The audio was fine, people could hear it very clearly and it was an extremely important message. And so, I want to thank you, again, very much for what you just did.
MESHCHANOV: Thank you.
SPEED: Our next speaker is Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former Surgeon General of the United States.
DR. JOYCELYN ELDERS: Hello. I’m Dr. Joycelyn Elders, and I am happy to speak to the Schiller Institute conference today, whose theme is “Will Humanity Prosper or Perish?” I hope, as I am sure you all do, that humanity prospers.
Ironically, a lethal disease, the coronavirus pandemic, may be the only way to unify the world to reverse what might otherwise appear to be a sure slide into disaster.
We are here to discuss a new paradigm for the whole world—not just for the richer or more well-off nations. Helga Zepp-LaRouche has proposed that a world healthcare platform must be constructed to respond to the present crisis. She has circulated a short memo to this effect, calling for a Committee of Opposites to be formed to implement it. I would like to respond to one passage of that memo in particular. Here is what it said.
“A very large number of youth in the U.S. and the European nations coming from the economically disadvantaged segments of society are presently looking without a perspective into the future and are therefore exposed to an entire specter of perils. They could be educated through a training program in the tradition of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s CCC program to become medical auxiliary forces and could be deployed together with doctors and medical professionals in the building of first temporary, and then permanent hospitals and hospital wards in African and other developing sector nations. For the countries of the Southern Hemisphere the support from the industrialized nations is existential: Therefore it will be possible to find cooperating institutions, such as governments, religious and social organizations, as well as youth organizations, who can help to set up such facilities and win the trust in the population for such an approach. In the industrialized nations, for example, hospitals could set up partnerships with existing hospitals in the developing nations, which then could be used as affiliates for the construction of an expanded health system. One can also draw in nongovernmental organizations with experience in so-called conflict areas, such as the Peace Corps, catastrophe protection organizations, and various relief organizations.
“In the U.S. and European nations retired doctors, helpful individuals, and social and religious organizations could work in a Committee to put together teams of medical personnel and apprentices for this deployment….”
Now, I think that this can be done, but we must think about how we would do it. It will be very important, for example, in the countrysides of Africa, just as it is important in the cities of the United States, for people from these neighborhoods and communities to be very involved in this process. Therefore, young people from Africa should be paired with young people from America, and be trained together from the beginning. We should remember that they are significant communities of African-American youth that are in the United States, whose parents came from Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Senegal, and many other nations. Importantly historically black colleges and universities could be used, as well as high school campuses in the urban centers, as central coordinating points, to assemble volunteers that want to participate in such a program. More broadly, various land-grant colleges, community colleges, and churches, and other organizations already deeply involved in such outreach, need simply be encouraged by young people who want to assist in doing what perhaps only they can do—save the lives of their peers in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and elsewhere through demonstrations of hope and health.
First, we will need many community healthcare workers. We can take a page out of what was done in the American Civil War in 1861 in New York City, with what was called the Sanitary Commission. We just take some people in the community, give them some basic health education, and develop them as medical assistants and medical technicians. Most importantly, they will be very well known in their communities. They can communicate very well with the people in their communities. You can have supervisors of these community healthcare workers, who are also trained, and of course coordinate with nurses, nurse practitioners and doctors. But this gives you a far larger force to work with, which is what we need.
We can’t teach what we don’t know, and we can’t lead where we won’t go. We have to have tiers of people who are from the community, healthcare workers who understand the community and know the community, as well as immediate supervisors, to people with enough medical training, all the way up to nurse’s assistants, practitioners, doctors, and others, right up to the level of super-specialist. We often do too much special care, and not enough public health. We do not do enough of the basic public health which would do far more to maintain the health, more than 100 surgeons.
This is not an attack against specialization, but it is an assertion that we are in a condition like that of a world war, which requires something that Martin Luther King and others have often talked about—creative, nonviolent directed action, but in the field of health. And we need volunteers, just as the American civil rights movement had volunteers. They will be the backbone of this effort. In this case, we need to establish brigades and battalions of courageous young people, who may even risk their lives, but in a responsible way, to save the lives of others, both here and in other countries.
This is not, by any means, completely new. Many nations have tried elements of such programs, which have worked relatively successfully in the past, and members of the African Union , or WHO, are well aware of these measures. This, however, is a circumstance that requires the equivalent of a wartime alliance, but this is truly a wartime alliance for progress. Here we can count successes, not in the numbers of enemies killed through combat, but through the numbers of lives saved through healthcare. We will also be aided by the omnipresence of certain social media capabilities that can provide means of close coordination that would otherwise be unavailable.
The fight against this virus must have a human face. There is no section of our population we can afford to ignore. For example, our already-overcrowded and often abusive prisons will see an explosion of infections. Should such people who have been accused of a theft or other non-violent crime, or anyone else, for that matter, be given a de facto death sentence, or be put in harm’s way, solely because the rest of us have decided to forget who they are? What about the families that visit them? What about the children, or spouses, or parents attachéd to those people? And I believe that this can be a mobilization that replaces the image of young people as a problem, or a potential source of unrest, with the image that they are the healers, those dedicated to preserving life, not destroying it.
There may be more than 2 million American young men currently held in prisons for non-violent offenses who could be more than willing to become part of this solution, to help bring health both in their communities here, as well as to other nations. And it would only be in such an emergency as this, that this sort of bold thinking would be attachéd to an urgent, dire, but resolvable crisis.
I pray that this moment may find us equal to this challenge to our normal way of thinking. All the world is at stake, and all the world is in need. Thank you.
SPEED: Thank you very much, Dr. Elders.
We’re now going to hear from Dr. Ding Yifan, Deputy Director, Research Institute of World Development, of the China Development Research Center of China.
DR. DING YIFAN: Dear Friends,
It’s a pleasure talking with you on this very important, historical moment. The COVID-19 pandemic has caught the whole world by surprise. Not only have the economies been paralyzed and human life threatened, but all life habits have changed also. Moreover, in many countries, people have not been able to effectively curb the spread of the virus, because they have no experience. Although many institutions have tried to produce vaccines, but are now afraid that the vaccine would be short-lived because the virus evolves so quickly.
In the face of an epidemic, we humans are very vulnerable. If we’re not enlightened and work together to fight the virus, the time for the virus to spread will prolong, and the longer we will suffer. So, here, I’d like to highlight four points:
Firstly, when China’s epidemic broke out, many countries helped China and provided China with various materials for prevention and to fight the virus, in creating masks. Countries, such as Japan, have picked up sentences from ancient Chinese classics, and write on the boxes for transferring those materials to China, to show the close relationship and cooperation between East Asia area’s countries. Once the epidemic situation had been brought under control in China, and the situation became intensified in Japan and South Korea, China sent a lot of materials to Japan and South Korea, to help people there fight the virus.
Secondly, many such token stories have also been staged between Chinese and American companies. Once the epidemic situation got worsened in the United States, many Chinese companies had sent materials for prevention and to fight the pandemic in the United States, as well as masks, protective clothing, protective glasses, ventilators and even [s/l ratings] for nucleic acid detection. So this cooperation showed that our humanity in society is really a community of common destiny.
Thirdly, unfortunately, the political opinion and the political spirit in the United States have made China unintentionally a scapegoat. Radical Congressmen and Senators try to compete with the hoax in the Trump Administration to show off who has the hardest line toward China. These attitudes cannot help Americans fight the epidemic, on the contrary it can only exacerbate the mistrust between China and the United States, making cooperation even impossible between the Chinese and the American governments, within an obstinate pandemic.
Fourthly, in fact, the world economy has not come out completely from the last financial crisis in 2007, and then, a new crisis happened. The pandemic might make this crisis deeper and more difficult to deal with, because we are faced with a dilemma: Restoring the economy and preventing the virus from spreading. The largest economies in the world need to expand their cooperation and take joint measures to fight the virus, and to boost economic growth. We have to use a stimulus package not only to alleviate the problem of the population in trouble, but also to use this stimulus package to invest in infrastructure, not only in traditional infrastructure, such as highways, bridges, or telecommunications means, but also in the development of new infrastructure, such as means of prevention of epidemics for the masses, and the treatment of these masses in pandemics, also including the remote means to check the temperature of the masses.
Only by rebuilding trust among big powers can we unite and fight the coronavirus with success. Then we can bring humanity back to the harmonious development path again. So, I think we have to unite our forces or strengths in the middle of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and then, we could try to find a way to common development, after the pandemic.
Thank you.
SPEED: Thank you very much Dr. Ding.
Our next presentation is by former Mayor DeWayne Hopkins, mayor of the town of Muscatine, Iowa. And he represents the China-Muscatine Friendship Society.
FORMER MAYOR DEWAYNE HOPKINS: Good day, everyone. My name is DeWayne Hopkins. I’m the former mayor of a small community in eastern Iowa, located right on the Mississippi River.
And I have a story to tell you. But in order to tell this story, where it begins I’m going to have to move the clock back in time to 1985. Back in that timeframe, the country of the People’s Republic of China, sent four individuals to Iowa. These individuals had never been in the United States before, but through the Sister Cities and Sister States organization, these individuals came right directly to Muscatine, Iowa. One of these individuals was Xi Jinping, and of course at the time, he was pretty young, and he was a provincial official in Hebei province.
Well, they came to Muscatine, and they toured some of our plants around town, and so on and so forth. They even enjoyed a barbecue with spareribs and corn on the cob and things of that nature. In any case, they spent three days in Muscatine, and then moved on to Des Moines, Iowa, where they met with then-Governor Terry Branstad.
Now, I’m going to fast forward a little bit to 2016. Our governor was on a kind of an agricultural mission trip to Beijing in the People’s Republic of China. And he was meeting with Xi Jinping, who at the time had moved up in the ranks to the position of Vice President. Xi Jinping just happened to ask Governor Branstad, because he had known him for that length of time from 1985 to 2016, he asked him how his friends Sarah and Roger Lande were. Well, Sarah and Roger Lande are residents of Muscatine. Roger is a retired attorney. Back in 1985, Sarah was the President of the Sister States organization here in Iowa. Well, Governor Branstad responded that they were in good health and everything was fine, but that’s what started the wheels in motion about a revisit to Muscatine from then-Vice President Xi Jinping. That happened on, I believe it was February 12th. He was on a trip from Washington, D.C., then to meet President Obama in Los Angeles, California. He thought he would have time to stop by Muscatine, Iowa, which he did.
We all greeted him on the porch of the Lande residence. We all went inside, and enjoyed snacks and conversation, and sort of rehashing old times, thus become the title “old friends.” So, a great number of his old friends — that is, Xi Jinping’s — were in attendance at the Lande residence, and they all had just a marvelous time. Xi Jinping’s time came about, he had to leave, and that was OK.
But a short time after returning to China, Xi Jinping suggested via email to Sarah Lande, that we engage a community in China about having a sister city relationship. So, that’s what started the wheels churning for that adventure. That city in China became Zhengding. The rest is kind of history. I went to China and visited with the folks in Zhengding; their mayor, Mayor Yang, came to Muscatine and visited with our folks. We sat down and signed a letter of intent to become sister cities. So, that’s kind of how that went.
As time went on, Xi Jinping became the President of the People’s Republic of China, and Sarah Lande is still in Muscatine, and they stay in contact every now and then. But it’s a relationship that started here in Muscatine, and it’s ongoing.
I will say that we have moved hopefully into the future, and we now have in our high school, four years of Mandarin language. We also have an orchestra that is fairly well-versed in the usage of Chinese instruments, which as you may know, are all stringed instruments. They have sent us some of these instruments, and we’ve learned to play them. And of course, every year, here in Muscatine, is a concert put on by an orchestra either from Beijing or from Shanghai. I believe we’ve done four of those already. And we’re done with this pandemic of the coronavirus, I look for more of those kinds of events to be scheduled.
That’s just another element of the relationship that we have with the People’s Republic of China. They’re outstanding musicians and they communicate with those in attendance at their concerts very, very well. It’s a pleasure to have them here. It’s a pleasure to know that they’ll be coming in the future, and we enjoy having them very much.
I guess, what I’m saying to you is, we’re a small community, and we have a friendly relationship with the People’s Republic of China: That isn’t going to change, and we really don’t care a lot about what they do in Washington, D.C., or what they do in Los Angeles, California. We have a relationship with the People’s Republic of China. They’re great people, they have a good sense of humor; and I wouldn’t mind having one of them as a neighbor.
[Mr. Hopkins then played a short clip from a very lively concert by the Chinese orchestra.]
SPEED: Just one correction: Former Mayor Hopkins misspoke: Actually, when Xi Jinping returned to Muscatine in 2012, he was the Vice-President, not the President at that time. And he came back, and that’s when the meeting was, and it was in 2012, not in 2016. We apologize, and the Mayor apologizes for that unintentional misspoken phrase.
Our final presentation is by Daisuke Kotegawa, Research Director at the Canon Institute, and former Executive Director for Japan at the International Monetary Fund.
“Recollection My Involvement in Economic Assistance”
DAISUKE KOTEGAWA: 1. In the mid-1980s, when I worked as a staff member of the World Bank, I had an opportunity to complain about the slow development of African countries despite a large amount of aid to Africa to a British and a French staff, both of whom had devoted their lives to economic development in Africa. Their answer was amazing. “Mr. Kotegawa. It is wrong to expect fast economic growth in Africa which can be compared to those in Asia and Japan. Because Africa is trying to achieve what humanity has done in 2000 years within 100 years.”
- When I returned to Japan in 1987, I became the budget examiner in the Ministry of Finance in charge of the budget of the foreign economic assistance. We reviewed Japan’s basic policies regarding economic assistance to Africa, and we started to try to create a country that will become a model for development in Africa, that is, “Japan” in Africa. I was convinced that it was very important to create a Japan in Africa, because at my days at the World Bank, I realized that Asian countries found Japan as their model and hope, having come to believe that Asian countries can reach the level of Western countries if they work diligently like the Japanese.
- The first step is to select the target country. The target country had to have a moderate economic scale, but small enough not to have internal contention such as tribal conflict. We chose Ghana, Cameroon and Malawi. As for Ghana, young and clean leader Rawlings were also a major factor. We poured all three kinds of economic aid into three countries: concessional loans with focus on the construction of economic infrastructure, grants focused on construction of social infrastructure in the medical and educational sector, and technical assistance with the aim of technology transfer through dispatching experts and inviting trainees.
- A backlash from the former colonial powers was expected, and Japan, which had historically little relationship with African countries, lacked the know-how to build aid projects there. So, we made an arrangement with Crown Agents, a British aid agency, for consulting our projects in Africa. As a result, about one-third of its total annual income in the early ’90s came from Japan. Ghana, in particular, has achieved great economic growth and if we had continued to do so, a “Japan” in Africa could have been realized within 1990s.
- However, having watched the success of such Japanese aid, the British and French began to be vigilant. Ms. Cresson, who became French prime minister in 1991, made such remarks as, “Japanese are yellow ants” and “The Japanese are enemies and are plotting to conquer the world without obeying the rules” and repeated such remarks as “Japanese economic assistance is Jurassic.” Against such criticism, Japan was forced to review its aid policy and had to reduce aid to Africa before Ghana became a Japan in Africa. Since then, proposals for UN Millennium 2000 Target, including the debt relief, which mainly targeted Japan’s yen loans, have been drafted mainly by the U.K., and Japan’s presence in the world of economic assistance has gradually been lost.
- I think that there is a fundamental difference between Western concept of economic assistance and that of Japan. The underlining idea of Western aid is a charity. This leads to the emphasis on “humanitarian aid,” and the idea of economic independence of recipient country is scarce. On the other hand, the basic idea of Japan’s aid is recipient country’s economic growth and independence. This is the idea that flows to the root of Japan since the Meiji Restoration, which has been trying to catch up with and overtake the West, witnessing the plight of Asian colonies under imperialism.
- On the issue of economic assistance policy, I had to fight with the Western countries wannabe scholars, critics, and mass media at home, as well as those abroad, with friends of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who had the same sense of mission. Mr. Ishikawa, who wrote several books at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was my greatest collaborator.
- One day, a Japanese journalist came to me and started to criticize Japan’s aid policy. His argument was not original which echoed the well-known Western criticism of Japan. For example, he said that Japan built hospitals in developing countries, but only some wealthy people in the country can use such hospitals, and it is not for the poor general public. Or he said that Japan is building telephone network in developing countries where most people do not have a telephone, or that Japan has built international airports in the capital in order to advertise its aid. It would not benefit at all the general public in the developing country who did not have the chance to go abroad. He also took the example of the Philippines, claiming that “It is wrong that Japan has built a hospital for the rich in Manila. Sweden built apartments for the poor in the slums of Manila.” I asked him, “By the way, what would you be most worried about if you were asked by your company tomorrow to go to Manila next week?” He replied, “Whether I can call up Tokyo smoothly, whether is the airport there is fine, or whether there is a proper hospital.” So, I told him, ” What you said are exactly what foreign companies which make investment in the Philippines are concerned about. If there are no problems on such matters, overseas companies will build factories in the Philippines in search for cheap labor and hire people with low wages with minimal education. In this way, employment increases, and the gap between the rich and the poor decreases. I visited to the Smoky Mountain in Manila, which is the core of slum where Sweden built an apartment. The place is a garbage dump, and residents sleep on the bench on the pile of garbage and they protect themselves from rain by the roof made by tablecloth. It stinks very bad. People living there dig out what can be used from the pile of garbage and sell it in the city. The apartment built by Sweden became a slum again in less than six months. Because residents don’t have regular employments, and no income. It is not possible to maintain the apartment no matter how splendid the dwelling is. Japan’s aid help companies increase employment by building economic infrastructure such as railways, ports, airports, roads, power plants, and telecommunication networks with yen loans, creating preconditions for overseas companies to enter the country, and help provide facilities for basic education as a social infrastructure. Gradually, technology will be transferred from the foreign company to the local company, and the industry will grow in the developing country. Just as we were providing economic assistance to Asian countries with this way of thinking, the value of the yen doubled as a result of the Plaza Accord, and the relocation of factories to Asia began by Japanese companies that were no longer able to stand up to labor costs in Japan. The relocation began in Malaysia, where politics were stable and the power generation capacity built by yen loans was firm, and proceeded to Thailand, Indonesia, and China, and the so-called geese-type economic growth started in Asia. This steady economic development continued until the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s.
I allocated to my Japanese colleagues to join the Belt and Road Initiative as proposed by China, especially when they proposed the establishment of AIIB, and also with the United States. Because I thought the cooperation among these three countries are the best mix to build up economic infrastructure in the developing countries. Because, in my view, the Chinese have a shortfall in their capacity to build up the new projects, which is actually the major part of the advantage for Japanese bankers as well as American bankers.
So United States and Japan can draw up a kind of blueprint for economic development and China should be in charge of financing and also actual construction of those projects. And after the completion of those projects, Japan would like to take the lead in maintenance and the rehabilitation of those completed projects, if they are needed. Because this is the kind of area that Japanese companies are quite good at.
So I believe this is the best way of collaborating, for these three countries for the future of this globe.
Thank you.
SPEED: Thank you very much, Dr. Kotegawa.
We’re about to go to the questions and answers. What we’re going to do is to allow the panelists who are with us live, to have some cross-talk, to discuss things and to respond to what they have all heard. Not everyone is with us live.
And just prior to doing that, I’d like to introduce my colleague Diane Sare, who has something to say.
DIANE SARE: Right now, we are going to have a greeting from the leader of the LaRouche Society in South Africa by video — Ramasimong Phillip Tsokolibane.
RAMASIMONG PHILLIP TSOKOLIBANE: From the Republic of South Africa, I offer my greetings to those of you gathered virtually around the globe for this important conference. My name is Ramasimong Phillip Tsokolibane, and it is my great honor to lead the LaRouche Movement in South Africa.
The matters upon which you are deliberating will determine whether or not mankind survives our turbulent times. Around the globe, people are in the streets, rising up to protest the intolerable injustice of the dying neo-colonial order that has enslaved all of us. It is a deadly monetarist order that values pieces of speculative financial paper above human life. The collapse of this global British financial empire is certain. What will replace it is not. What must be brought into being is a New World Economic Order based on the unleashing of the greatest power in the universe: the power of human creativity to build on this planet a world of hope, peace, and posterity, where we will be truly, finally free.
We shall extend our dominion beyond Earth into the vast expanse of the universe beyond. This was the mighty dream of the great Lyndon LaRouche, who taught us that the final conjunctural crisis of the old evil British Empire was coming, and that we must, as revolutionaries, be prepared to seize the moment to shepherd the great change for the good.
As we deliberate today, we must remember the teachings of Mr. LaRouche. It is now truly his time, a time in which troubles can be turned into opportunities. To do otherwise, would be to allow those evil people, who lorded over us as the masters of the old empire, to continue their rule in an even more brutish and deadly form. A global fascist order whose policy intention it is to kill more than three-quarters of all people on Earth — that is, if they don’t stumble into a general thermonuclear war that kills all of us. As the COVID-19 virus slashes its deadly path across my continent, which will leave tens of millions dead in its wake, if not more, we see the results of the British Empire policy of enforced underdevelopment, combined with the equally deadly famine and attempts to start wars here and around the globe. We can count more millions murdered through the Empire’s policy.
It does not have to be this way. LaRouche’s policies and programs for development and jobs point the way to the future. For Africa, it is go with LaRouche, or die with the old neo-colonial empire. Africa wants to lead, and we have, with some help, the means to survive and prosper. My country, the only full-set economy on the continent, can help produce both the machinery and the machine tools required for the industrialization of Africa. We can help train the hundreds of millions of new productive workers that will be needed. We have one of the most advanced nuclear energy industries on the globe, which is under constant attack from London.
So, it is our future and the future of billions of Africans to come, that this conference is discussing. Best wishes for the success of your deliberations.
Panel 1: Questions & Answers
SPEED: Thank you very much, Phillip Tsokolibane.
So, now we’re going to go to our live panelists: That will be Helga Zepp-LaRouche, I see Dr. Elders who is there; and Mr. Meshchanov is there — great.
I just want to first ask any of the panelists if they have any response or any thoughts about what they’ve heard? Helga, I’d like to start with you.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think the reason why we wanted to have this conference is to show a way how governments can actually work together; how people can support that, and in that way help to create an environment where the absolute urgent question of a new world economic order, a new financial system can actually be put on the table.
I’m very encouraged, because what Dr. Jin did is very much our approach; that you need a dialogue of cultures. That you need to look for those ideas which resonate in the other culture even if the predicates are different. I think he did an excellent job in doing that.
I think the fact that Mr. Meshchanov chose to focus on Africa is a sign of the times, because I believe that the fate of the Africa continent is really what will decide if we are morally fit to survive. If we cannot get our act together and work together as nations to help to overcome the dangers coming from the locusts, the famine, the pandemic, I think that this is the most crucial focus. Also, to put aside all kinds of geopolitical contrary interests and really work together in the common task of getting humanity into a different age, really into a different era.
I was very happy with what Dr. Elders said, because I think this idea to call on the youth; that they have to have an absolutely important role, because it’s their future, it’s their world. Young people always like to talk to other people from other countries and work together, so I think that is one of the leverages how we can influence the governments to go in the direction in which they need to go.
Naturally, very delightful was what Mayor Hopkins demonstrated, because it really beats back the idea that small communities can’t do much. He has demonstrated that it can be done, and the fact that the great community of Muscatine has a relationship to Xi Jinping, it just is very bold and is a very good example. I think especially in the end, when he blended in these musical performances, it touched off exactly what needs to be touched off — namely, love between different cultures. Because different cultures are not a threat, they are actually an enrichment once you start to know them and to encounter them.
I also want to thank Ding Yifan, who is an old acquaintance of ours going back to the 1990s, and so is Mr. Kotegawa. So, I think this was really a very powerful and very useful demonstration of how you can work together on different levels and set an example.
SPEED: Counselor Meshchanov, I have a particular thing I’d like to ask you, because we had a question which is going to come your way, and also your speech very much dealt with the question of Africa. But one of the questions that came in, I think you can maybe answer as you give us your own reflections is: “What is President Putin’s thinking in calling for a P5 summit [Five-Power summit], and how does this compare with Mrs. LaRouche’s proposal?”
MESHCHANOV: Thank you for your question, but first off, thank you for inviting us. Again, thank you for the opportunity to speak and deliberate on very acute and intelligent problems of the current moment.
Actually, at the United Nations, we have been involved in organizing the summit even before the pandemic, and we’re still looking forward to having it under the new circumstances. We proceed from our President Vladimir Putin’s own statements earlier this year from Jerusalem, when proposing the summit of the United Nations Security Council Five. The rationale for organizing the summit is not to miss, as he said, new sprouts of hate and discrimination between people and peoples.
According to our President, the country’s founders, the United Nations, and the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, that the responsibility for preserving civilization lies with them. These countries are called upon to become an example for other states in this regard. So, such a summit would demonstrate loyalty of countries to their responsibilities; countries that combatted together back to back against Nazism and fascism, back 75 years ago. [http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/62646]
So, this is how we see it, and how we see the objectives of this summit. We believe that this current moment unfortunately has contributed to this rationale, because borders and discrimination and inequality between countries are getting worse. That is why we have selected the issue of Africa for our presentation at this event of the Schiller Institute. Because we are strongly convinced that, as one of the previous speakers has stated, and it’s commonplace in the United Nations, no one is safe, if someone is not safe.
Reflecting on my colleagues’ presentations, I was highly impressed by our friend from Muscatine’s presentation on the cultural links between the peoples of the United States and China; specifically because my previous posts were somehow associated with promoting direct links between people, between human beings, in consular posts in Greece and Mongolia. It’s very timely now to speak about culture, about eternal values that unite peoples and actually can overcome the politicizing trend in international economic relations.
We also, to conclude, speak of Africa, and many thanks to our colleague from South Africa, a member country of the BRICS association, an association that we’re trying to build on principles of dignity and respect for sovereignty, and promoting independent ways of making decisions. That is the only way our new multipolar world is capable of saving humanity from new conflicts and new wars. Thank you.
SPEED: Thank you very much. Dr. Elders, we’re going to ask you for your comments, but I also see someone who is a colleague of yours, who I think is up there on the screen. If I’m not mistaken, that is Dr. Kildare Clarke from New York City. I know Dr. Clarke has sort of a short time, and he’s been waiting in the queue. Dr. Clarke, is there something you’d like to say, before we hear from Dr. Elders?
DR. KILDARE CLARKE: I would like to say a lot, and I don’t think I probably have the time here. So, for the 4 o’clock youth meeting, I hope I can get by. I agree a lot with Dr. Elders. The problem to me is that I recognize that we’ve got to fundamentally change the educational system in this country, if we really want to get out of the problems we are facing. And we cannot continue to have groups upon groups, planning groups and proposals — we’ve got to act emergently. We’ve got to change educational systems; we do not have to wait until he tries to get to high school or college, before he knows that he’s going to go to medical school. These things can begin in the elementary school. You’ve got to expose people. When they are exposed, they get interested. We are selectively excluding a large part of the population who can become excellent healthcare workers. They might not start in medical school. They could be assistants, learn, understand what it takes to get there, and go back to school. But if we do not expose them now, we’re going to lose a whole generation of excellent physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, because we don’t think it was OK to educate them now….
SPEED: I need to tell you, Dr. Clarke, your audio is bad. I think we got the basic thrust of what you were saying, which is you were pointing out that the entire educational system has to be changed. If you didn’t know this, we’ve been having some technical problems all morning. Dr. Elders, were you able to make out what he was saying?
DR. ELDERS: Yes.
SPEED: Dr. Clarke, I’m going to ask you to let her respond, and also get her reflections, because I think she knew clearly what you were getting at. So, Dr. Elders?
DR. ELDERS: I thank first of all, the Schiller Institute for putting on this conference. I think it’s been excellent in bringing up some problems that we all have. One of the things we all have to know is, whatever we’re talking about doing, you can’t do it unless you’re healthy. So, I feel very strongly we’ve got to have healthy populations, and we’ve got to start early. I agree with Dr. Clarke. I always tell people that children are half as tall as they’ll ever be by the time they’re three. They know half as much as they’ll ever know by the time they’re four. Hope, will, and drive has been determined by the time they’re five. So, we’ve got to start early. Children can’t be what they can’t see. So, we’ve got to make sure that they’re exposed, and we can start them early. They don’t have to start out being a brain surgeon, but they can start out being what they can be.
And most of all, we’ve got to keep them healthy. All human beings feel that the three things that they need to be, more than anything else, they need to feel that they can be successful. We need to make sure they’re healthy, educated, motivated, and have hope for the future. I thought, that’s where we can start, and every country can start with that. What we’ve heard about what we’re doing for countries, but we’ve got to start with health. And we’ve got to educate them. You can’t keep an ignorant population healthy. So, we’ve got to start with educating the population, and we’ve certainly got to start with doing everything we can to keep them healthy. We have to know that we’ve got our trust and global solidarity. If we don’t trust each other to do the things we need to do, we can’t get it done. We have to go out and work in the communities. Find out what the communities need, rather than giving them what we think they need.
I especially enjoyed the Counselor from Japan’s talk on the things that they were doing. Sometimes you think you’re doing exactly what a country needs. Going into Africa and doing what they needed; but maybe they needed something else. Involve the African nations to find out what does the nation feel that they need, and help them develop what they think they want and need. And we may have to start in our small communities, starting out with the young people; training them to be community health workers. Later, they grow up to be nurses, and nurse-practitioners, physicians, and then to being super-specialists. But we want to improve the health of the world, which we’ve got to do, because we all know this coronavirus has taught us that anytime one country is not healthy, all the rest, we’re all at risk. So, we’ve got to make sure that we help every country to be healthy and improve their health. We’ve got to start with the young people who are going to determine what the world’s going to be. We have to do everything we can to train them to be the best that they can be.
I never fail to go to an old Chinese proverb that says that “The society grows great when old men and old women plant trees under whose shade they know they’ll never sit.” To me, this institute, what you’re trying to do with the Schiller Institute is pull the nations together in solidarity, globally, so that they can plant trees for the bright young people of the future to sit under. Thank you.
SPEED: Helga, do you have anything you’d like to say at this point, either to Dr. Clarke, or in response to this?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: No, I just feel very — my heart is moved by what you are saying, because it is that kind of human spirit which is needed now to move mountains. And these mountains need to be moved quickly, because the dangers are many. So, I’m very happy that you are saying what you are saying.
SPEED: So Dr. Clarke, we’re going to move on, because we have other questions. But I need to know if you will be able to join us for the later panel, when we will have a panel of youth. That’s going to be later this afternoon. I don’t know if your schedule allows it, but it would be important.
DR. CLARKE: I’ll make myself available.
SPEED: And we have to do something about your audio over there on the other side, too. Thank you.
Diane, we’re going to come back to you now. Do you have something for us?
SARE: Yes. I have a question from the Ambassador from Ghana to Canada. But I actually wanted to bring up one thing, since it turns out Mr. Meshchanov has been involved in cultural affairs, which is to express my desire that at some point, somehow, the city of St. Petersburg, which apparently had an absolutely phenomenal chorus, was the location of the premier of Beethoven’s sublime work, the Missa Solemnis. I know the chorus there must have been excellent, because our chorus is working on it, and it’s very difficult. This being the Year of Beethoven, and Beethoven being a composer who I think really embodies the love of mankind as a whole, I think it would be something we have to figure out how to commemorate, if not this year because of the COVID, then as soon as possible.
So now, having said that, I have a question from Ambassador J. Ayikoi Otoo, who is the High Commissioner from Ghana to Ottawa, Canada. He writes:
“I think the suggestion for four leaders to meet to brainstorm on the effects of the pandemic in order to find universal solutions is a brilliant one. But, with President Trump reeling under pressure for not having taken the pandemic seriously, and with this leading to several deaths, with President Trump pushing the blame on China and making derogatory remarks about China — Can you see these two leaders working together? Considering the fact that President Trump recently withdrew from a Zoom conference organized by leaders of the EU and China, on the subject of the raising of money to fight the pandemic worldwide, what are the prospects for the four leaders, whom you cite [I think he’s referring to Mrs. LaRouche], to come together?”
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: First of all, I want to make one important correction in your question, because it may be true that President Trump was not picking up on the warnings coming from China quickly enough, but neither did the European countries. They also lost precious time. But I want to emphatically make the point that this pandemic would not be a pandemic if there would have been a good health system in every country. And that is a provable fact because, in Wuhan and Hubei province, the Chinese were able to contain it, to put strict quarantine, and then after two months it was under control. That approach, if you had a similar health system in every country in Africa, in Latin America, in Asia, in Europe, you could have stopped this from becoming a pandemic. Therefore, I think it’s very important to say that the blame of all this is the neo-liberal system which prevented the building up of infrastructures and health systems in the whole world.
This was a point made by my late husband already in 1973. He warned, and actually set up a biological holocaust taskforce to investigate the effects of the IMF policies at that time. And in the following years, of the so-called IMF conditionalities, which prevented developing countries from investing in their health systems, because they were forced to pay their debt burden first. These conditionalities actually created the condition that the pandemic even could arise. Naturally, the predecessors of Trump, such as the Bushes, such as Obama, they did much more to contribute to create the conditions than President Trump in his admittedly slightly delayed reaction. So, I just wanted to correct that, because it’s very easy to say it’s the guilt of Trump, but he definitely did not cause the problem 50 years ago.
I think that unfortunately, I believe that this situation will get so much worse. I think the surges which you see now in more than two dozen states of the United States, you see it in Brazil, in India. In general, it is estimated that this is not even a second wave; this is still the first wave which has not yet peaked. Several of the American epidemiologists and virologists said it’s no point to talk of a peak; the peak is not yet here.
So, I fear that the kind of collapse which we are seeing right now in terms of the effects of the economic shutdown, is also just the beginning. I think the situation will worsen in the short-term, long before the election takes place in November, and that the kind of social ferment which exists right now — which in part is due to the murder of George Floyd and others, but it’s also naturally manipulated and taken over by people who just want to create social trouble in the same way like President Putin warned that Trump would be faced with a “Maidan.”
So, it definitely has absolutely elements of that as well. I think this will get worse, and that means our intervention in the United States, but also around the world will be absolutely crucial. Because it is my absolute conviction that if you have more examples like that of the Mayor of Muscatine, people who just start relationships and create an environment which counters the absolutely malicious lies in the mainstream media and the crazy talk by such people as Marco Rubio or Menendez, or such people who just are completely irresponsible in what they say. There should be a standard of truth that you shouldn’t say things which are made up; but some of these people have lost all hesitations to just, for their own purposes, lie.
So, I think it’s very important that this is being countered by a lot of citizens. And I think if we can get this initiative, which I proposed with this taskforce to find solutions on the level of the coincidence of opposites, that can become an important factor, because the idea that you have to replace geopolitical confrontation with cooperation to solve this pandemic and all the other problems together, must become the steamroller in the population. I also think that if there is a chorus of countries — from Africa, from Latin America, from other places — and individuals of positions, who demand that the problems of humanity are so big that they only can be solved by the leading countries; the most powerful economically, the most powerful militarily, and those countries which have the most population, that they must get together. Because where else should the solution come from?
I think if we all work together, we can orchestrate an environment where these ideas are being picked up, and all the advantages which lie in that may convince even those countries which seem to be at loggerheads right now, to actually come together and work together, because it will benefit them more than to keep the confrontation going.
SPEED: Thank you. Our next question is from Isaiah K. Koech, Counsellor for the Kenyan High Commission [embassy] in Ottawa, Canada. I think this question will be largely for Helga and for Mr. Meshchanov.
“Whereas there is advocacy for the world’s powerful countries to meet in the ‘Four-Power’ Summit to discuss solutions that would mitigate global crises, how sure are we that the powerful leaders will incorporate issues that directly affect African countries? (This question is based on the premise that the Four-Power Summit will not have any representation from the African continent which is equally large and full of potential).”
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, Mr. Meshchanov, if you want to go first?
MESHCHANOV: OK. With this, I will try to briefly focus on several questions posed before, starting with a positive conversation of our colleague referring to cultural links. We would like to reiterate our deep understanding that culture is stronger than politics, and we are availing of this opportunity to thank the Schiller Institute for issuing brilliant chorus song in Russian associated with Victory Day in May, which we would highly encourage everyone to see a brilliant and bright presentation of cultural links and culture bridging gaps between our countries. We are deeply appreciative of this work by the Schiller Institute. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcLGy8yIOVM&t=5s]
And of course the Year of Beethoven deserves to be commemorated. Our embassies, consulates, and missions all over the world are open, especially in these difficult times, to any proposals of collaboration in the cultural sphere. So, thank you very much for your remarks.
As for the four leaders summit proposal by the Schiller Institute, we believe it’s a great idea, and not contradicting the Russian President Vladimir Putin. I would like once again to reiterate the idea of five countries, specifically the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, was issued and proposed in association with the 75-year anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War — the Second World War, talking globally. It is addressing the idea of recollecting the common responsibility of our countries for preventing discrimination, hated, hatred on borders between countries, bearing in mind the responsibility lying with these specific countries, which are founders of the United Nations, and winners in the Second World War.
So, that was the rationale to reiterate, but that doesn’t prejudice against deliberating on any alternative forums. I’m speaking in my personal capacity of course now, but that reminds me of the rationale behind the establishment of the BRICS association, which somehow started back in the 1990s from the ideas of our outstanding and well-known academic and diplomat, and former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Yevgeny Primakov, who tabled the idea of Russia, India, and China collaboration and systemic cooperation, meetings, and summits. That was sort of an idea that could also be taken into consideration, because our great predecessor Mr. Primakov foresaw the rising role of India, and the rising role of African countries, as a natural process of moving forward the multipolar world after the collapse of the bipolar system. That is why we strongly believe in multilateralism, multilateral forums.
Coming to the third question of the United States and China, and the possibility of cooperation, and all the controversies and conflicts that we see now. We also do not have very smooth and easy relationships with the Western world and the United States, as you are, of course, aware. But still we try to find mutual interests; that we did even under the Cold War situation back many decades. Now, something that contributes to finding solutions is the pressure of business circles, investors, diasporas, cultural links, parliamentary relations. Even being oppressed by coercive measures by several Western countries, we stick to the policy of cooperation and collaboration with our Western partners. China is also objectively interested in developing relationships with the United States, as well as the United States cannot do without China in the modern economic system. That is why we are sort of optimistic on U.S.-China reconciliation.
To focus briefly on African countries, we believe that the development of the African continent recently, not only in terms of economic growth, but also diversifying trade and investor partnerships, and maturing political collaboration between African countries, will contribute to their capability of speaking in one voice. That probably opens good perspectives of African countries joining the global governance system which is going to be revisited and reformulated. As I also stated in my presentation, our country has always spoken on raising involvement of African countries in any global forums. It should be inclusive, not exclusive.
With this, I thank you.
SPEED: OK, very good. Helga, do you have anything?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I would like to add that there is probably not any problem globally, both regionally and economically and otherwise, which could not be solved if the geopolitical confrontation between the United States, Russia, and China in particular, would be eliminated. Because the entire game plan of what we call the British Empire, which is really the City of London, Wall Street, the financial institutions which are behind the neo-liberal system; their entire ability to keep the rule over the world’s institutions depends on the geopolitical game to divide the United States and Russia and China. People don’t realize that it is exactly the same forces financial, media, political, who are behind the coup attempt against Trump; who are behind the anti-Russia campaign; and who are behind the anti-China campaign. Once you realize that, you have a completely different view, and the reason why my husband originally many years ago picked up on the idea of Prime Minister Primakov, and added the United States to this combination of Russia, China, and India was the recognition that you need a combination of states which are powerful enough to be stronger than the City of London and Wall Street. Once these four, or especially those three, get together, then you can solve any other problem. I have said many times, this summit is not going to be only one summit. Because the problems are so deep and many, that you probably need a whole summit process, where you start to put the kinds of mechanisms like for a New Bretton Woods system into motion; you start to take care of the cultural question, the health system. So, I look at it more that once you have this format, that the presidents of those countries start to cooperate to solve the common problems of mankind, you can develop it to become an integrative process where naturally other countries, other continents, other states are absolutely welcomed to support that process. But I think it’s important to first put together the core of power which can actually change the world, and not just have it like many conferences where you have a democratic kind of back and forth and nothing gets accomplished. I think this is also why President Putin wants to keep the veto power in the Permanent Five countries so that it doesn’t degenerate into just a debate where no results can be accomplished. It should be open; we are organizing that countries such as Japan or Germany, Italy, France, countries from Africa. They should absolutely support that. The best thing is to it now; to add your voice that such a summit must take place, and I think it can be done. I think it’s absolutely doable, but we need a worldwide mobilization to accomplish it.
SPEED: We’re getting a lot of questions, and that’s very good. But we have the problem that we lost some time at the beginning of the broadcast. So, what we’re going to do here is, first of all, we’re going to encourage people to keep going with the questions. Several of them are with respect to the coronavirus pandemic and related matters. The next panel, which will begin at 1:30 p.m., will continue to cover that, and we will try to refer some of the questions there. Also, we certainly will refer all of your questions to any of the panelists to have them answer.
We’re going to take two more questions, one of which will come from me, and then the other one will be from Diane. We’ll then ask the panelists to conclude.
This is a question from Dr. Abdul Alim-Muhammad of Washington, D.C.; well-known to the Schiller Institute, and very important in our work over the years. This one, I believe, is for both Dr. Elders and for Helga: “How can the rest of the world learn and benefit from the Chinese and Cuban collaboration in flattening the curve of the epidemic centered in Wuhan? How can those lessons be applied here in the United States and elsewhere, like Brazil and countries in Africa, to flatten the curve? Why isn’t Cuba’s interferon alpha-2B available to save American lives? Should there be an international standard of criminal public health neglect?” Then, he just appends to this “The Crime of Tuskegee”; he’s talking about the Tuskegee syphilis experiments. “Was the deliberate withholding of known effective treatments to suit a racist agenda? Is history repeating on a global scale?”
So, that’s his question. Either Dr. Elders or Helga, whichever would like to start.
DR. ELDERS: I think we all realize that we have a global pandemic now. But as in all pandemics, we’ve got to have the right leaders if we want to come out of this, and I think what the Schiller Institute is doing, we’ve got to have the kind of leaders who are willing to lead. And they have got to make the sacrifices and do the things that they need to do to lead and move forward. Our public health system has not been well funded. We’ve got to invest more in our public health, but when we think of public health, we’ve got to always remember, that public health is not just about individuals. It’s about the whole community; it’s all of us. We’ve all got to be involved, and you can’t keep our people healthy if we don’t educate them to be healthy. I think that that’s an important issue that all of our communities have to be aware of. The reason? I won’t say the reason, I don’t know the reasons. Some of the reasons why we in the United States, our curve is not flattened as well as that in China and some of the other countries is because of our culture and the education of our people. We’re not willing to do the things; we know we need to do them, but we just didn’t do them. Like our social distancing, which we could do. Handwashing. Wearing a mask. Then, everybody wanted to get back, and start socializing again. So, these are things the Chinese were willing to do and did. They enforced it, and we did not do it. That was partly related to our leadership, that we’ve not done.
If we think about the Tuskegee Institute, I think that was a public health, leadership mistake. We’ve worked through that now. I do not feel in any way that anybody was trying to take anything away or trying to not provide therapy or treatment. And I do not feel that we’re not trying to do everything we can now to make sure we do what we can to eliminate the coronavirus. But we do not have a vaccine; we do not have adequate medications. All we have are the public health issues that we know we need to follow in order to get it done. We’ve got to educate our people. The reason why we’re seeing more problems in our very low-income, less well-educated people is because of what’s happened. We know that we’ve got to address those issues if we’re really going to make a difference.
And I think the same is true for Brazil. I think Brazil is behaving much like America; we’re not doing the things we know we need to do.
SPEED: OK. Helga, do you have anything, or should we continue?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I just would like to add briefly that if people remember, in January, when China started to take these very rigid measures — quarantining people, tracing contacts, cutting out social contact by allowing families to go shopping only once every three days and only one member of the family — all of these things. There was a huge freak-out in the West, saying “This is a dictatorship! See how horrible! They’re violating human rights again.” But in reality, what helped them to contain is aided by a deep cultural difference between Western and Chinese culture. In the West, it was a big accomplishment that the rights of individuals were held high. This is a good thing, but unfortunately, this individuality became excessive. People mistook freedom with liberties and hedonism. What Dr. Elders just said, people wanted to go back to the beaches, they wanted to go back to partying. You have these really insane behaviors which are an expression of such exaggerated individuality. While the Chinese culture — and all Asian cultures, for that matter — have traditionally much more focus on the common good as the primary thing. And that the individual right is sort of subsumed under the right of the community and the cultural good. The individual cannot prosper if the community does not prosper. I think this is a cultural difference which I think is very much worth to study. Because we will come out of this pandemic with the need to adjust some of our values. They may not be exactly what people tout to be the so-called “Western values”; because these Western values — that’s a whole other subject. But I think we have to really think how we can give humanity principles for our durable survival. And that is part of this process that we are trying to do with these kinds of conferences; that people start to really reflect and say, “How can we become a species of rationality and creativity, and not compete with some piggies who are trying to get to the trough the quickest?” I think it’s really a fundamental question of identity, of moral values, which has to be addressed.
SPEED: OK. Last question for this panel will be from Diane Sare.
SARE: This question is from Dr. Katherine Alexander-Theodotou of the Anglo-Hellenic and Cypriot Law Association. It is in four parts.
“1. What do you suggest to do in an effort to bring the European nations together to reflect on democracy, basing the institutions on democratic lines, creating a real democratic union, including Russia? The vast culture of the civilization of Europe will be the fortress of prosperity and peace.
“2. How can the Schiller Institute assist? The Schiller Institute can assist by continuously advocating unity, cooperation, education, and preventing the undermining of nations’ sovereignty of Europe by others ruled by undemocratic institutions such as Turkey, threatening the sovereignty of its neighbors such as Greece and Cyprus.
“3. There is a need for European health policy and coordination of the health authorities in order to have common standards of health policy and provide competent healthcare to the peoples of Europe.
“4. There is the question of slave populations throughout Europe, especially in the U.K., where there are almost 1 million people living for almost 15 years with no identity, as they are immigrants [I think she means no legal identity] whose voice is being suppressed by the immigration laws. There are also others in other European countries. How can we stop this system of slave labor?”
Those are the questions.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think this present EU needs to be changed, because I think the EU has developed into a gigantic bureaucracy which is very little in touch with the interests of its member states. I could cite you a whole list of examples for this. I think we have to really think how to integrate Russia. I think one of the lessons Putin said in his article was that there was a failure before World War II to develop an integrative security system. I’m quite interested — I’m putting it carefully — I’m quite interested about the report that between Putin and Macron in a long phone conversation yesterday, Macron said that he stands for a Europe which goes from Lisbon to Vladivostok, which obviously would mean that you really talk more about the Eurasian Economic Union, the Belt and Road Initiative integrated into one body. I think I’m a firm believer in the principle of sovereignty. I think this present crisis has demonstrated that in any case the EU did nothing. It was the nations which jumped in and recognized that you need food security in a nation; you need sovereign control over your production of medicine and health equipment.
Nicolaus of Cusa, who I quoted earlier, was the first one to develop the concept of why only a sovereign nation-state which has a reciprocal relationship between the government and the governed, which I think is the only way how you can guarantee how the common good is being defended; especially under conditions of crisis. So, I think this present EU, which is trying to attach itself to a NATO globalization, to play all kinds of geopolitical games, is not necessarily the vehicle with which Europe should be reformed. Maybe that should be the subject of a whole other webinar, because this is a very complicated question. But I think an alliance of sovereign nation-states in the spirit of de Gaulle would make much more sense to represent the interests of all the people.
As for the slave labor, I think that has come out, that this present neo-liberal system depends not only on the exploitation of cheap labor in countries like Bangladesh or some other countries, but that you have slave labor conditions inside the Western countries. Like in Germany, where it’s now seven or eight slaughterhouses which have all Romanians and people from other East European countries, who are living in horrible conditions. They have become the breeding ground for COVID-19 break-outs, because there is no health system, no social distancing is possible. I think taking care of the health system is the first precondition for everything to function, exactly as Dr. Elders says. If you are not healthy, you cannot do anything. So, protection of the health of the citizens has to really start in every country, not just in some.
SPEED: All right. So, we’re now at the conclusion. We’ve got about one minute per person for responses. I’d like to get kind of a summary idea. We’ll start with you, Mr. Meshchanov, if you have any remarks that you’d like to make in conclusion.
MESHCHANOV: Thank you. I had some technical problems, and unfortunately couldn’t catch the last part of the discussion. But now, wrapping up what has been laid out in this very important discussion, I see in an optimistic way what is happening. Meaning that when the situation is up-ending, and this is something that has been happening in any crisis in history, the word crisis derives from the Asian-Greek word of krisi, which means taking decisions; taking choice. So, we need to take the right decision, the right choice; and I fully support Mrs. Helga LaRouche’s statement on changing values after this crisis. We believe that in this crisis, constructive forces such as the Schiller Institute and many others in our country as well, are heard better. That’s probably one of the systemic significances of this crisis. Briefly, speaking on our President’s article, which you have repeatedly referred to, Mr. Putin underscores in his article devoted to the 75th anniversary of the war end, the Munich conspiracy. That is something that he starts with, but he finishes his article by underscoring the significance of cooperation, collaboration, and shared responsibility of great powers. That is why we are optimistic on this future cooperation which sometimes crises and great systemic catastrophes can contribute to.
SPEED: Thank you, Counselor. Dr. Elders, any concluding remarks?
DR. ELDERS: This has been one excellent conference, and I think what is talked about is how in all conferences we need to trust each other, we need to learn to work together, and that our cooperation and trust is going to do more to overcome this virus and the health of our people than anything else. The more we squabble among each other, the more this virus grows, divides, and spreads. So, the first thing is, we want to improve our economy, educate our people. We’ve got to first do everything we can to keep them healthy. We just can’t develop an excellent working society unless we have a healthy society. We know how; and it’s time we began to use the knowledge we know and make our leaders stop squabbling about where, when, and how it started. Let’s look at what we can do to make a solution. We need to get all nations that we can involved, so we can all work together to try and make a healthy global world. That’s how I feel we’re going to also address our economy.
SPEED: Thank you. Helga?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I would like to bring people’s memories back to what we saw in the beginning — the video of Lyn; who focussed very much on the fact that we are the creative species. At least, the only one which has been discovered in the universe so far. I think if we strengthen that quality of our species which distinguishes us from all other ones, the creativity, then also the question of trust will be easy. Because a human being who relates to the creativity of another one, doesn’t have prejudices. At best, you have a wish to increase the creativity of the other one for the common good of all of humanity. I think it is that rethinking of trying to make people better people, to make them do more good, to really get rid of all of this hedonistic decay of our culture which prevents people from being creative. Because if people just want to go partying and get drunk and have dope, they are ruining that which makes them human. I think may be hopefully one of the outcomes, because I believe absolutely that we need a renaissance of cultural values, of Classical culture. That we all have to learn to think like Beethoven, and to think like Lyndon LaRouche. Then we are best equipped to deal with this and any other problem.
SPEED: Thank you. I want to thank all of the panelists who were with us today. We’re going to conclude this first panel. But I think we managed to soldier through all of the difficulties that may have some metaphorical importance to what we’re going to have to do in the world as a whole to make this dialogue work as well.
Stop den McCarthy-agtige heksejagt imod Kina og præsident Trump
Den 14. maj (EIRNS) – For et halvt år siden, i november 2019, offentliggjorde Executive Intelligence Review en polemisk 24-siders pjece med ovenstående overskrift. Den begyndte som følger:
”I en webcast den 10. maj 1997 drøftede Lyndon LaRouche det presserende behov for en firemagts-alliance mellem suveræne nationer for at gendanne økonomisk fornuft – ’imod den største magt på planeten, som er det britiske imperium, kaldet det britiske statssamfund (Commonwealth)’. Det er fjenden”.
”I den tale, leveret for 22 år siden, skitserede LaRouche en strategi for dagens krise.
”Og hvis, en skønne dag, eksempelvis en søndag formiddag, efter et weekendmøde, præsidenten for De Forenede Stater, Kinas præsident og et par andre mennesker skulle udtale:” Vi har i denne weekend konstateret, baseret på vores rådgivere og kendsgerningerne, at det internationale finansielle og monetære system er håbløst bankerot. Og at vi, i kraft af vores ansvar som statsoverhoveder, vil sætte disse bankerotte institutioner under konkursbehandling i almenhedens interesse. Og det er i vores interesse at samarbejde som nationer om at gøre dette og undgå at skabe kaos på denne planet”. Resultatet er så, at en sådan meddelelse… betyder, at hele systemet, fra det øjeblik af, er blevet anbragt i guillotinen, og at hovedet ruller ned ad gaden (Alan Greenspans hoved måske). Det betyder, at vi på det tidspunkt har drivkraften til straks at opbygge et nyt finansielt og monetært system.”
Indledningen til pjecen fortsatte: ”Dette nye finanssystem er nu mere presserende end nogensinde. Denne pjece er beregnet som modgift imod kampagnen for at forgifte forholdet mellem USA og Kina og sabotere et nyt system fra at blive til. Som LaRouche bemærkede, var det kun kombinationen af De Forenede Stater, Kina, Rusland og Indien, der ved at arbejde sammen, ville have gennemslagskraften til at få et nyt system på plads.”
Hvad der var sandt for et halvt år siden, da EIR først offentliggjorde disse linjer, er dobbelt så sandt i dag. En endnu mere ondskabsfuld bølge af anti-kinesisk Mccarthyisme er blevet sluppet løs i de seneste dage og uger:
- FBI har advaret alle amerikanske forskere, der samarbejder med kinesiske kolleger om at udvikle en vaccine mod coronavirus, om, at de kunne være en del af en kinesisk spionring, og blive anklaget i overensstemmelse hermed.
- Udenrigsminister Mike Pompeo holdt en tølperagtig tale til de amerikanske guvernører for et par uger siden, hvor han truede dem til at stoppe med at indgå handels- og økonomiske aftaler med Kina.
- FBI’s websted advarede mod enhver amerikansk deltagelse i Kinas ‘Tusind Talenter’-program for akademisk udveksling og sagde truende, at selvom medlemskab af Tusind Talenter-programmet ikke er teknisk ulovligt, har FBI-undersøgelser “afsløret, at deltagerne ofte tilskyndes til at overføre forskning de udfører i USA til Kina”.
- Og den største McCarthy-agtige operation af dem alle, det igangværende kupforsøg imod præsident Donald Trump, eskalerede senest med en korrupt dommers afslag på at henlægge de falske anklager mod general Michael Flynn, selvom justitsministeriet meddelte, at det ville gøre det.
En fremtrædende ledende artikel i Kinas Global Times i går behandlede spørgsmålet lige på og hårdt: ”Såfremt denne neo-McCarthyisme skulle genopstå i USA, vil den signalere en start på en ny kold krig mellem Kina og USA … [Sådan ] opførsel vil til syvende og sidst give bagslag. Dette vil underminere Trumps perspektiv for genvalg …. Det udgør farlige trusler mod verdensfred og stabilitet.”
Det strategiske formål med denne nye McCarthyisme er, som EIR advarede om i sin pjece november 2019, at “sabotere et nyt system fra at blive til.” Et sådant nyt system er tættere på i dag end nogensinde, da et planetarisk systemisk sammenbrud er undervejs; et sammenbrud der kombinerer en dødbringende global pandemi, et kollaps af det transatlantiske finanssystem, hungersnød “af bibelske proportioner”, og mere. Og i denne krise erkendes og høres LaRouche-bevægelsens stemme rundt om i verden, med dens unikke autoritative løsning på sammenbruddet, krisen, understregede Helga Zepp-LaRouche i går, herunder i en række af de store nationer, der ville være del af Lyndon LaRouches firemagts-alliance.
Denne stemme vil nu blive styrket med den kommende udgivelse af en programmatisk løsning på sammenbrudskrisen i sin helhed, “LaRouche-planen for at genåbne den amerikanske økonomi: Verden har brug for 1.5 milliarder nye, produktive jobs”.
Panel 3: “Kreativitet som den markant karakteristiske egenskab ved menneskelig kultur:
Behovet for en klassisk renæssance.
Schiller Instituttets internationale videokonference den 26. april 2020
Schiller Instituttets konference Panel 3: “Kreativitet som det karakteristiske træk ved den menneskelige kultur: Nødvendigheden af en klassisk renæssance”
Talere ved Panel 3, kl. 17 -20:15 – ordstyrer: Dennis Speed
Beethoven, “An die ferne Geliebte” (Op. 98,) John Sigerson, tenor, Margaret Greenspan, piano
Lyndon LaRouche: “Jeg har insisteret på, at musik er forståeligt”
Helga Zepp-LaRouche – grundlægger og præsident, Schiller Instituttet
William Warfield – ‘A Poetic Musical Offering’ (‘En poetisk musikalsk gave)
Eugene T. Simpson – Professor Emeritus i stemme og kor-litteratur, Rowan University of New Jersey; grundlæggende konservator af the Hall Johnson Collection “Hall Johnson og Dvorak-drømmen: Fra ‘spiritual’ til kunstsang”
Willis Patterson – bas-bariton, professor emeritus/dekan ved the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance – “Tilstedeværelsen af det klassiske princip i folkemusik”
John Sigerson – musikchef for Schiller Instituttet, medforfatter af ‘A Manual on the Rudiments of Tuning and Registration’ – “Den fysiske kraft af klassisk poesi og musik”
Diane Sare – grundlægger og meddirektør, Schiller Instituttet NYC Kor; Leah DeGruchy, Schiller Instituttet: “Om brugen af kor i politik”
Konferencehilsener, Gregory Hopkins – grundlægger og kunstnerisk direktør, Harlem Opera Theater.
RAPPORT: Panel 3 af Schiller Instituttets Konference, 26. april, 2020
Panel 3 af Schiller Instituttets Konference, 26. april, 2020
Kreativitet som det karakteristiske træk ved menneskelig kultur: Nødvendigheden af en klassisk renæssance
Det tredje panel på Schiller Instituttets idéfyldte konference begyndte med en introduktion af Dennis Speed, der dedicerede panelet til Lyndon LaRouche (1922-2019) og William Warfield (1920-2002.) Dette blev efterfulgt af en fremførelse af Beethovens sangcyklus, “An die ferne Geliebte,” udført af tenor John Sigerson og pianist Margaret Greenspan.
Dernæst blev der vist et mægtigt videoklip med Lyndon LaRouche, der talte på en koncert på Howard University i 1990’erne. Han talte om det nødvendige forhold mellem klassisk videnskab og klassisk kunst, hvilket derfor betyder, at al kunst er forståelig og ikke kun magisk; og at det er universelt.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche drøftede Friedrich Schillers storslåede menneskesyn og hans anskuelse om at måden til at opnå genialitet er gennem æstetisk uddannelse. Hun diskuterede sit eget studium af Schiller som ung studerende, og den dybe indflydelse han havde på udformningen og styrken i hendes karakter og verdensanskuelse. Hun sagde, at man i dag kan få et indblik i den aktuelle kultur ved at se på, hvordan folk har reageret på nedlukningen i forbindelse med COVID-19. Mange mennesker er henfaldet til de værste former for hedonistiske impulser som en reaktion, og atter andre har vendt sig til klassisk musik i højere grad end før. Dette er typisk i Italien, hvor folk sang opera fra deres altaner, og det samme andre steder.
Zepp-LaRouche tog derefter publikum med gennem forskellige uddrag af Schillers ‘Æstetiske Breve’ for at demonstrere, hvorfor kunstneren selv skal være på højeste niveau, og at ens individuelle mål skal være i harmoni med de større menneskelige mål.
To digte blev derefter præsenteret gennem et videoklip af en koncert-recitation af William Warfield af Paul Laurence Dunbars “Prometheus” og “When Malindy Sings.” (Prometeus og Når Malindy Synger).
Dr. Eugene Thamon Simpson gennemgik i sin præsentation, “Hall Johnson og Dvorak-drømmen: Fra ‘spiritual’ til kunstsang,” nogle væsentlige historier om den afroamerikanske ‘spiritual’, herunder kampen for at få den smukke musik ind på den etablerede koncertscene. Han demonstrerede forholdet mellem den tyske kunstsang og den afroamerikanske ‘spiritual’. Mens ‘spirituals’ tidligt blev marginaliseret og endda latterliggjort, blev ‘spirituals’ ophøjet og befriet ved Antonin Dvoráks ankomst til De Forenede Stater og hans opdagelse af dem. Afgørende i den forbindelse var Harry Burleighs rolle og hans forhold til Dvorák. Simpson demonstrerede forskellen mellem de mere forenklede opsætninger af ‘spirituals’ af Harry Burleigh, og de mere udviklede opsætninger af Hall Johnson, der også skrev ”originale” ‘spirituals’ og kompositioner. Simpson gennemgik en interessant pædagogik om Hall Johnsons kompositoriske evner ved at bruge eksemplet “Am Meer” af Schubert og “Oh, Glory” af Hall Johnson, og hvordan Johnson brugte metoden for klassisk komposition til hans opsætninger.
John Sigerson præsenterede: “Den fysiske kraft af klassisk poesi og musik.” Han gik i polemik imod klassisk musik som blot værende en “beherskelse af stil”, i modsætning til et fysisk princip. Klassisk musik handler om musik med formål, i modsætning til bare øjeblikkelige effekter. Gennem en diskussion af Max Planck og Albert Einstein, sidestillede Sigerson ”agapē” med sult efter at opdage sandheden. Han sagde, at dette er et handlingsprincip, der findes både i klassisk musik og klassisk videnskab. Han udfordrede nuværende musikere til: ‘Ændre om nødvendigt din tro, hvis din tro forhindrer dig i at være en fysisk kraft for det gode i universet.’
Dr. Willis Pattersons tale om “Tilstedeværelsen af det klassiske princip i folkemusik” var en bevægende diskussion om folkesangens forbedrende indvirkning på ens sjæl, om hvordan den er en kilde til trøst, og om den grelle kendsgerning, at det er mere produktivt end at have flere krige. Han henviste til sin egen transformation og styrke ved at studere folkemusik og ‘spirituals’, på samme måde som Zepp LaRouche havde talt om sin undersøgelse af Schiller for at styrke sin egen karakter. Dr. Patterson afsluttede sin præsentation med at henvise til Schiller og spille en optagelse af sig selv (bas-bariton) som solist i Beethovens ‘Ode til Joy’ fra 9. symfoni.
Teng Jimeng, professor i amerikanske studier ved Universitetet for Udenlandske Studier i Beijing, henviste til præsident Xi Jinpings breve om dyd og kunst, og forklarede at dette er en del af den æstetiske uddannelse i Kina sammen med altruisme og patriotisme. Teng diskuterede konfucianisme og kinesernes forpligtelse til at sætte de ældre først og hjælpe verden, og dem der lider.
Diane Sare og Leah DeGruchy behandlede: “Om brugen af kor i politik.” Sare begyndte med at udfordre lytteren til at sikre, at denne krise aldrig sker igen, og spurgte hvorfor vi tillod disse kriser at opstå, inklusive det seneste COVID-19-udbrud, da vi vidste, at det var på vej. Hun spurgte, hvorfor er vi så hurtige til at bebrejde andre og så tøvende med at se på os selv? Degruchy tog dette op ved en meget effektiv diskussion af Shakespeares “Købmanden i Venedig”, om korets rolle i tragedien. Degruchy reciterede Portias berømte tale: “Kvaliteten af nåde er ikke anstrengt”. Sare fokuserede derefter diskussionen på nødvendigheden af selvtransformation. Hun citerede Beethovens “Missa Solemnis”, der, som hun påpegede, helt flettes sammen koret og solisterne, og hun citerede Bachs Passions-messer, som værker, der effektivt opløfter publikum til et bedre forhold til skaberen.
En entusiastisk hilsen til konferencen kom fra dirigent og tenor Gregory Hopkins. Han fortalte om sit mangeårige samarbejde med Schiller Instituttet, indbefattet turen som han foretog til Europa i 1990’erne med Schiller Instituttet. Han fortalte, hvordan det lige nu er en meget vanskelig tid for musikere, så mange af dem har mistet deres job, sundhedsforsikring og midler til at klare sig igennem. Men ifølge kineserne kan “en krise” være en “mulighed”, og det er gennem stor kunst, at vi kan blive inspireret. Som [en] ‘spiritual’ siger: “Jeg er så glad for, at problemer ikke varer ved for altid …”
En meget intens spørgerunde fulgte præsentationerne, hvilket bedst kan værdsættes på video. Vigtigst af alt, opfordrede Zepp LaRouche alle der lyttede og alle talerne til at slutte sig til hende i en verdensomspændende renæssancebevægelse. Hun opfordrede også Dr. Willis Patterson, Dr. Simpson og Dr. Jimeng til at tale mere dybtgående, da de alle diskuterede princippet om ”altruisme” i musik/kultur.
The Physical Power of Classical Poetry and Music
by John Sigerson
As I reflected on this Year of Beethoven, and on how to seize its opportunity, I recalled a debate of sorts that I had in 1972 or 1973, shortly after I had joined up with Lyndon LaRouche after attending a series of classes devoted to two topics: Classical music on the one side, and, on the other side, the only economics I had found which addressed my obsession with economic progress, especially in Africa—two subjects which my college teachers had insisted were completely unrelated.
I was talking at that time with a Columbia student of music composition whom I was attempting to recruit to the idea that the world would be a better place if composers would take up the challenge that Beethoven had thrown down in his late works, especially his late string quartets. “Can you compose works like Beethoven did?” I asked him. “Yeah, sure I could, no problem,” he replied with a little swagger. “Well, then,” I pressed, “why don’t you just do so?” To which he breezily answered, “Because I don’t choose to do so!” and quickly scuttled away.
And that’s still the problem today.
This challenge, not only to transmit Beethoven’s ideas through honest performance, but to reach beyond Beethoven, has haunted human civilization ever since the composer’s death in March of 1827. A very few, such as Schumann and Brahms, have accepted the challenge, while so many others, such as Wagner and the Romantics, Stravinsky and the Modernists, not to mention the purveyors of mass popular entertainment, have “chosen not to do so.”
How can we take up this challenge today? Certainly the study, singing, and playing of great Classical works is essential for our survival. Yet we cannot fall into the trap which so many artists do, of believing that mastering the style of Classical music does justice to the composer, or to us. Great Classical music has never been a matter of style, but rather of an unquenchable yearning to transmit universal Platonic ideas, universal principles, concerning the true nature of mankind, that which distinguishes him from all other creatures known to us so far, on our journey through universal space-time.
Lyndon LaRouche threw us a lifeline for grappling with this challenge, when he characterized the Classical Lied, the Classical art-song, as the “Rosetta Stone” of music. He said that the singing of poetry is a never-failing source of inspiration to the composing mind. All great Classical poetry, from the Vedic hymns, to Homer, to Dante, to Shakespeare, Schiller, Shelley, and Poe, is sung poetry; and conversely, all great music, whether performed by singers, by instruments, or combinations of both, must be sung—and sung with beauty, and grace—if it is to have its intended effect to uplift and transform performers and audience alike.
Poetry, like music, is never a matter of style, but a matter of purpose. Particularly in troubled times, composers have taken up the songs and poems of unknown bards of the people, so-called folk songs, as a means of enriching and ennobling popular culture, by raising these songs of life and love to the highest level of moral and artistic perfection. The elevation of the African-American Spiritual, as discussed by my colleagues here, is a unique, precious example in American culture. Similarly, during the 19th century, the folk songs of many European cultures were brought to a high level of perfection by Beethoven himself, and especially by Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvorák. In China, which has a rich trove of songs of the people, I believe that composers have yet to accomplish this to the same level as, say, Brahms, yet I’m confident that if China is not destroyed in a nuclear holocaust so desperately hoped for by the Old Paradigm dinosaurs, this will not be long in coming.
And yet, in our Western culture today, the resonance of these songs of life and love among the broad masses of our population, has been fading away under the onslaught of the brutal, bestial, rigid, largely sex-driven “pop” culture, to such an extent that if you ask a young American today if they know a simple folk song they have sung from childhood, more likely than not they will remain silent, looking at you in perplexity.
So, can true Classical composition, on the order of a Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms be revived in the face of this brutalization of our people’s culture, where the resonances of history have been supplanted by the futile quest for the here and now? I believe it can, but only if poets and composers agree to submit themselves to a struggle, not just to create beautiful melodies or clever musical juxtapositions, but to deliberately shape the intended physical effect of their own creations.
In a second I’m going to illustrate what I mean by this, with the example of two fine musicians, Max Planck and Albert Einstein.
But first, what do I mean by “physical”? Well, I mean it in the same way that Lyndon LaRouche discusses physical economy. Anyone familiar with LaRouche’s discussions and writings, must realize that by physical, he’s not referring to things, whether these be pieces of plant and equipment, or human beings, but rather to validated universal physical principles which man can discover, by means of creative acts, for the benefit of mankind’s future existence, and for the increased happiness of the universe itself.
The musicians Planck and Einstein, of course, also happened to be gifted theoretical physicists. As the fruit of their struggle, they discovered the quantized nature of electromagnetic energy—a discovery which led directly into our still very partial mastery of nuclear power. And please pardon me if I skip over many technical details, crucial though they may be.
Max Planck grew up in Germany during the latter half of the 19th century. When he announced to his friends that he was going to become a physicist instead of a pianist and composer, some of his associates told him that he was wasting his time, because all of the basic laws of discrete matter, on the one side, and of perfectly continuous electromagnetic energy on the other, had already been discovered.
Nevertheless, a problem that continued to confound physicists was the so-called black-body problem. The challenge was to pin down the distribution of power and frequencies of substances, especially metals, which, when they become hotter, emit light at various frequencies, first in the lower red frequencies, as you see when piece of metal begins to glow red, and then, as the temperature increases, going toward white. The so-called black body was a device for testing this with great precision.
The practical problem was that no one had been able to work out a formula for the distribution of the frequencies. This had become a matter of some urgency for industrial production, since the fabrication of reliable light bulbs required such a calculation, and indeed the electric firm Siemens funded an entire institution in Berlin devoted to solving this problem.
After seeing many others fail, Planck decided to take this up, and succeeded in working out an equation that seemed to account for the exact distribution of energy. However—and this is the crucial feature of his integrity—he remained dissatisfied with his own equation, and he even refused to present it to his colleagues, because he had not yet discovered its physical significance. What caused it to work that way, and no other way? he asked. Thus, he was confronted with the same kind of challenge confronting Johannes Kepler, who studied Ptolemy’s planetary epicycles, and the circular orbits of Copernicus and Tycho Brahe, and concluded that, however accurate their models might seem to be, they could not possibly be valid, because they merely described a natural phenomenon without any concern about discovering its physical cause.
Planck embarked upon a voyage which ended up challenging his own gripping, axiomatic belief in the existence of perfect continuity in nature. For, how could light, for example, be anything but a continuous wave? How could God’s creation be merely the sum of a myriad of little parts? In this, Planck was constantly at odds with morally compromised reductionists such as Ludwig Boltzmann and Ernst Mach, who argued that scientists should abandon all effort to actually understand the causality of complex phenomena such as the behavior of gases, and should be satisfied with a mere statistical likelihood that a given phenomenon be this way, and not another way.
But after trying all sorts of black-body thought-experiments, and failing to find a cause, Planck, in what he himself described as “an act of desperation,” reached into Boltzmann’s work and hypothesized a model which involved a myriad of little bouncing springs from within the black body, emitting light at frequencies all of which were whole-number increments of an extremely tiny constant value—what only later became known as the Planck quantum of action. Planck had discovered a true physical cause, even though it was squarely at odds with his own most cherished axiom of continuity.
But the story does not end there! Planck had grasped a new principle, but only incompletely. Clinging to his conviction that light itself was continuous, he thought that it was only the light’s interaction with the tiny discrete receptors in the black body which was causing his quantized effect. His paper announcing his discovery then fell into the hands of a younger third-class patent official in Switzerland named Albert Einstein, who said, in effect: “Wait a minute! What if the light itself is quantized? And what if the wave nature of light can in fact be ultimately reconciled with its quantized nature, according to a higher principle?
As they say, the rest is history. And since then, to the day he died, Einstein never abandoned his quest for that higher principle, resisting all efforts of Machians such as Werner Heisenberg, to reduce quantum physics to a statistical game which only “seems to work,” but which does not choose to investigate causes. As Einstein famously retorted to these demented fellows: “God doesn’t play dice.”
But back to music and poetry! I’d like to quote from another fine musician, namely Lyndon LaRouche. In January 1993, I, my wife Renée, and Mindy Pechenuk visited Lyndon in prison in Rochester, Minnesota, for a number of hours, where we discussed all matters musical, against the sometimes raucous background of the prison visiting-room. From the transcribed recording, which we plan to publish someday, let me read you the following, to give you a glimpse of LaRouche’s thinking:
“The equivalences of music are not ordinal, they’re not quantitative—they’re not qualitative, for example. They are in an analysis situs form. And the key to this, is two things.
“First of all, the musical domain is a quantized field. Notes exist. And space is Keplerian. Because you have the notes, they exist in certain locations, there are certain harmonics that exist, they’re ordered. And no matter what notes you’re playing, the next one is going to be there. You can change your sequence as much as you please, but the next one is going to be there. It’s all predetermined for you. And this is not alterable. And an approximation of the note, only to the extent that you’re not cheating, is the note. The note that is sung or performed is not the note. It’s the best approximation of the note. The tone is absolute; and the performer merely approximates that. And if they don’t approximate that rather well, we get unhappy; we get disturbed. But it’s analysis situs.
“The key thing is note, number one. Registration, second. And registration comes in many different varieties. It comes in aspects of instrumental colors of all kinds, or the generic term color is sometimes used. But you have many kinds of colors. You can create instruments; they have colors which are not human voice-colors. But they become a dimensionality of color. And it’s precise, it’s determined. You make a string of such-and-such a type, such-and-such a type, it’s stuck. You’ve got a color. You can modify it, but it’s there; it’s going to haunt you. And you won’t get away from it. You have to jump to another string to get to a different part of your color.”
And now, I hope you will bear with me when I cite this passage from Einstein’s Introduction to Planck’s 1932 book Where Is Science Going?:
“… The supreme task of the physicist is the discovery of the most general elementary laws from which the world-picture can be deduced logically. But there is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance, and this Einfühlung is developed through experience….
[Einfühlung roughly means “empathy,” which is also happens to be Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s best English approximation of Schiller’s term Empfindung. Einstein continues:]
“In every important advance, the physicist finds that the fundamental laws are simplified more and more as experimental research advances. He is astonished to notice how sublime order emerges from what appeared to be chaos. And this cannot be traced back to the workings of his own mind, but is due to a quality that is inherent in the world of perception. Leibniz well expressed this quality by calling it a pre-established harmony.
“Physicists sometimes reproach the philosophers who busy themselves with theories of knowledge, claiming that the latter do not appreciate this fact fully. And I think that this was at the basis of the controversy waged a few years ago between Ernst Mach and Max Planck. Planck probably felt that Mach did not fully appreciate the physicist’s longing for perception of this pre-established harmony. This longing has been the inexhaustible source of that patience and persistence with which we have seen Planck devoting himself to the most ordinary questions arising in connection with physical science, when he might have been tempted into other ways which led to more attractive results.
“I have often heard that his colleagues are in the habit of tracing this attitude to his extraordinary personal gifts of energy and discipline. I believe they are wrong. The state of mind which furnishes the driving power here resembles that of the devotee or the lover. The long-sustained effort is not inspired by any set plan or purpose. Its inspiration arises from a hunger of the soul.
“I am sure Max Planck would laugh at my childish way of poking around with the lantern of Diogenes. Well! why should I tell of his greatness? It needs no paltry confirmation of mine. His work has given one of the most powerful of all impulses to the progress of science. His ideas will be effective as long as physical science lasts.”
So, what is the lesson to be learned here? By way of this, I throw out the following challenge to poets and composers today, especially young poets and young composers, who may also be working in a scientific field:
You poets and composers: You know who you are! (Because if you have to ask, you probably aren’t one, or at least not yet.) Take up the challenge set forth before you, not just by Planck and Einstein, but by Lyndon LaRouche, and by the speakers at this conference, to dedicate your life to changing your own axioms if need be, even your most cherished ones, if you find that those axioms are preventing you from discovering a means of crafting your compositions to become a physical cause in the universe. Are you, for example, certain that what you have created will, in fact, inspire action resulting in increases in the rate of growth of humanity’s relative potential population density? Or put more simply, along with Friedrich Schiller: Will your audience become better people as a result of experiencing your work?
That is the true content of that “hunger of the soul” in Einstein’s words, or, in the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians, Love. Be not satisfied with merely pretty, pleasant, childish things. Put yourselves through this necessary struggle, and all mankind will be forever thankful.
Or as Percy Bysshe Shelley sang to his skylark:
… We look before and after,
And pine for what is not:
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.
Yet if we could scorn
Hate, and pride, and fear;
If we were things born
Not to shed a tear,
I know not how thy joy we ever should come near.
Better than all measures
Of delightful sound,
Better than all treasures
That in books are found,
Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground!
Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know,
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.
Thank you.
PANEL 3: TENG JIMENG, Professor of American Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University
TENG JIMENG: First of all, thank you very much to the Schiller Institute to invite me to speak at this very great conference and to join the distinguished panel of this very great conference. I think this is a very timely conference, especially under the general background of the coronavirus which is now running rampant worldwide.
I would begin, for example, with a presentation given by President Xi back in 2008 when he was responding to a letter to eight professors teaching traditional Chinese aesthetics at this very university called the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In that letter, President Xi mentioned several notions. Two of the notions I’d like to quote here. The first one being dé and yì. In Chinese dé means virtue, and yì meaning art. So, both dé and yì are supposed to be an integral of the Chinese traditional aesthetic education. The second notion I’d like to quote here is patriotism and also altruism; both altruism and patriotism are supposed to be the central tenets of Confucius teaching or Confucius learning. In China, this aesthetic education has been so very deeply rooted in the curriculum in high schools, in primary schools, and also in universities. Virtue has always been part of official training here in China; training officials with virtue. Once again, virtue means the skill set, the ability to communicate, compassion, and also the love of one’s people, public spirit mostly. And yì meaning art, the art, for example, to communicate, the art to convey the message, the message of the redeemed, the message of the ruler. In this sense, yì has played a very large role in communicating and connecting the people in the family, the community, and even people beyond the border.
The second notion, as I always cite it in my teaching, which is altruism. China has been strongly committed to this very notion of altruism. Back in the 1960s, for example, China has been even exporting food to the outside world — for example, to Africa, and committing medical teams to Africa, helping with malaria and building railroads in Africa. In fact, it was railroads in a sense which were built by China in the 1970s and the late 1960s. China actually at the time was suffering its greatest famine, the worst famine actually in its own history. So, when Chinese government has always been in a sense committed to this very principle, this Confucian principle of saving lives; saving children, saving the critically ill elderly patients in ICUs. Look at all these elderly patients being saved, and sent back home healthily out of their critical conditions previously.
These two great notions have been deeply rooted in the psyche of the Chinese people. And like a famous scholar I admire by the name of Tu Weiming, who has been teaching Confucianism worldwide. He actually quoted a lot of Confucianism, this very central value in Confucianism — the public spirit, the devotion to work for the public community, and also the people beyond the borders and out there in the cosmic community. To this very extent, I think that China shall continue to be committed to helping the world, and helping the people around the world on this planet, now suffering this very pandemic.
And lastly, let me just quote the great philosopher Confucius that “All roads that lead to prosperity are the road that we must follow. The road that leads to all under Heaven.” So, all under Heaven, in a sense, is the philosophy of Confucianism, now translated into contemporary Chinese politics. As President Xi has also in a sense said that we need to work together for the community of a shared future of all mankind. Thank you very much.
Englands centralbank går i panik; Wall Street eksploderer: Vil Trump lytte til Lyndon LaRouches vise ord?
Den 12. marts (EIRNS) – Præsident Trump talte til nationen onsdag aften, efter at denne rapport var færdiggjort. Om han valgte at bruge præsidentskabets beføjelser, som udtænkt af Amerikas grundlæggere, og indeholdt i efterkrigstidens Lov for Forsvarsproduktion (Defense Production Act) eller ej, for at kunne omgå den korrupte og impotente Kongres og erklære en national undtagelsestilstand, til at igangsætte en politik for en massiv udvidelse af infrastruktur og industri, kunne være afgørende for landets og verdens skæbne. De sidste 50 års ødelæggelse af det offentlige sundhedssystem, både i USA og i Europa, er nu blotlagt for hele verden, efter som Vestens førende nationer, derunder Tyskland, Italien, Frankrig og USA, ingen kapacitet har til at imødegå de ekstraordinære sundhedskrav, til det der langt om længe er blevet klassificeret som en pandemi af Verdenssundhedsorganisationen (WHO).
Og det er nu overmådeligt klart for alle undtagen de blinde, at hele den industrielle kapacitet – specielt den grundlæggende infrastruktur som opretholder denne – er så faldefærdig, at selv en genopbygning af den industrielle kapacitet vil kræve en umådelig indgriben fra staten, i samme størrelsesorden som da Franklin Roosevelt greb ind i 1933. Til at begynde med kan det panikslagne kollaps af ”markederne – Dow Jones faldt mere end 5% i dag, og 20% i hele ugen – kun løses på en måde: den øjeblikkelige genindførelse af Glass-Steagall (bankopdeling) for at gøre en ende på spekulationshysteriet. Dernæst må præsidenten insistere på sin magt som præsident og frifinde Lyndon LaRouche, således at den fulde vægt af hans Fire Love kan gennemføres.
Med dette må lederne af verdens største nationer – som nødvendigvis inkluderer Rusland, Kina, Indien og USA – slutte sig sammen for at oprette et Nyt Bretton Woods-system baseret på disse Fire Love, for at befri hele verden fra det bankerotte britiske imperiale monetaristiske system, kontrolleret af Wall Street og City of London.
I dag appellerede Helga Zepp-LaRouche til præsident Trump og NATO om at stoppe de vanvittige militærøvelser, Europe-Defender 2020 – de største NATO-øvelser siden Den kolde Krig, hvor store antal af tropper og udstyr åbent bevæges hen til den russiske grænse. Udover vanviddet, set fra et strategisk standpunkt – at true med krig mellem verdens to største atommagter – er det ligeså afsindigt at bevæge store antal af soldater gennem Europa, imens coronavirusset truer med massedød, hvis den ikke inddæmmes.
Det er et vigtigt historisk øjeblik. Til vores fordel, som mennesker, erkender befolkningen i stigende grad, at de ”gængse regler” ikke længere gælder. Mange ser tilbage og spørger: ”Hvem har fortalt sandheden alle disse år, mens regeringerne og medierne og Wall Street løj for os?” Hvis de institutionelle ledere fortsætter med at være blinde over for nødvendigheden af en revolutionær forandring, for en tilbagevenden til det ”Amerikanske Systems” tiltag med øremærkede kreditter, og for at lade præsident Trump udføre hans intention om at genoprette fredelige forhold til Rusland og Kina, så må vi mobilisere borgerne til at kræve præcis denne politik.
Den europæiske Renæssance er vores forbillede for at tage fat på nutidens eksistentielle kriser
Schiller Instituttets ugentlige webcast med Helga Zepp Larouche d. 4 marts 2020
I en omfattende gennemgang af de sammenløbende kriser, der konfronterer menneskeheden i dag, konkluderede Helga Zepp-LaRouche, at hvad der kræves, frem for panik og fortvivlelse, er en rolig overvejelse af de handlinger, som kan løfte menneskeheden ud af det neoliberale, geopolitiske tankesæt, ind i den kreative sindstilstand, der gjorde det muligt for menneskeheden at kravle ud af det 14. århundredes mørke tidsalder. Hun understregede, at kriserne der truer os i dag er resultatet af ikke at have lyttet til Lyndon LaRouche lige siden hans forudsigelse d. 15. August, 1971. Som et eksempel, refererede hun til coronavirusset som den slags trussel, forudset af Lyn i 1970’erne, der ledte ham til at etablere en arbejdsgruppe rettet mod et biologisk holocaust.
Ved hvert degenererende tilbageskridt i kvaliteten af lederskab – der i dag udstilles i monetarismen og den grønne ideologi, som dominerer den politiske diskussion i Europa og i det demokratiske partis kamp for at nominere en præsidentkandidat – fremlagde LaRouche et klart og veldefineret alternativ. I dag kan dette sammenfattes ved behovet for at indføre hans firemagtsaftale, som grundlaget for et nyt Bretton Woods-system, og hans Fire Love, baseret på betingelserne for at genoprette niveauet af fysisk økonomisk produktion, nødvendigt for at overvinde kriserne.
Hun konkluderede ved at minde seerne om Boccaccios rolle i at bevidstgøre den mørke tidsalders fordærvelse, hvilket inspirerede dem der igangsatte Renæssancen, specielt Dante og Cusanus. Det var ved at forkaste datidens dominerende aristoteliske filosofi, og erstatte denne med Platon, at moderne europæisk civilisation blev født. Der er ingen af de problemer, som i dag konfronterer os, der ikke kan løses ved at tage skabelsen af den europæiske renæssance som forbillede, baseret på en tilbagevenden til den klassiske tænkemetode.
THE EUROPEAN RENAISSANCE IS OUR MODEL TO ADDRESS TODAY’S EXISTENTIAL CRISES
Schiller Institute webcast with Helga Zepp-LaRouche
HARLEY SCHLANGER: Hello, I’m Harley Schlanger from the Schiller Institute. Welcome to our webcast for today, March 4, 2020, with our founder and chairman Helga Zepp-LaRouche. The obvious starting point is the issue that’s on virtually everybody’s mind — the spread of the coronavirus. People are trying to figure out how to deal with it, governments are in action. There’s a lot of panicking being spread by some people, and then there’s also a lot of disinformation. I think given the record we have, based on Lyndon LaRouche’s forecasting going back to 1971, what you have to say on this, Helga, is very significant for people. So, why don’t we start with what the recent status of this is, and how are nations addressing it?
HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think it is a very serious threat. There are several renowned virologists and experts who say it is, de facto, a pandemic already. Now, I will qualify that in a second. For those people who think this is too much, or that this will cause panic, I think when you have a situation like that, it is extremely important to take a calm assessment of the situation and then move towards taking the actions necessary to combat the threat and do the kinds of things which will hopefully succeed.
Now the reason why this coronavirus is a very dangerous pandemic is it has characteristics which are more serious than previous pandemics, and it coincides with a financial system which was already bankrupt before the idea of the coronavirus appeared. Naturally, the effects both in the real economic situation and the real economy, as well as on the financial system, in all likelihood will trigger a collapse of this system. So, rather than only looking at the health aspect of the coronavirus, it is the absolute urgent moment and necessity to also move determinedly to reform the international monetary system which is bankrupt; to replace it with a new credit system which we should discuss in a second. And then use that crisis to bring about the changes in the strategic situation which will help to solve a whole bunch of other problems. President Trump reflected this in his way by saying it is an irony of the situation that because of the coronavirus crisis, forces are coming together which would normally never do so.
So, having said that, I think we should first look at the coronavirus itself. It is now officially spread to 70 countries, and it is not possible to reconstruct the origin, and who infected whom. But it has spread to what is called asymmetric transmission or community transmission, and that is now also affecting countries which do not have such a good health system as China or even the European or US have, which have big flaws in their health system already. So the danger is that all of this can continue to spread much faster. And I think there is also a vast under-reporting, because in many countries, the kind of testing which was done rigorously in China has not even started; including the United States where the first test kits were flawed and did not work, which shows you one dimension of a broken-down health system. So, it is now regarded that several countries are really hotspots. China still even so because of the energetic methods used by the Chinese government. It is spreading now more quickly in other countries other than China, and it is also in South Korea, Iran, and Italy. But the situation is serious enough that major international events are being shut down. In Germany, they shut down the Leipzig Book Fair which was supposed to open shortly, the Kraft International Conference in Munich, and even the Hanover Fair has been postponed by three months. Similarly, in France, the Louvre has been closed, and they don’t convene indoor events anymore with large crowds. That shows you that there is actually a serious concern.
I must say, however, that the reaction both in the United States and in Europe was delayed. I think measures should have been taken much clearer. I think the [German] Health Minister Spahn in earlier periods said the virus will not come to Germany; which is a rather absurd assumption. Naturally, the collapse of the health system which we have talked about many times before, is now really coming home to roost. So, the situation is that already last December, the European umbrella trade union for health workers and nurses put out an urgent complaint that because of the cuts and austerity and liberalization in the last decade — especially after the 2008 crisis — there was a severe health crisis. Not enough staff; pay for nurses and health workers has been cut in several countries; and resources have been cut down, and hospitals have been closed. That is now leading to a very critical situation.
If you look at China, which has 4.3 hospital beds per 1000 citizens, in the United States, it’s only 2.5 beds per 1000 people. So, you can actually see that China has been in a much better situation to deal with it, and they took measures that have been characterized by the World Health Organization in such a way that they said that China has established a new standard in how to deal with such epidemics and pandemics. China now has offered help to the affected countries; they have offered help to the EU, but also Iran and other countries being hit very hard. Offering their expertise from the last several months, but also masks, protective gear, and I think the European Union and others would be well-advised to take the advice and the help offered by the Chinese. This is extremely important because a lot of time has already been lost, and now it is time for the kind of international cooperation which overcomes prejudice and geopolitical stupidity. I think this is now something which should really occur immediately.
SCHLANGER: When you speak of delay, I think back to the fact that in 1971, your late husband, Lyndon LaRouche, spoke about how, if we go with the policy of neo-liberalism which came through with globalization, austerity, and so on, that mankind would be confronted with biological holocausts. This warning was made very clearly, and yet, under the neo-liberal doctrine, the healthcare system, as well as the industrial system, manufacturing, food security; all of this has been torn down. So, besides the emergency measures, we really do need this radical transformation of the monetary financial system, don’t we?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Let me stress one thing. Many of our viewers are quite aware of the fact that the name of my late husband has been slandered by many forces. But if you look at the present situation, I think it is a question of honesty to recognize that every one of his prognoses has come true. And the reason why he was so “controversial” is because he went against the powers that be, against the people who wanted to go for the complete deregulation of the markets, of the increase of the power of speculative interests in Wall Street and the City of London. When he made this historic prognosis on the 15th of August, 1971, when he said that when Nixon decoupled the dollar from the gold standard, he abandoned the fixed exchange rates, and actually destroyed the Bretton Woods system by doing so. Lyndon LaRouche said, if you continue on this trend, it will inevitably lead to a new depression, to the danger of a new fascism, or there will be a replacement by a completely new economic world order. Then he proceeded every step of the way to warn about the consequences of the extreme monetarism which had been introduced and had been escalated by warning that you cannot continuously lower the living standard of entire continents — as it was done to the developing sector in Africa and Latin America and many of the Asian countries — without causing old epidemics and new diseases to emerge. And that that was the big danger. At the end of the 1970s, beginning of the 1980s, we created something which was called the Biological Task Force, which was exactly studying the danger of the outbreaks of such new diseases. We also proposed the remedies; namely, to go into a crash program for optical biophysics, for the study of life sciences, to find cures for these new diseases. Obviously, this was not done, because it was not seen a profitable by the pharmaceutical industry and the banking interests behind them.
So, now we are at the situation where all the predictions of Lyndon LaRouche have come to the point of absolute boundary condition. This financial system is absolutely bankrupt; we have to dramatically reverse the monetary system and change it into a credit system. This is why I have issued a call for the immediate implementation of the Four Laws of Lyndon LaRouche. I will just briefly summarize again what they are. There has to be an immediate end to the casino economy. That means you have to have the introduction of a global Glass-Steagall banking separation in exactly the same way as Franklin D Roosevelt proposed and implemented it in 1933. Then you need new credit mechanisms; you need to bring back the issuing of credit into the sovereign power of governments, away from private interests. Which means you have to have a national bank in every country to issue credit for productive investments. Then you have to implement a New Bretton Woods system by connecting these national banks in every country which must go back to a fixed exchange rate system. They must then have long-term agreements for investments in very well-defined infrastructure projects, in industrial investments, in an increase of productivity of the economy with a special emphasis on such frontier areas as fusion, bio-optics, bio-physics, space cooperation. And we need an urgent implementation of the World Land-Bridge report, which we published several years ago; which is the idea to turn the New Silk Road into a World Land-Bridge by bringing economic development to all regions affected by crises right now. That would include: Southwest Asia, because of the refugee crisis; Africa, because of the corona crisis, but also the locust crisis, the migrant crisis.
But the key message of all of this is, there is a solution. This solution could be implemented extremely quickly. As a matter of fact, we have also proposed that a summit should take place among the four most important powers of the world — Russia, China, India, and the United States. Not at the exclusion of other countries, but these four most important and powerful countries much come together to implement these Four Laws. That such a summit is already in the works is on a very good track. I made this first proposal on January 3rd, following the assassination of General Soleimani in Iran. A few days after that, President Putin came up with a different but similar proposal, suggesting that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council should have an immediate summit to address the basic questions facing all of humanity. In the meantime, China and France have agreed, and today, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov reported that also President Trump said he is very interested to participate in such a summit. So, that is the framework which could solve these problems very quickly. I would appeal to all people, rather than becoming anxious, becoming despaired, help us rather to bring these solutions about. I think this is the key characteristic of our organization — the Schiller Institute, the LaRouche movement — that we are fighting for actual solutions. The only solution which would function in such an extraordinary crisis, is to abandon the system which caused all of these crises, and replace it with a system which is in the interest of all nations. And move to a New Paradigm of international cooperation. So, that is eminently feasible if the political will can be mobilized. That’s why I am asking you to contact us and work together with us to create the international support for these ideas.
SCHLANGER: Now in that context, we see the crazy response of the European Union and the Federal Reserve to the crisis. Assuming that you can somehow deal with the coronavirus crisis by flooding more money into the system. The Federal Reserve dropping the interest rates and so on. That’s the continuation of the neo-liberal system; that’s what we have to change, isn’t it? That kind of thinking?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes, exactly! That really shows you that there is an absolute disconnect of the present neo-liberal establishments on both sides of the Atlantic. A complete disconnect of the causes of the crisis, and what is actually needed to remedy it. I have not seen any reflection of any of the leading liberal representatives in Europe or in the United States in the Democratic Party, for that matter, nor the neo-cons in the Republican Party, who would sit back and say, “Wait a second, why is our system not functioning? Why do we have a financial crisis? Why do we have the outbreak of pandemics?” I think that unwillingness of the liberal establishment is a very good reason for ordinary citizens to really mobilize and force a change, because as it looks right now, it will not come from these elites.
SCHLANGER: I think that’s why we’re seeing a global insurgency precisely against these elites. We just saw in the United States, besides the craziness of the Federal Reserve, the election underway. The Democratic Party looks as though the establishment has decided they’re at least for the moment, going to rally around Joe Biden, who if you look at him, this is Mr. Establishment. The Obama-Clinton Democratic Party. What are your thoughts after Super Tuesday? I know it’s important. Bloomberg just announced today that he’s dropping out; $500 million for a handful of delegates. Probably the worst businessman in world history.
What are your thoughts now after Super Tuesday?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think the DNC clearly wants to rig the election again; get Bernie Sanders out, who has his own massive problems without question. But to basically try to get all the other contenders to drop out and support Biden. This reflects the fact that they have absolutely not learned the lesson of 2016. They still don’t know why Hillary lost the election. As you say, Bloomberg probably paid for each vote he got $1000 to $2000 or $3000; I haven’t calculated it exactly, but it was a very expensive vote buying. So, he blew $500 million for advertisements; this is really the laughingstock, but I think a Biden candidacy would implement exactly what Bloomberg has been proposing, which is Green financing. It would be complete catastrophe.
I think we are now in a revolutionary situation, so forget about November 2020. The kinds of changes which the world urgently needs are a question of now. I think the immediacy of the situation is here. There were reports in the Italian financial press saying the only reason why there has not yet been a wide recognition that we are already in a pandemic, is because of the so-called “pandemic bonds”. This was a financial instrument developed by the World Bank after the Ebola crisis, where investors could invest in a pandemic bond, which was supposed to finance such emergencies but also yield a profit of 6.9% to 11%. And another date of maturity of these pandemic bonds is due to come on March 15th. That shows you the utter absurdity; to delay necessary measures, including informing the public in the necessary way, just to not risk the profit of some speculators. And it also shows you that the health sector is definitely not something which should be subject to financial speculators, but it should be absolutely the responsibility of sovereign governments to provide a health system for the common good of the people. I think this just shows you that the establishments at this point are incapable, unwilling to recognize the reason why the liberal system is not functioning. That means we will continue to have a very revolutionary moment. As the consequences of both the pandemic and the condition of the financial system will get clearer, I think the upheaval which we have seen in the health sector in all European countries, but also among the farmers, will just increase. And it will force the kind of solution with the Four Power, or maybe Five Power UN Security Council permanent five member agreement which we have been proposing and which now Russia has successfully put on the agenda.
So, I think that is the only thing to look at; don’t be confused. Don’t think the solution can be postponed until some date in November 2020, because the crisis is here and it requires an immediate solution.
SCHLANGER: This is to all of our viewers: This is why we have been emphasizing, “Join us now!” Don’t think you can vote in November to change something. By November, it may be too late.
On that, Helga, you’re talking about the unwillingness to change, the incapacity to change. We’re seeing a situation emerging now with Turkey, with the fighting going on in Idlib province, the possibility of a new wave of refugees into Europe. A lot of dangerous silliness coming out of the European Union. What’s going on with this situation?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: The problem is that Turkey is using the refugee issue to blackmail the EU. But also, they have attacked Syrian forces in Idlib, and are backing terrorist elements. Obviously, it’s really amazing. Instead of attacking Turkey for intervening again in Syria, trying to escalate the longstanding war against the Assad government, the British First Secretary of State — Dominic Raab — came out in full support for Turkey. Then, this unfortunate German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karranbauer [AKK] also threatened to increase the sanctions against Syria, and basically fully took the side of Turkey. Fortunately you have Russia in this situation, and Putin said very clearly that if Turkey enters Syrian air space and territory, it is at their own risk if they are being attacked. Russia obviously has a big role to play, Erdoğan will go to Moscow tomorrow, and he will meet on Thursday and Friday with President Putin. Obviously, if Putin and Trump would — they may be doing that already — but if they would agree on how to handle this crisis, then I think Erdoğan could somehow be contained. But what he is doing is, he is instrumentalizing these absolutely poor refugees. He has fed these 13-15,000 refugees the fake news that the border to Greece and Bulgaria would be open. Then, you had these horrendous pictures where tear gas is being used by the Greek police against these refugees. Then you have tear gas being used by the Turkish side, trying to drive these refugees over the border. These poor people, who have absolutely nothing to lose, because they are desperate; they are instrumentalized. They are absolutely in the middle of all of this, but obviously these pictures are supposed to force Europe to have another deal like the one which the EU concluded several years ago, paying 6 billion euros to Erdoğan so he would build these camps. There are all together 3 million Syrians in Turkey; there are many other people from Asia, from Afghanistan, from Iraq. Obviously, this is an untenable situation.
Turkey claims the EU did not pay the promised 6 billion euros — probably a lot of this money for NGOs and not giving to the Turkish government. This is all a completely disgraceful situation. And the situation between Turkey and Greece is super hot. There was just a delegation of the European Union — [EU President] Ursula von der Leyen, and [Charles] Michel, the head of the European Council, the head of the European Parliament [David] Sassoli, and the Prime Minister of Croatia [Andrej] Plenkovic — they all visited and gave a press conference together with Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis, who basically said what is happening is that Turkey is absolutely making an asymmetric attack on the territory of Greece, and that this cannot be tolerated. So, these European Union guests had very little to say and very little to contribute, and it just shows you one more time the utter impotence of the EU. But it also shows that if you have the statements of AKK completely echoing what the British First Secretary of State is saying, you have clearly the EU falling into the Great Game of the British again; using the Middle East as the cockpit for the Great Game. One only can say, the only counter to that is what I said earlier: You need the Four Powers — the United States, Russia, China, and India — to work together to counter these machinations.
Otherwise, I think it should be obvious that the only way you can solve this problem of the refugees and the instability is, you have to have an economic development plan for the entire region. China offered several years ago to extend the New Silk Road from Iran to Iraq to Syria to Turkey to Egypt; to connect the New Silk Road via Turkey with Europe, and via Egypt with Africa. That is something which has to start, because you have to give hope to the people. You have to give the perspective of economic reconstruction of Syria, of Iraq, of Afghanistan. If you don’t have an economic perspective, there is no way this problem can be solved. I find it absolutely criminal that some politicians still are on the line that they will not give a penny for the reconstruction of Syria until Assad is chased out of his office. I think this just completely criminal. The people who are saying that are personally responsible for the lives lost, and I think they should be treated with contempt.
I think what is needed right now is an urgent, international solidarity to reconstruct Southwest Asia as one region. Iran is one of the countries which has poverty out of control; coronavirus infection. President Rouhani said that is not one single region that is not affected by the coronavirus. Even some members of the government are reported to be sick. The sanctions which are imposed on Iran are killing people. I think it should stop right away, because you need a comprehensive solution. China has offered to help with the infrastructure; Russia has offered to help to build up the energy in the region. Obviously, other countries can participate in building up industry, agriculture, bringing in lots of new freshwater sources with new technologies. All of that would be absolutely feasible, but it does require that the countries stop playing these geopolitical games.
If you are for ending geopolitics because you don’t want to have refugees, work with the Schiller Institute. Because we are the organization which is doing something; we are the organization which has solutions. That is why you should absolutely join us on the spot.
SCHLANGER: I’m just going to ask you one more question, because we’re going a little bit longer than usual. But it’s really crucial, given what you just said. In the midst of this confluence of crises, instead of panic and despair, you’re talking about solutions. I found it very interesting that Donald Trump, when he was in Davos, spoke about the Dome in Florence, which you and your husband have often referenced, as an example of the merger of beauty and science that’s the proper approach. We’ve been through, as a human race, a Dark Age before, when mankind has been lifted out of that with a new renaissance. You’ve been very outspoken about the need for this, so I think it would be very useful for you to just say something about that now.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes. Many of you probably know this extremely important book, the Decameron by Bocaccio. He described the consequences of the Black Death in the 14th Century on the population. When you read in this book, you can actually see the parallels to the present. The irrationality which naturally comes with pandemics; the misery; how people lose any kind of empathy because sickness overwhelms people. I don’t think we are quite at that point yet in Europe, but if you look at what is happening in Africa with the locust plague destroying the basis for survival for many people, we are quickly approaching such a situation like in the 14th Century. I have said many times, you need to study how did mankind come out of the 14th Century and create the beautiful Italian Renaissance? Because that is a lesson to be learned. I can only make it very short. It was that there were a group of humanists developing who took the ideas of Dante Alighieri, of Petrarca, of the school of Padua, and basically said we have to go back to the sources. We have to go back to the original great philosophers. That was the environment which allowed — among others — Nicholas of Cusa to bring the Greek Orthodox delegation to the Council of Ferrara and Florence. They brought the entire collected works of Plato. So, Nicholas of Cusa himself was one of the absolutely outstanding thinkers; I think he was probably the greatest thinker of the 15th Century, at least for European civilization. He introduced a new kind of thinking; the thinking of the coincidence of opposites — the Coincidencia Oppositorum — that you have to think of the higher level of unity where you can solve problems which are unsolvable on the level of Aristotelian contradictions. So, it was that new thinking which, in my view, also influenced the Peace of Westphalia, coming together with the thinking of Plato, which had been lost for 1700 years in Europe. Which then led to an explosion of a new image of man, a new optimism, a new role of science and technology, a new role of the common good being introduced for the first time in the question of the state.
So, the Italian Renaissance, which laid the foundation for 600 years of European civilization, which naturally the United States is also a part of, is a model. Because if you are in a crisis — and the West is in a crisis, because we have lost the roots, we have lost the connection to our great traditions. We have to go back to exactly like the Italians went back to the Greek period, so we have to back to the Greek period, the Italian Renaissance, to the German Classical period, and other great contributions in universal history, and revive the best traditions of what we had in the past. Which means we have to recognize that the liberal way, starting — and I know I’m upsetting now again a lot of people — starting with the Enlightenment, which really was an attack on the Renaissance, and go back to the humanist image of man. The idea that man is a unique species; that we are the only creative species on the planet and known in the universe so far; and that we have these great pieces of art. Of Classical composition, Classical music, of great poetry and drama, of great painting; just classical art in general. And that we have to somehow go back to the image of man associated with these highest expressions of human civilization.
I’m absolutely convinced that if we do that in this moment of the coronavirus crisis and other very severe challenges we are confronted with, I think we can have a revival. I think we can have a true renaissance of our identity based on these great traditions. Then maybe a great crisis can turn into a great chance. I always believe that Leibniz was absolutely correct that a great evil always means that mankind has the chance to create an even higher good, exactly because of this creative identity of man.
However, I have to say one thing. I am absolutely convinced also that this requires the full rehabilitation of my late husband; because his ideas laid the foundation for this movement and for the analysis from 50 years ago being correct all the way along the way. And having provided the solutions which we urgently need today. So, I think you should join our fight for the rehabilitation of Lyndon LaRouche, because I think his exoneration would have the same intellectual spark and effect like the re-introduction of Plato in the Italian Renaissance. By getting people on a completely different level of scientific and artistic thinking. And that’s why I’m asking you to support our effort to exonerate Lyndon LaRouche.
SCHLANGER: Helga, I don’t think you have to apologize for upsetting people. Anyone who is in a comfort zone right now, is obviously hiding in their own delusions. And you’re following in your husband’s footsteps by being the person who helps to break them out of that comfort zone.
So, thank you for that, and we’ll see you next week.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes, ’til next week.
POLITISK ORIENTERING den 5. marts 2020:
Fra coronavirus til finanskrak – løsningen er LaRouches 4 love
Lyd:
Resumé
Coronavirus COVID-19: Det afgørende er ikke antallet af tidligere smittede men antallet af nye smittede hver dag.
Det viser, at smittespredningen er under kontrol i Kina. Den er helt stoppet uden for Hubeiprovinsen og reduceret til 100-150 nye tilfælde per dag der. Men COVID-19 spreder sig ukontrolleret i Sydkorea, Iran, Italien, m.fl. Nu er kinesere bange for at rejse til Europa, for ikke at blive smittet der.
Finanskrak: USA’s centralbank sænkede renten med ½ procentpoint i et forsøg at pumpe flere penge ind i systemet for at undgå et krak. Men krakket er i gang og et ”Lehmann Brothers-øjeblik” kan komme når som helst.
Topmøde: Trump siger også ja til et topmøde mellem de fem permanente medlemmer af FN’s sikkerhedsråd: USA, Rusland, Kina, Frankrig, Storbritannien. Helga Zepp-LaRouches foreslog den 3. januar et hastetopmøde mellem Trump, Putin og Xi Jinping, og Putin foreslog derefter et møde mellem de fem permanente medlemmer.
Valget i USA: Efter Super Tuesday: Nu er det Bernie Sanders imod etablissementets kandidat Biden efter at de andre moderate kandidater trak sig og Bloomberg faldt igennem, trak sig og nu også vil støtte Biden.
Trumps svage punkt: økonomien, fordi han påstår, at økonomien har det strålende. Hvad sker der, hvis der kommer et finanskrak og stor nedtur inden valget? Trumps redning er, hvis han lytter til LaRouche-bevægelsen og vores løsning:
LaRouches fire økonomisk love:
- Glass/Steagall-bankopdeling
- Nationalbank og statlig kreditskabelse
- Investeringer som øger produktiviteten såsom store infrastrukturprojekter
- Videnskabeligt og teknologisk fremskridt: fusionskraft, rumforskning.
Disse løsninger gælder ikke kun USA men også Danmark og alle andre lande.
Den, guderne vil tilintetgøre…
17. februar (EIRNS) – Fokuser ikke på et enkelt aspekt af de forskellige kriser, som menneskeheden står overfor, advarede Helga Zepp-LaRouche i går. Denne fremgangsmåde vil føre til en fejlagtig fortolkning af, hvad der foregår i verden, og hvad der skal gøres ved det. Spørgsmålet er: Hvorfor truer COVID-19-virusepidemien med at blive til en global pandemi, hvis den ikke begrænses? Hvorfor kan det forpurrede forsøg på rigsretssag mod præsident Donald Trump blive et endnu mere ubehageligt åbenlyst statskup? Hvorfor kan angrebet af græshoppesværme, der fejer over Afrikas Horn, blive til en fuldstændig græshoppeplage, der ødelægger fødevareforsyningen for nationer, der tegner sig for næsten 2 milliarder af klodens 7,6 milliarder mennesker? Hvorfor er den aktuelle dekonstruktion af musik og kunst på vej til at omdanne menneskehedens kultur til en satanisk sekt? Og hvorfor sker alt dette på samme tid?
Svaret er, fortsatte Zepp-LaRouche, at “vi befinder os i en ekstraordinær tumultarisk forandring af en historisk periode, hvor de fleste mennesker absolut ikke er klar over, hvor gigantisk den transformation og det sammenbrud der foregår faktisk er”. Det såkaldte ‘Vesten’ er i opløsning, det transatlantiske finanssystem befinder sig i en sammenbrudskrise, og dets regerende etablissement, centreret i City of London, er parat til at påtvinge diktatur og fascistisk nedskæringspolitik for at forsøge at holde sig oven vande. De har vist deres fuldstændige manglende evne til så meget som at overveje, hvorfor deres liberale imperialistiske system kollapser, eller se på muligheden for at det er deres egen politik, der har ført til den nuværende katastrofe.
Denne inkompetence blev udstillet til fulde på den netop afsluttede sikkerhedskonference i München, hvor talsmænd for det gamle regime, såsom den amerikanske udenrigsminister Mike Pompeo og formand for Kongressen, Nancy Pelosi, forsøgte at forvandle det til et skydetelt imod Kina, netop på et tidspunkt, hvor dette land gør sit yderste for at begrænse COVID-19-virussen til fordel for hele verden.
USA og Europa skulle samarbejde med Kina og Rusland, ikke true og angribe dem, insisterede Zepp-LaRouche. Et topmøde med de fire magter, der er specificeret af Lyndon LaRouche – USA, Kina, Rusland og Indien – må arrangeres i de kommende uger for at håndtere den voksende kaskade af eksistentielle kriser, som planeten står overfor, og løse dem ved at sætte det døende Britiske Imperium ud af spillet og organisere et nyt paradigme til erstatning herfor. Det er en mission, der kun kan opnås ved at tage fat på Lyndon LaRouches politik og metode; LaRouche, hvis levende eftermæle af den grund må renses og mobiliseres.
Når skæbnen afhænger af en prognose
”Det egentlige strategiske formål med, og funktion af, en kompetent økonomisk prognose er ikke at forsøge at forudsige hvad der vil ske, men at få det til at ske.
” ”Det er ikke igennem ren sansning, at vi er i stand til at regne ud hvilken viljemæssig kraft der, skjult for vores blik, ligger mellem disse enkelte punkter på vores sansers skærmbillede. Det er gennem vores indvirkning på universet, at vi tvinger dets hemmeligheder til at manifestere sig, ikke kun som sanseindtryk, men som en højere, autoritativ manifestation i sindet, som må teste den usete tilstedeværelse og de formodede intentioner af hvad end viljemæssige kraft, der ligger bag den handling, som ellers muligvis blot ville forblive et sanseindtryk.”
” ” Hun afsluttede med at opfordre folk til at drage fordel af, at dette er året for Beethoven, og at mange mennesker, som en følge heraf, lytter til Beethovens musik. Den dybe kulturelle krise vi står midt i er en del af det samlede forfald i hele den transatlantiske sektor, sagde Zepp-LaRouche, og det at lytte til klassisk musik, især Beethoven, “er den bedste måde at få folk til at opløfte deres sind. Vi har brug for en kulturel renæssance i Vesten.”
LyndonLaRouches mission, og jeres – på årsdagen for hans bortgang
12. februar 2020 — I dag er det etårsdagen for Lyndon H. LaRouches bortgang. Vi beder om, at man slutter sig til os i refleksion over hans liv og eftermæle, og til at man tager del i at færdiggøre det uafsluttede forehavende med at rense hans navn.
Mens han sad fængslet som politisk fange for 30 år siden, reflekterede LaRouche over den sande betydning af menneskeligt liv:
Snarere end at se det dødelige liv som en række erfaringer, ser man det som en helhed. Forestil dig at stå ansigt til ansigt med spørgsmålet om respekten for det dødelige liv og spørg: ‘var det liv nødvendigt for universets samlede plan og for menneskehedens eksistens; var det nødvendigt, at jeg blev født for at leve dette liv, summen af det samlede antal år mellem fødsel og død? Udrettede jeg noget, eller repræsenterede mit levned noget der var positivt til gavn for de nuværende generationer og underforstået for de kommende generationer efter mig? I så fald, burde jeg have vandret igennem dette liv med glæde, vel vidende at hvert øjeblik var dyrebart for hele menneskeheden, fordi det jeg gjorde ved at leve mit liv var noget, der var nødvendigt for hele menneskeheden… gavnligt for hele menneskeheden.’
I en tale den 8. februar til minde om 250-årsdagen for Beethovens fødsel udfordrede Helga Zepp-LaRouche alle amerikanere til at færdiggøre det uafsluttede forehavende med at rense LaRouches navn. Jeg vil gerne tilskynde til, at Beethoven-året også skal være året for renselsen af Lyndon LaRouche … Det faktum, at det amerikanske folk og en stor del af verdens befolkning nægtes adgang til Lyns idéer på grund af en uretfærdig fængsling, som blev foretaget af det samme ‘apparat’, der stod bag kuppet mod Trump: Jeg mener, at hvad præsident Trump sagde for et par dage siden, om at man må sikre at hvad der overgik ham med ‘Russiagate’ og med kupforsøget aldrig må ske igen – ja, så er der en absolut holdbar måde, hvorved dette aldrig vil ske igen, og det er at give fuld oprejsning til Lyndon LaRouche … Så hvis min mands navn renses [for alle anklager], af hensyn til skønheden i hans ideer, vil varig frihed i USA, hvor USA vender tilbage til at være en republik, være absolut mulig.
Se LaRouches enke Helga Zepp-LaRouches 3-minute-lange video om at rense LaRouches navn:
Hvis du ikke har gjort det endnu, er det nu på tide at underskrive andragendet om LaRouches frifindelse. Hvis du allerede har underskrevet, bedes du hjælpe med at sprede opfordringen, og få andre til at underskrive.
Trump på det økonomiske forum i Davos: Med optimisme mod det “grønne” folkemord
Udgivet den 27. januar 2020 på Harley Schlangers blog på LaRouchePAC.com (www.harley.larouchepac.com)
Medens det amerikanske senat åbnede rigsretssagen mod Trump, holdt præsidenten selv i Davos en tale for den årlige forsamling af selvtilfredse eliter, milliardærer og mægtige, der regner sig selv som særligt udvalgte til at bestemme menneskehedens fremtidige kurs. Dette års konference havde i første række det formål at påtvinge regeringerne en “grøn” handlingsplan for at frelse verden fra de angiveligt menneskeskabte klimaforandringer. Ud over “kendte” grønne som den rasende teenager Greta Thunberg, Al Gore, Sir Nicholas Stern, Bill Gates og prins Charles, spillede desuden direktøren for Bank of England, Mark Carney, fremtidig ambassadør for FN for klimabeskyttelse og finans, en vigtig rolle.
Carney, der i den forløbne sommer pludseligt svang sig op til en nøglefigur for den grønne bevægelse, da han forkyndte, at bankerne skulle blokere for kreditter til alle de firmaer og institutioner, der ikke ville deltage i den grønne revolution – holdt hovedtalen. Han erklærede, at Bank of England sammen med de andre centralbanker fra nu af ville nægte kreditter til finansinstitutioner og foretagender, der ikke er CO2-neutrale – hvorved hanen ville blive drejet om for kreditter til de energikilder, der leverer størstedelen af verdens energi.
Støttet på en pseudovidenskab, der påstår, at CO2-udslippet er hovedårsagen til klimaforandringerne og at menneskeheden nærmer sig sin undergang, hvis ikke den øjeblikkeligt giver fuldstændigt afkald på fossile brændstoffer, vil Carney og hans forbundsfæller såsom chefen for kæmpefonden Blackrock, Larry Fink – der sammen med andre topbankfolk kræver et regimeskift inden for finansverdenen. Det skal ske med en kombination af skatter, økonomisk straf og statsstøtte for ueffektive, “gammeldags” teknologier, og ved at gennemføre “nul-planen” som del af en generel nedskæringspolitik.
Carney sagde i sin hovedtale i Davos, at fra nu af måtte man hele tiden stille spørgsmålet: “Hvad er Deres plan for at stoppe kulstofudledningen? Det kommer til at afgøre, hvor kapitalen flyder hen.” Bankerne vil spørge, “om De står på den rigtige eller den forkerte side”. Og han besluttede med at sige, at alt dette betød en grundlæggende omformning af finanssystemet”.
Carneys og Finks krav om et “regimeskift”, der kun, tillader investeringer i såkaldt vedvarende energi – altså tilbagevenden til en lav energistrømningsstæthed ligesom i tiden før renæssancen – er en opskrift på ødelæggelse af industrien og på folkemord. Men her hører man ingen form for selvkritiske ytringer, for dette er åbenbart den egentlige bagtanke med det hele!
For at give det hele endnu større eftertryk, forbindes dette med et radikalt politisk krav, som Finks gruppe af tidligere centralbankschefer fremsatte her i sommers på Federal Reserves møde i Jackson Hole (Wyoming): Centralbankerne skal overtage opsynet med statshusholdningerne for at sikre, at der skal tilflyde mere kredit til den grønne spekulationsboble, medens kreditter til den reelle økonomi indstilles. Dette er et frontalangreb på suveræne regeringers ret til at stille kreditter til rådighed for programmer, der øger produktionen af den reelle fysiske, økonomiske velstand, sådan som den er nødvendig for at forbedre befolkningens levestandard. I stedet for skal regeringerne blot tjene som et redskab til at betjene de bedragere, der profiterer af spekulationsboblen, medens de pålægger den brede befolkning nye, tyngende skyldsbyrder.
I Davos førte milliardærerne endnu en gang den forstyrrede teenager Greta Thunberg frem for at tilsværte alle dem, der ser kritisk på dette vrøvl. Thunberg sagde, at der ikke er nogen tid at spilde, inden otte år må der finde en fuldstændig omdrejning sted. “Vi vil ikke have, at disse ting skal finde sted i 2050, 2030 eller i 2021. Vi vil have, at de skal ske nu” sagde hun. Hun belærte de “voksne” i rummet: Vort hus brænder stadig. Jeres uvirksomhed forøger flammerne for hver time, der går.”
På spørgsmålet, om han var enig med Thunbergs drastiske tidsplan, svarede Carney bekræftende.
Trump talte et alvorsord til undergangsprofeterne. I disse omgivelsers almindelige enighed om en politik, der vil ødelægge de resterende produktive centre i verden, udløste Donald Trump bølger af hysteri, da han præsenterede en optimistisk fremtidsvision, der udgik fra betragtninger over den proces, der frembragte renæssancens kulturelle og videnskabelige landvindinger og dermed lagde grunden for den moderne civilisation. Han tog her omhyggeligt sigte på dem, der fører politik på grundlag af “klimahysteriet”.
“Dette er ikke tiden til pessimisme, dette er tiden til optimisme. Angst og tvivl er ikke gode tankeprocesser, for dette er tiden for store forhåbninger og glæde og optimisme og handling. Men for at gribe morgendagens muligheder, må vi tilbagevise de evige dommedagsprofeter og deres forudsigelser om Jordens undergang. De er arvtagerne til fortidens tåbelige spåmænd… og de ønsker, at det skal gå os dårligt, men det tillader vi ikke. De forudsagde, at der ville komme en overbefolkningskrise i 1960’erne, udbredt hungersnød i 1970’erne, og at olien ville slippe op i 1990’erne. Disse panikmagere kræver altid det samme; absolut magt for at beherske, forandre og overvåge hvert eneste aspekt af vore liv.”
Med denne spot over nutidens grønne “dommedagsprofeter”, der går ind for en moderne udgave af den malthusianske befolkningsreduktion, hentydede han (om ikke med navns nævnelse) til så grundlæggende værker som The Population Bomb af Paul Ehrlich og Grænser for Vækst af Dennis Meadows og Jay Forrester og deres kvaksalverkolleger i Romklubben(1972).
Hvad Trump ikke sagde, men hvad nogle af klimahysteriets forkæmpere formentligt godt vidste, var, hvad der var fælles for alle disse kræfter – ud over deres malthusianske had til menneskeheden – nemlig at Lyndon LaRouche i løbet af det sidste halve århundrede igen og igen kritiserede og gendrev deres ondsindede hensigter. I sin bog “Der er ingen grænser for vækst” fra 1983 påviste LaRouche at vor tids vækstfjendtlige fanatisme lige siden 1960erne fabrikeredes ved hjælp af fidusvidenskab og misvisende computerprogrammer. I vor tid fortsætter dette med FN’s klimapanels (IPCC) dommedagsprofetier, der baserer sig på den samme slags computermodeller, der igen og igen har vist sig at tage fejl.
Og endnu vigtigere: LaRouche satte den nødvendige modpol op imod disse bedragere, nemlig den sande videnskab om menneskets fremskridt. Således understregede han ofte, at vi bør kikke tilbage på renæssancens genier for at finde løsninger på nutidens kriser, og han henviste ganske særligt til Brunelleschis geniale bygning af kuplen på domkirken i Firenze, hvor de nødvendige arbejdsmetoder udvikledes under opførslen. I 1991 skrev LaRouche i en tid, hvor han var uskyldigt fængslet, i sin fængselscelle bogen “Kristendom og Økonomi”, der bærer et billede af kuplen på sit omslag.
Præsident Trump henviste i sin tale i Davos til netop den samme ting, som LaRouche benyttede som eksempel på optimisme om fremtiden.
“For århundreder siden, under Renæssancen, kikkede håndværkere og arbejdere op og byggede strukturer, der stadig berører menneskehjertet. Nogle af de bygninger, der stadig hører til blandt de største i verden, blev opført for århundreder siden. I Italien begyndte borgerne engang på et projekt, der skulle tage 140 år at opføre: Domkirken i Firenze. Et helt utroligt sted. Selv om teknologien til at fuldende projektet endnu ikke var fuldt udviklet, gik byens fædre alligevel i gang med det, i vished om at de en dag ville finde ud af det. Disse indbyggere i Firenze accepterede ingen grænser for deres store forventninger, og derfor blev den store kuppel til sidst opført.”
Trump fortsatte: “I Amerika forstår vi det, som pessimisterne ikke vil indse: at en voksende og levende markedsøkonomi, der koncentrerer sig om fremtiden, opløfter den menneskelige ånd og ansporer kreativiteten tilstrækkeligt meget til at klare alle udfordringer… De store videnskabelige gennembrud i det 20. århundrede – fra penicillin over hvedesorter med højt høstudbytte til moderne transportmidler og banebrydende vacciner – har højnet levestandarden og reddet livet for milliarder af mennesker i hele verden. Og vi arbejder videre på ting, som I vil høre nærmere om i nær fremtid, og som I, sådan som I sidder her nu i dag, ikke vil tro at vi har fundet svarene på… Men det sidste århundredes mirakler blegner i forhold til de ting, som nutidens unge fornyere vil udvikle, fordi de udretter ting, som ingen ville have anset for muligt. Vi fortsætter med at påskønne teknologi, og skyr den ikke. Når mennesker har friheden til at være opfindsomme, vil millioner af mennesker kunne leve længere, lykkeligere og sundere.”
Hvad ligger der bag denne afstandstagen?
Den optimisme, der præger Trumps tale i Davos, stemmer overens med hans engagement for et samarbejde med den russiske præsident Putin for at overkomme de strategiske kriser i verden og samarbejdet med Kinas præsident Xi Jinping om at overkomme spændingerne mellem de to førende økonomiske magter. Og det er ikke tilfældigt, at de, der udnytter klimahysteriet til at retfærdiggøre et “regimeskift” i finanssektoren, også forsvarer Londons imperialisme. De forsøger at sabotere Trumps forsøg på et fredeligt samarbejde med Rusland og Kina ved at ville fortsætte de “endeløse krige”, som Trump kæmpede mod i 2016, og som også vil være en væsentlig del af hans valgkamp i 2020.
Det er ingen overraskelse, at det er de samme grupperinger, som agerer gennem et forbund mellem de britiske og de amerikanske hemmelige tjenester i omkredsen af Bush og Obama, som også organiserer regimeskift-operationen imod præsident Trumps embede, sådan som det nu sker med det forsøg på afsættelse, der drives frem af USA’s senat og hviler på falske anklager, udklækkede af disse netværk. Truslen fra præsident Trump og hans sandsynlige genvalg mod den sammenbrydende verdensorden, som disse netværk fik gennemført efter den kolde krig, bliver endnu mere påtrængende, når Trump i sine taler griber tilbage til ideer, der hænger sammen med LaRouche. Længe før Trump blev et mål for deres netværk, fordømte og forfulgte de LaRouche. Men trods årelange fordømmelser og angreb vækker LaRouches ideer yderligere genklang, fordi de genspejler de højere principper, som inspirerede Amerikas grundlæggere under deres udarbejdelse af De forenede Staters forfatning.
Det fortløbende forsøg på at få afsat Trump er ikke andet end et angreb på disse principper, udført til tjeneste for disse eliter, der har forsamlet sig i Davos for at organisere den største befolkningsreduktion i verdenshistorien. Derfor reagerede de så hysterisk på Trumps tale, medens medierne fortav de ovennævnte kernepunkter og forkastede dem som eksempler på “blind optimisme”. Deres største frygt er, at de mennesker, der medvirker som borgere i udformningen af deres stat for at regeringens politik skal genspejle deres virkelige interesser, vil kunne afvise magthavernes farlige pessimisme, der går ud på at undertrykke deres indflydelse.
Anmærkning:
Videoen af Trumps tale i Davos, som begynder 9 minutter ind i videoen:
NYHEDSORIENTERING NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2019:
For en ny era for menneskeheden
med LaRouches løsninger
Præsident Donald Trump: Bring retfærdighed til Verden:
Frikend Lyndon LaRouche for anklager.
På Schiller Instituttets konference d. 16. -17. november 2019 i Bad Soden, Tyskland, under titlen “Menneskehedens fremtid som en kreativ art i Universet” (The Future of Humanity as a Creative Species in the Universe”) vedtog over 300 deltagere fra mere end 30 lande, repræsenterende alle seks kontinenter, følgende opfordring ved akklamation:
I enestående historiske øjeblikke kan en enkelt afgørende handling fremkalde retfærdighed for alle nationer igennem en hel æra. Den universelle frihedsdigter Friedrich Schiller fik i sit mesterværk ´Don Carlos’ figuren Marquis af Posa til at tilskynde kong Philip til at “blive en konge blandt en million konger” og bringe retfærdighed til Nederlandene og hele Europa.
Præsident Trump, tiden er inde til posthumt at frikende Lyndon H. LaRouche, som blev udsat for justitsmord og uretfærdigt fængslet fra 1989-1994. Dette er påkrævet for at yde retfærdighed over for mennesket såvel som for hans ideer. Der er i alle vore nationer, især for de kommende generationer, behov for uhindret tilgang til hans enestående opdagelser indenfor fysisk økonomi; til hans bidrag til klassisk kultur og fysisk videnskab; til hans politik for store infrastrukturprojekter og økonomisk udvikling – en tilgang, der forudsætter at der sættes en stopper for årtier med bagtalelser og dæmonisering med en fuldstændig renselse af hans navn.
De store, eksistentielle kriser, som vore nationer og Verden står overfor, og de unikke bidrag, som LaRouches ideer kan yde til disses løsning, tilskynder os til at opfordre til den hurtigst mulige frikendelse af Lyndon LaRouche for alle anklager.
Afsløring! Dem, der leder kuppet mod Trump, vil have krig med Rusland!
Schiller Instituttets ugentlige webcast med Helga Zepp LaRouche 23. nov 2019
På trods af PR virksomhedernes heftige bestræbelser for det militære industrielle kompleks—også kendt som “massemedierne” – på at forhindre, at sandheden om hensigten bag regimeskiftet bliver kendt, kommer sandheden frem. Som Helga Zepp LaRouche specificerede i sin analyse af uroen og omvæltningerne der fejer hen over kloden, er sammenbruddet af det Gamle Paradigme, det der ligger bag de desperate handlinger udført af dem, der står bag farverevolutioner, samt oprør mod regeringer, fx i Chile, Ecuador, Colombia og Frankrig, hvor folk protesterer mod nedskæringer.
Zepp LaRouche hævder, at man ikke kan forstå absurditeten i anklagerne i “Russigate” eller “Ukrainegate” uden at kende til den historiske baggrund. Dette kommer nu frem i anklagerne mod Trump for “magtmisbrug” med hensyn til Ukraine – der vil komme mere ud, når undersøgelserne af Horowitz, Barr og Durham bliver frigivet. Hvad det vil vise, er, at de samme netværk bag Maidan-statskuppet i Ukraine i februar 2014 er i centrum for kup-bestræbelserne mod Trump, og de fortsætter med fuld intensitet på trods af faren for, at deres handlinger kan føre til en krig mellem USA og Rusland.
Et vigtigt moment for at imødegå dette vanvid, var den ekstraordinære konference hos Schiller Instituttet den 16. – 17. november i Bad Soden, Tyskland, hvor aktivister fra mere end 30 lande mødtes til en mindehøjtidelighed for Lyndon LaRouche. Helga understregede, at præsentationerne på konferencen demonstrerede Lyndon LaRouche’s unikke vision for fremtiden og den videnskabelige og kulturelle metode, han anvendte for at gøre de igangværende kampe forståelige og derfor mulige at vinde.