by Daniel Platt
Today, July 5, the 57th consecutive weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) focused on a number of striking developments which had occurred in the preceding days.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the IPC process, pointed out that the most interesting and positive recent development is the visit to Russia of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who just began a six-month term as the rotating President of the Council of the European Union. Orbán assumed that office July 1, and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the following day. Now he is in Moscow meeting with Russian President Putin. As Zepp-LaRouche put it, “We absolutely have to return to diplomacy…. That doesn’t mean we have to say who is right and who is wrong” beforehand about every detail under negotiation. She took note of the fact that the neocons of the EU are in high dudgeon over the Orbán trip: “In Brussels, all kinds of people are starting to hyperventilate.” She added, “I want to congratulate Mr. Orbán for taking the initiative.”
The recent elections in France and the U.K. elicited much discussion. Zepp-LaRouche reported that the return to power of the Labour Party in the U.K. is generally seen as “an earthquake,” attributing this shift to the British electorate rejecting Schachtian austerity “very forcefully.” During the discussion period, a representative of the U.K.’s Unity News pointed out that, while it is true that the Tories have destroyed the domestic economy, Labour has destroyed the world by advocating neocon wars of “regime change.” Of course, the Conservatives support these as well, but with candidly imperial intentions, while Labour does it slyly. The Unity News reporter reminded participants that only 34% voted for Labour, but it was couched as a “landslide.”
There was discussion of the changes in the composition of the British Parliament. An important leader, George Galloway, lost his seat, but four other openly pro-Palestine MPs were elected. LaRouche Organization leader Dennis Speed observed that with the ascension to power of Keir Starmer as the new Prime Minister, Tony Blair is effectively back in power. Speed reminded the participants that Blair was the driver behind the “Responsibility To Protect” rationale for neocon aggression against sovereign states, ushered in as the “Blair Doctrine” pronounced in Blair’s 1999 speech overturning the concept of Westphalian sovereignty.
Zepp-LaRouche raised the Biden/Trump debate, and subsequent talk of a replacement for Biden, noting that the interesting question is not who will be the candidate for the next election, but rather, who is running the White House right now; who has his finger on the nuclear button? She described a recent article in EIR providing insights into who that might be. She argued that the feverish preparation for war throughout the Anglosphere hangs on the narrative that Putin is preparing to reconstitute the Soviet Union and invade Europe. She went on to warn that “The narrative that no peace option exists must be defeated.”
A number of reports were given. Dr. E. Martin Schotz, a member of the JFK Peace Speech Committee, spoke about their monthly screening of the speech which President Kennedy delivered at American University on June 10, 1963, with each screening featuring a guest commentator. Yesterday’s guest was Col. (ret.) Lawrence Wilkerson, who recently spoke at the Emergency Press Conference with Zepp-LaRouche and others.
Jose Vega, Independent Bronx Congressional candidate, described his recent intervention at an appearance by neocon zealot Matt Pottinger at the Asia Society in New York City. Vega confronted Pottinger, shouting, “I’m supposed to believe that Xi Jinping is this evil dictator, when the United States is actually responsible for a three-front world war … Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan?” One million people have seen it to date on X/Twitter, but after the video was translated into Chinese, and appeared on the Chinese version of TikTok, it received 2.5 million additional views. RT interviewed Vega and aired his intervention. After Vega was dragged from the hall, others also intervened and shut down the event. Helga Zepp-LaRouche congratulated Vega, comparing his intervention to that of Viktor Orbán.
George Koo, a China expert, who had seen the Vega intervention live, related that Alexander Hamilton at the time of the American Revolution had sent spies to England to learn about their industrial technologies. He noted that China, however, has now taken the lead in 47 technology sectors, and you can’t be in the lead by simply stealing intellectual property; you have to develop it yourself. These things should be pointed out “when the Pottingers on stage spout nonsense.” In response to Koo, EIR editor Dennis Small asserted that China’s greatest achievement was to lift 850 million people out of extreme poverty, a feat without parallel in world history.
An activist from Bavaria reported on upcoming interventions there. She said that under the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz), citizens are able to ask German officials questions about what they are doing, and if they don’t answer, there can be criminal proceedings. A criminal lawyer from Mexico spoke on the right to protest, which is being suppressed internationally, particularly campus protests on Palestine. She plans to protest in front of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico tomorrow. A Swedish peace activist said they celebrate July 4 in ways the U.S. government may not like, talking about all the ways the U.S. has violated its own Constitution. She said that the U.S. spies on the entire world. Sweden has acknowledged that the NSA monitors all military communications from Russia via undersea cables.
EIR editor Dennis Small reported on a recent visit to China by former Guyanese President and IPC activist Donald Ramotar to attend a major international conference on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. President Xi Jinping delivered the keynote speech, and presented the need for the whole world to support Putin’s peace initiative—much as the IPC is doing with its new Declaration of Independence from the Imminent Danger of Nuclear War, to 600 international participants. Dennis Speed reported on a recent X post by El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, saying:
“Congratulations to the people of the United States of America on your Independence Day.
“We are inspired by you, not by the ideals you hold now, but by the ideals you had in 1776 when you gained your freedom and built the foundations of your great country.”
In her concluding comments, Helga Zepp-LaRouche said that,apart from mobilizing for peace negotiations, we need to do some in-depth work. There is a gigantic effort underway to replace reality with “narratives,” and “the truth gets lost.” We suffer from “decontextualization,” what we used to call “fallacy of composition.” In Germany, you can be legally punished for saying that the war in Ukraine is not an unprovoked war of aggression by Russia. We need to challenge historians and journalists to reconstruct how we went from the wonderful opportunity of 30 years ago, with the end of the Cold War, to the brink of World War III where we are today. Only if you look at what went wrong can you begin to come up with a remedy. She urged participants to continue to mobilize for peace and support Putin’s June 14 initiative as a good starting point.
