On the Verge of a New World War—European Nations Must Cooperate with the Global South!
by Kevin Gribbroek
July 9—A two-day international conference was held this weekend in Strasbourg, France by the Schiller Institute, titled “On the Verge of a New World War: European Nations Must Cooperate with the Global South!” The proceedings were organized into five panels, with three on Day One July 8, featuring 22 speakers, from 14 different countries, ending with an evening concert of classical music. The second day’s two panels, which also included musical offerings, had wide-ranging discussions, involving many of the audience of more than 200 attendees. (See the full program below).
This event, and the process of deliberation it represents, stands in sharp contrast to the recently convened Paris “Summit for a New Global Financial Pact,” where leaders of the Global South ridiculed the hypocrisy of their European counterparts. As opposed to the not-so-hidden Malthusian “green imperialist” depopulation agenda of the arrogant Paris Summit, the Schiller Institute colloquy is an opportunity for peoples of all continents to gather for the purpose of deliberation on how to bring about a peaceful and prosperous future for the entire human race.
The Schiller Institute conference is also a timely and necessary intervention against Global NATO’s July 11–12 Vilnius, Lithuania summit, where bloodthirsty leaders of the West’s Military-Industrial Complex will be plotting more measures which, unless stopped, will bring about the destruction of humanity through thermonuclear war.
The Schiller Institute’s panels covered a broad range of critical economic, strategic, and cultural themes. Notable was the fact that due to the Covid-19 pandemic this was the first in-person Schiller Institute conference in three years! The conference opened with the famous Adagio cantabile of Beethoven’s C minor Pathétique piano sonata, performed by Werner Hartmann, of the Schiller Institute.
Panel I: Peace in the World Through a New Security and Development Architecture for Each and Every Country: The Indispensable Strategic Autonomy of European Countries
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and leader of the Schiller Institute, gave the conference keynote, “Let a Garden Amidst a Million Gardens Bloom!” (Full text on this website). She set the tone for the panel by contrasting the tragic consequences of the collapsing trans-Atlantic “rules based order” attempting to maintain its hegemony, with the rising nations of the Global South, freeing themselves from centuries of colonial servitude and asserting their right to economic development.
Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche asserted at the beginning of her presentation her commitment: “We will revive the best of what European culture has produced … and we will bring that into the shaping of the New Paradigm!” (Her full presentation is below.)
The next speaker, H.E. Lu Shaye, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in France, delivered his presentation titled “China’s Role for Peace and Development.” He stated, “At present, changes unseen for a century are taking place at an accelerated pace, giving rise to unprecedented transformations of our world, our times and history.” He characterized the world as divided into two camps: pro-peace and pro-war. Which camp will prevail? Ambassador Lu detailed the incredible opportunities Western nations would realize were they to cooperate with China and the Global South through participation in the multitude of development initiatives China is leading, such as the Belt and Road Initiative. (His full presentation is below.)
‘The Multipolar World is Emerging’
H.E. Ilia Subbotin, Minister-Counselor of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in France, spoke on the topic, “What Russia Really Wants in Its Relations with Europe: Peace or War?” He recounted his own personal perspective of the history of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent tumultuous transition to the post-Soviet era.
He noted that, contrary to proclamations by President George H.W. Bush that the West had “won” the Cold War, from the Russian perspective it was President Mikhail Gorbachev who had stopped the Cold War. Most people in the former Soviet Republics looked forward to a new union with a desire to become a part of the “Western world.” But, despite countless efforts by Russian leaders over a 30-year period, particularly President Vladimir Putin, every attempt at Western integration has been sabotaged.
But Minister-Counselor Subbotin asked, will the European nations free themselves from the “shackles of U.S. control” and join with the “new centers of economic growth” of the Global South? “When and if this happens, Russia will be ready for mutually beneficial dialogue of equals, on the basis of our fundamental interests.” (His full presentation is below.)
Other panelists addressed the potential that exists for European nations to join with the Global South to create a New Paradigm.
Panel II: Why It Is in the Strategic Interest of European Nations to Cooperate with the Global South
Jacques Cheminade, President of the Schiller Institute co-thinker organization Solidarité et Progrès political party in France, gave the Panel 2 keynote, titled “The Rise of the Global South against Geopolitical Blocs.” He characterized the current historical period as “the battle between the Malthusian, domineering financial oligarchy that occupies our Western countries and those who believe that the human species has a right to development.” He noted that the first signs of a potential “conflagration” are everywhere evident in Europe, particularly in his own country of France.
In the midst of this gathering storm, nations of the Global South see the Russia-China alliance as reflected in their [[joint statement]] [[http://en.kremlin.ru/supplement/5770]] of February 4, 2022, as a “positive option and chance to escape the trans-Atlantic straightjacket”—a path to realize what President Xi Jinping calls “the common future of mankind.”
Mr. Cheminade highlighted the crucial role of the late U.S. statesman and economist Lyndon LaRouche, husband of Schiller institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in discovering the principles of physical economy critical for a New Paradigm of development. This was stated explicitly by the famous Russian economist Sergei Glazyev, Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Union, who said Sept. 8, 2022: “It is the principles of physical economics championed by Lyndon LaRouche that underpin the Chinese economic miracle today, and that are the basis of India’s economic development policy.” (His full presentation is below.)
Panelists from many other nations provided a stirring crossfire of ideas.
Panel III: The Peace Movement Worldwide Above Party Lines: The Special Case of the United States; The Role of the Vatican and the Global South
Harley Schlanger, the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Schiller Institute U.S.A., gave the Panel 3 keynote, opening with a video clip of the first four minutes of President John F. Kennedy’s June 10, 1963 American University “[[Peace Speech]]” [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA_kjj2c0Qc]] Mr. Schlanger then gave a brief history of Kennedy’s Presidency, from his battle with the U.S. Senate to ratify the Nuclear Test Ban treaty with the Soviet Union, to his efforts to extricate the United States from the war in Vietnam and end the Cold War.
Although constantly having to discover ways of out flanking the war hawks within his administration—dead set on escalating the Cold War—just as big a challenge was overcoming the mass brainwashing of the American population who believed that it was “better dead than red.” His efforts were cut short on November 22, 1963, when the President was murdered in Dallas, Texas.
Mr. Schlanger then delivered a short discussion of the anti-imperialist history of the United States—from the American Founding Fathers to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon LaRouche. Exemplary of that tradition is the famous July 4, 1821 speech by then Secretary of State John Quincy Adams in which he declares: “But she [the United States] goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy….” This anti-imperialist tradition contrasts sharply with today’s defenders of the militaristic “Rules-Based Order,” such as the hapless Sec. of State Antony J. Blinken.
Other speakers on Panel III included H.E. Donald Ramotar, former President of Guyana, and Diane Sare, Candidate for U.S. Senate from New York, both of whom have been actively collaborating with people from many nations, in the newly formed International Peace Coalition. (See Editorial.)
Panel IV: A Culture to Emancipate and Expand the Creative Capacities of Every Human Being—A Dialogue Among Cultures and Civilizations
Dr. Luc Reychler, Professor Emeritus at Louvain University and former Director of the Center for Peace Research and Strategic Studies in Belgium, gave the Panel 4 keynote, on the provocative question, “European Humanist Values versus War Culture: What Would Erasmus Say about Peace in Ukraine?” He reviewed today’s Ukraine “proxy war”—as he termed it—against Russia, from the eyes of the great Dutch Renaissance scholar Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536). Famous for works such as In Praise of Folly and The Complaint of Peace, Erasmus warned that those who have not experienced war are often its greatest proponents, that sentiment being well expressed in a quote from his book Against War: Dulce bellum inexpertis, or “War is sweet for the inexperienced.”
Were Erasmus here today, he “would criticize and satirize the excuses for ongoing war; for example, the misrepresentation of the war as the defense of democracy and of the democratic world” and “would also be a whistleblower and name the princes and kings, and the war profiteers who are responsible for the war.” But importantly, Erasmus would seek a process of “peace building” through promotion of economic development and education—particularly for youth.
The next speaker, Liliana Gorini, chairwoman of the Schiller Institute affiliated Movisol political party in Italy, invoked the wisdom of another great figure, Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901). To hear U.S. President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni speak of “peace,” as they did at the G7 meeting in Hiroshima, Japan last month, Gorini said, reminds one of the way Verdi in his opera Don Carlos—inspired by Friedrich Schiller—has Don Rodrigo telling King Philip of Spain that his so-called militarist “peace” for Flanders is a “horrible, horrible peace, the peace of graves.” She called on conference attendees to take inspiration from Verdi, and from Pope John XXIII, and President John F. Kennedy, “to fight for a true peace, which only comes from respecting and developing the rest of the world.” (Ms. Gorini’s remarks were read, as she was unable to attend).
Other panelists stressed the tremendous importance of culture as a key foundation for lasting, durable peace among nations.
Panel V: Scientific Ecology and Assessing the Climate Challenge: Eradicating Poverty and Hunger in the World is the Priority
Christian Lévêque, Emeritus Research Director at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement of France, gave the Panel 5 keynote, “Scientific Ecology Is Being Instrumentalized by Magical Thinking.” He scored the Malthusian agenda of what he termed “the wealthy urban bourgeois” and their affiliated NGOs such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) who have adopted “nature worship” as their religion. Their axiomatic foundation is “that God created a perfect, harmonious and balanced world”—a paradise—and that man, through development and overpopulation, is destroying that world. He denounced their “fear tactics” and how they impose their agenda.
The WWF and other environmentalist NGOs, using the UN to push their pseudo-religious dogma, are behind the infamous “30 by 30” agenda, promoted at the 2022 UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal, Canada, to “protect” 30% of the Earth’s land and water by the year 2030 from the aggressions of man.
Other panelists debunked the fraud of “man-made climate change,” and called for a stop to the deindustrialization and economic destruction underway.
Classical Beauty
The first day’s proceedings were capped off by a wonderful Classical music concert, featuring Albanian pianist Dhurata Lazo and Swedish Soprano Leena Malkki. Ms. Lazo began with four compositions for solo piano including a romance by Albanian composer Tonin Harapi (1926–1992) and three pieces by Frédéric Chopin: the Muzurkas Op. 67; the Scherzo No. 2 Op. 31; and the Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante Op. 22.
She was then accompanied Ms. Malkki on five songs: a piece from Mozart’s opera La Clemenza di Tito; Schubert’s Nacht und Trӓume Op. 43 No. 2 and Auf dem Wasser zu singen Op. 72; Verdi’s Ave Maria from Otello and Pace, pace mio Dio from La forza del destino.
Robert Hux contributed to this article.
