July 18, 2025 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, opened the 111th consecutive online meeting of the International Peace Coalition on July 18, the birthday of Nelson Mandela, which is celebrated worldwide as Mandela Day. She urged all participants to view the videos of panels from the July 12-13 Berlin conference of the Schiller Institute, which urged the U.S. and Europe to join hands with the nations of the Global South to pursue a policy of real development, as an alternative to the war drive that is promoted by the Anglosphere. She described some of the demented proposals of Malcolm Chalmers, advisor to British Defense Secretary Healey, such as a plan to send a “small, Hiroshima-sized” nuclear weapon to destroy a Russian military base, with the assumption that it would compel Russia to negotiate on terms advantageous to the Anglophiles. U.S. General Christopher Donahue, Commander of NATO’s ground forces, has an equally crazy proposal to militarily cut off the Russian Baltic Sea enclave of Kaliningrad. Reviewing more hopeful developments, she reported that The Hague Group met in Bogotá and announced a plan to compel a halt to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Zepp-LaRouche concluded her remarks by saying that we must renew our efforts to make the Oasis Plan central to a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, saying, “We have to leave geopolitics behind us and go for real development as the basis for peace.”
Scheduled panelist Prof. Richard Falk was unable to make his presentation due to technical problems. Mariano Esono, who is responsible for Diaspora Affairs in the Foreign Ministry of Equatorial Guinea, as well as being Focal Point for UN Center for Peace and Disarmament in Africa, sent a brief video on the importance of Nelson Mandela Day. He reminded participants that Mandela said that “forgiveness frees the soul.” He didn’t fight for retribution, but for justice and fundamental rights.
Reports from the Schiller Institute Conference in Berlin
Stephan Ossenkopp, who was a moderator and organizer for the July 12-13 Berlin Conference, described the organizing process which led up to it. The title of the conference was “Man Is Not a Wolf to Man,” and it stressed coexistence and collaboration as the only alternative to the threatened Third World War. He emphasized the importance of the cultural contributions from around the planet, saying that “People were very moved, not just by the speakers, but by the music.” The buildup to the conference included street organizing, diplomatic activity, and a very successful press conference by frequent IPC panelist Ray McGovern and former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East in the National Intelligence Council Elizabeth Murray, both of whom visited Germany and spoke at the Schiller Institute conference.
IPC moderator Anastasia Battle presented photos from the conference and described the effect of the Classical music performances as helping the participants to effectively organize their minds to take up the challenge of steering the world away from the precipice of nuclear war. Sébastien Drochon reported on the impact of the conference from an organizing site on the street in Paris, where he was organizing the public along with French youth and a leader of the Schiller Institute in Mexico.
Former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar participated as a panelist in Berlin by internet. He praised the just-concluded The Hague Group conference in Bogotá and called for public support for UN Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, supporting her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize and condemning the recently announced U.S. sanctions against her. He also condemned President Donald Trump’s attempts to interfere with the internal affairs of Brazil regarding the legal case against former President Bolsonaro, and charged that Trump’s encouraging Zelenskyy to strike at Moscow is very dangerous. Russia is still open to diplomacy, he asserted; it is the West that prefers the continuation of war.
Co-moderator Dennis Small thanked President Ramotar and emphasized the importance of making the voices of the Global South heard in Europe and the U.S.
The Voice of the ‘Sane North’
Small also reported on the two-week visit of EIR correspondent Tim Rush to Brazil, where Rush had been the only U.S. speaker at various events surrounding the BRICS summit, offering what Small described as the voice of the “sane North.” This perspective needs to be heard in the Global South; they need to know that “they do have allies and interlocutors in the North.” Small charged that the Anglophile press are intentionally misrepresenting the BRICS Summit, claiming it was uneventful. One of the most important developments was President Vladimir Putin’s proposal for New Investment Platforms (NIPs), supported by Chinese President Xi Jinping, and also viewed favorably by Brazil’s Lula da Silva.
Later, Rush came on live from Brazil to give his own report. He said that Trump’s denunciation of Brazil and demand for charges against Bolsonaro to be dropped “set a lot of things buzzing.” Rush described a “nationalist reflex” in the Brazilian press, with even Lula’s critics reacting to attacks by Trump.
Optimism in the Face of Evil
Some comments came from participants in Germany, decrying the evil of their nation’s current leadership. Co-moderator Dennis Small emphasized the British role as the authors of evil, both at the time of the rise of Nazism in Germany, and in the promotion of Israel’s genocide in Gaza today. Zepp-LaRouche speculated about a possible “Oreshnik moment,” in which Russia could no longer hold back in response to NATO provocations, and described German Chancellor Merz as having a “complete lack of political instinct.” But as always, she sees reason for optimism, reminding the participants that the 10th of her Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture is that “man is fundamentally good.” She said that one must evaluate a nation’s trajectory and described how, as a child, she played on the rubblefields of post-war Germany, but she and her playmates were optimistic because they could sense that the trajectory of the nation was upwards due to its Wirtschaftswunde, the “economic miracle” following the end of World War II.
Working with the Global South
A participant in Nigeria asked how people in Africa can participate in the work of the IPC. Zepp-LaRouche said that we have put together extensive plans for Africa, starting with electrification (600 million inhabitants have no access) and “game-changer projects” such as the Grand Inga Dam in D.R. Congo and the Transaqua project to refill Lake Chad. She added that we have been working with the Global South since 1975, and this is why people trust the Schiller Institute and we have the capability of pulling off something like the Berlin conference,
French leader Jacques Cheminade said that if Europe can bring something good to Africa, that will be a revolutionary break from the past, and a move toward what President Putin describes as a “polyphonic society.”
Concluding Remarks
Small said that almost as bad as the overt calls for nuclear warfare is Trump’s announcement that the future of the financial world is “crypto, crypto, crypto,” because that would lock the world into a system dominated by privately-run financial speculation that negates the possible development perspective that we are promoting.
Ramotar called attention to Francesca Albanese’s report on corporations which are profiting from genocide. He added that “we have to bring out the stark figures on how much money is wasted” on the arms industry, and what we could do if those funds were put to productive purposes.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche spoke of “those people who have money notes in their eyes … one of them is clearly [EU Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen.” In conclusion, she said, we should celebrate Nelson Mandela Day by spending at least one hour doing something unselfish, and “be a loving person for at least one hour today.”
