Dec. 19, 2025 (EIRNS)—The 133rd consecutive weekly Friday meeting of the International Peace Coalition took place on Dec. 19. Helga Zepp-LaRouche started the event detailing the tumultuous nature of the period. She noted that the European Union has failed in its plans for financing the Ukraine war against Russia. The best that the EU could accomplish is to borrow €90 billion at taxpayer expense, in order to lend this to Ukraine, for Ukraine to turn around and pay back the €45 billion that it already owes to the EU. This is one giant Ponzi scheme which will not advance the war effort since Ukraine has no more soldiers left to fight. This is destroying any remaining unity of the EU with countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and others resisting this insanity.

Threats to steal the Russian frozen assets puts the entire financial system at risk of collapse. The 16-hour EU meeting was a scene of great desperation where representatives were not allowed to leave until a plan was agreed upon. As confirmed by media reports, the Ukraine war could have been prevented in 2020 if Ukraine would have simply agreed to no membership in NATO. Zepp-LaRouche spoke of the danger of war in Venezuela, saying that it would be a disaster. This insanity is splitting the MAGA base since Trump had campaigned against more foreign wars. She spoke of the EU sanctions against Swiss author Jacques Baud for the “crime” of refusing to repeat the official narrative. This violation of free speech is contrary to the Charter of the UN, EU, and the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. Zepp-LaRouche warned that the EU may try to impose sanctions against Pope Leo for having spoken against war. She warned of the dangerous comments by Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chairman of the NATO Military Committee, who argued for a “pre-emptive strike” by NATO against Russia, or other NATO messaging that the nature of man is war. Zepp-LaRouche rejected these claims completely and called on everyone to build support for her call to dissolve NATO. She called upon the world’s youth to join together to end war and build a new paradigm of development. She said that the establishment has no right to take away the future of mankind.

Jack Gilroy spoke next about his theology of resistance. Gilroy has been active with Veterans for Peace and Pax Christi for years. He gave a quick history of geopolitics starting with his experience in 1955 as part of NATO troops on the border of Czechoslovakia, where he and his fellow soldiers knew that they were “sacrificial lambs” if any fighting erupted. In October 1962 war was prevented during the Cuban Missile Crisis due to the negotiating between Kennedy and Khrushchev, with help from Pope John XXIII. In June 1963, and again in June 1963 President Kennedy spoke of disarmament at American University and in September at the UN. JFK also said that he wanted to shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, many spoke of the potential for industrial conversion for peaceful purposes, but the “merchants of death” needed to keep Russia as an enemy. In 2014 the CIA overthrew the elected government in Ukraine to help create the war against Russia. Stocks soared for the merchants of death when Russia invaded Ukraine. NATO put the entire world in a new Cuban Missile Crisis in 2024 by delivering long-range missiles in Ukraine. It is time that we move away from the lie that militarism gives us security. The only true security comes from development and justice. Gilroy said that the future will see the true heroes of this period are JFK, Pope John XXIII, and Lyndon LaRouche. In the question period Gilroy also spoke of the Raising Together Theater which addresses issues of peace and justice.

Dennis Small spoke of the fight inside the White House over going to war with Venezuela. The war faction is led by the evil Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security, and the very ambitious Secretary of State Marco Rubio. These two are pushing Trump into a trap. Small then compared the imperial wars and colonial looting represented in the recently issued National Security Strategy document, compared to the economic development and cooperation in China’s recent statement on Latin America and the Caribbean. The NSS document states that the U.S. must dominate the world and its security depends upon not allowing any nation or group of nations to become strong enough to represent a threat. However, China speaks of “universal security,” common goals, and cooperation. In particular China uses the term, “trilateral development” in which China invites the U.S. to join in in developing Latin America. The NSS document rejects this offer and insists that the U.S. has sole access to the region’s resources and all other countries be pushed out of the area. Small listed the major projects in South and Central America that China has completed or were sabotaged by the U.S.

Professor Eduardo Siqueira of UMass-Boston said that there is too much focus on war instead of peace. He said that the recent NSS document put on paper what many leaders in Ibero America already knew, that the U.S. intends to use “gunboat diplomacy.” The U.S. will force countries to act against their own interests. This has been the U.S. policy in Venezuela since Hugo Chávez took power. In order to remove Chávez and his followers from power, the U.S. attempted a coup, it bribed Venezuelan military leaders to overthrow the government, it used mercenaries in Colombia, and it created artificial candidates such as Juan Guaidó and María Machado. While the U.S. threatens to attack Nicolás Maduro for alleged drug ties, the U.S. pardoned former Honduran President Juan Hernández. Siqueira said that the U.S. is using the CIA and the National Endowment for Democracy to create puppet regimes, but the big target is Brazil. Stephen Miller changes the narrative every day with new lies, but the plan remains to stop the influence of China and the BRICS nations. Siqueira said that whenever an empire is in decline, it becomes desperate. Jack Gilroy said that he had visited Venezuela several times and was impressed with the Cuban doctors who would go to the poorest neighborhoods to care for the forgotten people.

There were several young speakers who attended the November Schiller youth conference in Paris and the International Youth Conference on Dec. 14. Tim from Uganda spoke calling on all the youth of the world to unite for development to stop wars. Tim said that when Africa is free, then the world will be free. Estevao from Brazil spoke of the urgency to use the principles of the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia to take into account the interests of the other in achieving peace. Estevao went through the Dec. 14 Schiller youth conference with 150 youth from 37 countries, where issues such as the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act could be used to put credit into production instead of speculation. Carla from the Bronx spoke of her organizing student groups around the great projects such as the Bering Straits project and the Oasis Plan, which could bring peace through development, by which she generated an exciting response.

The question period was more of a dialogue. Several people suggested that everyone pick a reading list for the holiday period, but Dennis Small pointed out that several suggested books failed to address the higher principle of the “one humanity.” Small said that people should master the works of Lyndon LaRouche to maximize their impact as organizers. Clearly we all need to act morally, but Small said that only if we educate ourselves can we be effective. When asked about how to change the U.S., Zepp-LaRouche said that Americans need to know their “pre-history,” going back to at least to Paolo Toscanelli. There is a more universal history and she was most concerned about any shift to a chauvinist outlook. American elites have adopted a British colonialist policy as shown by H.G. Wells’ “Open Conspiracy.” Zepp-LaRouche concluded with her call for building support for her statement to “Withdraw from NATO” and reading LaRouche’s works, namely “On the Historical Individual” and “Secrets Known Only To the Inner Elite.”