Report on IPC #176
The 176th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) began with a strategic briefing by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator. She warned of the possibility of a major escalation by the United States and Israel against Iran, possibly using the Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bombs, and since most military targets have been destroyed, the attack may be directed against civilian population centers. U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are both facing the possibility of major electoral defeats in the near term, which creates an incentive for both to act aggressively. In Ukraine, the Russians have little hope of a diplomatic solution when they are dealing with Acting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump, so they are motivated to end the war with a military victory. The only forces moving toward a diplomatic solution are China and the Global South, Belarus, Pope Leo XIV, and the IPC. The peace movement is still plagued by division, but protests are erupting all over the world over a variety of issues, and the potential is there to unite these protests into a unified movement for a new security and development architecture.
Jack Gilroy is a member of the Pax Christi New York State Council, Veterans for Peace, and Ban Killer Drones. He reminded the participants of the famous aphorism that crisis means opportunity. It has been ten weeks since the launch of the open letter to Pope Leo, appealing to him to call for a global peace summit. The pope is doing well after receiving surgery for lung cancer. Gilroy discussed the pope’s upcoming conference of religious leaders for peace,, and reviewed all the initiatives that have been taken by the Schiller Institute and IPC to intersect the pope’s activities, to promote a paradigm shift and a solution to the war danger.
A video was presented with an on-the-ground report from France on how IPC organizers are educating the French youth who are out on the streets, protesting the conditions in their schools.
This was followed by a second video in which Luiz Augusto Erthal, editor of the Brazilian news platform TodaPalavra, presented a report on the presidential race in his country, and how Brazilian youth are now engaged in spectacular mass demonstrations in support of incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s candidacy. American social media such as Meta are intervening on behalf of right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, by suppressing pro-Lula social media posts. Lula is making a contribution to history by promoting a reduction of the work week from six to five days.
He described the million-strong youth mobilization in support of Lula’s candidacy as “a final line of defense against fascism, barbarism and imperialism.”
UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter joined the panel, who stated his intention to debunk the propaganda that the United States is betraying Ukraine. Ukraine only exists today, in its current form, to serve as a proxy for the Anglosphere to damage Russia. American political leadership no longer concurs with this agenda. Trump worries about the upcoming U.S. midterm elections, and he is trying to manipulate the perceptions of the population and the energy markets with a short-term infusion of diesel, in the form of his deal with Russia. We are now looking at the divorce between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, and the death of the Ukrainian state.
In response to a question by Zepp-LaRouche, Ritter responded by warning that Europe must choose between its own survival and “joining Ukraine in her deathbed.” Zepp-LaRouche asked how the situation in Southwest Asia will interact with this. Ritter predicted that Trump will resume bombing Iran, but he is also looking for a viable exit strategy from the war. He opined that the critical feature of the regional crisis is what will become of Saudi Arabia, which is undergoing a major destabilization.
Co-moderator Dennis Speed welcomed the arrival of Larry Johnson, a well-known whistleblower and former CIA intelligence official, with a short summary of the proceedings thus far. Johnson noted that the MOAB bomb can only be delivered by the slow, turboprop-driven C-130 aircraft, which are very vulnerable. He reported on how he addressed the UN Security Council in an informal Arria-formula meeting on October 14, 2026, invited by the Russian delegation. He described the presentation by the U.S. representative as curiously detached, like an arsonist calmly describing a fire to authorities after having set it. He said that he came away from this meeting convinced that Russia and Europe will be in a shooting war within a year, and described the presentations by Denmark, Latvia, France and Greece as “vicious.” Unlike in the 1960s and 70s, the Europeans seem oblivious to the danger that nuclear weapons may be used.
Johnson opined that the days of the present Saudi regime are numbered. The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, a Zaydi Shia Islamist political and military group from northern Yemen, have inflicted unprecedented damage on Saudi Arabia. He said that Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has been an inept and corrupt ruler whose hold on power is tenuous at best.
In response, Zepp-LaRouche vowed to find a way to prevent the war that Johnson predicted for Europe. She raised the question of how to break the cognitive warfare of NATO, and asked what motivates the war-crazed Europeans. Johnson said Russia is terrible at telling its story, which ought to be a compelling one; he compared Russia in the 1990s to a drug addict that visited the depths of despair, but recovered and became a successful businessman. Johnson credits Russian President Vladimir Putin with orchestrating Russia’s recovery. Johnson contrasted the ineffectual messaging of Russia’s foreign policy team to what he called the “brilliant” efforts of the young Iranians who make humorous and truthful Lego videos to mock the Western neocons.
Independent U.S. presidential candidate Diane Sare said that Americans have a hard time conceiving that other nations have the same right to sovereignty that we do, and we need to take seriously the phrase in our Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” The United States is not exempt from the revolutionary upsurge that is occurring elsewhere in the world.
Discussion
Congressional candidate Jose Vega addressed the political unrest around the world, saying that “people want to fight despair and nihilism.” In the U.S., people have “decided that enough is enough with ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” and are also concerned with housing and economic issues. He asked Zepp-LaRouche to speak on the question of the death penalty. She responded that no government has the right to take a life, a view which she attributed in part to her Catholic upbringing. She spoke of the “Schreibtischtäter” (desk-perpetrators), bureaucrats who kill with the stroke of a pen. Jack Gilroy echoed her words and asked how a government can persuade people not to murder by murdering them.
Luiz Augusto Erthal was asked by Dennis Speed for an update on the Brazilian elections. Erthal said that Lula’s performance in the first round was disappointing, but in the second round, the engagement of the youth has been decisive and has caused a transformation of Lula and his campaign. The media, the oligarchy, and the “Don-roe Doctrine” are arrayed against Lula, but he is better prepared to combat them now.
In response to a question, Zepp-LaRouche warned that if the West attempts to sabotage China’s development, it will backfire due to China’s resilience. She concluded by saying that the weeks ahead will bring many surprises, possibly terrible ones, but also possibly good ones. As Jack Gilroy said, crisis means opportunity. She called for a “continuous mobilization” to support an intervention by Pope Leo and the other initiatives promoted by the IPC.
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