Motoki Kasai

Symposium: “The Aesthetic Education of Humanity Through Music” Concluding Event of Two Day Tribute to Sylvia Olden Lee

July 14, 2017by Motoki Kasai in General

On Friday, June 30, 2017, at the Bruno Walter Auditorium of the New York Library for the Performing Arts, near Lincoln Center, a historic gathering of great musicians and associates of Sylvia Olden Lee, from different generations, backgrounds and accomplishment took place to discuss “The Aesthetic Education of Humanity Through Music.” The symposium was the second event of a two day “Tribute to Sylvia Olden Lee, Master Musician and Teacher,” sponsored by the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture, the Schiller Institute and the Harlem Opera Theater.

The Tribute commenced at Carnegie Hall on the evening of June 29 with a Classical concert of African-American Spirituals, (performed with both solo and choral singers) and works of Giuseppe Verdi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, and Gaetano Donizetti. The audience of 2,100 was deeply moved by the quality of agapēbrought forth by the soloists, by the speeches of those close to the immortal Sylvia Olden Lee, as well as the beauty of the choral performances. Rarely does a “community chorus” reach the stage of Carnegie Hall, let alone receive standing ovations, but the Sylvia Olden Lee Centennial Choir, comprised of four Schiller Institute New York Choruses (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey), the Boston and Northern Virginia Schiller Institute Choruses, and the Convent Avenue Baptist Church Chancel Choir, sung with proper voice-placement at the “Verdi tuning” (A=432 Hz) and was inspired, sensing that Mrs. Lee was indeed present there.

The following day’s Symposium, on the theme “Calling All Teachers and Other Lovers of Wisdom: The Aesthetic Education of Humanity through Music,” was moderated by Dennis Speed of the Schiller Institute. The first session opened with remarks from Lynn Yen, Executive Director of the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture, after which selected members of the Sylvia Lee Centennial Chorus sang Hall Johnson’s arrangement of “I’ll Never Turn Back No More,” directed by Diane Sare, with soloists Frank Mathis, baritone and Michelle Fuchs, soprano. Soprano Gudrun Bühler followed with Desdemona’s aria from Verdi’s Otello, accompanied by Richard Alston on the piano. Music Director Sigersonshowed the audience the two pianos on the stage, one tuned to the Verdi A=432 Hz, and the other tuned to A=441 Hz. The audience of musicians, educators, and students would also get to hear singers on each piano, comparing the different tunings. He then introduced the videos to the gathering.

Before introducing Carmela Altamura, founder of the Altamura Center for the Performing Arts and the Altamura-Caruso competition, Sigerson showed a 1988 Schiller Institute video from Casa Verdi in Milan, with baritone Piero Cappuccilli demonstrating the superiority of the Verdi Tuning. Maestra Altamuraspoke of her work, and then coached three of her students, tenor Mauricio Trejo, soprano Jennifer Adams, and baritone Gustavo Ahualli on aspects of singing correctly, and creating bel canto tone. The difference between the higher tuning and the proper tuning was especially evident in the soprano’s high notes in Oscar’s aria “Saper vorreste” from Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. However, in the baritone’s example, which he sang first at the 440 Hz and then at 432 Hz tuning, it was the tone color and the warmer, rounder quality that was audible, as well as the proper register shift.

After a brief intermission, tenor Reginald Bouknightand pianist Richard Alston presented the first song of Beethoven’s song cycle, “An die ferne Geliebte.” Maestro Tony Morss spoke on the history of musical tuning and the Schiller Institute’s tuning initiative, followed by a dialogue with Simon Estes. They were joined after that in a panel discussion by Elvira Green, Osceola Davis, Gregory Hopkins, Eve Lee (Sylvia Olden Lee’s daughter), and William Wray, which not only covered the amazing influence and impact that Sylvia Olden Lee had on each of them and their circumstances, but the necessity to continue that mission, for the future.

Introduction: Dennis Speed

Prelude: Lyn Yen and the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus

Gudrun Buhler: The Aesthetical Education of Humanity Through Music

John Sigerson: The Schiller Institute Campaign to Restore the Verdi Tuning

Carmela Altamura: The Art of Bel Canto singing

Mauricio Trejo (tenor): The Aesthetical Education of Humanity Through Music

Jennifer Adams (soprano): The Aesthetical Education of Humanity Through Music

Gustavo Ahualli (baritone): The Aesthetical Education of Humanity Through Music

Reginald Bouknight: Auf dem Hügel sitz ich spähend

Anthony Morss: Saving Grace, Saving Voices

A Discussion with Simon Estes: The Aesthetical Education of Humanity Through Music

A Discussion of Sylvia Olden Lee’s Life and Work

Shanghai Daily Interviews Helga Zepp-LaRouche

June 2, 2017by Motoki Kasai in China SI activity, Helga media coverage or interview

EDITOR’S Note: Helga Zepp-LaRouche visited Shanghai for the first time in the summer of 1971. In 1977 she married American economist Lyndon LaRouche, and the couple have since worked together on development plans for a just new world economic order. Zepp-LaRouche founded the Schiller Institute in 1984, a think tank devoted to the realization of these plans and a renaissance and a dialogue of classical cultures. In 1991 she was a coauthor of a study The Eurasian Land-Bridge/ The New Silk Road and in 2014 of the study The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge, which has been translated into Chinese, Arabic, German and Korean. She is an expert in European humanist philosophy and poetry, Confucius, and history. After attending the recent Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, she visited Shanghai, where Shanghai Daily reporter Wan Lixin interviewed her.

Q: In what way do you think the Belt and Road initiative is significant for the world and China?

A: I think the Belt and Road initiative signifies a revolutionary move to a new epoch of civilization. The idea of having a win-win cooperation among nations is the first time that a concrete concept has been offered to overcome geopolitics. Since geopolitics was the cause of the two world wars, I think it is a completely new paradigm of thinking where an idea proposed by one country has the national interest basically in coherence with the interests of humanity as a whole. This has never happened. This has instilled tremendous hope among developing nations that they have the chance to overcome poverty and underdevelopment. And I think this is an initiative that will grow until all the continents are connected through infrastructure and development.

Q: What do you think are challenges confronting the world today?

A: I think the biggest challenge is that the trans-Atlantic financial system is in jeopardy, because the G7 countries did nothing after the financial crisis of 2008 to remedy the root causes of this crisis. The danger today is that we are going to have another financial crisis much worse than that of 2008. In this light I think the financial system associated with the Belt and Road Initiative, like the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) and similar institutions, which are focused on investment in the real economy, are an anchor. Hopefully the Western nations will rethink their orientation of high risk speculation and eventually go back to the banking system represented by AIIB. U.S. President Trump announced that he will go back to the American economic system of Alexander Hamilton, and that’s potentially the kind of reform that makes the United States fit to cooperate in this new financial system. The second challenge is naturally terrorism. This requires international cooperation, and there I think the Belt and Road could offer a lasting solution by extending the initiative to Southwest Asia, and build up the economy in that part of the world that had been destroyed by wars which were based on lies. Why did you have to solve the problem of terrorism militarily first? You have to have an economic perspective so that people in the regions have hope for the future. So I think ending terrorism would require the Belt and Road Initiative and the reconstruction of the Southwest Asia and Africa.

Q: There has been evolving perception about globalization. How do you think the Belt and Road Initiative is reshaping this perception?

A: The old globalization really went entirely in one direction. First of all it made the deregulation of the markets and high risk speculation easy. And this increased the gap between the rich and the poor in an intolerable way in many countries. This mode of globalization is being rejected, as you can see by the Brexit and the rise of many right-wing movements in Europe. So this model has clearly failed. I think the new Silk Road, the win-win cooperation as proposed by China, has developed in incredible speed in the less than four years since President Xi proposed it. This new model of globalization is based on the common good of all participating countries. This is the more attractive form of globalization and this is why so many countries have joined it.

Q: What do you think are some of the factors that need to be considered when it comes to implementing the Belt and Road initiative across different cultures?

A: The Schiller Institute has organized hundreds of seminars and conferences on the New Silk Road for 26 years. We have always made the point that for this New Silk Road to succeed in the tradition of the old Silk Road, which was also an exchange of ideas and cultures, not just products and technology, you have to combine economic cooperation with dialogue between cultures. This dialogue must be on the highest level, so each culture has to present examples of the best of their culture, like Confucianism, Italian renaissance, the German classical period, and present the best works of arts in music and poetry, paintings and other forms of art. Our experience is that when people get into contact for the first time with expression of such high culture from another culture, they are surprised by its beauty. And this beauty then opens the heart and souls of the people. And this is the best medicine against chauvinism, xenophobia, and prejudice, and it opens the way for the love of other cultures. This is in conformity with Confucian teaching that all activity must be combined with strengthening of love for the mankind, because without that cultural component, that New Silk Road will not flourish.

Q: What do you think such high profile events like the recent summit suggest about China’s role in world affairs?

A: I think it a great honor for me to participate in this Belt and Road Forum, and I was deeply impressed by the speech of President Xi Jinping. Among all participants I spoke with there is consensus that we are actively participating in the shaping of history. All this means that China is right now leading the world in terms of providing the perspective for the future. I think this has been recognized by many countries in Latin America, in Africa, in Asia, and even some European countries start to recognize it is in their best interests to ally with that initiative. So I think it has made clear that China is the only country right now that offers a positive perspective to overcome the strategic bottleneck of our present times.

Q: In the past, the quest for prosperity invariably led to competition, strife, or wars. Is this avoidable?

A: Concerning the question of competition, strife and war, I think this must be replaced by joint development. Here I would like to quote from Pope Paul VI who said that “Development is the new name for peace.”

Q: How do you think the West responds to the Belt and Road Initiative?

A: The responses have been mixed, because you have those who want to stick to the old geopolitical thinking, to the status quo of their power, and to their understanding of their power position. I think this is an outdated way of thinking. Many think-tanks of the West are still publishing reports along these lines. But there is a wind of change. Many European countries have realized the potential of collaborating with the Belt and Road, which includes Greece, Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland. So I think this tendency will increase. Those countries which are more reserved — like Germany — will have to change. But I think German industries, particularly those middle-sized industries, are absolutely in cooperation with China in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Q: Say something about your China experience.

A: I was first in Shanghai 46 years ago in 1971, after traveling on a cargo ship. Although it was not the best time to be in China, it had awakened my love for China. The city has changed completely. Except for some buildings on the Bund, I couldn’t find anything in my memory. I could not think of any other countries in the planet that have seen such gigantic changes. I think the Chinese people are much too modest. They should feel more confident about what they have accomplished. They have created the biggest miracle of the world, even bigger than the post-war German economic miracle. They should be very proud to be Chinese. The decision by Moody’s Investors Service to cut China’s sovereign ratings is insane. In German we have a saying: People should touch their own nose first before they made a stupid criticism.

(source: Shanghai Daily) http://www.shanghaidaily.com/opinion/chinese-perspectives/Belt-and-Road-initiative-instills-hope-for-peace-and-development-among-nations/shdaily.shtml

Zepp-LaRouche Addresses a Forum at Largest Publishing House in China

May 31, 2017by Motoki Kasai in China SI activity, Helga statement, article, transcript

In a major address to an audience of between 100 and 200 people at the Phoenix Press Publishing Group at their headquarters in Nanjing, China, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the president of the Schiller Institute, gave a report-back from her attendance at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing.

“The Belt and Road has injected optimism into many countries,” Zepp-LaRouche said, “and the momentum is unstoppable,” but bringing it fully to fruition “will not be easy.” Immediately after the summit, she continued, the attacks against the Belt and Road escalated, combined with attacks against President Trump, who had sent a high-level delegation to the BRI Summit. “The attacks were based on the absurd charges of collusion with Russia in the election,” she said.

“After the Cold War, the British and their American allies wanted to create a unipolar world,” she said. “And in doing so they have destroyed the Middle East and left it in a shambles.” And this precipitated the refugee crisis, the general reaction against “globalization,” and the rise of right-wing movements. “The Belt and Road,” she said, “will bring about the creation of the World Land-Bridge, which will connect all continents. And this is something we have been fighting for, for over 40 years,” she said.

She then described the fight of her and her husband, Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., to build a new world economic order: LaRouche’s call for an International Development Bank, the fight for the African development plan, and the Ibero-American initiative in the same direction in collaboration with Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo, and the hundreds of seminars on five continents held by the Schiller Institute calling for a Belt and Road development.

“Transforming the Belt and Road to a World Land-Bridge will realize politically for the first time a real future for all the people living on this planet and will establish forms of governance for the world.” But to fully realize this, she said, “you must also study the ideas of my husband on the question of economics.”

Zepp-LaRouche then went through the all-important cultural aspects of the Belt and Road and the need for all of the different cultures involved to bring out their finest achievements, in order to use these to create a dialogue of cultures among the nations on the Belt and Road. She then went through the importance of Friedrich Schiller in German and Western culture and the importance of Confucius in Chinese culture, making a concrete comparison of the works of Schiller and Confucius and showing the close similarity in the ideas of these two great thinkers which were separated in time by almost 2000 years .

Zepp-LaRouche was followed by Bill Jones, the Washington Bureau Chief of EIR, who showed a power point presentation describing the struggle of the LaRouche organization from the time of Nixon’s abandonment of the Bretton Woods system. He described the 1970s attack of the Club of Rome and the publication of “Limits to Growth,” which was intended to transform the culture of progress into the culture of death with the international push for Zero Economic Growth and Zero Population Growth. He outlined the reaction of Lyndon LaRouche and the LaRouche organization to the Zero Growth movement, LaRouche’s call for the International Development Bank (IDB), and the subsequent call for the IDB and a New World Economic Order at the Colombo meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1976, and by Guyana’s Foreign Minister, Fred Wills, at the U.N. General Assembly.

Jones described the struggle waged by LaRouche to bring President Ronald Reagan, who had adopted LaRouche’s concept of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as a peace proposal with the Soviet Union, into a working relationship with the progressive leaders in the developing sector, such as Mexican President Lopez Portillo and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. These efforts then led to a reaction by the people around Vice President George H.W. Bush, who connived to have LaRouche and several of his associates incarcerated on trumped-up charge. The election of President William Clinton brought LaRouche out of prison and back into an advisory role, with President Clinton’s attempts, albeit unsuccessful, to move in the direction of a new financial architecture. The creation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) represent, therefore, the type of structures that LaRouche and his movement have been trying to bring about for over four decades, Jones explained.

This was followed by Professor Bao Shixiu, a professor of military science, who outlined the strategic importance of the Belt and Road for China, showing how it will allow the country to overcome the traditional difficulties it has had with other countries, including India and Japan. Professor Bao underlined the seminal role of the LaRouches in bringing this initiative to the forefront, and the ongoing struggle of Lyndon and Helga LaRouche to overcome the opposition to it from the London-New York financial elites. Professor Bao also laid out both the economic and strategic implications of the Belt and Road for China, which would help ensure a harmonious climate in the region and in the world, which would allow it and all other countries to continue to develop.

There was a great deal of interest exhibited by the audience, particularly in Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s call for the dialogue of cultures and a heightened degree of interest in the work of Friedrich Schiller among the Phoenix staff, some of whom seemed to have had a rather extensive exposure to the works of German culture.

Belt and Road Forum

May 14 – 15, 2017, Beijing, China

Belt and Road Forum page >>

Belt and Road Summit: Xinhua Interview with Helga Zepp-LaRouche

May 14, 2017by Motoki Kasai in General

“The Belt and Road Initiative is the most important strategic initiative on the planet… It not only brings economic prosperity to all participating countries, but also serves as a true basis for a peace order for the 21st century.”

– Helga Zepp-LaRouche, 15 May, 2017 in Beijing:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-05/14/c_136282780.htm

Ukraine: Nazi Hit Squads attack political leaders Natalia Vitrenko and Vladimir Marchenko

May 13, 2017by Motoki Kasai in General

May 12, 2017 (EIRNS)–On Victory over Fascism Day, May 9, Neo-Nazi “National Corps” (former Azov Battalion unit) staged a new attack on Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU) leaders Dr. Natalia Vitrenko and Vladimir Marchenko. Early that morning, as the USA, Canada and European countries had celebrated V-E Day (May 8), the 72nd anniversary of the Nazi surrender in World War II, and the countries formerly in the Soviet Union prepared for their customary marking of the occasion as Victory Day, May 9, these leading anti-fascists in Ukraine, both of them former members of Parliament, heard their doorbells ring and threatening voices outside in the hallways. Gangs from the neo-Nazi “National Corps Party,” formerly a unit of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion under the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, were attempting to break down the doors of their apartments. During a five-hour stand-off, police refused to remove the attackers forcibly. The neo-Nazis declared that their purpose was to prevent Vitrenko and her PSPU from holding Victory Day rallies or taking part in the Immortal Regiment march, in which people in Kiev, as in cities throughout the world, were set to honor family members who died fighting fascism, or survived as veterans of the war.

Vitrenko is famous not only for her now nearly quarter-century-long battle against the destruction of Ukraine through the imposition of neoliberal monetarist economic policies, but also for warning for two decades of an insurgent fascist movement in Ukraine, marching under Nazi-derived banners and those of Ukrainian 20th-century fascist Stepan Bandera’s Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. Even after her warnings came true, when the neo-Nazis provided shock troops in the U.S.- and EU-backed coup of February 2014 that overthrew the elected President of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych, Vitrenko has continued to fight to expose them and their backing from the West.

In October of last year, in the latest of a long series of dirty tricks, the PSPU’s national headquarters and all the party’s records of 20 years were seized on the pretext of a commercial dispute, then turned over to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which continues to gestate a case against Vitrenko on trumped-up charges of “separatism.”

On May 4, 2017, Vitrenko addressed an Appeal to world leaders “to review the situation around the gross violation of the rights of citizens of Ukraine to freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of expression of their views and convictions, freedom of association in political parties and public organizations, and freedom of assembly for the peaceful conduct of actions, rallies and demonstrations.” Addressing U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, as well as President Petro Poroshenko and other Ukrainian government officials, Vitrenko cited recent threats against her, by name, made in the Ukrainian media by individuals linked with the National Corps and affiliated neo-Nazi groups like Right Sector. She concluded, “It is my deep conviction, that if the world community fails to condemn these processes in Ukraine and to force the President of Ukraine and its law enforcement agencies to carry out their obligations to defend the rights and freedoms of the citizens of Ukraine and to put a stop to the activity of the right-wing radicals, then a Nazi state will be formed in the center of Europe in the near future, and this will give rise to a Third World War.”

In a communication today to friends abroad, Vitrenko voiced hope that Western leaders could be organized to pressure the Ukrainian government to put a stop to the attacks on the PSPU by the Azov Battalion and its political spin-offs like the National Corps party. She noted, especially, that the U.S. Congress has officially recognized that Azov is “neo-Nazi.” Dr. Vitrenko situated the attacks on her party within an evaluation of the political situation in Ukraine, where one current scenario is for a military coup to be staged by Internal Affairs Minister Avakov and allies of his who have also been sponsors of the neo-Nazi gangs.

The following PSPU statements on the latest developments are provided in English below:

* May 4, Appeal by Vitrenko to Merkel, Putin, Trump, and Poroshenko;

* May 9, “Unchained Nazis commit acts of terror against Vitrenko and Marchenko on May 9,” statement by Natalia Vitrenko to President Poroshenko and other Ukrainian officials, issued after the attack;

* May 10, “Natalia Vitrenko says physical reprisals against her and Vladimir Marchenko were planned for May 9” (introduction to video statement, includes photos);

* May 10, “Political terror: Azov neo-Nazis continue persecution of PSPU,” article by PSPU political commentator Victor Silenko, detailing the escalation against Vitrenko throughout 2016-2017.

The Russian-language originals are available at http://www.vitrenko.org/

Appeal by Vitrenko to Merkel, Putin, Trump, and Poroshenko

May 4, 2017

To the Federal Chancellor of Germany A. Merkel
President of the Russian Federation V. Putin
President of the USA D. Trump
President of Ukraine P. Poroshenko
Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yu. Lutsenko
Chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine V. Hrytsak
Human Rights Ombudsman of the Supreme Rada of Ukraine V. Lutkovska

Dear heads of state and authorized representatives of the Ukrainian government,

As the leader of a Ukrainian opposition party, People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the 2nd and 3rd Convocations, and candidate for the Presidency of Ukraine in 1999 and 2004, I am compelled to appeal to you to review the situation around the gross violation of the rights of citizens of Ukraine to freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of expression of their views and convictions, freedom of association in political parties and public organizations, and freedom of assembly for the peaceful conduct of actions, rallies and demonstrations.

These rights and freedoms are not only norms of the Constitution Of Ukraine (articles 34, 36, 39), but are also international obligations of Ukraine in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights and the Pact on Civil and Political Rights, both of which have been ratified by our country.

The present appeal is motivated by the publicly displayed lawlessness of the Ukrainian neo-Nazis, who are threatening Ukrainian citizens, including me personally, with reprisals in connection with the upcoming Victory Day, marking the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War.

The law enforcement agencies are not only failing to stop the aggressive attacks by representatives of right-wing radical political forces, but are themselves taking an active part in intimidating the citizens of Ukraine, for whom May 9 is not only a national holiday, but a day of remembrance and respect for the heroism of our glorious fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers, who gave their lives to defeat Hitler’s Nazism, liberated our land, and in a coalition with other countries freed the entire world from fascism.

I cite just three examples of the threats and intimidation, disseminated in the Ukrainian media:

1. Right Sector Press Secretary Artyom Skoropadsky stated in a commentary for Obozrevatel: “Provocations, of course, are a possibility. The Kremlin likes to exploit such events, dedicated to so-called shared aspects of history. As for our participation, of course we won’t be tearing St. George’s Ribbons off old men, even if they come here. That’s their business. But if any scum like

[Communist Party leader] Symonenko or Vitrenko comes crawling out, people who opening support Moscow, then we’ll act, shall we say, using our methods,” commented Skoropadsky. (Source: http://amdn.news/budiem-dieistvovat-nashimi-mietodami-pravyi-siektor-planiruiet-aktsii-na-9-maia)

2. Ukrainian nationalists are planning to impede the holding of the Immortal Regiment action in Kiev on May 9, says Mykola Kokhanivsky, leader of the OUN [Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists] Volunteer Movement, a nationalist organization.

“On May 9 the communists and their supporters in Kiev will once again stage this march, which originated in Moscow and is called the Immortal Regiment… We will not permit the red hydra to infiltrate Kiev!”

— Kokhanivsky wrote in Facebook.

He reported that the nationalists are planning to hold their own action in Kiev on May 9, under the name “Mortal Regiment” [or “Death Regiment” –Translator]. (Source: https://ria.ru/world/20170503/1493585865.html?utm_source=smi2&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=rian_partners)

3. These Ukrainians are prepared not only to continue the blood-letting, but they are also publicly warning about their right to kill and to punish. On the TV channel 112 Ukraine Ilya Kiva, adviser to [Minister of Internal Affairs] Avakov and grandson of a Hero of the Soviet Union, stated: “We can no longer expect certain people to return to normalcy and reality. But they are our citizens, and we must be able to co-exist with them. I am talking about people who love to shout mindlessly, ‘peace, labor, May,’ … but we have enough experience, enough in numbers and forces, and, most important, we have a rudder that will smash and crush any open moves by these lovers of ‘the Russian world.’ There will be fewer of them, and we shall make them afraid. All these lovers of the ‘Russian world” and this post-Soviet plague, first they’ll experience fear, and along with that will be born love of Ukraine and the Ukrainian nation.” (Source: http://odnarodyna.org/content/pervomayskiy-opyt-svidomitam-malo-krovi)

The media, abetted by Ukraine’s law enforcement agencies (or in cahoots with them), is without question conducting informational and political terror, making Ukrainian citizens who have beliefs different from those of the neo-Nazis into targets for physical reprisals.

Sticking loathsome labels on me and people like me, humiliating us by vulgarizing our sincere convictions and values as orders from Moscow—these are the methods used to prepare the public for harassment and physical reprisals against us.

I think that the world community knows about the [2014] tragedies of May 2 in Odessa and May 9 in Mariupol, and about many other things during these past three years in Ukraine, testifying to the Ukrainian neo-Nazis’ lawlessness and unrestrained actions, which they do with impunity. And the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, which are obligated to defend the rights and freedoms of the citizens of Ukraine, do nothing.

It is my deep conviction, that if the world community fails to condemn these processes in Ukraine and to force the President of Ukraine and its law enforcement agencies to carry out their obligations to defend the rights and freedoms of the citizens of Ukraine and to put a stop to the activity of the right-wing radicals, then a Nazi state will be formed in the center of Europe in the near future, and this will give rise to a Third World War.

Chairman of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU) Natalia Vitrenko

Statement by Dr. Natalia Vitrenko after the May 9 attacks

To the President of Ukraine P. Poroshenko
Prosecutor General of Ukraine Yu. Lutsenko
Chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine V. Hrytsak
Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine O. Avakov
Human Rights Ombudsmen of the Supreme Rada of Ukraine V. Lutkovska

Unchained Nazis Commit Acts of Terror Against Vitrenko and Marchenko on May 9

I have addressed you repeatedly, stating that the inaction of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies with regard to Ukrainian Nazis has created the conditions for them to carry out political harassment, vigilantism, and murder against journalists, political figures, and citizens of Ukraine, whose political views and values do not coincide with their Nazi ideology. There are countless examples, from the May 2, 2014 tragedy in Odessa to the murders of O. Buzyna, O. Kalashnikov, P. Sheremet, et al. The Ukrainian regime’s proclamations of the European values of freedom of speech, freedom for opposition activity, freedom of expression, and political pluralism, in reality have turned out to be empty words and false promises to cover up the monstrous reality, that the Ukrainian Nazis are out of control and are going unpunished, while law enforcement agencies do nothing to defend the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens, including opposition politicians, under the Constitution and under [international] Conventions.

On May 4, 2017, on the eve of the celebration of the Great Victory [in World War II], I personally wrote to you, demanding that you defend our rights and freedoms, and indeed our lives, from physical reprisals by the Nazis, whose threats had come out in the media, as I indicated in my Appeal. Despite my Appeal, once again the law enforcement agencies took no action. As a result, at 7:30 a.m. on May 9 my apartment doorbell began to ring, and demands to open the door were made by a group of people representing the “National Corps.” They demanded that I refrain from taking part in the day’s mass rallies and that I stop supporting the Russian world. The doorbell-ringing and threats by the Nazis were continuous. I called the police, who arrived after one hour and determined that offensive graffiti had been painted on the door of my apartment and that the Nazis were continuing to blockade it.

At 8:00 a.m. on the same day a group of 15 armed men attacked my deputy, People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Convocations Vladimir Marchenko. First they blocked the driveway of the building where Marchenko lives with his family, and then they physically pushed aside the concierge, broke into the building, and went upstairs to Marchenko’s apartment. They began to ring the doorbell and demanded the door be opened, and then cut off the lights and started smashing the door and trying to break the lock. They spray-painted the door with some kind of poisonous paint, the smell from which (or from some kind of gas) got into the apartment. At that time, in addition to Vladimir Romanovich (Marchenko), his wife and daughter, also his two minor grandchildren were in the apartment, and were naturally terrified.

Vladimir Marchenko had to call the police. After half an hour, one person arrived, who was absolutely incapable of dispersing the blockade, defending V. Marchenko’s family from Nazi threats and insults, or allowing freedom of movement for all the members of the family. Or did the police have no intention of doing those things?!

I demand an immediate investigation of the acts of terror committed against me and Marchenko, and criminal prosecution of both the organizers of these depredations and those who carried them out. I demand the protection of our rights and freedoms, including security. Consider this statement of mine to be an official statement to the police from me personally and from Vladimir Romanovich Marchenko.

Natalia Vitrenko, Chairman of the PSPU — May 9, 2017 11:05 a.m.

Natalia Vitrenko says physical reprisals against her and Vladimir Marchenko were planned for May 9 (introduction to VIDEO statement in Russian)

May 10, 2017

4-2017-05-10-Intro to Vitrenko video on May 9 events-ENG_html_2146493d

Natalia Vitrenko outside her vandalized apartment door. Graffiti (shown in part) say “There is no USSR,” “Murderer, answer for your actions,” and “Russian World, stay home!”

VIDEO statement by Dr. Natalia Vitrenko

Natalia Vitrenko, leader of the opposition Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine, believes that on May 9, 2017 the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion (reformatted as the National Corps) planned physical reprisals against her and her party deputy, Vladimir Marchenko. The circumstances of this matter are set forth in Natalia Vitrenko’s statement of May 9, 2017, “Unchained Nazis Commit Acts of Terror against Vitrenko and Marchenko on May 9.”

Natalia Vitrenko and Vladimir Marchenko believe that these actions by the neo-Nazis and the unlawful inaction of the police are violations of their constitutional rights, guaranteed by Articles 3, 8, 15, 21, 22, 23, 30, 34 and 26 of the Constitution of Ukraine and Articles 5, 8, 10 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and that the crimes committed against Vitrenko and Marchenko come under Articles 15, 115 pt. 1, 146 pt. 3, 296 pt. 2, and 346 pt. 1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, as has been set forth by N. Vitrenko and V. Marchenko in their statements to the police.

The very fact that neo-Nazis and neo-fascists are called activists in Ukraine, and that, in violation of Article 68 of the Constitution of Ukraine, they are permitted to carry out summary justice actions against their political opponents, using various types of violence, clearly demonstrates the latest outbreak of Ukrainian fascism.

Photos: damaged door of V. Marchenko’s apartment, broken lock, and board used by the neo-Nazis in attempts to break the lock and break down the door to enter the apartment. (Graffiti: “Here lives the Russian World.”)

Political terror: Azov neo-Nazis continue persecution of PSPU

May 10, 2017

On May 9, 2017 fighters from the neo-Nazi National Corps Party blockaded the apartments of Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU) Chairman Natalia Vitrenko and her deputy Vladimir Marchenko, in order to prevent these anti-fascist opposition politicians from taking part in an Immortal Regiment march in the Hero City of Kiev.

The attempts to intimidate these participants in the celebration of May 9 were in vain, however: the Progressive Socialists posted on their party website congratulations to the citizens of Ukraine on Victory Day, marking the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, thus confirming their unflagging devotion to the cause of their great and glorious ancestors, whose feats on the battlefield saved humanity from the brown plague of fascism, which now has raised its head in Ukraine under the Maidan regime.

Avakov’s “private army” project

As is well known, the National Corps Party was founded Oct. 14, 2016, based on the public organization called the Azov Civil Corps, a youth wing of the special forces Azov Battalion within the National Guard of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

This new political force was created by renaming the Ukrainian Patriot Party, which had already been registered by the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice and was headed by the former Azov fighter, independent member of the Supreme Rada Andriy Biletsky aka White Boss.

The party convention was held under the occult sign of the Black Sun (German Schwarze Sonne), which is one of the Azov symbols borrowed from the German Nazis and meant to denote belonging to the “higher master race.”

At the same time the newly formed party abandoned the other, better-known Azov symbol, a mirror image of the runic Wolfsangel, symbolizing capture of the enemy (which had been used in Nazi Germany, in particular by the Waffen-SS Tank Division Das Reich), in favor of a stylized trident with lightning.

Thus the National Corps replicated what the Social-National Party of Ukraine (SNPU) had done on Feb. 14, 2004, when, upon being renamed as the Svoboda [Freedom] Party, it likewise abandoned that symbol, finally realizing that, despite all attempts to interpret it as a monogram of the Latin letters “I” and “N,” standing for “Idea of the Nation,” the symbol was perceived by the public as nothing other than the Nazi Wolfsangel.

The ideology of this political superstructure of the Azov Regiment, often called in the media the “private army” of Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, is “social nationalism,” based on principles of “race identity, social orientation, and a great-power concept”; this is a modern variety of Nazism.

“Disgusting neo-Nazis” even for the United States

This is why, as recently as May 3, 2017, the U.S. House of Representatives officially forbid Ukraine from spending any U.S. funding on support for this particular armed unit.

The law they passed allows the Pentagon to allocate $150 million through September of this year for military aid to Ukraine, including for training, lethal defensive weapons, machinery and equipment.

But the USA also defined the purposes for which money received by Kiev is not to be spent. “None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to provide arms, training, or other assistance to the Azov Battalion,” states the document.

Here it should be noted that earlier, in 2015, the U.S. House of Representatives had already passed amendments to the law on Pentagon assistance to Ukraine for fiscal 2016, banning the financing of any training programs for the Azov volunteer battalion because of its neo-Nazi character. [The restriction was stripped from the bill before its passage by the Senate and adoption. –Editor.]

“If there’s one simple lesson we can take away from U.S. involvement in conflicts overseas, it’s this: Beware of unintended consequences… Overzealous military assistance or the hyper-weaponization of conflicts can have destabilizing consequences and ultimately undercut our own national interests. I am grateful that the House of Representatives unanimously passed my amendments … to ensure that our military does not train members of the repulsive neo-Nazi Azov Battalion,” said one of the co-authors of the amendments, Rep. John Conyers, at the time.

Acts of political terror

The first act of political terror by the Azov neo-Nazis against the PSPU was the events of March 17, 2016, when young thugs from the Civil Corps unsuccessfully attempted to break up a Left Opposition rally outside the National Museum of Ukrainian History in Kiev, where there is a memorial stone with the inscription “The land of Rus came from this place”; the occasion was the 25th anniversary of the All-Union and All-Ukraine Referendums of March 17, 1991 on the preservation of the USSR.

During the attack the fascist hoodlums used tear-gas against the participants in the peaceful action, beat up elderly people, threw stones at the leader of the Progressive Socialists, and then went off to report on their “peremoga” [Ukr., “victory”]: on 112 Ukraina TV, Azov leader Nazar Kravchenko announced the “dispersal of the rally” and even fantasized on the theme that PSPU leader N. Vitrenko had “fled” the scene, whereas in reality she had not only stood firm in the face of the onrushing attackers, but had continued the rally after the neo-Nazis disgracefully fled when rally participants fought back.

The second act of political terror was the events of Oct. 28, 2016, when Azov fighters, led by a certain deputy commander of a reconnaissance and subversion group in the “Anti-Terror Operation” [ATO, the Kiev government’s war on the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, which refused to accept the Feb. 2014 coup d’état –Editor]—Nikita Shatilin, raided and seized offices belonging to Siver Ukrainia LLC, which had been rented on a fully legal basis since 2003 by the PSPU and the public organizations Gift of Life, Eurasian People’s Union, and Assembly of Orthodox Women of Ukraine.

The Nazi raiders, in the best tradition of Banderite stool pigeons, then slapped together a report to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), demanding that the illegally seized premises be searched, after which special services operatives, looking for “separatist materials,” carted off two minibus-loads of office equipment, documents, and archives from these offices, without informing the owner or the renters; thus the newly minted social-nationalists had the opportunity to plant whatever they pleased, up to and including weapons and explosives, brought in from the ATO zone by the self-proclaimed “patriots.”

The third act of political terror was the events of May 9, 2017, when ultra-right radicals attempted to gain illegal entry to the apartments of PSPU Chairman N. Vitrenko and of her deputy V. Marchenko: neo-Nazis from the National Corps started ringing the doorbells of these

leaders of an anti-fascist party, demanding to be let in and threatening physical reprisals for any participation in the Immortal Regiment march in Kiev.

The police failed to carry out its (and, consequently, the state’s) functions. In violation of the law, the Constitution Of Ukraine, and the European Convention on Human Rights, the police did not arrest these fascist youth, did not remove them from the hallway, and did nothing to defend the rights and freedoms of the PSPU leaders. Natalia Vitrenko had to make three calls before the police even came. Only five hours after the start of this intimidation action did the neo-Nazis leave, after spray-painting offensive graffiti on the doors and the hallway walls of the leaders of an opposition political party, which opposes the falsification of the outcome of the Second World War—the Great Patriotic War, for our people—and the rehabilitation of Hitler’s collaborators from the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN-UPA).

All of these events are evidence that the ruling clique, which seized power with the assistance of neo-Nazi guerrillas in the Feb. 2014 coup, is persistently persecuting the PSPU—a legal political force, which conducts its activity strictly in accordance with the law—for its consistent position that it is impermissible to make heroes of “Ukrainian-German nationalists,” and which has repeatedly warned that such a policy will inevitably lead to the disintegration of Ukraine, as indeed has happened under the Maidan regime.

Therefore if there is somebody in our country who should be prosecuted for actually “anti-state activity,” it is the representatives of the ruling regime and their neo-Nazi puppets, who have jointly destroyed the Ukrainian state under fascist Banderite slogans. One can wish them only one thing: if you want to find separatists, look in the mirror—and then don’t blame the mirror for your own ugliness.

Victor Silenko
political observer,
Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU) press service

Interview by Sputnik with Helga Zepp-LaRouche

April 6, 2017by Motoki Kasai in Geopolitics updates, Helga media coverage or interview, Russia SI activity, World Land-Bridge updates

Listen to the interview on Sputnik >>

April 5, 2017 — This is a transcript of an interview by Sputnik with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, regarding the upcoming summit between Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump:

Q: What will the tone of the meeting be?

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Oh, I think it will be actually cordial. The Western media who are usually wrong are trying to reduce this whole question to some geopolitical conflict, but I think both sides have prepared this meeting very well. I think when Secretary of State Tillerson was in Beijing last month to prepare the visit, he said that the U.S.-China relationship in the Trump Administration would be a very positive relationship, built on no confrontation, no conflict, mutual respect, and always searching for a “win-win” solution. And that was exactly the formulation that was used by Xi Jinping in 2012 when he called for building a new type of major country relationship between China and the United States. Now, this was rejected by President Obama at the time. But the fact that Tillerson is now using the exact, same formulations shows a very positive signal. And I think that since China has put the New Silk Road policy on the table — or the Belt and Road Initiative, as it’s called now — since 2013, and has been building this New Silk Road, with the idea that the United States should join it, too, I would not be surprised at all, if something like that would be discussed, to the big surprise of many.

Q: I see. Now, earlier Trump had accused China of raping the U.S. economy. He called the country a currency manipulator, and even threatened to impose high tariffs on Chinese imports, though, with that said, what reaction should we expect from the Chinese leader? What positions will they be taking?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I don’t think that Xi Jinping will react to the campaign tone of the candidate Trump, because now Trump is President. And I think if they put on the table the idea that China would invest in the infrastructure in the United States, Trump himself has announced the need to have a $1 trillion program to reconstruct the American infrastructure. There was recently a conference in Hongkong where Chinese economists estimated that the real requirement is $8 trillion. Now, the way how to reduce the trade deficit is if there would be direct Chinese investment in infrastructure, maybe not immediately, but indirectly; maybe one would have an infrastructure bank, where China could put its investments in, or some solution like that. But I’m convinced that they will absolutely come out of this summit with results beneficial to both countries.

Q: It’s interesting that you talk about a positive solution the trade deficit, that you just mentioned, with China could possibly create a special investment bank, but is there anything else that Trump could do to somehow reduce this trade deficit? Or is there any way that President Trump could somehow improve the relations between the countries, and improve the trade between the countries?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, Trump has recently mentioned several times that he wants to go back to the American System of economy, the system of Alexander Hamilton, of Lincoln, of Henry Clay, and it is actually that system which made the United States great following the War of Independence. And that was a highly protectionist system. Alexander Hamilton created the United States by creating a National Bank, a credit system, and for example, the German economist Friedrich List pointed to the difference between the American System of economy and the British System of economy, meaning that the American System which was created by Hamilton basically says the only source of wealth is the creativity and productivity of the labor force; as compared to the British System which says you have to buy cheap and sell expensive, and control trade, and keep labor costs as little as possible. So, if you actually look at what China has been doing with the Chinese economic miracle of the last 30 years, it is much closer to the philosophy of Alexander Hamilton, than it would be to the system of globalization and so-called “free trade.” Because I think that the Chinese system of free trade is not exactly the same one what the British and the Americans under the Obama and Bush administrations have been thinking about. So, if Trump says, OK globalization led to an outsourcing productive jobs and I want to recreate the American economy, well, that’s the way how to reduce the trade deficit, because the reason why there’s a trade deficit is because many of the products in the last 16 years of the Bush and Obama administration became increasingly less competitive, for example the car industry. The reason why you have more cars imported, from Japan, Korea, Germany, than the other way around, is because these cars are better than American cars. And what America has to do, what President Trump has to do — and I think that’s what he intends to do — is to reconstruct the American economy on the highest productive level. The infrastructure is only the precondition, but then there will be other areas, like in the nuclear fission, but especially the development of fusion technology, space cooperation with other countries, so there are many areas where you can leapfrog into the most productive areas in the economy, and I think that’s what Trump intends to do.

Q: It’s interesting that you talk about that, and I really like that you mention that subject. Unfortunately we’ll have to do that at a different time. Apart from the issue that we’ve already discussed, are there are other issues that will be on the table between the Chinese leader and the U.S. President?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, obviously, the North Korea issue will be very high up on the agenda, given the recent missile tests by North Korea. But there, one has to understand that North Korea is doing this, not because they intend an aggression against South Korea or Japan, or the United States. They are doing it in reaction to the deployment of the THAAD missiles, which both China and Russia have also said are security threats to their own national security; and, North Korea is reacting to the very big maneuvers involving the United States, Japan, and South Korea, which are ongoing right now. So the way to reduce that, and that would be my guess, that they will get an agreement to re-propose the Six-Party talks, to try to find a solution, or even have maybe Five-Party talks, to try to really work out a real solution one could offer to North Korea. But it is my conviction that the only way how this conflict can be solved forever, is to extend the New Silk Road into Korea, have a unification of South and North Korea, and then develop together, the North, obviously, with the sovereignty of North Korea being taken into account; but I think the idea of overcoming the terrible economic hardships and using the high-skilled labor you have in North Korea! People don’t know, that there is actually a highly developed labor force in North Korea. So I think the New Silk Road Belt and Road Initiative, even in the short or medium term, would be the framework with which to solve the North Korea problem forever.

Q: All right. Well on that note I would like to thank you very much for joining me today, Helga. It was a pleasure having you here, and I’d love to have you back in the future.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: OK, thank you.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche in China

June 18, 2015by Motoki Kasai in Helga Video

“International Forum of the Cities of the Economic Belt along the New Silk Road”

June 18-19, 2015, the city of Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China

Presentation given by Helga Zepp-LaRouche on the global strategic situation in front of large delegations from around the world.

Silk Road Can Lead World Out of Collapse and War

by Helga Zepp-LaRouche
June, 2015

The New Silk Road is not only an extremely important economic initiative. Because it is a win-win perspective, it also addresses the two biggest dangers in the world today: the danger of a financial blowout of the trans-Atlantic sector and the danger of global war. I have to address the fact that if the hardline of the Troika insists that Greece should pay the debt, a debt of 360 billion euros which is completely unpayable, this will blow out the derivatives of the European and American banking system.

Two days ago, the Debt Truth Commission of the Greek Parliament found the Greek debt to be illegitimate, odious, and unpayable. Now, the debt blowout can be prevented if there is a European debt conference in the tradition of the 1953 Debt Conference for Germany, which was the precondition for the economic miracle of Germany to occur. If there is a credit policy adopted in the tradition of the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau [Credit Institution for Reconstruction], given the importance of its role in the reconstruction of Germany in the postwar period, this would mean going back to industrial banking in the tradition of Hermann Abs or Alfred Herrhausen, who were in the tradition of Alexander Hamilton, the founder of the American System of Economy in the United States.

The German economy is key to the situation, because there are many people in Germany—including retired members of the military, industrialists, and two former Chancellors, Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schröder, and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier—who realize that the G7 has been turned into a geopolitical tool of confrontation against Russia. And they also realize, many of them, that Germany is as much a target of this geopolitical confrontation as Russia.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche being interviewed after her intervention at the Yiwu Silk Road Forum (EIRNS)

For German industry is collapsing right now, losing 28% of its exports to Russia in the first quarter of this year. But in spite of the erosion of the German economy due to the nuclear “exit” three or four years ago, Germany still remains the economic powerhouse of Europe. And if Germany would now end the sanctions by admitting that the reason for the crisis is not Russia, but the EU itself, by pushing the EU Association Agreement, then this crisis could be overcome.

Now with the upcoming summit of the European Fund for Strategic Investment on the 29th of June which China’s Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang will attend, this could become a venue to co-finance the extension of the New Silk Road to Southern Europe, and in that way address this problem.

Already in 2012, the Schiller Institute produced a comprehensive program for the development of the Mediterranean Basin Great Infrastructure Projects, which would extend the New Silk Road to all of southern Europe. It was based essentially on the proposal which the EU had already agreed upon at its conference in Crete in 1994: that ten transportation corridors be built. But they were never created because of the austerity policy of the EU.

This was also the subject at the big conferences in Bucharest and Belgrade which Li Keqiang attended in 2013 and 2014. If this program were to be implemented, then Greece would become the bridge between Europe and the BRICS, and build on the ancient collaboration of Greece and China, at a time when Greece was the transport hub for the ancient Silk Road, and would build on the old ties of the two great cultures of Greece and China.

50%-Plus of Expenditure on Infrastructure

Now the quality and density of infrastructure is a precondition for the productivity of the economy. A modern economy should invest at least 50% of its total expenditure in infrastructure. We are not talking about connections between point A and point B, but we are talking about corridors which will consist of high-speed rail, waterways, highways, energy production and distribution, and communications, because this is what governs the conditions for optimally locating industrial production and agriculture.

The purpose of these corridors is to increase the productivity of the population. The connection between the many ends of the New Silk Road in Yiwu, but also in Lianyungang and other places, to Duisburg, is one good example to show that the higher the development and productivity of an economy, the more important the speed and efficiency of transport. Because then the finished and semi-finished goods work together like a complex machine where each part functions as a part of a harmonious whole. The density of infrastructure in the Ruhr and Baden-Württemberg and in Rhein-Main should become the model for the Balkans and southern Italy and the Aegean Peninsula.

To get the world out of the geostrategic confrontation with Xi Jinping’s “win-win” Silk Road policy, the integration of the German economy is absolutely crucial. For Germany presently ranks as number four in the number of registered patents in the world; and this with a population of only 80 million people. And the high ratio of the so-called Mittelstand, mid-level German industries, which are largely innovation-based firms using essential machine tools and machine-tool designs, is crucial for bringing the world out of its present crisis.

The Schiller Institute has produced a study of 370 pages entitled “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge,” which is essentially an outline for the next decade of how to overcome the underdevelopment of large areas of the world. These are the corridors which will connect the world from the southern tip of Chile, all the way through the Americas to the Bering Strait, and then to the tip of South Africa.

This would mean cooperation in the areas of high energy-flux density industries like biophysics and space exploration. This project presents limitless possibilities for a “win-win” cooperation of the whole world.

Gottfried Leibniz in Novissima Sinica wrote more than 300 years ago:

The two most advanced cultures on the planet are located at opposite poles of the Eurasian continent, and that if these two poles join hands, then every region in between can be uplifted.

Now this vision today is true for the whole world. Together we can create a new era in human history where the human species is able to overcome geopolitics forever, and develop its true identity as the only creative species so far known in the universe.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Yiwu Forum Focus on Promise of Silk Road

by William Jones
June, 2015

June 26—Speaking on June 19 at the Silk Road Economic Belt Cities International Forum in Yiwu, China, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, president of the Schiller Institute, warned of the dangers facing the world of possible financial blowout and global war, and underlined the importance of the Silk Road Economic Belt, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the way out of the crisis.

The June 18-19 forum had been organized by the Chongyang Institute of Financial Studies at Renmin University, huanqiu.com—a division of Global Times newspaper, and the Yiwu City Peoples Government. While the conference focused on Yiwu, a growing city south of Shanghai, as a hub at the end of the new train corridor between Asia and Europe, the conference organizers had brought together an impressive group of people internationally to underline the importance of this project for the world as a whole.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, third from the right, with her fellow panelists at the Silk Road Economic Belt Cities International Forum in Yiwu, China, June 19, 2015 (EIRNS)

Pointing to the dangers stemming from a possible Greek default, Zepp-LaRouche told the several hundred people gathered there:

A chaotic collapse can be prevented only if the EU and European nations agree to convene a European debt conference in the tradition of the 1953 Debt Conference for Germany, which laid the basis for the German miracle of the postwar period.

She pointed to the need for a return to the policy of industrial banking of German bankers Hermann Abs and Alfred Herrhausen, who followed in the tradition of the American System of Economy of Alexander Hamilton.

She noted the importance of German industrial capabilities, especially the innovative small and middle-sized firms, the Mittelstand, in bringing the world out of the financial crisis. Germany is also crucial diplomatically. If Germany were to reject the push to war emanating from the policy of the United States and NATO, there would be no war. Leading politicians in Germany, she said, realize that the sanctions are aimed against Germany as well as Russia, with German exports to Russia falling by 28% in the first quarter of this year.

If Germany would now end the sanctions by admitting that the reason for the crisis is not Russia but the EU itself in its pushing the EU Association Agreement on Ukraine, then this crisis could be overcome.

She referred to the comments of Gottfried Leibniz in one of his major writings on China, Novissima Sinica, that if Europe and China, those two great cultures at opposite sides of Eurasia, would come together in cooperation, all the countries in the world would benefit.

Her speech, which stood out starkly from the other presentations from representatives of other European countries who were to discuss their role in the Silk Road Economic Belt, created a flurry of interest, not least of all in the new report which, as she noted in her speech, had been put out by the Schiller Institute and EIR, entitled The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge.

In introducing Zepp-LaRouche, the moderator of the panel noted that in Europe she is widely considered the initiator of the New Silk Road concept.

After the forum, many people came up to talk, and to view the report. Her speech also garnered wide-spread attention by the media, with one article circulating on sina.com, an equivalent to Yahoo or Google in the U.S., translating and quoting almost all of her ten-minute speech.

Many other websites and papers borrowed extensively from the sina.com article in their comments in the following days. Others noted her response in the Q&A session, where she succinctly noted the need for high-speed rail—as opposed to sea transport—since in a high-tech, high-value economy, speed of transport of goods becomes a premium.

High-Level Presence Draws Attention

While Yiwu is only one of a number of cities in China holding conferences on the Silk Road Economic Belt in an effort to profile their importance in the project, Yiwu’s geographical location, less than one hundred miles from Ningbo, the nearest port, and at the terminal of the European rail line, served to spark more than local interest. Also, since the organizers had assembled a high-level presence at the conference—including two former prime ministers, and a former foreign minister, as well as a representative from the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Peoples Congress, and numerous ambassadors to the Peoples Republic of China—there was considerable nationwide media attention focused on this conference. A short interview with EIR‘s Washington correspondent Bill Jones, given to the local Yiwu TV, was also aired nationally by CCTV in its coverage of the forum.

While Yiwu is not a major industrial center, it has transformed itself into a major commodities port, with goods coming in from all of Southeast Asia through the port of Ningbo for shipment and transfer through Yiwu to Central Asia and Europe, over the new rail lines. So too, goods from Europe are brought by rail to the Yiwu land port before shipment by sea to other parts of the Asia-Pacific.

EIR’s Washington Bureau Chief William Jones intervenes in the Silk Road Forum (EIRNS)

The two-day event also featured numerous panels on various aspects of the Silk Road project. At a panel on “The Silk Road: New Starting Point”, EIR‘s Bill Jones was quizzed on the attitude of the United States to this project. Jones noted the need for bringing the United States on board the project for its own sake. When one Chinese scholar expressed skepticism that the United States would ever be willing to cooperate in this project by China, Jones described the devastation to the U.S. economy as a result of the failed economic policies of the Bush and Obama Administrations, starkly underlined by the absolute failure to respond effectively to the tremendous drought in California. “Our infrastructure is in a shambles,” Jones said, “and people understand that only with the orientation toward massive infrastructural investment as expressed by the Silk Road project can the United States survive,” he said. “And even now, many states of the Union are coming to China to encourage China to invest in their infrastructure as well.”

It was clear that the organizers of the conference considered the presence of the Schiller Institute very prestigious for their event. While the ex-ministers and the ambassadors might have helped to bring added media attention to the conference, the intellectual rigor exhibited by Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her speech, really placed her in a category of her own. This was evident to all who heard her remarks, bringing a clear—and stark—note of reality to an event which otherwise might have been simply a worthwhile rally for a praiseworthy project. Her short speech and the media coverage of it, as well as the separate interviews she gave during the conference, will reverberate widely in China and beyond.

German-Russian Dialogue in Baden-Baden Hears Zepp-LaRouche

May 2, 2015by Motoki Kasai in General

During her speech at Germany’s prestigious Fourth Cultural and Business Forum “East-West Dialogue,” April 24-25, in the southwestern spa city of Baden-Baden, Schiller Institute founder and chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche addressed the danger of the breakdown crisis of the Western financial system and the current confrontationist policies leading to world war. The alternative is the BRICS perspective, she said in her prominent intervention during the first day of the conference before leading Russian and German personalities. Europeans should seize upon this opportunity of a newly emerging world, to find a constructive way out of the crisis. She stressed, that this view is also held by many Americans, who oppose the destructive geopolitics of the Obama Administration.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sent a greeting to the conference, as did other German and Russian officials. It was read at the evening concert by a high-level official of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Zepp-LaRouche’s warnings of a new fascism and war were referenced several times by other speakers afterwards. Alla G. Gryaznova, the president of the Russian government’s Financial University, who chaired the organizing committee of the forum, made a very passionate appeal in her closing remarks that day to the participants, to stop this new drive into catastrophe, 70 years after the end of World War II, thanking Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche for her clear stand as a German personality against these dangers and for her overall optimistic approach.

The Culture and Business Forum this year was expanded to the broader notion of “East-West Dialogue,” taking into account the new BRICS perspective, instead of just Russian-German relations, as in the past. As a featured speaker, Prof. Shi Ze of the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing, who had adressed last year’s International Schiller Institute conference in Frankfurt, spoke on the New Silk Road policy and China’s inclusive “win-win policy.” In another speech, he elaborated on matters of energy collobration between Russia and China. His contributions, which he gave in Russian, were very well received.

The Baden-Baden event was addressed by, among other personalities from Russia, senior officials of the Russian Foreign and Finance Ministries and Duma representatives, as well as by leading figures of German-Russian economic relations. One very important aspect of the event and other related conference-events was that it also gave German participants a much clearer idea of the acute danger of the situation in and around Ukraine, which will hopefully lead to effective action to prevent catastrophe.

From the German side, Klaus Mangold, the Russian honorary consul in Stuttgart and former chairman of the Ost-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft (Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations) of German industry, in his speech, denounced the sanctions and the cutoff of official dialogue channels between Europe and Russia. He also urged both Europeans and Russians to realize how urgent it is to engage in official dialogue between the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union. That despite the opposition of certain EU governments, in particular the Baltic states and Poland. The catastrophic situation for German industry through the EU/NATO sanctions was highlighted by Mangold and Russian representatives, who reported that during the first two months of 2015, German exports to Russia decreased by 35%.

Russian speakers at the event expressed hope that the BRICS process will lead to new kinds of financial institutions that are focussed on the development of infrastructure and high-tech small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Russia, modelled on the German Mittelstand. While there is the absolute wish to secure and expand relations with Germany and other European countries, it was also made clear by several speakers, that Russia has no choice other than to turn to the Eurasian perspective, in any case.

After two full days of panels, discussions, an evening concert with first-class Russian artists and children’s choruses, and other opportunities to exchange ideas, the conference concluded with a panel on “investments into the future” in culture, medicine and education. There, Zepp-LaRouche gave an inspiring, forward-looking speech on the future of mankind and the new paradigm. Picking up on fears by some in Russia, that China might become too influential in the current turn of events, due to its breathtaking economic development, she highlighted the Russian contribution for the Eurasian Land-Bridge, with a selection of slides of the many seminars to which the Helga and Lyndon LaRouche were invited by leading Russian intellectuals during the last decades, shaping the Eurasian Land-Bridge conception, including the Bering Straits initiative. Quoting from Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin’s statement that all the BRICS countries are cosmic nations, she said that this is the path for all mankind, and is the only way to solve problems such as today’s droughts in California and other huge challenges. She encouraged everybody to focus on the development of human creativity as the sole source to transform the universe to a higher level, which is mankind’s destiny.

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