Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, in her weekly live dialogue to discuss the creation of the New Paradigm for mutual economic development. Send your questions to questions@schillerinstitute.org
At 2 a.m. Sunday morning, May 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin, after three full days of non-stop meetings and ceremonies devoted to the commemoration of the Victory against Fascism in Europe, held a press conference and proposed the resumption of full negotiations with Ukraine to put an end to what is actually a NATO war imposed on that nation. Putin proposed that these negotiations restart in Istanbul, Türkiye this Thursday, May 15.
The European leaders who had joined Zelenskyy in Kiev, in direct opposition to the 30 heads of state who had assembled in Moscow for the Great Victory, had demanded a few hours earlier that a 30-day ceasefire begin Monday morning. They were, however, caught sleeping, in more ways than one, by Putin’s 2 a.m. press conference, and his unexpected proposal. “Russia is ready for talks without any preliminary conditions. There are combat actions and war going on now, and we propose to resume negotiations that were not interrupted by us. Well, what’s wrong about it?”
As Putin and others know, it was Ukraine that ceased the discussions that were terminated in Istanbul, Türkiye, in April 2022. Of course, it was then Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Great Britain who had, on April 9 of that year, traveled to Kiev to demand that Ukraine walk away from the already-agreed negotiations with Russia—and Ukraine had done so. To this day, Ukraine’s decree, passed in their parliament in late 2022, forbids any Ukrainian President from negotiating with Russia, so long as Putin remains in power. Ukraine “is still legally prohibited from negotiating with the Russian side,” said Russian Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov in March.
So, although a blustering Volodymyr Zelenskyy later on Sunday dared Putin, “High Noon” Western-style, to “meet him in Istanbul” this Thursday, Ukraine’s unelected leader knows that the Russians are aware that the Kiev decree is still in effect. U.S. President Donald Trump—not one to stand on ceremony, certainly—had advice for Ukraine: “President Putin of Russia doesn’t want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY. At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the U.S., will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly!” While many have asserted for days that “no one knows where Trump stands” on the matter of Russia and Ukraine, today’s statement is unequivocal: “Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY.”
One of the outflanked European heads of state who met with Zelensky is Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who is the first chancellor in the post-war era to have the dubious honor of being crowned chancellor only after a second round of voting. In mid-April, the very same Friedrich Merz suggested on ARD television’s Carmen Miosga show that German Taurus long-range missiles should be sent to Ukraine so that the country could get off the defensive after three years of war against Russia. Merz mentioned the possibility of destroying the most important land link between Russia and the Crimean peninsula, as an option. Merz had already supported the delivery of cruise missiles to Ukraine before the early parliamentary elections on February 23. According to media reports, both Friedrich Merz and government spokesman Stefan Kornelius have stated that details and discussions regarding the Taurus delivery will not be made public in the future. What might that mean?
Helga Zepp-LaRouche and Dr. Werner Rügemer, in a joint live dialogue on January 29, had already warned against Merz, the Chancellor from Black Rock.
The second notable event Sunday was that newly-elected Pope Leo XIV, appearing in St. Peter’s Square before more than 100,000 people, and unexpectedly leading the open-air assembly in the singing of the “Regina Caeli” Easter antiphon. Leo, who is the first member of the Augustinian order to be elected to the Papacy, the first native-English-language Pope since Pope Adrian IV of the 12th century, and the first Pope from the United States, also made clear why he chose his name. “In his first meeting with Cardinals on Saturday, the new Pontiff said that he chose his papal name to continue down the path of Pope Leo XIII, who addressed ‘the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.’” CNN reported.
Consider these two very different “flanks” as flowing from one, higher strategy of victory for the human race. War must become obsolete, but that cannot happen unless the cause of war is removed. For that to occur, the world requires “A Beautiful Vision for Humanity in Times of Great Turbulence!” Such is the subject, purpose, and mission of the May 24-25 conference of the Schiller Institute.
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, in her weekly live dialogue to discuss the creation of the New Paradigm for mutual economic development. Send your questions to questions@schillerinstitute.org
May 9, 2025 (EIRNS)—The 101st consecutive online meeting of the International Peace Coalition, on Friday, May 9, addressed several urgent topics:
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, reported that 29 heads of state were in Moscow for the May 8-9 Victory Day celebration. Russia and China took this occasion to consolidate their partnership and denounce attempts by the Anglophiles to rewrite history. In an attempt to counter this event, the NATO faction declared May 8 to be “Europe Day,” and the German government prohibited any display of Russian or Soviet flags. Earlier, the European Commission had forbidden EU leaders to attend the Victory Day event, but Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico had announced their intention to participate.
Larry Johnson, former CIA officer and a cofounder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), posed the question, Why do Americans tolerate endless wars? He answered that Americans haven’t paid the price; even in World War II we did not suffer the way other nations did. In World War II, 20% of the Russian population died, compared to 0.1% of Americans.
Co-moderator Dennis Speed asked Johnson to comment on the VIPS presence at the event in Moscow. Johnson reported that Ray McGovern and Oliver Stone are there, speaking with government officials and student groups. Scott Ritter has drafted a letter calling for a return to arms control negotiations, but the Russians are cautious because the U.S. routinely abrogates agreements. During the question period, a viewer asked for comment on Stone’s “lefty” role, to which Speed replied that Stone was not originally a leftist; he had fought in Vietnam as a volunteer, which had a major impact on his views.
The Ongoing Genocide in Gaza
Mossi Raz, former Member of the Knesset and former Director General of Peace Now, said, “It seems that the Israeli government has no idea what it wants to achieve in this war,” and that it is “interested in revenge more than in solving problems.” The Israelis are expanding settlement activity, and making “small moves toward annexation.” He endorsed the Egyptian plan for rebuilding Gaza, but noted that it cannot be implemented until the shooting stops, and “if President Trump wants to stop it, he could stop it in one minute.”
Larry Johnson remarked that there are reports that Trump is sick and tired of Netanyahu, and has cut off contact. This, if true, could lead to welcome changes
Dr. Dannie Ritchie, Founder of Community Health Innovations of Rhode Island, gave a report on the Doctors Against Genocide’s upcoming press conference. She said that over 1,000 healthcare professionals have died in Gaza, and the Israelis are targeting hospitals and children. Our tax dollars are funding it, which makes us directly complicit. Doctors Against Genocide has a project called “Bread not Bombs, Let the Children Eat” Later, she commented that it is shocking that a people who once were victims of genocide can now perpetrate it. If what is being done to Gazans were done to animals in the U.S., Americans would not stand for it.
Zepp-LaRouche responded to a question from Congressional candidate Jose Vega, that “the intention of Israel is very clearly, they want to get rid of all Palestinians in Gaza.” She emphasized that time is running out, and the June 2-4 conference of the UN on the two-state solution is crucial.
The Importance of Economic Development
After some debate among the speakers about the viability of the Egyptian plan for Gaza, former Guyanese President Donald Ramotar intervened to say that in order to have a lasting peace, “you cannot divorce the question of development.” He went on to promote the Oasis Plan as essential to peace in Southwest Asia. This was later underscored by Zepp-LaRouche, who said that we need to mobilize for the Egyptian plan plus the Oasis Plan. “If it coincides with what Larry is saying about Trump, so be it, that’s even better.” Later, Johnson asserted that the reports on Trump and Netanyahu are credible because the U.S. blinked in Yemen, withdrew and declared victory.
A video was presented, excerpted from an interview conducted by EIR’s Gerald Belsky with author and Professor Dr. Glenn Diesen. Belsky asked him for comment on the relationship between the American System approach to economics, and the emerging new order in the world. Diesen reviewed the history of Alexander Friedrich List and Sergei Witte, and observed that the new leaders of the Global South are “linking industrial sovereignty to political sovereignty, as Hamilton clearly did.” He said that Russia is going down this path with industrial sovereignty, transportation corridors, financial sovereignty, and the New Paradigm calls for cooperation between equals, not a hierarchy of dominance. He recalled that he had seen “an ‘American System’ developing in China” when they announced the Belt and Road Initiative.
President Ramotar observed that Biden attempted to present an infrastructure initiative, but his plan was “more tactical in nature,” designed to counter China more than to create peace.
The Significance of the New Pope
Jacques Cheminade, the president of Solidarité et Progrès party in France, praised the decision of the new Pope to call himself Leo XIV in reference to Leo XIII, who authored the encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891, as the basis for modern Catholic social doctrine. Cheminade’s remarks were seconded by Pax Christi leader Jack Gilroy, who said that the encyclical stresses the dignity of every human being. Zepp-LaRouche said that she is “hopeful and optimistic” about the new Pope. In Germany you have parties CDU and CSU with “Christian” in their name, but what they are doing is the opposite. Cheminade suggested that colonial wars were testing what distinguishes between good Christians and fake Christians, and Johnson said that when European churches “became enablers of colonialism,” they abandoned their faith.
Later, during the question period, a viewer asked why had academics and others in Europe repudiated Judeo-Christian values. Zepp-LaRouche named three key factors: synarchism, the Frankfurt School, and the Congress for Cultural Freedom. “They consciously intended to de-root the people from their Classical culture,” and to replace it with neoliberal values. “This is not a natural development, but it is the result of social engineering and manipulation.”
Discussion
Jose Vega, who is a Congressional candidate in the Bronx, New York, reviewed the activities of his campaign in making public interventions to confront the hypocrisy of public figures. He described how one activist confronted Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after it became publicly known that she and other prominent Democrats weren’t working “tirelessly for a ceasefire.” He reported that a lot more young people are coming around, and urged people to attend the Memorial Day weekend Schiller Institute conference.
In response to a question on fascism, Zepp-LaRouche replied that it sacrifices human life to the maximization of profit. The authors of bad policy are never blamed, instead others are scapegoated, such as immigrants. “The British System does not respect the creativity of human beings,” because it is preoccupied with “buying cheap and selling dear.”
A participant commented that “Mrs. LaRouche looked so bright and shiny when she returned from China,” which was encouraging.
Zepp-LaRouche and Larry Johnson spoke of the danger in the current India-Pakistan conflict. Johnson reported that the Pakistani Defense Minister admitted that for more than 30 years, Pakistan has been the slave of the U.S. in protecting and covering for terrorist organizations. He said that Western intelligence is stirring the pot in Kashmir to create tension and destabilize BRICS.
Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche concluded by reiterating the importance of the mobilization to getting “the Oasis Plan into the hopper, big time…. We are on this Earth to do good, not just to eat burgers and drive Porsches…. Whatever little part all of you can do, do your part.”
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, in her weekly live dialogue to discuss the creation of the New Paradigm for mutual economic development. Send your questions to questions@schillerinstitute.org
May 5, 2025 (EIRNS)—Today’s different zones of strategic crisis are in various phases of escalation, or temporary de-escalation, in Ukraine, in the Pakistan-India conflict, and in Southwest Asia, with the warfare and horror in Gaza the most urgent to be stopped.
This world situation points up the role of the Schiller Institute conference in three weeks, titled, “A Beautiful Vision for Humanity in Times of Great Turbulence,” and the vital process of the International Peace Coalition, which now has met for 100 weeks straight.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and leader, has insisted on the point of approaching all crises from the highest level. She said today that we have to “create a world to solve issues through development.” The dynamic is in motion and gathering force. The BRICS summit will take place in July in Brazil.
Zepp-LaRouche put forward the task of mobilizing for the next five weeks for the Oasis Plan approach, in the countdown to the June 2-4 UN meeting in New York City, on the two-state mandate for Gaza and a reconstruction plan. In the course of this mobilization, the May 24-25 two-day Schiller Institute conference in the Metropolitan New York area is the place to confer on the principles involved. Register now. Join up with the International Peace Coalition, beginning this Friday.
Diane Sare, President of The LaRouche Organization (TLO) published a leaflet titled VE Day 2025: Celebration and Rededication for circulation around the celebrations of the defeat of Fascism in Europe. Sare writes:
“Therefore, let us not only celebrate the victory won on the battlefields of Europe eight decades ago, but let us now resolve that none of those dead in that war, or the tragic series of wars which came after, shall have died in vain. We must act now so that the innocent Palestinian infant, and the fallen IDF soldier, the fearless Russian youth, or the conscripted Azov fighter, will be immortalized in their better nature – the universal goodness of Man, which for reasons unknown is obscured or buried among the tortured souls who have been the aggressors, but who are human nonetheless. No human is an animal.”
“Our actions today, to bring about a just world, will fulfill the purpose of those departed souls who perished in innocence, guilt, or valor, no matter what they may have thought their purpose was.”
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche and the LaRouche Movement and become an active participant in the creation of the New Paradigm.
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, in her weekly live dialogue to discuss the creation of the New Paradigm for mutual economic development.. Send your questions to questions@schillerinstitute.org
The China’s CGTN television network interviewed Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute, on the trade war between China and the U.S. and the way out. Notable were her answers to two of the questions:
“I think that the United States really has to go back to their own best traditions of the American system of economy and otherwise … overcome this idea … that you have to be the number one and dominant over all others. Because there is no way how anybody, the United States or anybody else, can contain the rise of China. It’s a country which has 1.4 billion people, and they have taken the lead based on an economy based on innovation. You can’t contain it—so just live with it and, you know, cooperate.”
Is this possible? “The world has changed and President Trump came into the White House the second time in a world which was completely different than his first term, because the countries of the global south have risen due to the rise of China, and extending the economic cooperation through the Belt and Road Initiative; and therefore I think the BRICS, and the many countries aspiring to become part of the BRICS, are a new factor in the situation which I’m confident will impact the more rational thinking people in the United States—that the world has changed and the United States will have to adapt.”
May 2, 2025 (EIRNS)—For nearly two years, the International Peace Coalition, which was organized to unite peace movements from around the world without regard to ideology, has been holding weekly online conferences with over 55 nations represented and thousands of participants. On May 2, the Coalition celebrated a milestone with its 100th consecutive meeting.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Founder of the Schiller Institute, presented a sobering progress report. Despite the growing influence of the Coalition, “We are seeing a very disturbing increase in conflicts.” Though there may be regional causes to these conflicts, the underlying basis is the tension created by the decline of the old, colonial system, and the emergence of the new one. She addressed the new outbreak of hostilities between India and Pakistan, calling for an independent investigation of the terror incident which sparked it. The situation there is escalating. The use of nuclear weapons is being discussed on both sides.
A new deal was announced in Ukraine, where the U.S. can exploit raw materials and some U.S. troops will remain in Ukraine, which may be “not to the liking of the Russians.” Unfortunately, “some crazy Europeans are committed to keep this war going.”
On the trade war front, she warned that tariffs could trigger a default by developing nations and/or collapse of the financial system. President Trump has not thought this through.
Since March 2, Israel has blockaded Gaza, and using food as a weapon of war is a war crime. We have called for an international mobilization to put the LaRouche Oasis Plan on the agenda of a high-level conference which the UN has scheduled on the two state solution, to take place on June 2-4, 2025 in New York. The late Pope Francis called development “the weapon of peace,” making him an implicit supporter of the Oasis Plan.
Col. Richard H. Black (ret.), former head of the U.S. Army’s Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon and former Virginia State Senator, warned that “during the Biden administration, the U.S. became wildly provocative toward China.” He offered a timeline of provocative acts, such as the visit by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and others to Taiwan for the express purpose of provoking China. “Consider the enormity of a possible war with China, and compare that to Vietnam,” said Black. The Vietnam War was costly to the U.S. and ended in defeat. China is 29 times the size of Vietnam, with a vastly larger population and far more advanced technology.
Ambassador Hossein Mousavian, former ambassador from Iran to Germany, described how Iran had endeavored to compromise with the West; they agreed to cooperate with the IAEA, and to export uranium enriched to 60% to Russia, in order to allay fears that they intended to develop nuclear weapons. The Trump administration had made some progress with negotiations, but then the U.S. technical team that was to be sent to Oman was canceled, apparently due to an intervention by Netanyahu, who said that Israel would only accept the “Libya model” (which culminated in the utter destruction of Libya.) U.S. Secretary of State Rubio claims that the only use of uranium enrichment is for bombs, which is a ridiculous untruth. Mousavian offered a long list of states that have enrichment programs but no nuclear weapons.
Ofer Bronchtein, a former advisor of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and President of the Paris-based International Peace Forum, is presently an advisor to French President Emmanuel Macron on the Israeli situation. He believes that the French/Saudi initiative for a two-state solution can succeed, and is trying to build a coalition to support it. Zepp-LaRouche asked him to join the mobilization for the Oasis Plan. He replied that Rabin understood the importance of water: “Without water, there won’t be peace.”
International Law Under Threat
Jonathan Kuttab, International Human Rights Lawyer, Executive Director of Friends of Sabeel North America and Co-Founder of Nonviolence International, spoke on the problem of Israel’s “utter impunity of ignoring international law,” no longer even bothering to offer “the excuse of military targets.” More than 230 journalists have been killed by the IDF, more than in any previous conflict. “We now see a deliberate attack on international institutions, on international courts, and on international law itself.” This has implications that go far beyond the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Excerpts were shown of a video interview by EIR’s Gerald Belsky with Maoz Inon, an Israeli peace activist and leader of the peace demo in Jerusalem May 8-9, the People’s Peace Summit. He said that “the only way to change reality is in the field of dream.” We need to shout it, dance it, sing about it, to legitimize the dream. We need diplomacy, dialogue and negotiation. The current wildfires in Israel are a consequence of investment that should have gone into water management being diverted to military use.
LaRouche activist Robert Castle gave a youth outreach report. He has been working with the Jose Vega congressional campaign in the Bronx, intersecting students on the way to classes and “challenging the young citizens of our republic to ask themselves whether they have a moral responsibility to intervene in this crisis.”
Zepp-LaRouche fully agreed with Kutab: it’s not just about Gaza, the larger issue is the non-response of the world community to the Gaza genocide, which can lead to a complete collapse of international law and descent into barbarism. International law did not exist before the Peace of Westphalia, which made it necessary.
Discussion
Zepp-LaRouche answered a question on the India-Pakistan conflict by asking, cui bono? Many nations that aspire to join BRICS have been targeted with economic/financial warfare or violent destabilization.
Kutab was asked, what can civil society do when governments fail to take action? He endorsed BDS, and said we should organize football and cultural organizations (which played a big role in ending apartheid in South Africa.)
A German participant renewed his plea that solar energy be used in place of nuclear energy for the Oasis Plan. He was invited to participate in the upcoming conference, where that topic will be discussed. Co-moderator Dennis Small reminded him that energy flux-density is the metric for evaluating energy sources. Because the Iberian Peninsula went entirely for solar and wind, there was a complete collapse of their energy grid last week.
A question was posed: Was the November 1995 assassination of Rabin the tipping point for the current crisis? Kutab responded, “There’s no question that Rabin himself was trying to deal with that situation in a new way.” But there were problems both before and after Rabin.
Moderator Anastasia Battle reported that there has been an attack on the Freedom Flotilla in international waters, which some IPC participants have been on board the flotilla. We hope for their safety and well-being.
In response to a question from the Chinese Media Group on the trade war, Zepp-LaRouche said, “President Trump is presently vacillating and responding to pressure.” She cited Nicholas of Cusa, who said that if you have a systemic problem, you cannot solve it by addressing side issues. The human creative mind always has the capacity to resolve the problem on a higher level than the level on which the problem arose. In conclusion, she renewed her plea for people to join forces with us in working to put the Oasis Plan and Ten Principles on the agenda for the upcoming conference in June.
April 27, 2025 (EIRNS)—“There is right now a huge struggle going on in the world, which I think China is one of the leaders of,” Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche stated in an April 25 panel discussion in China on “Innovation Pathways in the Global Green Transition,” organized by the China Media Group, with CGTN host Yang Zhao. Speaking along with ambassadors and media specialists, Zepp-LaRouche set the tone for the entire discussion:
“This is the effort by the countries of the Global Majority to overcome 500 years of colonialism for good, by no longer being exporters of raw materials, but to develop the production chain in their own countries. There are obviously some people who don’t like that; and they would like to maintain the neo-colonial forms.”
As Zepp-LaRouche was speaking, “the people who don’t like that”—the practitioners of British geopolitics centered in the City of London and Wall Street—were busy launching deadly provocations around the globe, to make sure that the BRICS nations are destabilized, and that the U.S. and NATO stay on course for an end-game confrontation with Russia and China.
In the India-Pakistan theater, an April 22 terrorist attack killing 26 tourists in the Indian-controlled area of Kashmir has led to rapid escalation on both sides. India has announced it is suspending the all-important 1960 Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan—which regulates the flow of water to the two countries, both of which need it desperately—and revoked nearly all visas of Pakistanis residing in India. High-level Pakistani authorities are talking openly about the option of launching a nuclear strike against India—which is also a nuclear weapons power! Fortunately, the Defense Minister of Pakistan has pointed the finger at outside forces deploying terrorism in the region—and named Great Britain and the United States as the guilty parties for the last 30 years.
In Russia, authorities have captured the man who assassinated Gen.-Lt. Yaroslav Moskalik of the Russian General Staff on April 25, and identified him as an agent deployed by Kiev. Leading Russian intelligence experts quickly explained on national television: “We should remember … that terrorist acts of this kind are done under the supervision and direct guidance of the British special services.”
And in Iran, a huge explosion rocked the port of Bandar Abbas on April 26, killing at least 25 and injuring nearly 1,400. Although it has not yet been determined if this was an accident or sabotage, it happened at the precise moment that the U.S. and Iranian governments are involved in delicate negotiations that are essential to bring peace to the war-torn region of Southwest Asia—which the Israeli and British governments are devoutly committed to preventing.
India, Russia, Iran—all are members of the BRICS, which is leading the struggle to create a new international development architecture to replace the current bankrupt system.
As Zepp-LaRouche stated in her remarks during the panel discussion in China:
“We have now the 70th anniversary of the Bandung Conference, and at that time in 1955, President Sukarno and Zhou Enlai and Nehru were warning that colonialism still exists in its modern form, through trade relations, access to credit, and so forth. So now we are in this historic epochal change where the countries of the Global Majority want to overcome that, in large part possibly through the rise of China and through the development of the BRICS countries.”
The upcoming May 24-25 conference of the Schiller Institute will bring together leading intellectuals and statesmen from nations of both the North and the South, to deliberate on how to best bring about precisely such an epochal change.
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, and Diane Sare, President of TLO to discuss the necessary LaRouche-Hamilton economic policy to build the New Paradigm. Send your questions to questions@schillerinstitute.org
After her return from China, where she participated in an international conference in Qufu, the birthplace of Confucius, Helga Zepp-LaRouche summarized the global situation and the necessary mobilization of the International LaRouche Movement as follows:
“If you look at the world as a totality, you have essentially two motions: you have the motion toward destruction, the oligarchical principle, war, austerity, degradation of people and their so-called cultural tastes. But it’s an entropic motion. But then you have on the other side, those forces in the world that are somehow, in whatever fashion comes from their cultural tradition are in a constructive mode: building, furthering the cause of humanity. And in a certain sense, I can see very clearly the potential, in that those forces in the world who are in line with the laws of the universe, are becoming stronger, and stronger, and stronger. And what we are seeing right now, is just an end-struggle, if you like, of a dying system which clearly is unable to reform, because its proponents are so absolutely determined to their own privilege, that they cannot even see the interest of their nation.
And I think what we have to do, is, we have to give people that sense that humanity is, in one sense growing up, and it’s quite natural that they would turn at many places in the world to Lyn’s ideas, because from all the thinkers, from Confucius, Leibniz, Kepler, whoever else—I mean, Lyn has taken all of these tendencies a step forward, and he has, in his entire life’s work, given the world a way how to become coherent. And I think it’s very clear that all the forces who are striving toward this, eventually recognize that. And I think what it means is that what we have to do in the United States, and in Europe, is to make people conscious of that, and actually only the good-meaning people have to take a really relatively small step: and that is, to consciously reject the idea that you need an enemy, that confrontation is the way to go, to take the step instead to cooperation. And then, everything will fall into place.”
Zepp-LaRouche also emphasized two tasks facing all friends of humanity: First, to stop the escalation of warfare. Second, to recognize the failure of the policy behind the warfare and to initiate a new, correct policy. The Schiller Institute’s two upcoming international conferences – one in Europe and one from May 24-25 in the New York metropolitan area (online and in person) – have a special responsibility in this regard.
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, and Diane Sare, President of TLO to discuss the necessary LaRouche-Hamilton economic policy to build the New Paradigm. Send your questions to questions@schillerinstitute.org
DENNIS KUCINICH: First of all, I want to thank you for the invitation to join and to thank each one of you for your personal commitment for peace and social and economic justice. The journey that each one of you took to this moment is honored; and I’m grateful to participate if only for a few minutes.
I keep going back to this point—it’s like we need a new language to describe the horror that’s going on—but justifications, rationalizations that have been made cry out for our response. The political system has been bought unfortunately, and there are not many people who can go to the media who are inside the government to protest what’s going on in Gaza in particular. So, we have this anesthetizing, a kind of numbness that has taken place. People are still breaking through, groups of people around the country and certainly around the world are going to the streets. And I think ultimately that’s the kind of nonviolent action that will help tip the balance. It was when students in particular went into the streets during the Vietnam War that Lyndon Johnson decided that he couldn’t defend it anymore, and he stepped down. Of course Nixon and Kissinger kept it going for quite a few more years, but the ferment that was out there in the country helped to force a reconsideration of America’s role.
But here we are again—the mass violence. You had Vietnam, Iraq, Gaza, and it’s an arc of inhumanity in our country. In the United States—I know there are people on this call from outside the States—but the United States is a principal initiator of this. So, we have a lot of work to do inside our own country. It’s not just at the policy level; even before we get to the policy level we have to think about the consciousness from which these murderous policies are derived. That’s a shift that takes place through the instrumentality of our own beings and speaking out and gathering people; and that’s why I say thanks for what the IPC is doing and for all those of you who do this work. Any way that I can be of assistance to what you’re trying to do, tell me.
ANASTASIA BATTLE: Thank you so much Mr. Kucinich for that. I know Ray McGovern is so excited to have you on; he really wanted you on today. I know your time is limited—
KUCINICH: Well, Ray is one of my heroes, so it’s great to be with you.
BATTLE: Wonderful! We wanted to make sure if you were available, if you could stay a little bit to hear what he had to say, and then you guys could have a conversation.
KUCINICH: You know, I’d love to hear what Ray has to say, and then I would say I can push things back here; just let me do a quick text. I’m good until 11:40 Eastern time, so yes, Ray, go ahead.
RAY MCGOVERN: What a gift to have all these Dennises on there; all three of them, especially my friend Dennis Kucinich, who is probably the direct successor of my real hero, and that was John F. Kennedy; a man of peace, but a man of courage and a man of justice. And that’s what I want to talk about now. We come out of the same faith tradition, and that means a lot to me as well. I noticed that Father Bury is going to be on, and Jack Gilroy; my God, we’ve got a bunch of macro-snappers on here. A bunch of Roman Catholics coming out of a wider ecumenical tradition, and I stress that.
Francis is dead. What did Francis do about Gaza? Francis made pious statements about Gaza. His most “specific” statement was, “You know, I’m told by my advisors that a lot of people think that there might be a genocide going on there in Gaza, so I think we should have an investigation.” This is months after the world court had already indicted Netanyahu and Gallant. It reminds me of World War II and Pius XII, who couldn’t find his voice. There are structural indignities no matter what Francis may have wanted to do, he didn’t do it; that’s my reality. He’s a nice guy; he’s a mensch, OK? But when my webmeister put my little article up about this, he said, “Nice guys don’t win ballgames, and nice guys don’t stop genocide.”
What’s the bottom line here? Well, it’s good news and it’s bad news. It’s up to us; and that’s just good news, because we’re up to it.
Let’s go back a ways. Yahweh to Cain after he had murdered his brother. “So, Cain, where’s your brother?” “How am I supposed to know? It’s none of my damn business?” Or, more faithful to the text, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Well, I think the people on this call are brothers’ and sisters’ keepers; and those people in Gaza are very much in need of our help right now. So, we have that witness there from the Bible story, we also have my favorite rabbi, Rabbi Abraham Heschel, who famously said, “When injustice takes place, few are guilty, but all are responsible. Indifference to evil”—look at Cain for example. Who cares about me? Who cares about my brother?—“Indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself.” Abraham Heschel, very active during the Vietnam days and so forth.
Who else? Well, how bad is it in Gaza? There was an Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who actually ministered to Nelson Mandela, and knew apartheid in South Africa back and forth, right? What did Tutu say when he was asked, “Could you compare apartheid in South Africa and apartheid in Palestine?” He said, “Yeah, of course I can compare that.” Here’s what it is. “Life in Palestine is far more brutal and repressive than in apartheid South Africa.” And my friends, that was before the genocide.
Now, I often quote a fellow named Albert Camus, and you know the story if you’ve been listening to these things about how he talked to the Dominicans about the absence of a voice from Rome during World War II. To me, an agnostic? A voice from Rome? Yeah! Then I was told there was an encyclical. I said, “What’s an encyclical?” Then he said, what has to happen is that the voice has to come through loud and clear so the simplest man or woman can understand it; and that’s not enough. What he also said to a friend, during the height of the war in 1943, “It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners.” He got the Nobel prize in 1957, where he expressed “the hope that the quality of the new generation and its increased unwillingness to adopt slogans or ideologies and return to a more tangible value system. We have nothing to lose,” says Camus, “except everything. So, let’s go ahead. This is the wager of our generation.” We could be led by people like Dennis Kucinich. “If we are to fail, it is better in any case to have stood on the side of those who refused to be dogs, and are resolved to pay the price that must be paid so that men and women can be more than dogs.”
Lastly from Camus, in 1943, a letter exchange with a young German who was very proud. He was going to make Germany great again. OK, comparisons are invidious, but these are his words. “You told me that the greatness of my country, Germany, is beyond price,” this young fellow wrote. “Anything is good that contributes to its greatness. Those who, like us young Germans, are lucky enough to find a meaning in the destiny of our nation, must sacrifice everything else.” 1943; already we knew the genocide was going on. “No,” says Camus, “I told you, I cannot believe that everything must be subordinate to a single end. There are means that cannot be excused, and I should like to be able to say I love my country and still love justice. I don’t want for my country a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive, and keep justice alive.”
I want to finish here quickly by just referring to things that happened more recently. Let me talk about Heschel again. He was at Selma; he marched in all kinds of justice processions and demonstrations. This is what he said. “For many of us, the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Lakes are not lips, and walking is not kneeling. And yet, our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying, or my legs were demonstrating.”
How about a more recent one? One of my favorite theologians is Annie Dillard. Here’s what she said: “It’s really up to us. There never has been any other; not Popes, not any, not moral leaders that could exert leadership…. There are enough of us, but what we need to do is amass half-dressed in long lines like tribesmen and shake our gourds at each other to wake up. Instead, we watch television and miss the show.”
OK, I’ll go back to a biblical story, and I’ll talk about Isaiah; something most people don’t know. Did you know that he walked around for two years stark naked? Well, it’s in the Bible, folks; look it up. What was he trying to say? He was trying to garner attention to himself. People said, “Oh, that’s awful! You’re stark naked.” And what he said was, “I stripped myself of clothes. You are stripped of the gifts given you by Yahweh. The vision of justice and shalom.” Shalom is nothing more in the Biblical sense than the existence, the presence of justice. So, we can have peace, but we have to have justice first.
Last thing I’ll say is that we have to keep our heads on straight and look at the benefits of being in solidarity with one another. I used to say when I’d speak, “Look around you, for God’s sake! How can you not be encouraged with such fine companions in this struggle?” One of the consolations for me was that I have Stone. He warns us, he says, “Look, the only kinds of fights worth fighting are those that you can lose, because somebody has to fight them. And somebody has to lose, and lose, and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do, wins.” Well, in the process, we have to keep our sense of humor and have some fun. A friend of mine was a priest and had a brother who was a priest and they both came back to their Irish mother and talked about all the dogma they had learned. She said, “Tell me now, was there any fun at this meeting of yours?” They were stunned; because they realized that without some fun, nothing is going to happen.
So, let’s be justice people, let’s have some fun; but let’s stick with it, as Dennis Kucinich and many of you have already done. Thanks for letting me speak.
BATTLE: Thank you, Ray! Mr. Kucinich, if you want to say anything?
KUCINICH: I want to thank Ray as well for that erudite presentation. It is on us. What I’m doing right now is writing; I post on substack if you get a chance to go to denniskucinich@substack you can get a free subscription. I’m writing exactly about these topics we’re concerned with.
Thank you for the work that all of you do. Thanks again, Ray. And I’ll look forward to seeing you, joining you again. Keep going! Thank you.
MCGOVERN: Wish me luck; and those of you who are praying types, please hold me in the light. This afternoon I’m going to Moscow together with Oliver Stone. We have several meetings and panels set up. And best of all, we’ll be there at the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, when we were allies. We want to stress that we were allies then. John Kennedy, in his wonderful peace speech, said that almost alone among major powers in the world, the U.S. and Russia have never been at war. We’re going to try to speak and spread the word around. Maybe some of it will come back to the U.S. as well. But the idea is that this is something to celebrate; it is the possibility that this fellow Steve Witkoff, who’s in Moscow as we speak and just finished talking to Putin, will have some good news for us. I think that’s where the game is being played. So, wish me luck, and I probably will not be able to join you next week, but I’ll be with you in spirit.
DENNIS SMALL: I do have one piece of advice for you, Ray, for your trip. Have fun!
MCGOVERN: Perfect! OK, on that note, thanks very much folks.
A little bit later:
FATHER HARRY BURY: What is really significant to me is that Helga has been arguing about the importance of seeing people as all good. And the Holy Father, Pope Francis, treated people as all good. One of the reasons for the conflict in the world, it seems to me, is because we misunderstand what justice is about. We think that justice is vengeance. So, we think that the way to end evil-doing, to prevent people from doing bad things, is by punishment. And punishment is violence; and when you use violence, you lead to vengeance. And that’s what we are experiencing, and both Helga and Pope Francis have argued against that.
And the Oasis Plan calls for equity; that means to treat everybody equally. So, the Schiller Institute and Pope Francis were speaking the same message. And I hope that people have begun to understand that; that the reason people all over the world have liked Pope Francis is because he thinks of the people on the margins. And there wouldn’t be any people on the margins if we had the Oasis Plan in which we get peace through development. So, it’s important for me anyway, to understand and to promote the Oasis Plan because it’s in the spirit of Pope Francis. Thank you.
DENNIS SPEED: Thank you, Father Bury. Let me just say something, because many people who will be on will not know this about you. I will just read something from his biography.
“Father Bury’s activism started as a new priest, serving at the University of Minnesota’s Newman Center in the 1960s, when young Catholic men asked him to write letters for them as Conscientious Objectors for the Vietnam War. In 1971, at the request of some Vietnamese, he and three others chained themselves to the U.S. Embassy gate in Saigon to protest the Vietnam War.”
So, that was not a protest here that Anastasia was referring to. That’s a protest in Saigon in the 1970s. That’s very much in the Rabbi Heschel mode. Then in 2005, he was in Gaza, serving as a human shield, when he was temporarily abducted at that point. So, this is a man who clearly has done exactly what Ray McGovern was talking about before. We’re always honored to have him with us, and we are particularly honored about his clear idea about the Oasis Plan that has been put forward and will be being discussed by the way at our conference.
So, Father Bury, I just wanted to make sure you got recognized for that. And thank you again, very much for your remarks.
BATTLE: Next I’d like to go to Carolina from Mexico. She has a report on the youth recruitment process. As has been reported over the last few weeks, we’ve been making a huge effort going into the May conference to go to universities, places where many young people are, to get them active. Mexico in particular has had quite a bit of traction. So, we’re happy to have Carolina Dominguez on to give her report.
CAROLINA DOMINGUEZ: I want to tell you about the activities we have not only in Mexico, but in Ibero-America. I want to start first by mentioning something that has helped us in the work with the youth. This document that I want to mention is a book by Martin Luther King called Why We Can’t Wait. It’s a very extraordinary book that I recommend to everybody. He dedicates it to his children, but in his Foreword, he says that he hopes that in the future his children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by their character and their actions.
In this book, he presents the famous letter he wrote in the Birmingham Jail, in which he answers the critics in his collaborators who said his actions were not correct, and that was why he was in jail. He says something very funny. He says, I don’t answer to my critics, because if I do, I will not be able to do anything. What is important are the actions, and in that sense he responds to something that for us has been fundamental—work with youth. It’s the concept of nonviolent action. His response is that while they have to do demonstrations and activities, he says the best way to come to agreements is through negotiation. Martin Luther King says that is true, but when the leadership doesn’t want to negotiate because they don’t consider what the other side is presenting is important, we need to provoke that negotiation; provoke a tension. That’s what he’s talking about in creating tension through direct action. The individual has to be clear that he’s not in agreement with what is going on. Morally, the individual has to be very clear that what is occurring is not what he believes in; he has to be very clear on that not only in his heart, but in society. Those nonviolent actions create a tension that allows them to be heard.
That for us is very important because of course many people consider that our mobilization or demonstration or some action to be in disagreement with the ideas has to be violent, but not the idea that this will open the way for a proposal. What we are doing with the international youth movement, not only in Mexico and Ibero-America, but internationally before with the leadership of Lyndon LaRouche and now with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, we are doing precisely that. We are generating that tension, not to use youth as scapegoats as is being done with the wars and political parties using them during the elections; where afterwards they are just discarded.
In the Schiller Institute we have a constant campaign of education in profound ideas that allow the youth to become leaders. Those ideas involve economic proposals. In that process of working with the youth, you first have to understand that they need a level that allows them to heard. The youth have a lot of potential; not only because of their age, but because they are taking decisions about their moral quality for the long term. We need to provide them with the tools so that when they decide the moral quality of the path they choose, they will have sufficient knowledge to do what is right.
In that work with the youth, we are having international meetings and dialogues which include representatives from Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Europe, and the United States. They are presenting their concerns about the situation today. Of course, they don’t want a war, but they don’t see any options for what they can give to society. We just had an international youth dialogue last week where they presented several proposals about energy, kinds of jobs youth will have, what they can do in order to change the situation. They were very open and had basic questions that should be answered. I want to say that when we are generating this tension, when some Congressman or leader says “OK, I will listen to you,” what do you have to tell them? We need to be ready with what we are going to say, because there is a state of tension. We have to have those proposals, and the youth have to know how to change the economy. That’s why we have these youth dialogues. That’s why we are working with them on what an economy is; that it has to give value to people; because the main product in an economy is people. LaRouche said the main thing that moves the economy is creativity; the ideas that are generated by individuals who want to make things better. So when they are talking to a leader, and they say “What do you have to tell me?”; they have to be very clear that what we are presenting is what will work for the economy. That’s what we are teaching the youth: what is productivity; what is an economy. It has been very polemical. We have heard about this in these meetings. What is the best type of energy that can work for their countries; what kind of jobs? We think this has been very optimistic. The youth meeting was very good, because people were able to express how things were going and their proposals.
I thought it was very funny the types of problems we have with the youth. There was one young man from Brazil who will go from Brazil to the New York conference in May. The interpreters were translating from English to Spanish, but there was a moment when he started to speak in Portuguese. It was very funny, because we were all quiet; there was no way to interpret his words from Portuguese into Spanish or English. That changed the geometry of the meeting; thinking about how we can hear the proposals of young people from Ibero-America in their language, and how we can transmit these ideas to other young people in the world. Those are the types of topics we want to address in this youth dialogue; how we can answer what they are presenting and what we are doing.
We are having these meetings all the time, especially with Helga. This time we had the participation of Megan Dobrodt and Jason Ross. It was very productive and there was a lot of optimism that through this work with the youth, as Martin Luther King said, we are doing it because it’s necessary and the people who are criticizing that he was creating this tension don’t understand.
I want to finish with another quote from the same letter by Martin Luther King. Like Socrates, he believed it was necessary to create a state of tension in the mind in order for people to overcome their dependency and create a way to become individuals. [actual quote: “Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.”]
That’s what is happening with the youth. We are inviting them to register and participate in the May conference. This will be very important. We will be having a youth panel which will present these proposals and the work we are doing with them. That’s what I wanted to present. Thank you very much.
April 18—The 98th consecutive weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) commenced with greetings by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, who emphasized that “the situation in Ukraine remains one of utmost volatility.” The likely incoming Chancellor of Germany, Friedrich Merz, has said that he will send Taurus missiles to Ukraine. But the Taurus relies on intelligence from the United States. Will President Donald Trump approve this? And the Taurus must be operated by German soldiers, making Germany a direct party to the war. This situation is fraught with danger. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently said that if the British and French send soldiers, they will come back in coffins. Zepp-LaRouche said that Merz “knows no inkling of a diplomatic solution,” and warned that something is happening in Germany which echoes what happened 80 years ago.
On the positive side, a disaster was averted when Trump refused to give U.S. backing to an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. There also continues to be positive developments in the Global South. China and Brazil agreed to build the Bi-Oceanic Railway across South America. And on April 18, the Valdai Discussion Club hosted an event called “70 Years On: The Legacy of Bandung. An Expert Discussion” which raised the question, “Is Bandung 2.0 possible?” This is in reference to the 1955 Bandung Conference, also known as the Asian-African Conference, held in Bandung, Indonesia, which laid the foundation for the later emergence of the Non-Aligned Movement.
She noted that Presidents Robert Fico of Slovakia and Alexsandar Vučić of Serbia will defy the EU and attend the Victory Day celebration in Russia on May 9. She commented as well that the trade war with China will cause inflation in the U.S. and large layoffs in China, and posed the question, are there people of reason who can step beyond geopolitics?
Seeds Grow Without a Sound
Alex Krainer, a well-known financial advisor and economic analyst, described an ongoing transition in the world economy that many may have missed. It has become very easy for a person in the West, with a few clicks, to order products from China and India. He clarified the controversy over tariffs, using as an example, a pair of Nike shoes that cost $10 to make in China, but retail for $100 in the U.S. A 25% tariff would be applied to the $10 that it costs to make the shoes, not the $100 retail price, adding only $2.50 to the cost of the retailer. For a more extravagant example, he cited a $38,000 handbag that costs $1,000 to make. The trade war has revealed things about the “bling factor.”
Schiller Institute leader Dennis Small cited an article in the Financial Times which asks whether we are now facing the “Trump Shock,” comparing it to the “Nixon Shock” of 1973. Trump’s trade war can ignite the explosion of the bubble of financial aggregates and derivatives which will never be paid. Small compared it to lighting a match in a room full of dynamite; the problem exists “not because of the match, but because of the dynamite.”
A new financial geometry is developing around the BRICS. “We’re seeing physical economic flows in exactly the way that Lyndon LaRouche talked about.” Brazil will gain “great circle” access to trade with China via the proposed Bi-Oceanic Corridor. China vastly outpaces the world in physical output of steel, etc.—but “the real growth area is science and technology.”
IPC coordinator Anastasia Battle presented a report on youth outreach, describing an organizing tour of New York university campuses with congressional candidate Jose Vega and others, and showed a series of photos of booktables and a special invitation to the upcoming international youth meeting April 22 with Helga Zepp-LaRouche.
In response to Krainer’s presentation, Zepp-LaRouche noted that Friedrich Merz says it’s an outrage that every day 400,000 parcels arrive from China. But the Spirit of Bandung is sweeping the Global South, ignored by Western media. Because of the rise of China, the developing nations feel that they are strong enough to end colonialism.
Krainer noted that improved world trade means opportunities for people in the industrial world as well. Merz’s opposition to Chinese imports is leading Europe to “a new Middle Ages.”
Discussion
Steven Starr, one of the nation’s foremost experts on nuclear war, asked Krainer to comment on the role of Wall Street and the City of London in influencing world events. Krainer said that power lies in the central banks, IMF, and the families that control them. For example, in the immediate aftermath of the 2014 Maidan coup, it was the IMF that influenced Kiev to launch an assault against the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine. Citigroup formed much of former President Barack Obama’s Cabinet.
In response to a question on Iran, Zepp-LaRouche said that the real issue is Israel’s 200-plus nuclear weapons. We need a new security and development architecture which takes into account the security needs of all nations, including Iran. Fortunately, there is some talk of combining the Egyptian peace plan with the LaRouche Oasis Plan.
In response to a question about fascism, she described an in-depth discussion with former U.S. Ambassador Chas Freeman about the emergence of a new fascism. The crux is the image of man; fascists believe that some group of people is superior. They also pursue policies of ruthless austerity.
Relations with Afghanistan
IPC co-moderator Dennis Speed reported, in answer to a question, that Russia has recognized the Taliban. Zepp-LaRouche added that 65,000 Taliban fighters were able to defeat NATO, but they were not ready to govern, and the new government is factionalized on the question of the status of women; you can’t rebuild while also condemning women to outsider status. The Taliban cracked down on opium production, which caused a loss of income for farmers. A proposal was made by former UN leader Pino Arlacchi to aid farmers in transitioning to food production, but it was denied by the UN. Russian recognition is positive, but “it’s only in the baby shoes.”
Jose Vega asked the question: “Did our Founding Fathers believe in ‘America First’?” Speed answered the congressional candidate, saying that people confuse the idea of America with the place of America. If by “America First” you mean the idea, then it applies to the whole world. Zepp-LaRouche’s Ten Principles are close in spirit to the Declaration of Independence, and one should read them to hear the echo of the American Revolution. The Revolutionary War was insufficient to overturn the system of aristocracy and oligarchy. The Constitutional Convention was the key revolution, as well as U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton’s reports. The people who best understood this assembled in 1955 in Bandung.
Conclusion
Zepp-LaRouche appreciated a comment from one of her countrywomen, who argued against the fatalism of her fellow citizens who quail before the power of the oligarchy, and advocated that “every drop of activism helps.” We must put international pressure on Germany and the EU. Trump should leave NATO; that would be the best thing that could happen. In fact, “we all should leave NATO,” which has “transformed into an extremely aggressive organism.”
If we can avoid extinction in a nuclear winter, then we can disagree on secondary matters. Regardless of one’s ideology, “We have one future, like it or not. … If this present chapter of history goes wrong, we all have none.”
April 20, 2025 (EIRNS)—The Schiller Institute has announced a partial list of distinguished speakers on Panel 1 of its May 24-25 international conference. The in-person and online conference is titled, “A Beautiful Vision for Humanity in Times of Great Turbulence!”
Panel 1: “Strategic Challenges and the Emerging New Order:”
Helga Zepp-LaRouche (Germany), Founder, The Schiller Institute
H.E. Naledi Pandor (South Africa), former Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, South Africa
H.E. Donald Ramotar (Guyana), Former President of Guyana
Ambassador Jack Matlock (U.S.) former United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union, 1987-1991
Ambassador Chas Freeman (U.S.), former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, 1993-1994
Prof. Dmitri Trenin (Russia), Academic Supervisor of the Institute of World Military Economy and Strategy at the Higher School of Economics University (HSE) (Moscow)
Ray McGovern (U.S.), former Senior Analyst, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); Founding Member, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
A Beautiful Vision for Humanity in Times of Great Turbulence!
Schiller Institute International Conference, May 24-25, 2025, online & in person in the NY Metropolitan area
The strategic situation is presently undergoing not one, but several tectonic changes. These changes are effectively burying the unipolar order that emerged after World War II, and then again in a new form, after the end of the Cold War. Francis Fukuyama’s thesis of the “end of history,” by which he meant world domination by the Western liberal model of democracy, turned out to be one of the most short-lived “eras” in history.
Following President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the trans-Atlantic relationship very quickly shattered, with a deafening burst of noise. “The U.S. is now the enemy of the West,” screamed London’s Financial Times, in a front-page article which concluded: “The West is dead.” The special relationship between the U.S. and the U.K., which was the pillar of the unipolar order, has been broken, never to be restored.
It is now coming to light that the pro-EU forces in Europe were allied with the very same “deep state,” sometimes called the “permanent bureaucracy,” under attack by the Trump administration. Vice President J.D. Vance’s remarks at the Munich Security Conference about the lack of democratic practices in Europe struck a raw nerve in the European “permanent bureaucracy.”
If President Trump succeeds in not only ending the Ukraine war, but also permanently banning the species-threatening use of nuclear weapons, through a process of cooperation and dialogue with Russia and China, he will deserve a place on Mount Rushmore. This would mean nothing less than replacing the practice of geopolitical confrontation against the BRICS states and the Global South with cooperation for the mutual benefit of all.
The second tectonic change is marked by the process in which the nations of the Global South are presently overcoming 500 years of colonialism with the help of China and moving to become middle-level-income countries in the near term. Instead of regarding this development as a threat, European nations and the United States should happily welcome the elimination of grinding poverty for billions of people now being liberated to achieve their full potential. The only way the danger of global nuclear war and the subsequent annihilation of the human species can be overcome, is by cooperation with the Global Majority.
The conference will also reflect on the life’s work of Lyndon LaRouche. The LaRouche Legacy Foundation (LLF) will present ample evidence that Lyndon LaRouche, as early as the 1960s, had forecast the present crisis of the liberal system with astounding accuracy. If the world had listened to LaRouche’s analysis, and his warning of Nixon’s destruction of the old Bretton Woods system, by the introduction of floating exchange rates, the world would never have entered the present existential crisis—a crisis characterized by a zooming speculative financial bubble, collapsing physical economy, and an unquenchable drive for war and the Schachtian militarization of the economy associated with it.
The scientific method of LaRouche’s physical economy is most closely approximated today by China, which is why that country is so enormously successful, a success which can be replicated by any nation that chooses to do so.
The major challenge facing the world as a whole, is to finally create a just, new world economic order, and to apply the concept of peace through development. At the conference, there will be an important discussion of the campaign by the Schiller Institute to put the Oasis Plan, first proposed by LaRouche in 1975, on the agenda for all of Southwest Asia. There will be a special focus on a development plan for the African continent in line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which shares the spirit of the Oasis Plan.
We need to catapult the entire world out of the present misery of geopolitical confrontation, out of the barbaric conception that everything is a zero-sum game, and that one always needs an enemy. We have reached a moment in history in which we absolutely need to reach a new paradigm that proceeds from the idea of the one humanity first, and then brings into cohesion the interests of all nations with that of the one humanity. We must create a new era in human history, based on completely new axioms, not those of the old order which has just imploded. For that, we need a new global security and development architecture that takes into account the existential interest of every single nation on the planet. It is the quality of a degraded, or a sublime character of culture, which determines how we think. The needed new paradigm requires that we replace the present ignorance, indifference and outright chauvinism with respect to other cultures, with curiosity, interest, knowledge and even love for the different cultures of the planet. The Schiller Institute conference will feature a dialogue of cultures and civilizations, whereby the uniqueness, as well as the universal principles uniting art, will be brought forth.
Mankind is at its most important branching point ever. If we continue as barbarians, we will suffer the fate of the dinosaurs and troglodytes. But we also have hope because man is capable of the limitless perfection of his reason and beauty of character. This must inform our vision of the future.
SATURDAY, May 24, 10:00 a.m. EDT
8:00 a.m.—Registration
10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.—Panel One: Strategic Challenges and the Emerging New Order
2:00-5:00 p.m.—Panel Two: The Beauty of the Diversity of Cultures
7:00-10:00 p.m.—Panel Three: The LaRouche Program To Create 3 Billion New Productive Jobs in a Generation
SUNDAY, May 25, 9 a.m. EDT
9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.—Panel Four: The LaRouche Legacy Foundation on the Actuality of LaRouche’s Ideas
1:00-4:00 p.m.—Panel Five: The Role of Youth in Shaping the Earth’s Next 50 Years
4:00-6:30 p.m.—Breakout session and discussion for youth
6:30-9:30 p.m.—Panel Six: The Industrial Revolution 4.0: Space, Fusion and AI
A Beautiful Vision for Humanity in Times of Great Turbulence!
Schiller Institute International Conference, May 24-25, 2025, online & in person in the NY Metropolitan area