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Today in the afternoon U.S. Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff is scheduled to meet in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin, toward confirming terms that can be the basis of settlement of the Ukraine conflict. This follows upon the four-hour meeting yesterday between U.S. leaders, and the Ukrainian delegation—headed by Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, which took place at Witkoff’s Florida golf and residential club. No definitive break nor resolution has come about for either success or failure of this process of U.S. engagement in talks, but the process is valuable, and reality has a way of intervening.
There is no use-value in prognosticating about exactly when and what may result at any exact time in this diplomatic process, which itself is nevertheless useful, in large part because of the context of reality asserting itself. Ukraine cannot continue with the mortal losses it is suffering in being used by the Western geopolitical interests as a proxy against Russia. That is the reality. Demanding Ukraine continue warfare, when a resolution can be found, is immoral insanity.
On display in Brussels today, at the EU Foreign Affairs Council (Defense) meeting of ministers, was exactly that: immoral insanity. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas gave a mad-woman speech about how Europe must continue to back Ukraine to the hilt, and moreover, continue itself to arm and make ready against Russia. She boasted that Europe has already contributed $187 billion to Ukraine, and must continue such support. She praised the Netherlands for announcing it will build an arms production center in Ukraine. She praised the specific EU war preparation programs, “Defense Readiness Roadmap” and the “Military Mobility Package.”
Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone (Italy) went even further. In an interview with London’s Financial Times on Dec. 1, Admiral Dragone said that even a pre-emptive strike against Russia is among the many things NATO is thinking about. Though he said, as a feint, that such a strike “is further away from our normal way of thinking and behavior,” Dragone nevertheless clearly raised the prospect as a favorable option.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, leader of the Schiller Institute, today denounced this kind of madness among “top European leaders,” reporting, “we are run by madmen.” Characterizing the world situation, she stressed that, “we have a strategic picture of maximum tension, dangers and potentials,” and the situation “requires our intervention.”
The actions of NATO can be described as “institutionalized madness.” NATO Director General Mark Rutte met with Kallas today at the time of the EU Foreign Affairs ministers meeting, supporting her crazed declarations. Moreover, Rutte spoke on Dec. 1 with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, in a 20-minute call, pledging what amounts to Global NATO expansion. Takaichi’s office afterward issued a read out, reporting: “Takaichi highlighted that the security of the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific is inseparable and cooperation between Japan-NATO and NATO-IP4 (Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea) is strategically important. In response, Secretary-General Rutte supported such views, and both leaders concurred on working together to elevate our cooperative relationship to new heights through concrete cooperation….”
Zepp-LaRouche took the gloves off against NATO in an interview with the China Media Group, broadcast widely on CGTN Dec. 1. She identified the expansion of NATO as the fundamental cause triggering the Ukraine conflict, and then painted the broad picture. “Although NATO claims its original intention was peaceful, after the military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and other countries, NATO’s so-called ‘peaceful conduct’ becomes untenable.”
She pointed to the solution, addressing Europe, but with a point universally applicable. “Overall, I think we need to achieve a transformation in the way of thinking in Europe, because wherever you look, whether it’s Venezuela, the Middle East, or Ukraine, all these conflicts would become much easier to resolve if Western countries could change their mindset, turn to cooperation with Global South countries and the global majority, and return to diplomacy.”
Note, as of the time of preparation of this item, that a White House meeting is underway this evening, commissioned by President Donald Trump to provide him “options” for further action in the Caribbean against Venezuela. The prospects are grim, given the known stance for brute force by the advisers he has assembled.
This is the time to expand interventions of all kinds for reason and diplomacy, not warfare. The weekly International Peace Coalition Meeting, serving international collaboration, is Dec. 5, at 11:00 a.m. (ET).
Dec. 1, 2025 (EIRNS)—In an interview with China Media Group, Helga Zepp-LaRouche identified the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as the fundamental cause triggering the conflict, reported Bastille Post:
“Many people are well aware that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a consequence of NATO’s eastward expansion and its deployment of offensive weapon systems around Russia. Russia’s early warning time could be as short as five minutes. Russia has repeatedly stated this. From the perspective of Russia’s national security, this is unacceptable,” said Zepp-LaRouche.
She said that the outbreak of the conflict involves profound factors including geopolitics, security concerns, and historical and cultural identity. NATO’s eastward expansion, gradually approaching Russia, has intensified Russia’s security apprehensions, particularly given NATO’s actions in regions like the Middle East over recent decades that have plunged many countries into turmoil.
“Although NATO claims its original intention was peaceful, after the military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and other countries, NATO’s so-called ‘peaceful conduct’ becomes untenable,” Zepp-LaRouche said.
Zepp-LaRouche said that Europe needs to change its mindset and resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict through diplomatic channels, rather than continuously increasing military and financial support to Ukraine as is currently happening, which does not contribute to conflict resolution.
“Overall, I think we need to achieve a transformation in the way of thinking in Europe, because wherever you look, whether it’s Venezuela, the Middle East, or Ukraine, all these conflicts would become much easier to resolve if Western countries could change their mindset, turn to cooperation with Global South countries and the global majority, and return to diplomacy,” she said.
The 130th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition took place on November 28. Schiller Institute Founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche opened the meeting with a survey of turmoil in the world, listing the conflict zones including Ukraine, Gaza, Venezuela, and the emerging conflict between Japan and China. She noted that retired German General Harald Kujat has called on the UK, France and Germany to endorse the recently leaked 28 point proposal for a resolution of the war in Ukraine. President Trump’s administration is divided, with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff favoring diplomacy, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio adamantly opposing the peace proposal. Those betting on a regime change in Russia “should think twice,” she said, because Putin enjoys the support of the Russian population and “Putin is an unbelievably patient and diplomatically-oriented person” whom we should prefer as a negotiating partner.
On the Gaza question, she observed that US policy continues to be terrible, although eleven US senators are now calling for an investigation into Israeli war crimes.
Zepp-LaRouche took note of some recent acts by President Trump, including his statement that he intends to”permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” following the shootings of two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., and Trump’s unfounded remarks about Whites being persecuted in South Africa, asserting that the country would not be invited to the 2026 G20 summit in Miami, which the United States is set to host. Trump has also revoked the visa for former South African International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor, who has spoken at IPC and Schiller Institute events.
On the hopeful side, she cited President Putin’s initiative for a new strategic architecture, which he has framed not as a challenge to the West but as a blueprint for a polycentric world order grounded in balance, anchored in organizations like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS. She said that President Putin’s formulation is essentially the same as her own proposal for a new strategic architecture, as well as Xi Jinping’s Global Security and Global Governance Initiatives.
Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories from 2008 to 2014, began by saying that Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s remarks were “very much in keeping with my own world-view.” He reported on the activities of the Gaza People’s Tribunal, which he called “an important civil society initiative” in response to the failure of the UN and international organizations to enforce the rulings of the International Court of Justice. He explained that these international organizations are unable to take on the “winners of World War II,” leading to a paralysis of the UN and kindred organizations. Veto power gives the most powerful states in the world an exemption from international law, which he said has “really made a mockery of the ‘never again’ pledge after the Holocaust.” The UNSC resolution on Gaza displayed a shocking disregard for what has been done to the Palestinians, and represents “a deception of hard-power geopolitics.” He expressed similar disdain for Trump’s purported “peace plan” for Gaza.
H.E. Amb. Abdullah Shawesh, of the Embassy of the Palestinian State to New Delhi, declared that sympathy for the Palestinians is fine, but we must “change the reality on the ground… everyone in the world can be a game-changer.” One practical measure which he endorsed was that individuals can back the boycott of Israeli businesses and institutions.
Zepp-LaRouche responded that we will continue to fight for the Oasis Plan, and create an international audience for it. To move people we must present a hopeful vision of the future. All of the crises we are discussing are “only symptoms of the collapsing order of the last 500 years,” and regional crises cannot be solved without a new strategic architecture.
John Steinbach, coordinator of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Committee of the of the National Capital Area praised Richard Falk for his role in history. He added that the neocons have urged the use of tactical nuclear weapons, an insanely reckless policy. Steinbach echoed Falk’s opposition to Trump’s so-called peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a plan which he described as “isolated concentration camps within a large concentration camp.” Israeli policy is run by the followers of Meir Kahane and Baruch Goldstein, Steinbach said.
In response to Steinbach and Zepp-LaRouche, Falk concurred that we need a “new framework to manage global security,” a “new architecture.”
EIR Ibero-American Editor Dennis Small offered good news, which is that there exists a “clear economic pathway to resolve the underlying problems.” The answer, he said, was to return to the 1933 Glass-Steagall standard. In the US today, four major banks hold the bulk of financial derivatives. The Federal Reserve’s policy of Quantitative Easing bails this out, and does not rescue useful banking activity. Deposits from the Fed vastly outstrip the loans issued by banks, and the few loans that are actually going out are not for productive lending, but rather for more derivatives speculation. He described how Mexico’s banking system is run by Wall Street and the City of London, and how the Chicago Board of Trade is the global nerve center for derivatives trading. Compare China, he said, where the government regulates finance to ensure that almost all credit goes to actual production. He concluded by asserting that to save our banking system, we must write off over $2 quadrillion in derivatives.
Alberto Vizcarra of Mexico, adviser of the National Front for Saving Mexican Agriculture, analyzed the effects of financial speculation on Mexico’s agricultural sector. Protests and activism, such as the blocking of major highways in 17 states across Mexico, have begun to move the Mexican government to change the mechanisms which are oppressing Mexico’s farmers. The BRICS alliance is proposing international cooperation by producers to combat the influence of the Chicago Board of Trade.
Discussion
A Nigerian asked Zepp-LaRouche how to combat the smuggling of materials in Africa that are related to nuclear weapons production, as well as posing a more general question about how to solve the global crisis. Zepp-LaRouche, on the question of smuggling, said that this is up to governments, and that perhaps a regional security agreement could be reached to deal with the problem. On the broader issue, she reiterated that we are in a transition from the collapsing old order to something different, and that “we need a lot more discussion of the principles of the new order.”
Dennis Small returned to the question of how to envision and create a brighter future, utilizing human creativity which coheres with the natural progression toward higher ordering principles; “Optimism is the law of the universe,” he said, referencing Lyndon LaRouche’s Four Laws.A way out of the present turmoil exists; our job is to guide our fellow citizens to take advantage of it.
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her live dialogue and discuss the issues and solutions that move the world and its people. Send your questions, comments, and reports to questions@schillerinstitute.org or post them in the next live stream.
What sort of madness would lead people, in the face of the collapse of nearly every single global arms control and verification treaty—today only New START remains, until it too expires in February 2026—to explicitly and publicly propose to further proliferate nuclear weapons to the nations of Germany, Japan, and Canada? To argue that this will “strengthen the global order,” and provide “dependable protection against the threats of regional foes, such as China and Russia”?
The madness of those who speak for the bankrupt London-New York financial Establishment, is who, including their policy mouthpieces, such as Foreign Affairs magazine of the New York Council on Foreign Relations.
What sort of madness would cause them to propose to give nuclear weapons to a Germany which, under Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has announced it is girding for war against Russia within years, at most? To argue for nuclear arms to be under the control of a Takaichi government in Japan, which has just announced it could take military action against China to defend Taiwan?
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova drew out the implications of such madness: “We know how Japanese militarism ended. It would be good if those politicians who come to govern Japan remember this, understand where irresponsible statements lead, and refrain from making them.”
This is the same madness which is driving London and its European allies apoplectic over U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest effort to return U.S.-Russian negotiations over Ukraine to the approach both sides had agreed upon in the Aug. 15 Trump-Putin summit in Anchorage, Alaska. They are describing those efforts as “nauseating,” “worse than we thought,” and a “nightmare”—all because Trump and Putin have agreed that the issues which caused the war in the first place must be addressed.
It is also the madness behind Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s obsession with overthrowing the Maduro government in Venezuela, in order to embroil the Trump administration in another bloody forever war of exactly the sort he promised to never launch.
All of this is the madness borne of the desperation of the owners of the financially bankrupt system, who are trying to keep their system afloat through wars and economic looting—when it is no longer possible to do so.
“The economy of the United States of America, and also that of the trans-Atlantic political-economic regions of the planet, are, now, under the immediate, mortal danger of a general, physical-economic, chain-reaction breakdown-crisis of that region of this planet as a whole.”
The pathway LaRouche specified leading to the reorganization of the global physical economy around scientific drivers such as fusion energy and space colonization, begins with a return to the 1933 Glass-Steagall law of FDR. This would put the $2 quadrillion in speculative assets today asphyxiating the Western financial system through bankruptcy reorganization, and open the door to issuing productive credit in volumes needed to create physical economic conditions worthy of the dignity of Man—all 8 billion plus of us!
Nov. 21, 2025 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche opened the 129th weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition on November 21 speaking of the importance of the Nov. 20 emergency seminar on the threat of war with Venezuela titled, “President Trump, Don’t do it!,” which debunked all of the fabricated pretexts for war.
Ms. LaRouche said that Foreign Affairs magazine “spilled the beans” as to the real objective of the Venezuelan conflict, which is to prevent any cooperation with the BRICS nations and to prevent China from having any development role in the western hemisphere. She spoke of the 28 point peace plan for Ukraine which has been promoted by the U.S., but is opposed by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and the “Coalition of the Willing.” Some are saying that this plan is capitulation, but LaRouche said that Ukraine can not continue the war with so few soldiers left. She said that polls show that 69% of the Ukrainian population want the war to end, and only 29% want to continue fighting. She ridiculed European leaders who call on the population to prepare to sacrifice their children for war and that all of Europe must be prepared to fight a war “tonight.” LaRouche said that these tyrants for war can be defeated and used the recent example of a fight over whether a hospital would be used for war preparation, but the locals fought and won to keep the hospital serving the community. Several military experts have warned against allowing Ukraine to become another Afghanistan with decades of endless war. LaRouche stated that there are many wars and flashpoints, but we must seek a higher understanding and insisted that these conflicts cannot be addressed as single issue problems. She said that geopolitics must end and the West must unite with the Global South. She said that President Trump’s MAGA base of supporters wanted Trump to stop the endless wars and will not support a new war with Venezuela.
The next speaker was Diego Sequera, a leader in Mision Verdad in Venezuela. He spoke of the hope for dialogue between the U.S. and Venezuela, but cautioned that each side must be treated as equals. He pointed to recent threats by the U.S. against Nigeria over the killing of Christians, but said that the terrorists are killing everyone equally. Both countries being targeted by the U.S. are petro states with great potential. Sequera put much of the blame on Marco Rubio and his friends at the Miami think tank run by Jesus Romero who was in U.S. Naval Intelligence and has multiple ties to the U.S. military-industrial-complex. Romero has published detailed reports on Venezuelan air defense systems and has said it is “our slam-dunk” for a quick military victory over Venezuela. Sequera cautioned that Romero’s report are based on outdated information and internal opposition which is problematic. Other military experts are warning of the dangers of long term occupations. A speaker at a CSIS event suggested only long range attacks.
Dennis Small answered Sequera saying that he was glad that he made the comparison to Nigeria, but that the war danger has nothing to do with either country. Small insisted that western elites were desperate due to the collapsing financial system, and cannot allow any contrary solutions to emerge. In Venezuela the only issue driving the war is to keep China out of South America, and prevent any cooperation with the BRICS. But Small said that only a Treaty of Westphalia type higher principle could resolve these conflicts. Small was very happy that while Guyana and Brazil have had differences with Venezuela, they united around a higher principle. Small then quoted Lyndon LaRouche during a 2002 visit to São Paulo where LaRouche said that the U.S. was also in crisis and, “We either sail together, or we sink together.” He said that this was an idea from Cusa and was the spirit of the Nov. 20 round table discussion. Small emphasized that our enemies are extremely desperate with over $2 quadrillion in financial debts and obligations.
Dennis Speed returned to the issue of Nigeria saying that in 25 years Nigeria is expected to be the most populous country in the world, with a very young population. Speed stated that Nigeria is being targeted as part of the depopulation agenda of Kissinger, Brzezinski, and others. Sequera jumped in speaking of the depopulation memo, NSM-200, and that Venezuela is being depopulated by migration. Sequera said that Venezuela has been a leader in the anti-colonial fight and spoke of Simon Bolivar’s call for the 1826 Amphictyonic Congress held in Panama which was sabotaged by the U.S. and U.K. Sequera said that over the last 100 years people moved to Venezuela so the 5 to 7 million people leaving Venezuela over the last 5 years is something new. This massive migration is viewed by people at the Brookings Institution as a labor force opportunity The Venezuelan diaspora has been weaponized against Venezuela. There has been intense economic hardships over the recent years, but now Venezuela’s economy is among the fastest growing in the world.
Helga LaRouche commented that if one were to ask people in Europe if they were racist or colonialists, they would answer no, yet they accept the demeaning of entire nations. She said that the “genie is out of the bottle” and 500 year of colonialism is over. No country will ever be denied their right to development to their fullest potential. China has become a partner in this development. This flaw is also present in the peace movement, and the solution is a dialogue of cultures.
Harley Schlanger spoke about Jeffery Epstein as an example of the desperation caused by the collapsing financial system. While the mass media diverted attention to the sordid story of Epstein, there was an economic “reset” away from a productive economy to a speculative one. Schlanger traced the downward spiral from drug money laundering, to public private partnerships, to surveillance, to meta data collection. The powerful people who protected Epstein were the same people attacking Lyndon LaRouche.
Dennis Small said that the Venezuelan crisis could be resolved by a return of the U.S. and Russia to the Alaska approach to cooperation. This would put off the war party, and without it Trump will continue to self-destruct. Small pointed to the full interview of Lavrov that was only partially covered in the Dorriere della Sera newspaper. Leaders on both side want cooperation, but the British government and British press want to keep the U.S. and Russia divided.
Helga LaRouche added that the British Telegraph newspaper is promoting the war with Venezuela in order to flood the market with cheap oil in order to destroy Putin She said that Trump promised to stop the endless wars, but the neocons want to use this opening to pivot to Asia, impose a unipolar world, with an Anglo-American special relationship. This is why Trump was pushed to visit King Charles, to play on every weakness of Trump. Helga said that MAGA representatives should join the IPC meetings and keep Trump out of a Venezuelan quagmire.
John Steinbach spoke of the desperation of western elites caused by the derivatives bubble and how the Monroe Doctrine was an anti-colonial document, but is now used against China. Sequera answered that many U.S. industries rely on Venezuelan heavy crude oil, but Citgo Oil Co. has been used as a slush fund to finance Juan Guaidó.
Dennis Speed returned to the issue of Epstein, saying that this leads to Roy Cohn, and his connections to money laundering, organized crime, Cuba, Trump, and the campaign against Lyndon LaRouche. Schlanger added that this all leads to the CIA, Iran-Contra, drugs, weapons, terrorism, the ADL, and more.
Helmut Kass spoke of the importance of reaching every person on the planet with the Ted Postal video warning of the danger of nuclear war. Helga LaRouche agreed fully and asked for people to help translate this into every language on Earth.
Dennis Small’s closing remarks were to warn of the “moral degeneration” on the population where genocide, or bombing of ships are normalized. We cannot allow the Gazafication of the world. Only the concept that all men are brothers can stop genocide.
Helga LaRouche ended her remarks by reminding us that when the Cold War ended the world had a “Star Hour” moment where we could create something new. Some wanted to take the moment to create a unipolar world, run regime changes, color revolutions, the weaponization of currencies, etc. But the Pope attacked the “structures of sin” on both sides. The Soviet Union collapsed peacefully and attempted to transform itself into something better. The West in now faced with a similar collapse, but some only want to hold power with Anglo-Americanism and the Coalition of the Willing. The IPC must include a dialogue of civilizations. We will not remove the root cause of war without economic development.
Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), founded by Lyndon LaRouche, is hosting a roundtable discussion on Thursday, November 20, from 11am to 1pm ET, on the topic “‘President Trump: Don’t Do It! An Alternative American Policy for the Caribbean’”
Speakers include:
Helga Zepp-LaRouche (Germany), EIR Editor-in-Chief Diego Sequera (Venezuela), researcher and columnist for misionverdad.com Donald Ramotar (Guyana), former President of Guyana Ray McGovern (U.S.), former CIA analyst, co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professions for Sanity (VIPS) Beto Almeida (Brazil), Director of Telesur; Advisory Board, Brazilian Press Association Dennis Small (U.S.), EIR Ibero-American Editor Commentators: Morella Barreto López (Venezuela), historian and Venezuelan diplomat; Diane Sare (U.S.) former candidate for U.S. Senate from New York
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her live dialogue and discuss the issues and solutions that move the world and its people. Send your questions, comments, and reports to questions@schillerinstitute.org or post them in the next live stream.
Yesterday, Nov. 16, the USS Gerald R. Ford, America’s largest aircraft carrier, arrived in the Caribbean. The same day U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement declaring the President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro to be the head of a foreign terrorist group, the Cartel de los Soles. This puts two things in place for an imminent attack. U.S. military assets are now at full force posture in the region, including 15,000 troops, 12 destroyers, and multiple fighter jets. The U.S. legalism is now in place, that if the U.S. attacks Venezuela on sea or land, in the name of attacking a foreign terrorist individual or group, Washington will declare its actions lawful. This is based, in particular, on the statutes and practices asserted unilaterally by Washington since 9/11.
True, President Trump told reporters yesterday, that the U.S. “may be having some discussions” with Maduro, and that “Venezuela would like to talk….I’ll talk to anybody. We’ll see what happens.” What is that supposed to mean?
The danger of escalation to military action against Venezuela is of immediate concern, among a number of friction zones and hot conflicts in the world, in which the deepest fault line is the divide between the Global Majority nations, with their drive for infrastructure and economic development, and the Global North alignments of “old empire,” with their demand for dominance, and suppression of development.
EIR is hosting an emergency roundtable Thursday, Nov. 20, on the dangerous situation in the Caribbean, with expert discussion of the strategic and regional situations, including proposed solutions for the area and hemisphere. As the invitation states, “The United States has no reason to fear the BRI [Belt and Road Initiative] and the BRICS, and should instead cooperate with them in building those great projects. This approach could rapidly develop the entire Caribbean Basin region, and stop the real narco-trafficking and related migrant problems that will only be worsened by an attack on Venezuela.”
Schiller Institute leader Helga Zepp-LaRouche today, in reviewing the Caribbean and other crises, encouraged all to mobilize to understand what is taking place, and that there are solutions. “The outcome of all of that remains to be determined by, not least, our energetic intervention to put on a level of reason, which seems to be lacking for the most part, at least concerning Western policies.”
The context in which the face-off in the Caribbean has been whipped up, is that during both the Trump and Biden Administrations, and before, U.S. force and covert actions have moved through country by country in the Western Hemisphere to block economic independence and development, especially when those countries were working with China, and also Russia, on matters of economic and science projects.
In Mexico, for example, an operation was staged against the government on Nov. 15 in Mexico City, when international media used violent actions initiated by a smaller group of masked youth near the end of a “march” billed as an anti-government “Gen Z” protest to generate videos and media accounts worldwide, proclaiming that the youth of Mexico are protesting the failure of the government to take on drug traffickers. What happened was not as portrayed in the press, but rather is a text book ploy organized largely by foreign interests out to destabilize Mexico.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, however, in her morning press conference two days before the march, provided an expert to give details to the press on the networks responsible. For weeks, social media and other means were deployed, mostly from abroad, centered around the Atlas Foundation and other London-associated, radical networks, which are documented as behind other dirty operations in Central and South America. They were behind the overthrow of Dilma Rousseff and installation of Jair Bolsonaro as President in Brazil, for example. In Venezuela right now, the same networks are promoting Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado as the coming head of the hoped-for U.S. military installed government.
One instance where these dark operations got a setback yesterday, is in the elections in Ecuador. For months, American officials have visited the country, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and top U.S. military commanders, pushing the idea that the U.S. should be allowed to open a military base in Ecuador – which is currently prohibited by the Ecuadorian constitution – and otherwise imposing ongoing terms of trade amounting to looting the nation. President Daniel Noboa welcomed the U.S. intervention against Ecuador’s sovereignty, in conformity with his personal oligarchic background. But Ecuador voters yesterday roundly defeated—by over 60%—a measure that would have changed standing law to allow a foreign military base, and they voted down other nation-threatening measures as well.
On the world agenda, reconstruction in Gaza, toward full development throughout the entire Southwest Asia region, is a priority. This evening in the UN Security Council, the U.S.-circulated resolution on Washington’s plan for ongoing administration and rebuilding was passed by 13 to 0, with Russia and China abstaining. In speeches following the vote, the representative of China expressed profound disappointment at the way there has not been collaboration among nations to date, especially on the UN Security Council, but China abstained from voting, in consideration of the fragility in Gaza, and the imperative of maintaining a ceasefire.
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her live dialogue and discuss the issues and solutions that move the world and its people. Send your questions, comments, and reports to questions@schillerinstitute.org or post them in the next live stream.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and the initiator of the International Peace Coalition (IPC), opened the IPC’s 128th meeting by juxtaposing NATO and Ukraine’s increasingly reckless desperation—seen in a just-neutralized mad attempt to hijack a Russian MiG 31 fighter jet, and use it to bomb a NATO facility in Romania—with an exciting new potential, to secure a new security and development architecture that came together at the Schiller Institute’s Nov. 8-9 conference in Paris.
The situation, Zepp-LaRouche pointed out, is fraught with danger. Instead of minimizing tensions in the world, new hot spots are being created, such as in the Caribbean, in large part by new “options” and orders issued from the office of the American Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. An example of this was Hegseth’s announcement of “Operation Southern Spear” just before the IPC meeting commenced, claiming: “this mission defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people. The Western Hemisphere is America’s neighborhood—and we will protect it.” Zepp-LaRouche said that other speakers would address this crisis in more detail.
Zepp-LaRouche outlined the recent report issued by the Russian Security Service, which asserted that Ukraine and the U.K. attempted to hijack a fully-armed Russian jet fighter for a false-flag bombing operation intended to bring NATO directly into war against Russia. Ukraine’s defeat on the battlefield has led to this and other desperate efforts to keep the war going. Though there is war hysteria being fomented by governments across Europe, with military build-ups, and even a new military draft in Germany, the population is not in favor. Higher salaries and increased benefits are being offered to entice German youth to join the military, but this only enrages career officers and soldiers who are excluded from such offers.
The Coalition of the Willing is even considering the use of nuclear weapons, a position that has recently been supported by the Protestant Synod. Catholic Bishops and others, in contrast, are condemning the threat of the use of nuclear weapons; Pope Leo XIV is against even the possession of nuclear weapons. “Nuclear arms offend our shared humanity and also betray the dignity of creation, whose harmony we are called to safeguard,” he said in a statement issued Aug. 5 of this year. Catholic bishops in the Caribbean have also spoken out for dialogue, not violent confrontation; the bishops of the Antilles Episcopal Conference, representing 13 nations and several former British, French, and Dutch territories, voiced their concern about “the recent buildup of naval and other military assets in the Southern Caribbean.”
Zepp-LaRouche quickly reviewed several other global hot spots. Despite the ceasefire, the wanton killing in Gaza continues, and the shipments of food, medicine, and other basic goods are only 30% of the levels promised. Meanwhile, squatter-settler violence in the West Bank has only escalated. In Asia, tensions are growing between China and Japan after the recent comments by Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi about Taiwan, threatening to spiral out of control. And in the U.S., President Trump is surrounded by think tanks and advisors pushing for war, while at the same time he is confronted by crises in the economy and the financial bubble.
Zepp-LaRouche also reminded IPC participants about the 1983 Able Archer NATO exercises, which rehearsed a nuclear first-strike on the Soviet Union, bringing the world to the brink of an actual nuclear war. A recently-released 15 page appendix in a book truthfully documented this, and within a short period the appendix was redacted. The IPC must be solution-driven, as with the Ten Principles for a New Security and Development Architecture, and the Oasis Plan for Gaza and Southwest Asia. Zepp-LaRouche called on the IPC to use the call by fellow member Father Harry Bury, who has appealed to Pope Leo XIV to support the Oasis Plan. She also called on participants to explore and support Bury’s call for the canonization of the 15th-Century Cardinal, Nicholas of Cusa, and the exoneration of economist and statesman, Lyndon LaRouche.
Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and founder of the Veterans Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, began by remarking about the clarity, conciseness, and comprehensiveness of Zepp-LaRouche’s briefing. McGovern then encouraged everyone to buy a subscription to the Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), saying that “If you don’t get it, you don’t get it.” He brought up the recent interview given by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to the Italian newspaper, Corriere Della Sera. The publication decided not to publish the interview, blocking a very important discussion from the American and European public.
Lavrov had supplied an analysis of the breakdown of the process initially begun at the Alaska meeting between Trump and Putin, where both had called for cooperation. McGovern said that it was not clear why this cooperation had been sabotaged, but that Britain and the Financial Times were involved. Lavrov has said that Russia could work with the real Trump, but something is going on to prevent this, and in the meantime, communications have come to a halt. The Russians were expecting a meeting in Budapest, but everything was cancelled. Despite all of this, Russia is open to another meeting and is willing to deal with Trump. At the end of the Alaska meeting, Putin suggested another meeting in Moscow, but Trump never gave a direct answer, except to say that it would cause some “heat” for him.
McGovern also returned to the topic of the 1983 Able Archer crisis, with an “inside story.” Because others in the CIA refused to inform the White House of the seriousness of the situation, McGovern stated, then-CIA head William Casey had to go to the White House himself to brief the President that Able Archer was risking war and needed to be stopped. McGovern made clear that it was a human intervention that stopped that war danger, not a machine.
Former President of Guyana, Donald Ramotar, spoke next regarding the Venezuela crisis. While the conflict in the Caribbean is said to be based on drug trafficking, he began, we all know that this is not true. (President Ramotar was one of eleven former heads of state in the region who signed the recent “Statement for the Peace and Stability of Our Continent,” declaring that the region should be a zone of peace.) Trump is under massive pressure with respect to the Jeffrey Epstein documents, he said, and is surrounded by war hawks. Other factors affect the U.S. domestic front as well, such as the recent New York City elections.
President Ramotar also remarked on Gaza, saying that the United Nations must call for an election in Gaza, but that it cannot be like the 2006 election that was voided when Hamas won. McGovern thanked Ramotar for his point, explaining that it had been Sec. of State Condoleezza Rice who insisted on having the election in Gaza. Then, when Hamas won, she helped to cancel the results.
Co-moderator Dennis Small also commented on the post on X by Sec. of War Hegseth about the creation of Operation Southern Spear, justifying it as “our neighborhood.” The plan is to extend the anti-narcotics campaign to the entire hemisphere, Small said, but to leave Wall Street untouched. Mexico and other countries have already been threatened in this way. The real target, however, is not oil, but Brazil. The plan is to prevent Brazil from working with the BRICS, especially China. If this policy succeeds, it will create a massive refugee crisis, which Guyana, Colombia, and Brazil are already anticipating. McGovern said that this was an accurate assessment of the crisis.
Ramotar then added that in 1980, the Caricom [Caribbean Community] countries had signed an agreement with the U.S. to allow American military ships to stop and board suspected drug-trafficking boats for inspections; so, there is no need to attack ships at sea today. None of the boats which have been targeted by the U.S. could have survived the voyage all the way to U.S. shores, and none of the Trump Administration’s attempted justifications stand up to scrutiny.
The final main speaker was Dr. Gershon Baskin, an Israeli peace activist who played a lead role in the hostage negotiations. Speaking via pre-recorded video, Baskin said that ending the war in Gaza must come first. He gave Trump full credit for forcing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to agree to the ceasefire. After Israel failed to assassinate Hamas leaders in the Doha attack, Arab friends told Trump that the attack proved that Netanyahu is “unhinged.” Baskin is hopeful that the situation can lead to success, as the U.S. is now building a military base near Gaza and has taken over the aid delivery. For the first time, U.S. diplomats met with Hamas negotiators. Baskin emphasized that the task now is to build a Palestinian leadership and Palestinian security forces.
Importantly, Dr. Baskin has called for regional economic development for Southwest Asia, and would like to see both the U.S. and China working together on this. He suggested that Qatar could be a facilitator between China and the U.S., but that barriers to this cooperation will have to be removed. The “coincidence of opposites,” looking for a higher truth, Baskin said, is the only way that two opposing forces could agree to work together at a higher level. He referenced the U.S. motto, “E pluribus unum” (from many, one) as an example of the principle.
Zepp-LaRouche, who had just spent an entire weekend in Paris discussing the “coincidence of opposites” as not only the proper method of thinking but also the method for diplomacy, pointed to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and China’s most recent Five-Year Plan. While the plan uses China’s phrases and terminology, the ideas in it, she said, cohere with the outlook formulated by her late husband Lyndon LaRouche, with an emphasis on scientific innovations, education, culture, and an understanding of their true history. China, in effect, is saying it wants to use the American System of economy! She contrasted this to the ongoing economic collapse of Germany, where one-third of Germany’s world famous machine-tool industry, the very heart of the German economy, is bankrupt.
Zepp-LaRouche also spoke about Cusa’s idea that the only legitimate government is one based on the principle of the consent of the governed. Leaders in the West no longer have the consent of the governed. The U.K.’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer has single-digit support percentages, and his counterparts in France and Germany have similarly low ratings. Therefore, the people themselves must take responsibility for self-government, and that is why what is happening among youth around the world, especially in the continent of Africa and among the BRICS nations, is so important.
The final speakers included youth activists from Europe, Mexico, and the U.S., who reported on the Schiller Institute’s Nov. 8-9 Paris conference and follow-up activities. (A full report on this will become available later.) They spoke of the upcoming Dec. 14 online youth conference (details to be released soon), and the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus musical event shortly thereafter. [eir]
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her live dialogue and discuss the issues and solutions that move the world and its people. Send your questions, comments, and reports to questions@schillerinstitute.org or post them in the next live stream.
“The content of policy is the method by which it is made.” That was the idea of statecraft espoused by Lyndon LaRouche, founder of Executive Intelligence Review and co-founder of the Schiller Institute. The question of method in statecraft was the topic of a two-day-plus conference just concluded by the Schiller Institute in Paris. The conference, led by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, and by Jacques Cheminade, former French Presidential candidate and president of Solidarité et Progrès (Solidarity and Progress), was titled “Emancipation of Africa and the Global Majority, A Challenge for Europe.”
Why, despite the increasing potential for thermonuclear war between NATO and Russia; despite the mounting panic regarding the looming financial meltdown of the hopelessly bankrupt trans-Atlantic system; despite the depopulation of Gaza, and the destruction ongoing in Sudan and several other locations—why was it the self-development of the African continent which was chosen in Paris as the focus of deliberation for the international participants, many of them young people, including from several African nations?
To understand this, contrast two speeches given on Nov. 9. One was by the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The other was by Schiller Institute founder and chairwoman, Helga Zepp-LaRouche. Under the guise of commemorating “the significance of the date Nov. 9 in German history—in 1918 (abdication of German Kaiser and proclamation of the Weimar Republic), 1938 (beginning of the Kristallnacht/”Night of the Broken Glass” violence against Germany’s Jewish population and their various establishments), and 1989 (fall of the Berlin Wall), German President Steinmeier chose to stoke fear, claiming that there had been a rise of antisemitism since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. His remarks led to calls for constitutional bans on emerging German political parties and other forms of censorship—the politics of fear.
Fortunately for current history, there are people that actually understand the role of the Classical artist in universal history, and therefore the role of poet Friedrich Schiller in Germany—including in the events of Nov. 9, 1989. Instead of the politics of fear, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, speaking to an audience in Paris, invoked the life, the work and living presence of the poet Friedrich Schiller.
“I can only advise you to read Schiller. Schiller, apart from LaRouche and Cusa and Plato and some others, but Schiller is one of the most important, because he came to the conclusion that in his time, people were already barbaric. He said, why is it that we are still barbarians? He said the most important task of our time—meaning his time—is to develop the Empfindungsvermögen. I have never found a good English translation, because if you just say ‘compassion,’ or ‘empathy,’ it does not quite capture it. What Schiller meant with Empfindungsvermögen is that you have to be able to educate your soul and your mind in such a way that you are able to absorb the world in an all-encompassing manner and feel compassion with the whole world; which means everything. It doesn’t just mean pity or empathy with people who are suffering; it also means to be able to always take in whatever is happening in the world, in your heart and your mind. It’s still not capturing it entirely, but it’s larger than the word empathy.…”
This is the idea that must immediately become the basis and the method of international policy. This is the soul of the idea of “promoting the General Welfare” contained in the United States Constitution’s Preamble.
Schiller, born on November 10, 1759, besides being a great historian and dramatist, was also Germany’s greatest poet. The Ninth Symphony of composer Ludwig van Beethoven is a setting of the spirit and a portion of the text of Schiller’s poem, An Die Freude (Ode To Joy). During the great transformation of 1989 that would culminate in the sudden, miraculous Nov. 9 fall, “by the consent of the governed,” of the Berlin Wall, which had stood for more than 27 years at the most lethal checkpoint in the world, the Ninth Symphony was not “the soundtrack of the revolution. “ The Ninth Symphony—the whole composition, not just its Fourth Movement—was the embodiment of the idea of Hope, hope for a better humanity that chooses, as did those who brought down the Berlin Wall, to deserve that freedom which is, according to the American Declaration of Independence, “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”
The right to self-development, particularly for youth, such as the still-living children of Gaza, the 600 million African youth today under the age of 19, and the 1.2 billion African youth under the age of 25 who will be here in 25 years, is the policy; Schiller’s mission, for humanity to develop the Empfindungsvermögen required for such self-development, is the method by which that policy would be made. Guaranteeing that right through establishing a new international security and development architecture, discussed by Zepp-LaRouche in her Ten Principles, and a vigorous campaign worldwide by youth, for that purpose, including in work in national electoral and other processes as appropriate, is the immediate task before us.
Nov. 9, 2025 (EIRNS)—Creating an international youth movement organized around the seminal ideas of Lyndon H. LaRouche was the central subject of the second day of the Nov. 8-9 Paris conference, co-sponsored by the Schiller Institute and France’s Solidarity and Progress party. As the invitation to the event stated, the intense, day-long cadre school was designed “for the young and the most motivated among you. What is the physical economy and why should we study and teach it? What does a culture of life and discovery mean? How can we enable everyone to develop their creativity and use it as a tool for the common good? What could a culture of beauty and truth be?”
Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche had issued the challenge in her remarks a day earlier, on Nov. 8, at the beginning of the day’s third panel, whose theme was “Youth From Around the World for Peace and Mutual Development.”
“So, I think that the need to create a new international youth movement is more urgent than ever before,” Zepp-LaRouche began, “because it is very clear that we have reached, in terms of the long arc of history, that if we make it through this period, historians will look back and say this particular time was when the decision had to be made to change the system or not survive. Because never before in history was there a situation where all of civilization was at stake.”
She emphasized the central strategic issue: “As long as we keep this geopolitical confrontation between NATO on the one side, and Russia, China and possibly other countries, such as Iran and North Korea, we are sitting on a complete powder keg,” which could even bring the world to the brink of nuclear war.
“But if you look at the world as a whole, you don’t want to compete geopolitically for influence in Africa between the West and China. That’s exactly what you don’t want. What you want is a cooperative approach, including equal partners from African nations to do this.”
To address this crisis, Zepp-LaRouche explained, “what we are offering is a plan that we will build an international youth movement in Africa, and in as many countries as possible. That we will build youth movements everywhere we can, in Asia, in Latin America…. That then we will perfect this plan for the industrialization of Africa, and naturally likewise in Latin America. And then we go to the industries [in the West] and tell them these are the options where you should invest.”
Zepp-LaRouche explained that such an approach is in the interest of the so-called West, as well as the Global Majority. “If Europe would make the decision to industrialize Africa, together with China and maybe Russia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Brazil, it could be done. We could change the direction quickly.”
She concluded: “So that’s really my challenge to you, that you all join this movement, now, on the spot, and commit yourself to be part of it.”
