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May 9, 2026 (EIRNS)—The International Peace Coalition (IPC) held its 153rd consecutive weekly meeting on May 8 which is also VE Day, this year being the 81st anniversary of the victory in Europe over fascism in 1945. Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator Helga Zepp-LaRouche noted that it will be celebrated in Moscow on May 9 with a military parade and a ceremony attended by visitors from around the world—celebrations which acting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has threatened to disrupt with drones. For three years Russia has avoided any escalation of the Ukraine war, but has warned that any attack on the Moscow celebrations would be met with severe attacks by Russia on decision-making centers in Ukraine. Russia has also identified 12 European facilities involved in producing drones for Ukraine, many of which are in Germany, and has warned that if these drones are used to attack the Moscow celebrations, these German facilities would become legitimate military targets.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former President and Prime Minister of Russia and current deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, has recently spoken in very blunt terms that the denazification in Germany was never fully completed at the end of World War II. The Oct. 3, 1990 Two Plus Four Agreement, which allowed the unification of Germany, stated that no NATO troops would enter the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany)—but NATO forces, in violation of that agreement are now stationed there. The 2025 Kensington Treaty is a joint defense agreement between the United Kingdom and Germany which puts Germany on the front lines in the military campaign against Russia. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has been outspoken that Britain has worked against any peace agreements and is actively encouraging more war. Germany, which is currently mobilized for a military buildup, would be a clear target in any escalation of the Ukraine war.

Zepp-LaRouche stressed that the next 48 hours are critical to stop this madness for war, and encouraged all participants to use the video of this IPC meeting to educate others. She also insisted that NATO should have been dismantled in 1991 when the Warsaw Pact dissolved. U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that he intends to remove 5,000 U.S. soldiers from Germany, but that still leaves 30,000 in place. NATO can no longer be seen as a defensive alliance, she said, but is rather an occupying force, quoting NATO’s first Secretary General Lord Ismay that NATO’s job is to “Keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”

Iran, after months of fighting, remains in control of its territory and has gained the support of its population, which sees the Israeli and U.S. war as an act of unprovoked aggression, Zepp-LaRouche said. She referenced a Washington Post report which details the warning from U.S. intelligence that Iran can outlast President Trump’s blockades, has 70% of its stockpile of drones and missiles still intact, and is still able to assemble new weapon systems—while the United States has depleted its supply of interceptors. A second Washington Post report proves that Iran has inflicted much more damage on U.S. military facilities and other targets in the region than previously reported. She argued that if the United States is unable to protect its own bases in the region, then these facilities become a liability to their host country, adding that many countries in the region depend upon desalinization plants for 70 to 80% of their water supply, and any targeting of these facilities could be catastrophic.

Defund the Iran War

The cost of this war and the damage to the world economy is estimated to be $4 trillion and threatens a global economic depression. Some members of the U.S. Congress, mostly with military backgrounds, are working to cut all funding for the war. Spain has been working to stop the many wars around the world and this week gave the nation’s highest honor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese, for her tireless effort to stop the genocide in Gaza. In the ceremony, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that Albanese “upholds the conscience of the world.”

The next speaker was Beto Almeida, a journalist from TeleSUR-TV in Brazil. Almeida said that Brazil is working to end wars and start economic development. He compared the May 7 meeting between Brazilian President Lula da Silva with President Trump, and the friendly cooperation between President Franklin Roosevelt and Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas. Almeida said that Roosevelt helped Brazil build its first steel mill, but now the United States is run by neoliberal economists and hedge funds. When Brazil works on economic development projects, China comes to offer cooperation, but the U.S. never comes—and that President Trump prefers threats. Lula is willing to talk about any subject, but not under threats or undue pressure. For example, in 2010, despite intense pressure from President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton not to do so, he made a high-profile visit to Iran. According to Almeida, Lula has offered to mediate relations between the United States and Venezuela—relations which have been severely strained by the U.S.’s unlawful kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Dennis Small, Ibero-American editor for EIR, later added that Lula correctly met with Trump, but also spoke to the American people stressing the Franklin Roosevelt tradition.

Militant and Grim

As one would expect, Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector and U.S. Marine, did not sugarcoat the danger of war. He said that we have passed the Rubicon, and the decisions for war escalation have already been made. Ritter has been invited to the Russian Embassy four years in a row to celebrate VE Day, but for the first time the atmosphere was much more “militant and grim.” If this Ukraine war escalates, Ukraine will be destroyed as a modern country—but Russia will not stop there. Because Germany has been producing drones used by Ukraine, it could be targeted by Russia for destruction. More broadly Europe, with its militarization policy aimed at Russia, is committing suicide and taking the rest of the world with it. Zepp-LaRouche commented that Ritter confirmed all of her fears of the approaching danger. She said that we must multiply our efforts to wake up the population before it is too late.

The next speaker was the co-founder and president of Farm Action Angela Huffman. She stressed that farms have been in a fragile position, but the war is only making the problem worse. The United States loses 67 farms every day, but the monopolies make billions. Shell Oil doubled its profits this quarter to $7 billion. A system of bailouts has been implemented, but farmers don’t want any bailouts, and the bailouts never resolve the underlying problems. Huffman is demanding antitrust legislation to break up the monopolies, end the price gouging, especially during wars, and to produce the food that we eat instead of overproducing certain crops for export. She pointed to the $50 billion U.S. trade deficit in agriculture.

Lyndon LaRouche movement organizer Tim Rush gave a report on efforts in the U.S. Congress to defund the Iran war. He and fellow organizers had meetings in 40 House and Senate offices; and now Congressman Pat Ryan (D-NY) has introduced the No Funds for Iran War Act. Helping in this effort were the 67 letters from people in 15 countries demanding that Congress stop funding the Iran war. Rush said that the legislation has language similar to that in the leaflet that he was distributing written by independent U.S. presidential candidate Diane Sare. Many of the 18 cosponsors of the legislation have military backgrounds, and are serious about stopping the war. Others in Congress have put on a show of speaking against the war, but not actually supporting this or any other legislation to stop it. Rush also said that President Trump’s push for a $1.5 trillion military budget is to create a “slush fund” and copies the plan of Nazi Minister of Economics Hjalmar Schacht to slash social programs to fund a giant military buildup.

A short excerpt from a video interview with historian and long-time activist with the LaRouche movement Tony Chaitkin was played, with Chaitkin making the point that America has suffered “identity theft” because the United States used to be the leading anti-colonial power in the world, but now the U.S. is merely a tool of the imperial system. Presidents such as John Kennedy worked with leaders around the world promoting economic development. Chaitkin said that the fight for self-government and the fight for economic development are identical.

Floating Concentration Camps

In the question period, Abril Rojas Angel from Mexico City spoke about her involvement with the Freedom Flotilla and the 36-hour kidnapping of its 175 member crew, including herself, by the Israeli military, while the ship was in international waters. She said that they were forced into shipping containers which she described as “floating concentration camps.”

Alberto Vizcarra, a leader of the farm producers’ movement in Sonora, Mexico, praised the efforts of Angela Huffman from Farm Action and her focus on the control of the food cartels. Vizcarra agreed with her that the bailout system for farmers does not resolve the problem and that 70% of the bailout goes to the corporate interests which have created the problem. Vizcarra encouraged Huffman to take her cause to the U.S. Congress and said that “Mexico will support you.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche ended the meeting giving her endorsement to Vizcarra’s call to take the farm crisis to the U.S. Congress and that we all must see ourselves as the One Humanity. She said that the Global South is 85% of humanity and that their voice must be heard. She called on everyone to help build the May 15 EIR Emergency Round Table dealing with the danger of the world plunging into an economic depression.

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International Peace Coalition, Week 150

The International Peace Coalition (IPC) arrived at its 150th consecutive weekly meeting on Friday, April 17. The session was opened by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and IPC initiator. She described the current strategic juncture as one where “the world is vacillating between hope and Hell.” The ceasefire in Lebanon seems to have taken effect. The effort to invoke the War Powers Act in the U.S. Congress was defeated by only a very narrow margin, which indicates a sea change underway there, when compared to previous recent attempts. 

Turning to the economic picture, she reported that shortages of food in France might be enough to “cause a second French Revolution.” German industry is just vanishing like a “Summer Sale.” “We could have a repeat of 2008 at any moment,” she warned, where the rising oil prices could trigger a collapse of the debt bubble. We need a global Glass-Steagall reorganization of the financial system, to compliment the proposed Oasis Plan and the World Landbridge.

Diane Sare, independent U.S. presidential candidate, spoke next. Referring to her recent statement, she said, “We can’t afford posturing, we have to actually prevent an escalation,” and called for the U.S. Congress to withhold funding for the war—which is how the Vietnam War was brought to an end—rather than seeking election-campaign drama with an impeachment, or invocation of the 25th Amendment. She said that in her conversations with elected officials, she often hears the lament, “I can’t do anything, I’m only a Congressman”—but the Congress has the power of the purse. The War Powers Act, which has been the subject of partisan battles, gives the President 60 days in which to ask Congress for permission and funding—we are now at day 49.  

Sare concluded by saying, “The President clearly is insane.” She analyzed Trump’s latest tweet spasm, marveling at the wacky hyperbole. She said she was heartened by the fact that Democratic Representative Ro Khanna (from California’s 17th congressional district) and former Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene (from Georgia’s 14th congressional district) have agreed to a dialogue. This could provide relief from what Sare called the “super emotional hyped-up partisan bickering” that dominates American politics, and exemplifies the “dramatically shifting political terrain.” Sare and congressional candidate Jose Vega—who has qualified for ballot status as a Democrat and is now petitioning to also get on the ballot as an independent in New York’s 15th congressional district (the Bronx)—are now working with 15-20 independent candidates. These candidates need our input, because they are poorly educated on economics.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Ahsan,  Islamic scholar and Pakistani Professor of Comparative Civilization, told the meeting, “I was so optimistic when the campuses woke up” in opposition to the Israeli genocide, but the protests were suppressed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims to represent Western civilization, but what is that, really? Zionism’s second leader, Chaim Weizmann, openly sided “with the mind-set of British colonialist mentality.”

Garland Nixon, veteran progressive radio and television talk show host, said that there is “a learning process” for Americans. Some people say “it’s all about Israel” doing bad things, if we could get them under control we could fix the other problems. Others say that Israel is a “cat’s paw” for the United States, they can do things that we want done but don’t wish to do ourselves, and we can pretend we can’t control them. “Israel is just a small piece of the puzzle,” he said, in the larger effort of the U.S. empire to dominate the world. Americans who voted for President Donald Trump are angry: “We voted for economic development, and we got war instead of economic development.” He concluded by raising the issue of morality in foreign policy.

Zepp-LaRouche responded: “Since you addressed the issue of morality, I am very happy that the Pope is taking the role he’s taking.” She had recently published an open letter to the pontiff. “Our western civilization is collapsing, and it is collapsing morally,” she said, adding that privileges for millionaires and billionaires at the expense of everyone else, and the debased sexual activities exposed in the Epstein scandal, are both consistent with that. We need a revival of classical culture, not as art for art’s sake, but for reviving real morality. China’s democracy is much better than the Western model, because they have cultural morality as a goal.

Dr. Al-Ahsan referenced the 14th century Arab philosopher Ibn Khaldoun, who emphasized economic development as a result of human cooperation. In his time, we did not have the compartmentalization of knowledge that we have today. 

Dennis Small shared results of the IPC mobilization to pressure Congress to stop funding the war, as demanded by Diane Sare. For the past 150 weeks, we have had 200-300 people from 30 to 45 nations engaged with IPC. We need those people to mobilize, and get your messages in to the U.S. Congress. A former Minister of Justice and Human Rights in Ecuador wrote a letter to the U.S. Congress. A director of an Italian cultural institute wrote a letter in which he said that “European public opinion and Italian public opinion is watching with dismay.”

General Discussion Period

Zepp-LaRouche emphasized to the participants, “Please do not make the mistake to relax and say, “everything is in order.” This could be the lull before the storm. “We could be at the end of civilization in a matter of days.”

Co-moderator Dennis Speed presented a video of a Catholic priest, speaking on the dispute between Donald Trump and Pope Leo XIV. He said that “Wars of Choice cannot be moral.” The utterances of the Trump administration cannot be reconciled with the “Just War” doctrine. “What has happened to our politics that such rhetoric can be normalized?”

Zepp-LaRouche added that the Pope is an Augustinian. If philosophy and faith arrive at the same conclusion, then there is no contradiction or conflict between science and faith. “I would just dare to have my own view on the issue of the Just War,” she added. In the era of nuclear weapons, any war can annihilate humanity, and therefore must be rejected as a means of resolving problems. “The idea that you must use violence to make your views heard… belongs to the realm of children’s diseases.”

Dr. Al-Ahsan added, “I don’t understand how a sane individual can keep silent” in the face of what is happening today, and endorsed the remarks of the Pope.

Zepp responded to a question about the Gospel of John, saying she is more prepared to talk about her husband’s conception of the Simultaneity of Eternity. She cited the revolutionary idea of 15th century Catholic Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, that Man, acting in Imago Vive Dei, must continue the process of creation.

An Argentinian/Italian scholar living in Colombia, informed the meeting about The Seville Statement on Violence, a scientific statement which says peace is possible, because war is  not a biological necessity. The Statement was written by an international team of specialists in 1986 for the United Nations sponsored International Year of Peace and its follow-up. Leading scientists debated whether violence is part of human nature, and concluded that it absolutely is not. It is learned from the outside. If violence can be learned, peace can be learned.

In response to questions from the participants about the role of Spain, Zepp-LaRouche said, “Spain has saved the honor of Europe by taking a very clear position against the genocide in Gaza.” If the Atlantic nations decided to cooperate with the Global South, rather than attempting to suppress those nations, we could solve the problems of the world overnight. This is the normal condition of human beings. “We are not condemned to be bestial.”In conclusion Zepp-LaRouche thanked the people who had called attention to the Seville Statement on violence, and voiced her opposition to the Manichean idea that good and evil must coexist. More statements and calls to the U.S. Congress are encouraged. If you would like to submit a statement for promotion contact anastasiammares@gmail.com