General

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

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

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

by Helga Zepp-LaRouche

It is crucial that the General Assembly of the United Nations now convening in New York, build on the progress that the G20 Summit has achieved under China’s leadership. The course has been set toward a new financial architecture, and the chance is greater than ever that all nations can participate in the building of the New Silk Road on the basis of win-win cooperation, and that the productivity of the world economy will rise on the basis of innovation, while poverty and the consequences of war are overcome. The main problem, however, is that the West continues to cling to the status quo of a uni-polar world and the neo-liberal financial system, although both of those objectives have long been unachievable. The rise of Asia signifies that one nation cannot set the rules, but that solutions must be found through dialogue and negotiation. The neo-liberal system is in the throes of an existential crisis.

The first twin of globalization—the policy of regime-change and alleged humanitarian interventions—has cost the lives of millions of people, brought untold suffering to millions more, destroyed entire regions, created the breeding grounds for the spread of terrorism, and set off huge waves of refugees. The wars against Iraq and Afghanistan alone, according to the study of Professor Neta Crawford of Brown University, have cost five trillion dollars—and for what result?

The second twin of globalization—the system of maximum profit for the TBTF banks, which are supposedly “too big to be allowed to fail”—has led to an unbearable gap between rich and poor. And if certain banks have to pay the full sum of their fines for criminal methods, they must declare bankruptcy because their capital base is insufficient. Hence, a new meltdown threatens, with even more catastrophic consequences than the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, now that central bank instruments are exhausted and no longer effective.

In that context, two reports released in Great Britain offer an extraordinary opportunity to re-assess and correct the current policy. After the Chilcot Report, which laid the blame on Tony Blair for the illegal Iraq war which was built on lies, a commission of the British Parliament has levelled no less scathing charges against former Prime Minister David Cameron for the war in Libya, which was carried out on “erroneous assumptions” and led to“political and economic collapse, inter-militia and inter-tribal warfare, humanitarian and migrant crises, widespread human rights violations, the spread of Gaddafi regime weapons across the region and the growth of ISIL in North Africa.”

On the role of the United States, the report states that“The United States was instrumental in extending the terms of Resolution 1973 beyond the imposition of a no-fly zone to include the authorisation of ‘all necessary measures’ to protect civilians. In practice, this led to the imposition of a ‘no-drive zone’ and the assumed authority to attack the entire Libyan Government command and communications network.”

That same overall review of the current policy should, of course, include the implications of the 28 pages of the official Joint Congressional Inquiry Report, which deals with the circumstances of the attacks of September 11, 2001, as well as the JASTA bill, which necessitate a completely new investigation.

In light of the horrendous suffering this failed policy has caused: the millions of dead and injured; the traumatized children and soldiers (including in the nations waging war); the destruction of cities, villages, infrastructure and irreplaceable cultural wealth; it is not only appropriate, but a moral obligation for the countries that took part in these wars in the different “coalitions of the willing,” to examine the political process in their parliaments and to fully participate in the reconstruction of the regions that have been devastated. This will not bring the dead back to life, but the admission of guilt and a genuine change of policy towards development would give the people living there today hope for a future.

The status quo cannot be maintained. As a result of both twins of globalization, there has been an enormous loss of trust among the population in the trans-Atlantic world. Right-wing populist and right-extremist parties are massively gaining strength; the conditions of the 1930s threaten to reappear in a new form; the European Union is crumbling; and the refugee crisis will not be solved by securing the external EU borders, but only relocated and removed from the news. The U.S. economy is collapsing, while the society is more than ever torn and overtaken by violence. Either this process will lead to an escalation of the confrontation with Russia and China, and to the extermination of mankind in a great war, or the leading politicians in the West will have the moral integrity to correct the errors of the past.

The Solution

To come back to the positive proposition in the beginning of this appeal, the course has been set toward a way out of this crisis of civilization since the G20 summit. Not only has China presented a new level of cooperation based not on geopolitics, but rather on a policy in the mutual interest of all, it has also pledged to industrialize Africa and other low-income countries, an approach that could both solve the refugee crisis and eliminate the terrorist environment. Clearly, the extension of the New Silk Road to the Middle East and Africa both requires and will bring about growth rates of 7 to 10%.

And just as promptly, the Club of Rome stepped in with a new report under the cynical title in the German translation of “One Percent Is Enough,” which would lead in consequence to population reduction, a fascist policy for which the Club of Rome is infamous. The UN recently stressed that Africa needs a growth rate of at least 7-8%. When one of the authors of the Club of Rome report, the Norwegian Jorgen Randers, comes out with the absurd statement, “My daughter is the most dangerous animal in the world,” because she consumes 30 times more energy than a girl in a developing country, it serves to show on what image of man the Club of Rome bases its argument, i.e. on a bestial one.

But man, in contrast to all other creatures, is able to use his creative potential to continually discover new insights into the laws of the universe; this is called scientific progress. The unlimited process of perfecting the human mind has a correspondence in the laws of the physical universe, which develops to ever higher energy-flux densities. We are not in a closed system on the Earth—as the Club of Rome and similar organizations claim—rather, our planet is an integral part of the Solar System, the galaxy and the universe, about which space research is discovering more and more. This research yields many advantages for Earth itself, and it is therefore fantastic that China announced at the G20 summit, that it would share with developing countries the most advanced research results for their space and lunar exploration projects.

Mankind has arrived at a crossroads. If we continue to walk the well-trodden paths with a policy of “more of the same,” the world threatens to come apart. If, on the contrary, we can agree on the common aims of mankind—an economic and financial order that serves the well-being of all mankind, and which makes possible a decent life for every person on this Earth; the securing of raw materials and energy through higher technologies such as thermonuclear fusion; the exploration of space to safeguard our planet and a renaissance of classical cultures—then we will be able to usher in a new, better era in the history of our species.

The General Assembly of the United Nations is the fitting place, where the new paradigm of our one mankind, based on that which comes before all the differences among nations, must be established and celebrated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 4, 2017

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Kokhanivsky wrote in Facebook.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Statement by Dr. Natalia Vitrenko after the May 9 attacks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 10, 2017

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

VIDEO statement by Dr. Natalia Vitrenko

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

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

Political terror: Azov neo-Nazis continue persecution of PSPU

May 10, 2017

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

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

Avakov’s “private army” project

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Disgusting neo-Nazis” even for the United States

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

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

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

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

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

Acts of political terror

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 8, 2016 – San Francisco Embarcadero Center

The Schiller Institute’s Strategic Seminar in San Franciso on June 8, drew 70 guests and experts to discuss the urgent topic “Will the U.S. Join the New Silk Road? Global Scientific Development or Nuclear War.” That question is to join the One Belt, One Road world infrastructure plan put forward by China, or stick with the collapsing Western economies, whose bankruptcy is fueling the danger of a global nuclear war.

Schiller Institute founder and chair Helga Zepp-LaRouche addressed two Tokyo events on Dec. 2, delivering a clear message to 400 Japanese business leaders that the World Land-Bridge is the only way to end the tyranny of war and geopolitics and solve the ongoing Middle East crisis.  In the morning, Ms. Zepp-LaRouche addressed the seventh annual Asia Innovation Forum, attended by 300 young Japanese entrepreneurs and hosted by Nobuyuki Idei, former Chairman and CEO of the Sony Corporation and now the founder and CEO of Quantum Leaps, as well as the founder of the Asia Innovators’ Initiative. Video proceedings of the two events will be available soon. The slides used below are the slide Zepp-LaRouche used in her presentation and are for reference only.

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

The sheer number of explosive crises around the globe make previous pre-World War situations look calm by comparison. The recent downing of the Russian fighter jet by Turkey, which qualified American sources say Turkey would never have done without tacit support from the White House, and the subsequent support given by both President Obama and NATO to the Turkish action demonstrate—given the launch-on-warning-readiness of the nuclear arsenals of the US and Russia, with a decision time of mere minutes—how close we are to the present, new Cold War turning into a hot war.

Slide one

The fact that Russia and China correctly regard the US Ballistic Missile System in Eastern Europe, the Prompt Global Strike and Air Sea Battle Doctrines as First Strike Doctrines directed against their nations, has already led to a new arms race. Transatlantic military experts warn, that the situation is more dangerous than during the height of the Cold War, due to the lack of any codes of behavior or reliable “red telephones” between the US and Russia.

Behind this is the overriding dynamic which arises from the insistence of the United States that a unipolar world be maintained, while rising Asia is, by its mere weight, creating a multipolar world. The warnings of experts, such as former US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Martin Dempsey, that the West should not fall into the Thucydides Trap, seem to go unheard.

In addition, the crisis situation in Ukraine, the tensions in the South China Sea, and the satanic degree of barbarism demonstrated by ISIS and Boko Haram underline the mortal danger humanity is facing.

Equally existential, is the prospect of a new crash of the transatlantic financial system, more dramatic than the 2008 Lehman Brothers collapse, while no coping instruments are left to the central banks.

Are we condemned to continue down this road, when all signs speak to the likelihood that these conflicts will escalate either to global chaos or to a global thermonuclear war and the likely annihilation of the human species? Is the human species too stupid, indifferent or degenerate to abandon policies, even when their failure is overwhelmingly clear?

Slide two

Already in the 15th century, the famous German philosopher Nikolaus von Kues stated that solutions for complex problems cannot be solved with a heterogeneous assortment of partial solutions; rather, one must find a solution on a higher level, on which the contradictions of the lower level are resolved. He called that method of thinking the “Coincidentia Oppositorum,” the thinking of the coincidence of opposites, the idea that the One is of a higher order than the Many. It is that method which must be applied to define a new paradigm in the evolution of the human species. And it is eminently possible to define a new paradigm which represents the true interest of all nations and all groupings.

Generally, the willingness to entertain such new ideas only exists when people realize that the assumptions which have been taken for granted for a long time are suddenly shaken in their foundations. And that is precisely the moment in which we find ourselves, around the globe.

This is most acutely true for Germany, where a qualitatively new debate is taking place about the need to reassess the strategic situation in many circles, guided by a growing perception that continuing the present policies will lead to a full-speed crash against a brick wall.

Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa, the father of modern science.

In particular, the refugee crisis shattered the illusion that the country is an island of stability and wars far away. All of a sudden, there is a public discussion about the root causes of the refugee crisis, which is detonating the unity of the EU: the Anglo-American wars based on lies, the Saudi financing of terrorism, Turkey buying oil from ISIS, etc.

All of this is creating an openness to the necessity of a dramatic change of policy! If terrorism is to be permanently eradicated and the refugee crisis overcome, the operations against ISIS must take into account its decentralized structures in many countries, but military means are not sufficient: what is needed is real development!!!

It is necessary to put a comprehensive reconstruction program for all of Southwest Asia and Africa on the agenda. Only if young people, and there especially the young men, have the perspective of a future, the chance to raise a family, to become scientists, doctors or architects, can the environment for the recruitment of the Jihadists be dried out.

Slide four

Presently, the only realistic perspective to accomplish this goal is the extension of the policy of the New Silk Road into both the Near and Middle East, as well as into Africa. The outline for this is presented in the study “The New Silk Road becomes the World Land-Bridge,” which defines basic preconditions for a global reconstruction program.

Slide five

Much of Southwest Asia has been “bombed back into the stone age” or was already a desert. A comprehensive infrastructure program for the entire region from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf must be put on the agenda. War must be declared against deserts, large amounts of new fresh water be created through the desalination of ocean water with the help of nuclear energy, ionization of moisture in the atmosphere, the creation of new rain patterns through the development of agriculture and reforestation. Infrastructure corridors, with integrated fast train systems, highways, and waterways, have to be built in order to provide conditions for the location of industries and new cities.

All major neighbors of Southwest Asia have a fundamental security interest to participate in such an approach, and therefore must join forces in this project: Russia, because of the tight connection between ISIS and the Chechen terrorist networks as well as the influx of heroin from Afghanistan into Russia; China, because of the connection of ISIS to the Uyghurs; India, since they have a Muslim population of 120 million people and already had Wahhabi-Salafist-sponsored terror attacks in Mumbai and other places. Iran, Egypt, but also Germany, France and Italy, and, clearly, in real terms, also the United States, have a fundamental interest to solve this problem.

Every nation and every region would benefit from the World Land-Bridge:

LaRouche plan for Eurasian Land-Bridge.

1. Japan: For Japan, the participation in great projects of the World Land-Bridge would reconnect to the tradition of the Meiji Restoration of Okubo Toshimichi and Okuma Shigenobu and their policies inspired by Alexander Hamilton and Friedrich List: that it is the development of the creativity of human labor and the State development of science and technology which are the source of wealth in society—a tradition that was continued by MITI after the Second World war and by the Mitsubishi Global Infrastructure Fund, which included many of the projects which are part of the World Land-Bridge Program.

One of those projects, the Kra Canal, which will enable the increased flow of goods in the Pacific region, is again on the table. A second Panama canal is being built in Nicaragua by China; the Mekong Delta complex is still urgent; the Transaqua Lake Chad project is presently reactivated by several African countries and a feasibility study is in progress.

Thai proposal for the Kra Canal.

The building of the Bering Strait tunnel has recently gained new up-to-dateness, given the Russian-Chinese collaboration of the “One Belt, One Road” policy and the Eurasian Economic Union, especially for Siberia and the Far East of Russia.

Bering Strait connection proposal.

2. USA: Not only would the US benefit from joining in developing Africa and Southwest Asia, but it is itself in urgent need of a reconstruction program. The New Silk Road approach for the US would mean the construction of a continental fast train system of 50,000 kilometers, (9) new science cities in the South and West of the Rocky Mountains, and various programs for the creation of new weather patterns.

Proposed high-speed rail for US lower 48 states.

3. Ukraine: The collaboration between Europe, the Eurasian Economic Union and the “One Belt, One Road” policy for the construction of infrastructure corridors could reunite Ukraine by having the whole country enjoy an economic miracle instead of the present economic collapse.

4. Europe: All of Europe has a dramatic backlog in infrastructure investment. In Germany alone, it is an estimated 2 trillion Euro. Already in 2012, the Schiller Institute presented a plan for a new economic miracle in Southern Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa, as an alternative to the devastating austerity policy of the Troika.

In light of the escalation of the refugee crisis, this development program as an extension of the New Silk Road would be a complete game changer.

European continent developed under the World Land-Bridge proposal.

5. Africa: Because of the combination of wars and the denial of economic development due to ecologist and monetarist ideologies, much of the continent, as Southwest Asia, resembles hell on earth, not home countries. The announcement and beginning of international cooperation to realize a comprehensive development plan for the continent would send a powerful message of hope to millions of people now on the run from war, terrorism, hunger and epidemics.

The content of Africa connected with high-speed rail, part of the World Land-Bridge proposal, now being constructed by Xi Jinping’s China.

The World Land-Bridge, as concrete basis for a peace order for the 21st Century, however requires a new paradigm of thinking. The supposed legitimacy of geopolitics—the idea that one nation or a group of nations have a self-interest which they can pursue against another group of nations, if necessary by military means -, is, in the age of thermonuclear weapons, obviously outdated—unless one wants to risk the annihilation of the entire human species. The assumption, that it would be possible to “win” a “limited” nuclear war based on a First Strike Doctrine, is ludicrous, and has been refuted by impeccable military analysts and should be prosecuted against according to the Nuremberg Statutes.

Mankind will only be able to survive the present existential crisis if we can make the qualitative jump to defining the common interests of mankind as the point of reference. The question “Where should mankind as a whole be in a 100, in a 1000 years from now, and beyond?” must guide the decision-making. The World Land-Bridge does not only complete the infrastructural development of the landlocked areas of all continents, but it defines the next phase of the evolution of the human species by extending the idea of infrastructure into space.

If, in the best case, an immediate emergency summit of the UN General Assembly, otherwise an early G20 summit or minimally a meeting of some of the most future-oriented leaders of the world, in government positions as well as present and former representatives of the scientific, industrial, diplomatic and cultural community, would put such a World Marshall Plan, a World Land-Bridge as a peace plan for the 21st century on the table, it would suddenly impart a perspective of hope to the world.

The idea of the World Land-Bridge establishes a higher level of reason, where all the historical and ethnic conflicts disappear or are neutralized in the higher geometry. For example, tensions between Japan and China sometimes seem insurmountable; however, in the context of collaboration with India, Russia, and Southeast Asian and European nations for a Peace through Development Plan, the mutual benefits of such a win-win perspective would represent an overwhelming incentive to shape the future, rather than relive the past.

There are obvious differences to the situation of the 30 Years War, but what motivated the various war parties to come to the negotiation table and conclude with the famous Treaty of Westphalia, was the recognition that if this religious war were to continue, there would soon be nobody left to enjoy a victory. The Peace of Westphalia Treaty established for the first time in European history that peace can only be maintained if all foreign policy takes into account “the interest of the other,” and that it can not be based on revenge, but must be based on love. That treaty became the foundation of international law and the basis for the UN charter, and must be applied also to Southwest Asia, contrary to some different opinions.

Unfortunately, the respect for international law has vanished. The highest authority of the UN, the UN Security Council, since the regime change operation against Gaddafi, does not function any more.

International law must, therefore, be developed further. The principle which must be agreed upon, and which must enclose all following aspects, as a preamble, is that of the common aims of mankind—that there can be no legitimate interest of any nation, if it does not coincide with the interest of all of humanity, concerning its present and future existence.

The principles of the UN Charter remain valid, but this preamble must take into account a higher lawfulness, which is called in different cultures variably: in European philosophy, “Natural Law;” in Asian philosophy, “Cosmic Order.” It expresses the idea that mankind as a whole can only survive in the physical universe at large if the political and economic practices on planet Earth are being brought into coherence with the laws governing our universe.

Man is not an animal, condemned to remain in the mode of existence of the past. Mankind has a quality of creativity to discover again and again the deeper principles of our universe, which redefines its character as a species. When Kepler discovered the unifying principle of our solar system, he created the basis for mankind to be a completely different species, no longer bound to earth, but part of the solar system.

When Einstein discovered the theory of general relativity, he created the foundations for mans exploration of space. It is now clear from the earth history that here are defining influences of the changing relationship  of our solar system with the galaxy, effecting cycles of climate change and variations in the evolutionary processes of live. We have yet to discover the unifying principle of our Galaxy, as Kepler had discovered the unifying principle of the solar system.

So what is the meaning of the creativity of the human mind, as being an integral part of the laws of the universe? And where is the future of mankind located? The next phase of the work in space, in the galaxy and beyond, requires the collaboration among top scientists of mayor nations to discover the laws of our universe as a new scientific  frontier, We have to discover powers of mankind, which are complete unknown now, as Helium three on the moon was unknown during Kepler’s time, if mankind is to exist.

There is no closed earth system, but life on earth is defined by the lawfulness of the solar systems interaction with the galaxy, and we still have to discover the unifying principle of all the billions of galaxies. The meaning of live is the advancement of mankind’s ability to master the challenges of discovery the pathway of the necessary next discovery, for mankind’s ability to continue to exist in the millions and billions of years ahead. So far, we have only discovered the shadows of the principle.

It is therefore an existential requirement, to  return to the principles of physical economy and real science and eliminate monetarism. We have to restate the historic knowledge of the theoretical foundations of the different industrial revolutions, which has been almost eliminated from the economics textbooks of western universities.

American economist Henry Carey, Russian economist Sergei Witte, German-American economist Friedrich List and German philospher and statesman, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

But it is a fact that the industrial revolutions in the United States, as well as in Germany, Japan, Russia and, more recently, the Chinese economic miracle, were always based on the principles of the physical economy of Gottfried Leibniz, Friedrich List, the American system of economy of Mathew and Henry C. Carey and Count Witte.

The Meiji Restoration succeeded in rapidly transforming Japan into a major world economic power thanks to the theories of Alexander Hamilton and Friedrich List. (Erasmus Smith, a very close collaborator of Lincoln’s economic adviser Henry Carey, was sent by the Ulysses Grant Administration as an official economic adviser to the Meiji Restoration.)

The rapid transformation of Germany from a feudal state into an economic powerhouse, was based entirely on the tradition of Friedrich List and on Bismarck’s encounter with the economic model of Henry C. Carey, mediated among others by Wilhelm von Kardorff, then head of the German industrial association. Germany would have not become an industrial nation, but for Bismarck’s conversion from a follower of free market theories into a protagonist of the protectionist policies of List and Carey.

The Chinese economic miracle of the recent 30 years, especially the policies of the New Silk Road and the alternative banking system, with the AIIB, New Development Bank, Silk Road and Maritime Silk Road Funds, follow the same traditions. The 5th World Congress of China Studies in the Spring 2013 in Shanghai, and the 2014 List conference in Reutlingen made emphatically the point that the German economist is the most popular economic theoretician in China, and not Adam Smith.

List regarded the development of the productive powers of labor and industrial capacities as more important than statistical wealth; he would be an adamant critique of today’s asset driven economies. In the paper he submitted to a contest of the French Academy of Sciences in 1837, he developed a vision for the future role of transport systems, a “space and time economy,” which contains ideas still valid for the World Land-Bridge today.

He saw in the continuous perfection of transport and communication systems the precondition for the progress of humanity, enabling human beings to unfold increasingly all the potentials given to them by nature. The more talents could exchange their ideas and collaborate in all areas, the greater progress would be in all areas of knowledge, and the more science and the arts would be inspired and spread to all sectors and disciplines. Anticipating our present jet age, he said that the easier it would be for human beings to move from place to place, the more they would save time and compress space, the more the development and efficiency of his powers would increase and utilize the material riches of nature for his purposes.

The impact of this characteristic of what he called the “Space and Time Economy” would be demonstrated by the wealth of nations, which would develop an advanced transport and communication system, even if their “natural environment” was unfavorable. The high degree of speed, regularity, and cost-efficiency of transport would facilitate new levels of the development of the mental and material productive forces.

In an almost prophetic forecast, he saw this development orienting towards the uniting of all nations in one humanity, in a “Republic of the planet,” based on the “economy of Mankind.”

The realization of the World Land-Bridge, proceeding from the common aims of mankind, is eminently feasible in the near term. But it must be accompanied by a dialogue between the high phases of the different cultures of the world. For many Asian countries that means Confucius; for India, the Gupta period and Indian Renaissance; for Russia Alexander Pushkin and Vladimir Vernadsky; for Italy, the Italian Renaissance; for Germany, the Classics in music and poetry. Out of knowledge of the other culture, will grow love and admiration. It is only in this way, that the representatives of different cultures can access the basis of their identity as members of the only creative species known in the universe, which, so far, has only reached its childhood, but which can and must become the immortal species.

Realizing this vision requires individuals, today, who are guided by a passionate love for humanity.