June 8, 2022 (EIRNS)–The UN report “Hunger Hotspots FAO-WFP Early Warnings on Acute Food Insecurity June to September 2022 Outlook” was issued June 6, sounding the alarm on the scale of the world hunger crisis today. The joint authors of this periodical report are the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Among the 20 nations listed as in need for “urgent aid,” the WFP press release on the report stated that “Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen remain at ‘highest alert’ as hotspots with catastrophic conditions, and Afghanistan and Somalia are new entries to this worrisome category since the last hotspots report in January 2022. These six countries all have parts of the population facing the IPC (5-point scale of severity of hunger–ed.) phase 5 `Catastrophe’… with up to 750,000 people facing starvation and death. 400,000 of these are in Ethiopia’s Tigray region….The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, the Sahel, the Sudan and Syria remain ‘of very high concern,’ with deteriorating critical conditions.”
The report gives country-specific information on the food requirements to save millions of lives.
Apr. 5, 2022 (EIRNS)–“The LaRouche Plan for a New International Economic Architecture,” which was prepared for the up-coming April 9 Schiller Institute conference, is now prominently featured at the top of larouchepub.com for easy download. This preprint is fully illustrated with charts, maps, and pictures. Read it and circulate it to your networks and your elected officials to demand action now for development.
Schiller Institute Call for Ibero-American Presidents to
Deliver Message To Biden at Americas Summit:
June 3 (EIRNS)—Led by the LaRouche Citizens Movement of Mexico and friends in Argentina, Schiller Institute activists from many Ibero-American countries have sent their Presidents and other officials an “Open Letter from Ibero-America to Mr. Biden” on the eve of the beleaguered Summit of the Americas next week, signed by a select number of citizens from the region. Its message: “End Your Strategy of Using Ukraine to Destroy Russia. Stop the Danger of Nuclear War!”
The letter reads:
“The Summit of the Americas, which will take place June 6-10 this year, should submit a blunt resolution from the Presidents of Ibero-America to U.S. President Joe Biden:
End your strategy of using Ukraine to destroy Russia.
Stop NATO’s extension and expansion towards the Pacific (Global NATO), since if that is not done, we are heading towards a frontal war against China, which at this point in human history would be truly insane, and would drive us towards general thermonuclear war.
That is why the international community should call for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, sanctions to be lifted against Russia, and an international conference to be convoked on a New Security and Economic Development Architecture for all nations, which takes into account the demands of the Russian government for security on its borders, as the Schiller Institute proposes in its recent call.
President Biden: the economic and financial sanctions against Russia are having a boomerang effect on the world economy. We are already in worldwide stagflation and it will get worse if an economic and financial war is opened against China. Decoupling the financial system and economies of the Trans-Atlantic axis plus Japan, Australia and South Korea, from the economies of Russia and China would trigger a general economic and social collapse much worse than the collapse of Europe and Asia during the 14th century bubonic plague. That alone could mean the disappearance of the global civilization which we inherited from the great 15th and 16th century European Renaissance.
Moreover, the entire world faces a general debt crisis stemming from the $1.9 quadrillion speculative bubble, which is the underlying cause of the hyperinflationary process aggravated by illegal sanctions.
You know the solution to this economic breakdown: You told CNN on December 15, 2016, that the biggest mistake in your political career was your vote in 1999 in favor of the cancellation of Franklin Roosevelt’s Glass-Steagall Law by President Clinton and the Congress.
Now is the time to reinstate it!
Franklin Roosevelt’s economic system must be restored worldwide. Glass-Steagall must be reestablished across the planet along with a policy of economic relations and good will with Russia and China, so that, together with India, these four superpowers can rid themselves of their common enemy: the dark forces of the financier speculator interests opposed to human progress —the Neanderthal embers of McCarthyism and the Cold War— and found an economic system capable of eliminating poverty throughout the world. This is the path to reestablish the economic power of the United States and the whole Ibero-American region.
Likewise, a comprehensive economic and social plan to finally address the consequences of the conflicts and wars in Asia and Africa should be formulated as part of, and complementary to, China’s strategic Silk Road plan.
With all due respect for the people of the United States, they would be wise to accept that the world today can no longer be unipolar. There are other powers whose place in the new concert of nations should be recognized under the 21st century concept of multipolarity.
The 21st century must become the century in which humanity ends hunger and the brutality of war, allowing us to overcome the barbaric state in which we still find ourselves and become truly human. That is the legacy which the 17th century Treaties of Westphalia left us, a glorious moment for humanity, which established the basis of the modern Nation-State, the concept of the Common Good, in addition to perceiving that the good of other nations signifies also doing the good for each one of our nations, and finally understanding that the security of our nations cannot be at the cost of the security and submission of others.
April 1 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche was interviewed on CGTN’s broadcast “The Dialogue” this morning with host Xu Qinduo and a second guest Prof. John Gong, who frequently appears on CGTN’s shows. The discussion was on the EU-China meeting by videoconference today, which included President Xi Jinping (in what Xinhua dubbed “Xiplomacy”) and EU Council President Charles Michel and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
XU: That’s a good point, John. Helga, what do you think about this Ukraine issue somehow playing a part in the relationship between China and the European Union? Is there a way they can deal with the issue that will enhance or bring the two sides together? Is that affecting their relationship?
HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Obviously. The EU had on their website beforehand that they wanted to have the Ukraine issue practically the only issue. They want China to mediate and influence Russia. But I think it is very clear that China did not want to take a side. However, given the fact that EU economy is in free fall; as a matter of fact, the accumulation of COVID, the sanctions, Europe is not in a strong position at all. And I think China has a conception which I think lends itself to a mediation role, and that is President Xi Jinping’s idea of a shared future for a joint humanity. I think that is the most important conception right now, given the fact that we are in a situation strategically which is more dangerous than during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Therefore, what we really need, and I think China would be uniquely in a position to do that, is to propose a new international security architecture which would take into account the interests of every single country on the planet. Because the reason why we have the Ukraine crisis is because NATO expansion to the East for 30 years, which the West does not want to even discuss anymore. But the question is, how do we get out of it? We need a new security architecture, and I have proposed it to be in the tradition of the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the 150 years of religious wars in Europe. The situation today in face of the danger of nuclear war is much more dangerous than even then.
I think the Europeans, they totally are ignoring the fact that a new system is emerging, based on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BRICS, the Russia-India-China combination. India refused to be drawn into the camp of the United States, but wants to stay neutral, also. I think the only way how we will get out of this is if the Europeans—and finally also the United States—would understand that it is in their best interest to cooperate with the Belt and Road Initiative, in addressing the real issues which concern all of humanity: Which is, the pandemic is not over, we have a hunger crisis. I think one Chinese economist recently said that as a result of the sanctions against Russia, 1 billion people are in danger of dying of hunger this year. So, I think if China would play a mediating role, and say that all of these issues have to be addressed simultaneously. And then, Ukraine could become a bridge rather than being a geopolitical tool between the EU and Russia, it could become a bridge in the cooperation on the Eurasian continent.
XU: That’s a good point, Helga. China stressed very much cooperation, win-win cooperation. China also takes pride in being the source of peace and stability. When it comes to China-EU cooperation, we know the two sides are great civilizations, they are two of the largest economies. They represent the two largest markets. So, if you look at their cooperation against this background with emerging ascendity, even an emerging Cold War. How important it is, Helga, for the EU and China to further cooperate in multiple fields?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think for the EU it is much more existential than they admit, because there are two possibilities. Either the EU finds a way of cooperating with China, and that way the conflict can be solved; or, there are some people in the West—especially in Great Britain and in the United States—who want a complete decoupling of the West and the so-called authoritarian regimes. In this case, I think the West would suffer, because their values are much more based on monetarist values, as let’s say China and the countries cooperating with the BRI, because they are putting much more focus on physical economy. So, if they would go for a complete decoupling, the West would suffer. Hopefully, the European Union understands that it is not in their own interest to go this way, even if Victoria Nuland was just there and told Europe to side with the U.S. completely.
So, I think that a lot depends on the initiatives proposed by China, because China right now has the only policy which is a way out: And that is the shared community of the one future of humanity. And I think more and more people realize that.
……
XU: Helga, to further cooperation, we know there is a very important trade agreement, a comprehensive investment agreement between China and the EU. So, are we going to see any headway during the summit, or after the summit? Should we probably re-energize that kind of cooperation?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think obviously it is an agreement which would benefit both sides, so it should be pushed. But I’m not so hopeful that, given the geopolitical tension right now that that will be accomplished at this summit. However, I think the fact that the trans-Atlantic financial system is collapsing—look at the hyperinflation; this was there long before the Ukraine crisis erupted. So, the question of a new financial system, a new credit system maybe in the tradition of the New Bretton Woods system, should be put on the agenda; because there is the danger of a repetition of the 2008 crisis, but much larger. The Federal Reserve does not dare to increase the interest rate much to fight the inflation, because of the indebtedness of the whole system. So, a new credit policy should be put on the agenda, and in that context, then you can increase the EU-China trade agreement, and that will all be beneficial. But I think the problem is much more fundamental than it even can be addressed through that agreement.
May 26 (EIRNS)— “It is time to draft a comprehensive strategy for developing large-scale Eurasian partnership,” conceived as a “civilizational project” which can secure stability and prosperity from one end to the other of this continent, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to the plenary session of the Eurasian Economic Forum today. He pointed to the expressed interest of BRICS members such as China and India, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, ASEAN, and others, in creating a Greater Eurasian Partnership with the EAEU.
Putin dismissed any idea that Eurasian integration is a reaction to Western sanctions. Rather, it arose from the recognition years ago that the center of world economic development is shifting towards the Asia-Pacific region, he said. It offers a broader vision:
“Greater Eurasia is a big civilizational project. The main idea is to create a common space for equitable cooperation for regional organizations. The Greater Eurasian Partnership is designed to change the political and economic architecture and guarantee stability and prosperity on the entire continent – naturally, taking account of the diverse development models, cultures and traditions of all nations.”
He acknowledged, naturally, the attempts to cut off Russia, and its Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) partners, from advanced Western technologies and the world economic system. Western sanctions are intensifying global crises, creating chaos and economic upheavals, and ruining the economies of those imposing them (and stealing other’s reserves), but they are “unrealistic… There are many countries that want to and will pursue an independent policy and their number is growing. No world policeman will be able to stop this global process. There will not be enough power for this and the desire to do so will evaporate due to a host of domestic problems in those countries. I hope they will eventually realize that this policy has no prospects whatsoever,” Putin said. Western countries’ belief that they can “delete from the world economy, politics, culture and sports,” anyone who has their own point of view and is ready to defend it, “is nonsense.”
Russia, for example, is not merely focused on import substitution, or worried about those who will insist on importing their luxury Mercedes S 600’s. “For the country, … engineering centers, scientific centers that are the basis of its development are what is important. This is what we should think about, and what she would work on both within the Eurasian Economic Union and in a broad sense with our partners – those who want to work with us.”
Putin reported that the EAEU “roadmap for industrialization” has over 180 projects with a total investment of over $300 billion and a program for agricultural development, with more than 170 projects worth $16 billion. Already, 75% of the trade between EAEU member states is done in national currencies, and work is ongoing to interlink national payment systems and bank cards. Dialogue on “transitioning from SWIFT to direct correspondent contacts between the banks of the friendly countries” should be expedited, and cooperation with key lending and financial centers in the Asia-Pacific Region strengthened, he urged, amongst other ideas.
Glazyev at EAEU Meeting on ‘Eurasianism’ and a ‘New World Economic Order’—
May 26, 2022 (EIRNS)–The economy today is becoming more and more humanitarian. This was stated today, May 26, during the thematic session “Eurasianism as an Idea to Unite People. A Look into the Future” of the Eurasian Economic Forum 2022, by EEC Minister for Integration and Macroeconomics Sergey Glazyev. According to him, the new technological mode is different from the previous one, as the leading areas of the economy are health care, education, science, culture and art. The meeting is in Kyrgyzstan.
“The economy today is becoming more and more humanitarian. We must admit that issues of humanitarian cooperation and culture are not given enough attention in our Eurasian construction. We are passionate about building a customs union, discussing customs tariffs, customs and technical regulation, and forming a common labor market. And at the same time, we constantly face problems of people’s correct perception of the idea of Eurasianism,” explained Glazyev.
The Minister believes that it is difficult to achieve economic success without a common understanding of where the “Five” countries of the EAEU are moving in humanitarian directions. “The classics of Eurasianism foresaw the difficulties of reintegration of our space, saw the threat of nationalism and Nazism, which today, unfortunately, we are also facing,” Glazyev added.
Despite the difficulties now the union countries, according to the minister, are building partnerships with the brotherly CIS countries, building preferential trade regimes with India, creating free trade zones with Serbia and Iran, signed a large-scale agreement with China. “This is how the work is done to form a new world economic order,” Glazyev said.
May 26, 2022 (EIRNS)–The first Eurasian Economic Forum (EEF) took place today in Bishkek and online, on the theme, “Eurasian Economic Integration in the Era of Global Shifts: New Investment Opportunities. The heads of state of the five Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) nations are participating live or online, and 2,500 people are attending from many sectors in the region, with multiple sessions on energy, transportation, industry, finance and digital cooperation. The EAEU members are Russia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Kazakhstan. The forum was timed with the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council (SEEC) of the EAEU.
Today’s plenary session was addressed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Another EEF session was addressed by Sergey Glazyev, Russian Minister for Integration and Macroeconomics at the Eurasian Economic Commission, the executive body of the EAEU.
Lavrov: US/NATO Already Waging “Total War” Against Russia —
March 26 (EIRNS)–Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, during a meeting of the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund in Moscow, charged that the US/NATO/EU combination is already waging a hybrid war on Russia and that its objectives are no different from those of Hitler in 1941. “Today we have been declared a real hybrid war, a total war,” he said, adding that the latter term “was used by Hitler’s Germany” and “is now voiced by many European politicians when they talk about what they want to do with the Russian Federation.” The goals are not hidden, they declared them publicly – to destroy, break, exterminate, strangle the Russian economy and Russia as a whole, he remarked.
Lavrov lashed out at the “sanctions spree” against Russia pointing out that it is becoming clear that all values that those in the West have been preaching to Russia, like freedom of expression, a market economy, the sanctity of private property and the presumption of innocence, are not worth a red cent.
In this environment, the Kiev regime is being encouraged to continue to behave badly. Lavrov charged that the Kiev regime, in fact, has been getting away with bad behavior for years, with complicity of the Western corporate news media, particularly with respect to its crimes in the Donbas region. “All throughout these years, when the Ukrainian leadership evaded its obligations under the Minsk Accords, nationalists were openly wiping out civilian facilities, schools, hospitals. It was well-known and all facts were regularly reported by our mass media but were swept under the rug by the Western media,” Lavrov said. “It included the slaughter of civilians, and you may all know well that the death toll among the population exceeded 10,000,” he noted. “No one in the West cared at all about the inhumane economic, trade, transportation or food blockade of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics.”
The Kiev regime’s bad behavior has extended into the Russia-Ukraine talks as well. Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation at the Russia-Ukraine talks, accused the regime of seeking to drag out the talks. “They are in no hurry, obviously thinking that time is on their side, and say it openly that they have many decision-making centers they have to agree on these or those solutions with. This is the reality we are in,” he said, reported TASS. “Regrettably, as far as we understand – they make no secret of it, they are limited in making independent decisions. So, the current state of things inspires little optimism,” he stressed, adding he doesn’t share the Ukrainian delegation’s optimism, when it speaks about “great progress.” Further he said that “So far, there is no progress on matters of principal importance that the Russian side insists on.”
India Receives Chinese Foreign Minister; Rejects UK Parliamentary Delegation —
March 26 (EIRNS)–The Guardian reported on Thursday that a high ranking delegation of ten UK Parliamentarians which had planned to visit India was suddenly informed that the invitation had been withdrawn. According to the report, covered by RT, the bi-partisan delegation, led by House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, was called off at the last moment by the Indian authorities. This follows by only a few hours a previously unannounced visit to India by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a meeting very well received by the Indian government, with both sides agreeing to improve their troubled relations.
The unstated but clear cause of the snub to the UK politicians is that they had made known that they intended to lecture India on why it had to join in the denunciation of Russia and join in the sanctions warfare. Not only did India refuse, but they are advancing plans to expand their trade with Russia on the basis of Rupee-Ruble deals, avoiding the toxic U.S. dollar, now widely recognized as a tool by the degenerating regime in the U.S. simply to impose sanctions, or even to steal foreign nations’ reserves deposited in their banks, as they did with Afghanistan and Russia.
RT notes that on Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke by phone with Indian PM Narendra Modi. Johnson lectured Modi that India must follow their lead in attacking Russia — which certainly rankled the Indians, who can never forget the degradation and genocide of their people at the hands of their former British colonial masters.
MILAN, March 22, 2022 (EIRNS)—Three VIP signers, from Italy, of the Schiller Institute petition for a new security architecture, Alessia Ruggeri and journalists Luca La Bella and Gianmarco Landi, were on a program of DataBase Italia TV last night, entitled “The End of Globalization.” After describing the present situation in Ukraine as very different from how the mainstream media portray it, including the use of hypersonic missiles by Russia, which can put a quick end to the war and destroy the military potential of the neo-Nazi militias, host Landi quoted Helga Zepp-LaRouche and the Schiller Institute petition for a new security architecture as the only alternative to the danger of a general war, and asked Alessia Ruggeri to talk about it, as she had already in a recent interview on the Schiller Institute petition published by DataBase Italia.
Alessia Ruggeri explained that it is a very important petition, which was signed by thousands of citizens and many VIP signers from all over the world, and which calls for the principle of the Peace of Westphalia to put an end to the geopolitical confrontation policy and the failed economic policies which led to this war. She emphasized that what is being shown on TV is not the real situation, and that people are not aware of the severe consequences of the boomerang sanctions which are hitting Italy, and other countries, much worse than the Russian economy. For example, she quoted the shutting down of all McDonalds restaurants in Russia, which was quickly converted into a Russian brand to save jobs.
She also reported many mail messages she receives about hoarding of pasta and oil in Italian supermarkets, noting that people believe that wheat is produced in Italy but is not—it comes from Russia and Ukraine. She reminded viewers (around 3,000 last night) that as a result of the failed economic policies of the West, many businesses are shutting down, but as a mother of two children and a trade unionist she called on small entrepreneurs, like the ones in Southern Italy, “not to give up hope, there is a possibility for a change.” The full program is available here.
