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Take this Tragedy as the Opportunity to Lift All Sanctions Against Syria

By Helga Zepp-LaRouche

Feb. 6, 2023 (EIRNS)—The recent double earthquake in southern Turkey and northwestern Syria is a terrible disaster which is generating a wave of emotion and empathy from around the world. The situation will likely worsen due to forecast weather of extremely low temperatures throughout the region, resulting in the collapse of weakened buildings due to the cold and frost, not to mention the immediate consequences to children, women and men who have lost everything.

Time is of the essence. We welcome an international response; in fact there are several countries that have already offered their assistance to the populations affected by the earthquakes. This being said, it is difficult to accept that the same disaster has a very different human impact on either side of the borders of Turkey and Syria. On the Syrian side, this tragedy is affecting a population that has been hard hit by years of war and sanctions imposed by the United States with other nations.

This situation confronts us, as Western nations, with our responsibility to uphold the values we claim to embody. Are we going to continue to apply the measures that we very well know have led to the unimaginable suffering, misfortune and death of innocent people? Or are we going to finally make the decision to lift these criminal sanctions? Don’t we know, after so many years of use, that the weapon of sanctions only hurts the people?

It is time for Western leaders to regain a minimum of moral fiber, by taking this tragedy as the opportunity to definitively lift all sanctions against Syria and, from then on, to organize the reconstruction of the country with those who are determined to contribute to it.


Zepp-LaRouche on CGTN: “Fostering Cooperation in a Fragmented World”

Jan. 18, 2023 (EIRNS)–CGTN today published on its English-language YouTube channel (which has about 3 million subscribers) a 14-minute video commentary by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, on the occasion of the Davos World Economic Forum. CGTN’s introductory blurb asked the question: “How should world leaders work together in a volatile situation? Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and president of the Schiller Institute, to explore these talking points.” The video can be found here.

 Helga Zepp-LaRouche:

          The world economic forum has given its annual meeting the title “Cooperation in a Fragmented World,” and shortly before the Forum published their Global Risk Report, in which they present the results of the latest Global Risk Perception Survey.  In that, they consider the current crisis, then the expectation of what many experts think will come out in the short term (two years), the most severe in the long term (ten years), in terms of the economy, the environment, society, and those geopolitical and technological risks that could become tomorrow’s crises.  Then they consider how these different crises could evolve into a “poly-crisis” by 2030. 

          Concerning the methodology used to come to their evaluations, they report that they interviewed over 1200 experts from academia, business, government, the international community, and civil society between September 7th and October 5th, 2022.  In other words, this Global Risk Report is not based on scientific methods, but rather on an Aristotelian method to arrive at the common denominator of the opinions of selected experts. 

          While there will also be attendance from countries of the Global South, who may try to set different accents, the World Economic Forum represents a good portion of the top global corporate establishment; and they clearly try to continue to push their agenda, which is an acceleration of the Great Reset, that they have been pushing before.  It completely leaves out the optimistic perspective, for example, of the circa 150 countries working with the Belt and Road Initiative and their optimism that through investments in infrastructure, agriculture, industry, and international scientific cooperation, etc., most of the problems they insist will dominate the next years can be overcome.

          Instead, there is a lot of talk about “progressive tipping points” and “catastrophic outcomes,” which are all designed to motivate the assembled business leaders and beyond, to adopt the program fitting the financial interests of the main financial players of the neo-liberal system.  For example, in the section called “Natural Ecosystems; past the point of no return” they write:

          “Human interventions have negatively impacted a complex and delicately balanced global natural ecosystem, triggering a chain of reactions.  Over the next ten years, the interplay between biodiversity loss, pollution, natural resource consumption, climate change, and socioeconomic drivers will make for a dangerous mix. 

          “Given that over half of the world’s economic output is moderately to highly dependent on nature, the collapse of ecosystems will have far-reaching economic and societal consequences.  These include increased occurrences of zoonotic diseases, a fall in crop yields and nutritional value, growing water stress exacerbating potentially violent conflict,” etc., etc.

          The deep Malthusian pessimism reflected in such a statement makes clear that this report is more a program of their intent than a scientific prognosis.  Because of human interventions, the world population has increased from a few millions after the last Ice Age to 8 billion.  If there will be a fall in crop yields, then [it will be] only because of the Green demonization of modern agriculture.  And if there will be a violent conflict, then only because the necessary development of new fresh water resources will be blocked by the Malthusian environmentalist agenda.

          Economic Risks in 2023

          Unfortunately, I think that 2023 will see an escalation of the financial and economic crises.  The central banks have tried to curb inflation by raising the interest rates rather rapidly.  Then, as we could see for example in Great Britain, they had to suddenly go from quantitative tightening to quantitative easing again, because of the danger of a chain reaction of over-indebted firms; thus going back to the inflationary money pumping.  Since the tendency towards hyperinflation is the result of ever more monetarist policies going for profit maximization at the expense of physical economy and the reckless liquidity injections following the systemic crisis of 2008 by the trillions of dollars, euros, and pounds, only an end to the casino economy could solve the problem.

          What should be put on the international agenda is the reintroduction of a Glass-Steagall banking separation, which puts the commercial banks under state protection, but forces the investment banks to straighten out their balance sheets on their own without taxpayer money.  Then, each country must create their own national bank, because credit creation must be under the sovereign control of the governments.  These national banks must then cooperate to create a new credit system, which is only devoted to investments in projects serving the common good of the people.  There are already efforts going on in this direction among many countries of the Global South — also, to create a new international currency.

          While it is very difficult to predict the exact time when the systemic crisis of the neo-liberal system will come to a head, it cannot be excluded that the decision to have a complete reorganization of the international financial system could force itself on the agenda in this year of 2023.

          Geopolitical Conflict Triggering a Chain of Reactions

          Right now, unfortunately, the crisis over Ukraine — which is not a crisis between Russia and Ukraine, but between NATO and Russia — is accelerating in a dangerous way.  I think it is extremely urgent that a diplomatic solution is found quickly to end the war.  There are various efforts, like Pope Francis has offered the Vatican as a venue for negotiations, and I and a group of Latin American legislators have written an open letter to the Pope to mobilize people around the world to support this idea.  We are also asking people to sign that letter.  Also, President Lula from Brazil has been asked to mediate by several countries from the Global South; and also President Erdogan from Turkiye has made some efforts.

          I think all of these proposals should be merged, because too much is at stake.  But, I think because the crisis around Ukraine is so dangerous, the initiatives made by President Xi Jinping with the Global Security Initiative, together with the Global Development Initiative are probably the most important angle to solve the crisis.  The Global Security Initiative is really a proposal for a new international security architecture, and obviously that must take into account the security interests of every single country on the planet for it to work. 

          I am aware that right now it does not look very likely that the countries of the so-called West would be willing to discuss such a new international security architecture, given the fact that NATO is trying to become Global NATO, and Japan and Great Britain have just signed the so-called “Reciprocal Access Agreement,” and the US, the UK, and Australia have signed the AUKUS pact.  But the BRICS countries already have a higher GDP than the G-7; and 17 countries of the Global South are applying for membership in the BRICS.  So, they are in the process of representing the vast majority of the human species.  And the countries of the Global South have made it quite clear that they don’t want to be drawn into a geopolitical conflict between the West on the one side, and the China and Russia on the other side.

          I think it is therefore quite possible that in the course of 2023, the financial crisis erupts even more dramatically, and that that will be the right moment to put the combination of the Global Security Initiative and the Global Development Initiative on the international agenda.  I think President Xi is very right that security can only exist if there is development.  So, I am sure that the vast majority of the countries who are striving to overcome the relics of colonialism, and who really want to develop into become modern and prosperous countries, would support such an intervention.

          And then hopefully, the countries of the West can see that it would be in their best interest to cooperate with the Global Security Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, and the Belt and Road Initiative.

          Global Risks in the Next Two Years

          There are policy initiatives which can overcome the inflation by reorganizing the financial system, by addressing the root causes for the crisis.  The excessive profit orientation at the expense of the physical economy clearly did not work.  And what the World Economic Forum calls the geo-economic confrontation can be stopped the moment these CEOs recognize that win-win cooperation with the majority of the countries in the world would also be in their best interest; since to cooperate with growing markets with billions of people with growing buying power is for sure better than to go bankrupt in a crash.  And the best way to cope with natural disasters and extreme weather events is to invest in basic infrastructure, water management, and scientific and technological progress in order to develop the technologies to have early warning systems, secure housing construction, and other means of adaptation.

          Disagreements on Cybersecurity in Major Countries

          There have been various attempts to have agreement between major countries on cybersecurity.   There was an agreement for example in 2013 between Russia and the United States to establish a secure phone connection, and a working group to mitigate cybersecurity threats.  In 2017, in light of the allegation of election interference made against Russia, Trump and Putin agreed to create a cybersecurity unit to prevent election interference and other cyber threats.  Trump praised it as a big step forward, but was forced to backtrack only 12 hours later, due to massive pressure from Congress and the mainstream media.  Then, in preparation work for the 2018 meeting in Helsinki between Trump and Putin, Russia offered the United States cooperation in the field of preventing cyberattacks on critical infrastructure — power plants, water supply and transport management systems, hospitals, banks, and so on.  The corresponding provision was included in the joint statement of the Presidents of the two countries prepared by the Russian side for adoption at the summit in Helsinki.  While the summit between the two Presidents worked well, all hell was unleashed against Trump afterwards by the same forces, and the agreement was not signed. 

          At this point, the trust between the West and Russia and China is at an historic low point.  Under these circumstances, an isolated agreement on cybersecurity seems very unlikely.  Therefore, a great vision is required on how a solution can be put on the table which addresses all the major problems together, such as a new, just world economic order based on such concepts as the Global Security Initiative in combination with the Global Development Initiative.

          I think that we have reached a point in the history of mankind where we really must get serious about the international order of relations among nations, and how we can organize them in such a way that we can self-govern as a species which is gifted with creative reason.  In an existential crisis, [such] as the one we are experiencing right now, and which is very likely going to get much worse, it is not the amount of money one owns that counts; but it is the quality of political leadership of exceptionally wise and moral men and women who have the ability to shape the future for the benefit of all humanity.

          In Davos, there will be a great number of billionaires, millionaires, and hangers-on to power.  It will be very interesting to watch if they are also up for the larger job required.


Mexico’s Journalists Club Honors Schiller Institute With “Freedom of Expression” Award

Dec. 7, 2022 (EIRNS)–The national Journalists Club of Mexico today announced the results of its 70th National and International Journalism Contest, issuing their awards to the Mexican and international journalists, media and institutions chosen by a 20-person independent jury for their work in over 20 areas of journalism and freedom of speech. The annual contest has become an institution in the country, with increasing international attention. Julian Assange, for example, was issued an award for “Freedom of Expression” in 2019.

Today, the Schiller Institute received the Club’s award for “|`Fostering freedom of expression from the academic realm’, for its contributions to historical and geopolitical analysis for understanding global changes, from a multi-disciplinary standpoint of critical thinking, warning of the consequences of the violence and imbalances which affect the concert of nations and world peace,” the master of ceremonies explained. This was one of only five international awards conferred by the Journalists Club. Another 30 or so awards were presented to national journalists in different areas.

The awards ceremony, held in the association’s historic headquarters in Mexico City, is quite an occasion, and was attended by the President of Mexico’s Press Spokesman, Jesús Ramírez Cuevas, and diplomats from various countries, as well as many journalists and media and their families and friends. Ramírez Cuevas was greeted by an ovation when announced, and he gave President López Obrador’s greetings for the occasion.

After the Schiller Institute’s award was announced, a short video-recorded message of greetings and appreciation from Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche was played (with Spanish subtitles), as the Institute’s representative in Mexico, EIR correspondent Gerardo Castilleja, accepted the award on her behalf. Zepp-LaRouche explained that she could not attend personally to accept the award because she was number one on the Ukrainian hit list, expressed her great appreciation for the honor bestowed, and spoke of the international leadership role Mexico is playing, and can play in rallying the world against nuclear war and for peace.

The tone for the spirited meeting was set by the Club’s Secretary General, Celeste Sáenz, in her opening speech, in which she issued an impassioned call to build the fight against the grave threats to freedom of speech afoot in the world. There is war ongoing against truthful journalism, organized by the great media and neoliberal international powers, she charged. Independent journalists who refuse to surrender to their demands are excluded, but have begun setting up their own outlets (several of which were given awards later).

This is “a real war … with real victims.” Journalists are being killed, some caught in the crossfire of the conflicts in the world — but some deliberately assassinated, as in the case of Ukraine, she said. Journalists and academics are being put on a blacklist “by the Ukrainian government and Western intelligence and spy agencies who seek to assassinate” them. When the selected targets are assassinated, their photos on the list are then crossed off, she specified. “This is disgraceful. After the Second World War, we thought that we would not see this again.”

She cited the terrorist assassination of Russia’s Darya Dugina last August 20 as exemplary of this policy, and slammed the policy of censorship carried out in the name of “freedom of speech,” as seen in the “centers for countering disinformation” which impose that policy.

The Club then gave a posthumous award to Dugina, which Russia’s Ambassador to Mexico, Viktor Koronelli, received in the name of her father, Alexander Dugin. A brief video message from Dugin was then presented.


‘Soloviev Live’ Interviews Helga Zepp-LaRouche on Ten Principles

Dec. 7, 2022 (EIRNS)–Wednesday Dec. 7, 2022—Vladimir Soloviev aired a 21-minute interview with Helga Zepp-LaRouche on Dec. 7. {Video version of this interview is here: https://disk.yandex.ru/d/6gNnbGKzVoMQLA }

VLADIMIR SOLOVIEV: Well, unfortunately, that’s about my German, so if you don’t have anything against it, we’ll try English. I’m sorry for being late a couple of minutes. You know, those Russians, they’re never good on time. There’s always a problem with Russians being good on time! [laughter]

I have to say: I was quite impressed with your very tough point of view, (should I say that?) very revolutionary. Definitely not mainstream of current European political ideas. How come? It looks like the Dawn of Europe, the book that was written more than a 100 years ago, suddenly comes true. What are we facing right now? And what should be done, in order to save the world?

HELGA ZEPP-LaROUCHE: Well, I think the problem is that we are, as some of the Russian officials have stated recently, we are already at a state of war between NATO and Russia, and many people in many countries are extremely worried that this may lead to nuclear war. And if it would come to that, I don’t think it would be a limited nuclear war. I think regional war, the use of only tactical nuclear weapons, I think this is all ruled out. And if it comes to the use of only one single nuclear weapon, it would have the danger of a global nuclear and that would mean the annihilation of civilization.

And for me, I think you have to start with that: This is why I have suggested principles, 10 principles for a new international security and development architecture, which is drawing very much on the example of the Peace of Westphalia which ended 150 years of religious war in Europe. And I’m really fighting very hard to put this on the agenda before it is too late.

SOLOVIEV: So, what are those 10 principles? And what makes you think that current political power in Germany, but basically in U.S.A.—we realize that; whatever is there right now in Germany, it’s just a reflection, it’s just another projection of American point of view—that they will hear you? That you won’t be punished severely for your point view. Because now it’s not—it’s impossible to talk about the freedom of speech and the freedom of philosophical ideas in Europe.

ZEPP-LaROUCHE: I know it’s not allowed, and you are being ostracized immediately, and worse. But I think we are in a situation—I mean, this is not a tenable situation. Germany, for example, has lost all of its sovereignty with the present government, at least concerning certain ministers. We are running against a collapse in Germany: The economic situation is absolutely devastating. The result of the sanctions, which Germany imposed against Russia, on orders practically of the United States, is boomeranging, and the blowback is threatening the existence of Germany as an industrial nation. So this will become apparent in the next weeks and months.

And I think we are in an epochal change: It’s not just a war between the West and Russia, but the result of the policies imposed against Russia in particular, have led to a counterreaction: The entire Global South is in a revolutionary spirit to establish a just new economic order, and this is a revival of the Non-Aligned Movement, which was already on that course in the 1970s, and now I think it is unstoppable. You have the emergence of a completely new system, which is the BRICS, the SCO (the Shanghai Cooperation Organization), the Eurasian Economic Union, all of these countries are reacting to the policies coming especially from the British and the United States, and they’re forming a new world economic order.

Some people may think it is enough if you have a multipolar world; the unipolar world is definitely over. But I am of the opinion that even multipolarity is not sufficient, because it still has the potential of a geopolitical confrontation. So this is why I think the most advanced proposal to overcome that in the present world comes from President Xi Jinping, who is talking about the “shared community of the future of mankind.” My 10 principles are basically an effort to elaborate principles how we can get people to understand what the new paradigm is, in which we have to move. That is a very deep philosophical conception: I’ve been working together with my late husband, Lyndon LaRouche, on that for the better part of the last 50 years. So I’m convinced that this is resonating with what the world right now urgently needs, which is a new conception—the question, really, is can we as a human civilization give ourselves an order which allows the long-term survivability of our species? So this is the biggest challenge to our intelligence you can have. And since I’m—and that’s the 10th point of my 10 principles—I’m convince that man is fundamentally good, and that the evil in the world is the result of a lack of development.

So I’m confident. I think the danger is incredibly big, but on the same time, I’m also extremely optimistic that a solution to this present calamity can be found.

SOLOVIEV: So what are those 10 principles? What are they? How dare you bring those 10 principles to the world of Schwab! Who is saying that humanity is a disease, and it’s better to be without humanity for the world! So how come that, nowadays, you’re coming with basically, let’s say “humanitarian tradition” of understanding humanity? Instead of modern liberal, Nazi view, where basically humanity should be destroyed?

ZEPP-LaROUCHE: Well, I think the present world order, in large part suffers from the problem of oligarchism: That is not a new phenomenon. You had empires, the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Venetian Empire, the British Empire, which in one sense still exists, and these forms of government were based on the idea that you have a small, powerful elite, sometimes the aristocrats, sometimes the financial elite, and that they have all the privileges and rule over backward masses of people. That system is the origin of what a former President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, calls the “green delirium,” which is the idea that we are living in a world of finite resources, that you have to have management of scarcity, and all of this.

But that’s not the real universe. The good thing is that man is different from animals, because we are capable of discovering universal principles about the physical universe. This is called scientific and technological progress, and when we apply that progress in the production process, then it leaves to an increase in the living standard, the longevity of people. So, I think we have reached the point now where the evolution of mankind is at a point where we have to adjust the political and economic order to the actual lawfulness of the physical universe, if we want to survive. That is not a new idea: That was actually a philosophical conception in Europe, it was called “natural law.” You have the same idea in other cultures. In India, for example, it’s called “cosmology,” where basically politics is supposed to implement the lawfulness of the cosmos. You have the same idea in Chinese philosophy, with the “Mandate of Heaven.” So in all great cultures, you have the idea that there is a higher lawfulness which we have to respect, or bring about destruction.

So I think we are in a very optimistic change of an epoch. I would call it that mankind is about to reach the age of adulthood.

SOLOVIEV: [laughs] That is very optimistic, should I say! But by reaching the age of adult, we have to face quite new challenges. One of them is that Europe is basically put in an Iron Curtain, by trying to recognize Russia as a “sponsor of terrorism” state, they are just cutting all possible ties that have been left, and it’s leading us to a completely new scenario. Europe without Russia is basically a very small place!

ZEPP-LaROUCHE: Right now, the mainstream media and the major political parties, as they are represented in the European Parliament, which made this resolution about Russian being a terrorist state, that is the surface. And if you only look at the mass media, you get the impression that that is everything there is. But we are organizing people: Look, there are demonstrations in all European countries, to end the war, to have a peaceful negotiation, use diplomacy already, and many people are demonstrating in east Germany, in Belgium, in France, in Italy, even in Great Britain. So I think, this is a very dangerous moment, obviously, but I think that as the crisis will become bigger, and you have hyperinflation, the energy prices, the food prices, I think we are heading towards a very big moment of decision. And what the Schiller Institute is trying to do, is we are organizing international conferences, which have to be virtual because of the still existing pandemic conditions, and we are trying to bring together people from all over the world.

I have initiated something which is called—I should explain—Friedrich Schiller, after whom the Schiller Institute is named, had the idea that there must not be contradiction between patriots and world citizens. So, given the fact that the danger of nuclear war makes everybody, instantly a world citizen, because the whole world is challenged, so I’ve called for a world citizens’ movement. And since I was born in Trier—which some people may recognize the importance of that—I have called for “World Citizens of All Countries, Unite!” [laughs] in which I find a certain irony.

But many people have responded. We’ve had three conferences already with many sitting and former parliamentarians, and former ministers and Presidents from Latin America, who have issued a call to all parliamentarians and elected officials of the world to join this movement, and fight essentially for these 10 principles, and a new security and development architecture.

SOLOVIEV: So you are still an optimist? Do you still think that humanity is going to survive?

ZEPP-LaROUCHE: Oh, yes! You know, obviously, the danger is enormous, because if it comes to nuclear war, there will not be even an historian left to investigate the reasons why it came to this point. So I’m not unaware of the incredible danger. But I believe that the majority of the world is already creating a new system: The BRICS countries already have a GDP which is higher than that of the G7. And you saw at the recent G20 meeting, despite incredible pressure, the majority of the countries of the Global South do not want to change sides! Even the Trilateral Commission, which is really—not exactly my kind of organization—the Japanese representative of the Trilateral Commission just recently said, telling the United States and Great Britain, do not force us to choose sides between China and the United States, because if we are forced, we will choose China. This came from Japanese Trilateral Commission members!

So the spirit is really not—people do not want this geopolitical confrontation any longer. And I think there is a tremendous chance—look, Modi, who will chair the G20 in the coming year, just wrote a very beautiful statement, where he echoed essentially what I’m saying, that there are people who say that man is evil, but he says, no, the fact that there are so many aspirations in religion and philosophy that man is fundamentally good. And I think that with the leadership of India in the G20, you will see that the Global South will have a much great voice.

And we are trying to convince people in the United States and in Europe to join with that new system, rather than trying to oppose it. And, OK, maybe that will not function, but I’m optimistic that it’s the only choice: Because we have to get the United States and Europe to cooperate with the countries of the Global South and China. If the United States and China, which are the two largest economies of the world, are not working together, then no problem of the world can be solved. On the other side, if we succeed in showing that there is an advantage for everybody, to solve poverty—I mean poverty should be eliminated! It is the biggest violation of human rights you can imagine. So, all I want to say, is that what we are proposing is actually in cohesion with the wishes and desires of the world population.

SOLOVIEV: Well! But how can you imagine those guys in U.S., in U.K., in Germany, giving up the complex of superiority, where they still consider the other part of humanity, according to Kipling, half-beast, half-humans, as in the burden of the white man? So how can you imagine Americans suddenly recognizing that they’re not the chosen nation? They won’t count it! They don’t want to do it! No one ever gave up the complex of superiority before being defeated. There is no brain to apply to: Look at Biden! There is no {brain} to apply to! There is a number of stereotypes! And that’s about it.

ZEPP-LaROUCHE: Yeah, but look, Josep Borrell from the EU made this incredible statement that the EU is a beautiful garden…

SOLOVIEV: Yes, surrounded by jungle.

ZEPP-LaROUCHE: And that made him the laughingstock of the whole world!

SOLOVIEV: But he is an idiot! And he represents the diplomacy of the EU! What kind of idiot right now represents the EU as the top diplomat? That’s annoying!

ZEPP-LaROUCHE: Yes. But, in a certain sense, you have to laugh about it, as many countries of the Global South are doing.

The countries of the developing sector are right now in a mood where they recognize that this is the effort to keep the colonial order. But that is not—Look, all of these countries have a different tradition. The United States, for example, made their independence in the War of Independence against the British Empire. And the Constitution of the United States was the first real republic in the history of mankind, and if you look at the principles of Benjamin Franklin, of George Washington, of John Quincy Adams—John Quincy Adams said exactly what we are saying today, that you need a partnership of perfectly sovereign republics and the United States should not go out and look for foreign monsters. And then, Lincoln had the same idea. Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he designed the Bretton Woods system, it was meant as the first priority to overcome the underdevelopment of the developing countries. Even Kennedy had a beautiful idea about the role of technology would solve all the poverty in the Third World. So there {is} a tradition in the United States which is completely different. The problem with the United States right now is that they have adopted the model of the British Empire as the basis to rule the world in a unipolar world, in a unipolar style. But that is not the whole United States! The people of the United States are essentially good. It is what some people call the “MICIMATT”—you know, Ray McGovern—

SOLOVIEV: Right.

ZEPP-LaROUCHE: It’s the military-industrial complex, plus the Congress, plus the media, plus Silicon Valley, but that is a small minority. They look like the all-powerful force right now, but I think this other tradition of America is there, and we are trying very hard to make a revival of the best traditions of the United States.

SOLOVIEV: I hope that you succeed. I hope you succeed! Unfortunately, our time is running out. And excuse my smile: The reason is that my wife’s name is Olga Sepp [ph], so when I see Helga Zepp, I feel like I’m talking to a relative, should I say! [laughter]

ZEPP-LaROUCHE: That’s funny!

SOLOVIEV: Yes, that’s quite unusual. And, I love what you’re saying! And I love your very sweet, idealistic, but very thought-through, based on the belief that human are better than they are.

The only minor thing is: The Founding Fathers of the United States, after all about democracy and “human rights,” shall we say, so they all owned slaves. So, their definition of free men, were only for WASPs, and that’s what makes us Russians being so careful when we’re dealing with the West—the definition of every word. You have to be sure that you understand words in the same way. In any other case, we’re running into problems all the time.

It was a pleasure, and I to continue our discussions in the coming future.


Xi Jinping Visit to Saudi Arabia to Be “Epoch Making” in China-Saudi Relations

Dec. 6, 2022 (EIRNS)—Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Saudi Arabia today for a state visit and also to attend two important summits—the Gulf-China Summit for Cooperation and Development, to include 14 leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and the first ever Arab-China Summit for Cooperation and Development. He will be there through Dec. 9.

Xi was received with much pomp, his plane escorted into the King Khalid airport in Riyadh by six jets of the Saudi Royal Air Force, greeted warmly by Prince Faisal bin Bandar Abdullaziz, Governor of the Riyadh region, and by Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah. The warmth with which he was greeted and lavish ceremonies that will be part of his visit stand in stark contrast to last July’s visit by U.S. President Joe Biden, who met Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman with a fist bump and later snarled, without success, that Saudi Arabia should increase oil production and improve its human rights record.

Robert Jordan, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia and diplomat in residence at Southern Methodist University, described the U.S.-Saudi relationship as a “slow-moving train wreck and we shouldn’t be surprised to see consequences of that.”

In contrast, speaking at today’s Foreign Ministry briefing, spokeswoman Mao Ning described Xi’s visit as “the largest and highest-level diplomatic event between China and the Arab World” since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. “It will be an epoch-making milestone in the history of Arab-China relations.”

Holding the summit, she said, was “a joint strategic decision to strengthen coordination and solidarity under the current circumstances….We hope to jointly act on the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, advance on high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and contribute to the peace and development of the Middle East and the world at large.”

Ms. Mao Ning had similar remarks on the upcoming China-GCC summit and on talks with the Saudi leadership. China and Saudi Arabia have a shared focus on development strategies, she said. Xi will have in-depth discussions with King Salman bin Abdullaziz al Saud and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammad bin Salman and elevate the current strategic partnership to a higher level. [China Foreign Ministry announces import of the visit: https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/202212/t20221207_10986586.html ]


French “Food Production to Come to a Halt”

Dec. 7, 2022 (EIRNS)–“Food production to come to a halt” was the title of an article published by Le Figaro back in Sept. Unfortunately, what seemed unbelievable for many yesterday, has become reality today. After heavy industries, such as the rare French zinc, aluminum, and glass producers –hit by impossible energy price spikes and artificially kept alive government support– agro-food processors are now on the chopping block.

Yesterday, the French canned food specialist Cofigeo which has a €300 million turnover, announced it will “temporarily” shut down 4 of its 8 factories in France as of Jan. 2, which represent about 80 % of its production. Consequently, 800 of the 1200 employees of Cofigeo will receive an agreement of partial activity of long duration (APLD).

The decision is an answer to “the dramatic increase in energy costs (gas and electricity needed for cooking and sterilization of dishes), which will be multiplied by 10 from the beginning of the year,” said the group in a statement. “It will go from 4 million to 40 million euros overnight,” Mathieu Thomazeau, its president, told Le Figaro.

This is a thunderclap in the food sector and other food groups could be in great difficulty in January. Everybody has warned this would happen but the government refuses to listen. Already in September, Le Figaro reported that “After the prices of electricity and natural gas supplying dairies, sugar factories and canneries in France have risen by 350% and 380% respectively in one year, the first cracks in the food industry are showing up.” At that time, dairy manufacturers warned that power cuts could lead them to throw milk away. The French giant dairy industry Lactalis’ energy bill reaches 1 billion euros per year. That of the Breton group Sill (Petit Basque, Malo …) has jumped 800% since 2021. In sugar factories, the fear of winter load shedding has led sugar producers to launch their beet harvesting and processing campaigns earlier, even if this means sacrificing yields.

Besides soaring energy costs, the other worry is that production lines simply will grind to a halt for lack of products coming from farms. In field vegetables (green beans, peas, etc.), due to the drought, harvests have melted by up to 50% this year. As a result, canneries that process and package them are now receiving only half of their needs. Already, some of them are only working three days a week. Enough to fear shortages on the shelves before the next harvest of 2023. In recent days, the fragile balance of the sector has become even more tense, with major risks of disruption on fertilizers for the next crop year. European fertilizer factories have stopped production of 50% of their products and have severely limited their production of ammonia due to the prohibitive price of gas. This raises the risk of shortages for the coming winter. To avoid total collapse, many sectors (milk, meat) plead to be recognized as “trades of general interest” and be exempted from energy rationing.


Your Choice: Unlimited Fusion Power—Or Unlimited War

Nov. 30 (EIRNS)—China’s Science and Technology Daily reported Nov. 28 on the status of the Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion Technology (CRAFT) being built at the Hefei University of Science and Technology. China, the report makes clear, is serious about meeting its goal of generating continuous fusion energy by 2028, for use in a hybrid fission fusion power plant, and generating fusion energy directly for the electric grid by 2035. Materials and technologies needed to control fusion reactions are already being tested at CRAFT, a giant complex which will be fully completed by 2024, as part of the broader fusion project based out of the university, which is home to the superconducting EAST, or Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute for Plasma Physics.

This is great news for everyone worldwide. The phenomenal leap in humanity’s power on Earth and in the Solar System that will flow out of mastering controlled thermonuclear fusion reactions has been known for decades. Lyndon LaRouche founded the Fusion Energy Foundation in 1974 to promote its advance, and by the time the U.S. government shut it down in 1987, the foundation’s monthly magazine, Fusion, was one of the most popular science magazines in the United States.

The development of a full-scale fusion powered-economy has taken as long as it has for purely political, not technical or scientific reasons. The Malthusian, imperial oligarchy has been its mortal enemy, but when people understand the almost limitless progress which fusion power and its associated technologies can bring, Malthusianism is finished.

China is not only committed to developing fusion, but is bringing other nations in, to share in the development. Twelve days ago, China’s Institute for Plasma Physics announced that one of the institute’s four working tokamaks had been dismantled, packed carefully into six containers, and is now ready to be shipped to Thailand in mid-December, where it will be reassembled and put to work at the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology!

China is donating the tokamak to Thailand, along with training the Thai scientists and engineers who will run it. When officially launched in the first part of next year, scientists and engineers from across the Southeast 

Asian countries will be able to receive there the training they also need to run future fusion experiments and reactors in their own countries. 

That act is a microcosm of a world order befitting humanity.

Imagine what progress could be made in improving the lives of every human being on this planet, were the United States, Japan, France and Germany—for example—to do likewise.

Instead, the as-yet-unshaken commitment of the Anglo-American powers and their European cohorts to their dog-eat-dog view of humanity continues to threaten the annihilation of the human species itself. Not satisfied with the devastation their war against Russia has brought upon the world (Ukraine emphatically included), are preparing for “the big one,” as U.S. Strategic Command head Adm. Charles Richard puts it: a war against China.

Today, the Pentagon released its annual “China Military Power Report,” declaring that China’s determination to complete “the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by 2049” is what makes China a threat to the U.S. The day before, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency announced that it has established a “China mission group” to integrate all work done by the DIA on China, because China represents “an existential threat to the long-term success of the United States.” 

The U.K. neocon thinktank, the Council for Geostrategy, has launched a campaign for His Majesty’s government to elevate its operations against China in the Himalayas region to the level of its commitment to its maritime Indo-Pacific “tilt.” Included in its recommendations, is fostering the India-China border conflict. Countering China was high on the agenda of the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting on its second day. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Secretary of State Tony Blinken declared before the meeting began today, that NATO is committed to standing together against China, as Stoltenberg bragged that NATO had been training and equipping Ukraine’s armed forces since 2014.

The U.S. military, for the third time, made an ostentatious show of one of its ballistic missile submarines, this time at the U.K.’s military base on Diego Garcia, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Likewise, U.S. Strategic Command reported that earlier in November, it had carried out an exercise, Spirit Vigilance 2022, demonstrating that eight stealth bombers could taxi out and take off at once from a Missouri airfield. 

And they complain that Russian and Chinese strategic bombers flew a joint patrol over the Sea of Japan and the South China sea today? 

Where this is heading, is very, very frightening—and completely unnecessary. Human beings were made for something better; to cooperate in the development of each other, and taking joy in it. Let the citizens of the world take heart and join with the Schiller Institute in establishing a world order worthy of the principle that human beings are capable of governing themselves on behalf of all others. 


Russian Academy of Sciences Linked Sites Publish Schiller Institute Paper on Prospects for a Fusion Energy Economy

Nov. 26 (EIRNS)—Websites associated with Russia’s Institute for Scientific Information on Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INION RAS) have just published the address, titled, “Prospects for a Fusion Energy-Based Economy for the BRICS Nations and Partners,” by Richard A. Black of the Schiller Institute. The address was given at the Oct. 25-26 conference on “Scientific-Technological and Innovative Cooperation of BRICS Countries,” organized by the Russian National Committee on BRICS Research. The conference heard an address also on Oct. 25 by Helga Zepp-LaRouche on prospects and principles for a new international credit system, as designed by Lyndon LaRouche. The Russian websites which have published the paper are “Greater Eurasia: Development, Security, Cooperation” and “The Club of Subjects of Innovative and Technological Development.”  The INION of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which published the speech, is a section of the RAS. Taras Muranivsky, who headed the Schiller Institute in Moscow for many years until his death in 2000, was associated with that section of RAS, and Lyndon LaRouche had addressed it in 1994. 


Over a Million Mexicans March in Support of AMLO’s Government

Nov. 28, 2022 (EIRNS)–President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called a march in Mexico City on Sunday, Nov. 27, to which he would give a report on his government, four years in. An estimated 1.2 million Mexicans turned out, according to the official report by the (pro-AMLO) head of the Mexico City government, Claudia Sheinbaum.

It was a real show of force by AMLO against the neocon-led destabilization of his government. The crowd was very large and very festive, full of mariachi bands and people doing traditional Mexican dances as they marched, with delegations from around the country participating with their signs identifying their city or region. The slogans chanted were simple: “AMLO, you are not alone;” “It is an honor to be with Obrador;” and “Mexico is my party.”

The Schiller Institute was present, using the occasion to advise Mexicans of the nuclear war danger facing the world. As people gathered for the march to start, organizers gave megaphone briefings and distributed 2,000 leaflets next to their very big banner reading, “Citizens of the World: Unite. Stop Nuclear War! For a New World Economic Order. The Schiller Institute,” which they then carried as part of the march. While some were taken aback by the Schiller Institute’s message in the midst of this great fiesta, many people listened carefully to the briefings and were happy to take a leaflet. Many took videos and photos of the banner.

Unlike the march organized against him by the ultra-right opposition three weeks before, which saw perhaps 60,000 in a rich area of the city, when AMLO began his hour and a half speech, Mexico City’s giant Zocalo central square was full. The President began by noting his happiness that the majority of people participating in the march were young people. He reviewed his administration’s efforts, in particular, to “put the poor first,” and push aside the oligarchy’s grip on the government.

The President told the march that Mexico’s foreign policy is one of “non-intervention, self-determination, cooperation for development, and the peaceful solution of disputes; we act on the basis of the ideal of universal brotherhood.”

He also delivered an implicit warning to the rightwing opposition being mounted against him. Mexico is a “sanctuary of freedom” and the right to freedom of speech and dissent today, he said. “For example, here, in Mexico City, a few days ago, without any obstacle, the most famous personalities of the world’s ultra-right held their summit here.” He then added: “We never again wish to apply Article 33 of the Constitution, and we do not want anyone to call anyone a pernicious foreigner.” He did not say, but everyone knows, that Art. 33, which states that “foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country,” grants the President “the power to expel from national territory any foreigner, according to the law, after a hearing.”


China’s Covid Crisis, 1,400 Times Better Than the U.S.’s on a Good Day

Nov. 28, 2022 (EIRNS)–The reality of the COVID-19 situation in China is that new cases/day in China increased from Oct 28 (1,168) to Nov 21 (26,115), and then leveled off in the last week (27,620 yesterday). This very high level (for China) is the equivalent of around 6,500/day in the US, about a sixth of what is reported to be going on in the U.S. today — and the US figure, due to the non-reporting of home testing, is a massive undercount.

Further, since China is testing and tracking so closely, their medical results are even that much more impressive. COVID-19 deaths in China, zero for many weeks, zoomed to 6 in the last week. Compare this to the US in the last week losing around 2,000 people to the virus and Germany around 1,000. Per population, this would be equivalent in China to 8,600 and 17-18,000, respectively; making the performance of the U.S. over 1,400 times worse, and that of Germany 2,800-3,000 times worse — not quite the same ballpark.

What are called two sub-variants (BA.F and BA.5.1.7) of Omicron’s BA.5 variant broke out a month ago. Both sub-variants evade immunity, both from previous infections and from vaccines; and both sub-variants spread faster. So, by November 11, China’s CDC and their Center for Disease Control and Prevention updated their control protocols with 20 adjustments, and ten days later the spread seems to have stabilized.

The faster transmission rate impacted the actions required to both test and track. Some local officials over-reacted with too general, and sometimes unnecessary lockdowns; some did not move hard enough. So, Chinese health officials have sent teams to the regions to work out the bumps in the process. As Wang Liping, from China’s CDC, put it: “Epidemiological investigators, transport staff and nucleic acid testing personnel should cooperate and exchange information, so as to grab the golden window of opportunity of 24 hours to prevail over the virus.” In China, six deaths are a national emergency.


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