Feb. 14, 2026 (EIRNS)—The 141st weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition on Friday, Feb. 13 again brought together hundreds of people from dozens of countries to strategize on ending the depravity of the on-rushing strategic and economic breakdown, and to build a movement of world citizens to create a new architecture of strategic and economic development for all nations. Helga Zepp-LaRouche opened the conference with an overview of the crisis spots currently driving the world to war, noting that the Epstein perversity demonstrates the “mindset” of genocide in Gaza, the multiple wars, and the financial bubble.
Harley Schlanger presented the third part of his profile of the Epstein class of perversity, as it is now threatening to bring down the British institutions which run the British Empire. He emphasized that this must serve as the necessary awakening for world citizens to end imperialism and the treatment of human beings as cattle.
Professor Cliff Kiracofe addressed the role of the British Empire, long a target of the LaRouche movement, as now being exposed as the force at the center of the global crisis.
Luiz Erthal, the editor-in-chief of the Brazilian newspaper Toda Palavra, discussed the role of Brazil and the BRICS in the current process of the Trump Administration’s effort to take control of Ibero-America, and to stop Russian and Chinese development projects in the region.
Further discussion addressed the extreme danger of Cuba being given the “Gaza treatment”; of the history of Franklin Roosevelt’s collaboration with Brazil and others in South America in great development projects; and the de-humanism of the British Imperial mentality of Adam Smith, John Locke and David Hume.
Questions from around the world brought up the necessity to end the imperial policy driving the Trump Administration and the European oligarchs to new wars in the Americas, the Middle East and Asia. Everyone was encouraged to attend the upcoming Schiller Institute meeting of a Roundtable of World Citizens on March 2.
Feb. 6, 2026 (EIRNS)—The 140th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) on Friday, Feb. 6, took up the question of the latest revelations from the files on the Jeffrey Epstein case, and elevated the discussion to consider how to improve the moral character of humanity as part of the IPC mission to efficiently end the danger of war.
Schiller Institute founderHelga Zepp-LaRouche led off by noting that the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty, New START, had expired on the previous day, and it is unclear whether any agreement will replace it. There is a big U.S. Naval armada assembling in the Persian Gulf region, which could presage a strike on Iran and create “unforeseeable consequences.” There is also an “impending Damocles sword” of a general collapse of the financial system. The IPC response includes renewed efforts to re-establish international law, based on the UN Charter, but what is absolutely required is the new global governance system embodied in the Ten Principles put forward by Zepp-LaRouche.
She went on to describe the new environment created by the recent release of additional Epstein files, which she compared to the “Clean Hands” operation in Italy, which was used by the security services to “totally blow up” an existing corrupt system and replace it with an updated version of the same thing. What is actually needed is nothing short of a new Renaissance, and perhaps her proposed global security and development architecture should be updated to include a cultural renewal.
Diane Sare, U.S. independent LaRouche presidential candidate, began by citing the Sept. 2, 1945 remarks by General Douglas MacArthur aboard the USS Missouri after receiving the surrender of Japan, who said that the moral character of humanity must catch up with our incredible advances in science, lest we destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons. She has made three policy proposals:
1.) The United States must declare a doctrine of “no first use” of nuclear weapons, and require that every nuclear-armed nation, including emphatically Israel, must also so declare.
2.) We need a new security and economic development architecture, including a reform of the UN Security Council to reflect the growing influence of the nations of the Global South.
3.) We must join with Russia to build the Bering Strait Tunnel linking Alaska to Siberia, and take up Russia’s Oct. 2011 “Strategic Defense of Earth” proposal to jointly build a system capable of protecting the planet both from missile threats and from threats coming from outer space, such as asteroids.
Sare shared the recent TASS coverage of her presidential campaign, noting her call for a new START Treaty and her association with Lyndon LaRouche, who was widely respected in Russia. She said that people are looking for signs of intelligent life in the United States.
Starting from Scratch on Arms Control
A video presentation by Scott Ritter, former UN weapons inspector, recounted his experience as the first U.S. weapons inspector on the ground in the Soviet Union to implement the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of Dec. 1987 and his role in the development of onsite inspections, which help to establish mutual trust. Even though the New START Treaty regulating strategic nuclear weapons only ended on Feb. 5, 2026, Ritter said that there have been no inspections related to the treaty since 2022, due to sanctions, and no data exchange since 2023. This means “we’re starting from scratch…. Nobody trusts American negotiators.” The world we live in today is one where the threat of nuclear war is greater than it was at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. “We need a leader, and I believe that leader is Diane Sare,” Ritter concluded.
Garland Nixon, veteran progressive radio and television talk show host, who had spent over 20 years in law enforcement, commented on the release of the Epstein files “through the eyes of an investigator.” He said that we should understand that this is a controlled release, designed to emphasize some things and de-emphasize others, so some level of skepticism is appropriate. He said that the revelations of Epstein’s connections to the British Crown are significant, and validate what the LaRouche movement has said for decades about the British Crown’s perfidious role in global politics.
Zepp-LaRouche, in response, asked Nixon to comment on the analogy of the released Epstein files to the “Clean Hands” operation in Italy. He suggested that the Epstein affair is different, because “once it got out of the bag, they lost control.” Sare added that the question is whether human beings are animals, and if they are not, we must find a way to use the revelations to advance our civilization. Nixon called this “a crisis of legitimacy for the ruling elite,” which shows them to be morally unqualified to lead. “How now do we take advantage of an opportunity,” he asked, to replace a rotten system with an actually better one? Zepp-LaRouche said that we must “shed off oligarchism, because this is what this is all about.”
IPC co-moderator Dennis Speed asked Nixon to comment on the role of his mentor, author and historian Paul Robeson, Jr. (1927-2014). Nixon replied by saying that we must rebuild the legacy of Robeson’s father, the noted actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson (1898-1976), in order to “bring the Black community out of this brainwashed anti-Russian” outlook that has been fostered by the Democratic Party apparatchiks.
Nixon went on to describe how Christine Maxwell, twin sister of Jeffrey Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell, cofounded in the early 1990s Magellan, one of the first internet search engines. He noted that Christine later founded Chiliad, a data analysis company based in Herndon, VA, whose software was used by the FBI to establish a counterterrorism data warehouse after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack.
Zepp-LaRouche observed that, in the present political structure of the Anglosphere, corruption is considered mandatory, because corrupt people can be reliably controlled, and people who are not corrupt are a potential threat to the system. With the Epstein revelations, “the gutter of this whole system comes out in the open.”
A brief excerpt from a video interview with former Guyanese President Donald Ramotar, conducted on Feb. 3 by IPC co-moderator and EIR Ibero-American editor Dennis Small, was featured. Ramotar warns that world opinion has not grasped the significance of the expiration of the New START Treaty; “the consciousness is lagging behind the danger” of nuclear war.
Discussion
A peace activist from Germany returned to the question of a cultural renaissance, sharing her experience of attending an event in Berlin for the Chinese Spring Festival, in which a Chinese tenor movingly sang a Lied by Schubert. She also congratulated Nixon for his work to call attention to the importance of Paul Robeson.
In response to another question, Diane Sare described the American population’s changed response to the question of space exploration as a symptom of cultural decline, optimism supplanted by pessimism.
Zepp-LaRouche said that we must “aim to bring politics and economics into increasing cohesion with the laws of the universe.” When you go to a museum, you see evidence of cultures that did not make it, because they failed to do this. As Nicholas of Cusa emphasized, pleasures of the flesh do not satisfy the human spirit: “you will like the sweetness of truth better than a stuffed goose.”
In response to a participant who called for the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump, co-moderator Dennis Small insisted that “the idea of impeaching Donald Trump is insufficiently ambitious … let’s think really big,” by replacing the entire bankrupt system, rather than just focusing on the person in the White House. His view was echoed by Sare, who added that we must give people a positive vision of the future, “an actual human standard.”
A question posed by another participant sparked an extensive discussion of Friedrich Schiller’s conception of man, as opposed to that of Immanuel Kant. Zepp-LaRouche described a singer who sang well, but misbehaved in his personal life. She jokingly urged the singer to reduce the interval between songs to a minimum in order to improve his moral character, underscoring Schiller’s conception of how exposure to beauty can educate the emotions to produce the “beautiful soul.”
In conclusion, Zepp-LaRouche urged that we use “the moment of catharsis”—which we are experiencing with the Epstein event—to launch a new Renaissance. She stressed that “practical” proposals which lack the proper epistemological basis are doomed to fail.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche closed today’s 139th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) with the saying “What you love, you own; What you hate, you lose” by Friedrich Schiller, the namesake of the international institution she had founded in 1984. She reviewed the “incredible danger” of the potential for a war in Iran, which could expand both regionally and globally. Equally dangerous is the explosion of the $2.4 quadrillion debt bubble, being driven by the intentional devaluing of the U.S. dollar, which could facilitate the collapse of the entire world financial system. The newly released US Defense and Security Policies demonstrate that the U.S. policy has dropped the pretense of “democracy and human rights,” and is now purely global hegemony, the power of the strong against the weak. The European economies are now in free fall, and there is a clear danger of a new fascism to meet the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution.
A clip of the presentation given by Graham Fuller at an earlier meeting of the IPC was played in tribute to our dear friend who died this past week. Graham was also eulogized by Dennis Speed, who described Fuller’s development as a leading foreign policy thinker and “world citizen” through his work as a leading CIA official, and later as a member of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).
The next speaker was Lt. Col. Anthony Aquilar, who, after serving in the Special Forces for 25 years went to work in Gaza with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), supposedly to help feed the Palestinian people being killed and tortured in Gaza. Aquilar distinguished himself by becoming a whistle blower around the world, exposing that the GHF was serving as part of the continuing genocide against the people of Gaza. He said he had just returned from Minneapolis where he had campaigned for the abolition of ICE and the abolition of the Patriot Act. The killing and brutal suppression of citizens taking place in Minneapolis was a “boomerang” effect from the multiple wars being carried out around the world, just as Malcolm X had warned that the War in Vietnam was “coming home to roost.” The violence he saw by ICE in Minnesota, he said, was just like the violence he saw in Gaza against the Palestinians. He blamed the poor training and the incompetent leadership, warning that there were already plans under way to extend the operation to Ohio, Georgia and elsewhere. He said he is now running for Congress in North Carolina, because he wants to “serve the people.” He had been speaking and meeting with members of Congress and found them wanting, and that people must try to serve the people, not the military industrial complex or the financial institutions. He said the Patriot Act had opened the gate to expansion, through executive orders, to an emerging police state. “It is time to replace the government,” he said, and called on everyone to take action, to run for office, to speak out, to write – to see this as a “great moment of opportunity.”
Josephine Guilbeau, a retired Army intelligence officer, and a member of the Eisenhower Media Network, has also spoken out against the genocide in Gaza, and also travelled to Minneapolis to protest the brutality and killing by the ICE operation there. She reported that she was arrested in Minneapolis, but was never charged, and was never read her rights, contrary to the Constitution. She said there was essentially no rioting, no damage, yet the ICE response was “military style operations designed for foreign wars, counter insurgency, military suppression before any dialogue.” She warned that there was a “fear society” being created, which was “incompatible with a free society.” The global war on terror was being applied within the U.S.. “I am not speaking out of anger, but out of responsibility,” she said, to prevent the U.S. becoming a “police state, like Gaza.”
Diane Sare of the Schiller Institute, who is a declared independent presidential candidate, reported that she is holding a press conference, the day that the New START treaty expires, noting that Russia’s Medvedev said that this will be the first time in 50 years that there will be no arms control in effect, allowing for a “nuclear gain of function.” Joining her in the press conference will be Scott Ritter and Garland Nixon. She will call for the U.S. to accept Vladimir Putin’s offer to extend the New START treaty for one year while a new treaty is worked out. Trump has given no response to this offer. She is also calling for a “No First Strike” pledge, for the U.S. and for all countries, “including Israel.”
Helga responded to the reports by Aquilar and Guilbeau by asserting that the problem is “vision of man.” It was the British so-called “philosophers” like Thomas Hobbes who argued that man was an animal who required to be restrained by a “Leviathan,” which is why the American Revolution was fought against the British Empire. The ideas of the American Founding Fathers were based on Leibniz, that every man had the right to live a fulfilled, productive life.
Jose Vega, an independent candidate for Congress in the Bronx, which is the “poorest Congressional district in the U.S. ,” asked Aquilar and Guilbeau to comment on the town hall meeting they attended with Jose in the Bronx the night before. Aquilar said that seeing the destruction of the living conditions in the Bronx, while billions of dollars are being spent on war and killing people in Gaza and elsewhere, is “a betrayal of the American people. “Just stop funding wars,” he said, and “audit the Department of Defense.” Guilbeau added that the people attending the meeting understood this.
Diane Sare quoted from an article written by Lyndon LaRouche in 1999 at the time of the Columbine High School mass shooting by two students, titled “Star Wars and Littleton”. There were two factors involved, he wrote – one was the dehumanization that was inculcated in the population through Hollywood, such as the movie Star Wars with non-human characters, the second was the idea of a “rules based order,” in which the “rules” were dictated from authorities, with the idea that breaking the “rules” could be punished, even by death. She compared this to the use of tariffs and sanctions against countries, like the sanctions on Cuba which are intended to starve them and leave them without electricity. America was intended to be governed by Natural law, as embedded in the Constitution.
Former president of Guyana Donald Ramotar praised the former members of the military who were standing up, adding that he perceives that people are changing, they don’t want war or the military industrial complex.
A question was submitted asking why the IPC praises the American Revolution, since it was based on slavery and the genocide against the Indians.
Diane Sare said that was not the basis of the Revolution, but part of the reason people think that is that the histories have generally been written by the “losers – the British.” Hamilton and others knew the nation could not develop with a slave society, and encouraged people to read Hamilton and other Founders. Helga added that the view from the Global South could be seen in the Bandung Conference, where Sukarno said that the American Revolution was “the first anti-imperialist revolution in history.” The British never forgave the colonials for their revolt, and tried to destroy it militarily in the War of 1812 and then by supporting the Confederacy against President Lincoln. “This is also why the German Friedrich List promoted the American System against the British System.
Dennis Small reviewed the catastrophic condition of the global debt bubble, now over $2.4 quadrillion in debt and derivatives, and ridiculed the Trump claim that tariff income will bail out the nation, showing both that the total tariff income is a fraction of the amount Trump was claiming, and that a full 96% of that tariff was actually being paid by the American people through increased prices, while manufacturing continues to collapse.
The 138th consecutive meeting of the International Peace Coalition opened with remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and initiator of the International Peace Coalition. She discussed the implications of President Trump’s speech at Davos, during which he made clear his disdain for international law. She deplored his “typical mafioso-like” statements on Iran.
However, she said, the metaphorical glass is half-full, “maybe more than half-full”, in light of the meeting between Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff with Vladimir Putin in Moscow on January 22, 2026, aimed at advancing a U.S.-backed peace plan to end the war in Ukraine. The meeting was described by the Kremlin as “useful” and “constructive.” What is important is that there is an ongoing dialogue, and the “spirit of Anchorage” has not fallen by the wayside. “If this is continued, it really could shift the balance,” Zepp-LaRouche said.
Russia will provide $1 billion for the reconstruction of Gaza. Putin also joked about the invitation by Trump to join his “Peace Council” with a $1 billion membership fee, saying, “I will pay the one billion, and you can take it out of the frozen assets.” Putin has made the offer to extend the last arms control treaty, START, which is due to expire in a few weeks. There has been no response yet from Trump.
Zepp-LaRouche reviewed some positive initiatives, and praised a new proposal from a French group: a petition to return to the founding charter of the UN, which will be reviewed, edited by IPC participants and brought back for a vote next week.
She was followed by Dr. Ted Postol, MIT Professor Emeritus and one of the world’s leading experts on nuclear weapons. He analyzed “the mythical idea of Golden Dome,” Trump’s proclaimed plan for anti-missile defense. It involves orbiting satellites with interceptors to catch ICBMs in boost phase. “Implicit in this idea is understanding that the existing ground-based systems have little or no capability,” since they can’t tell the difference between warheads and the hundreds of decoys which are deployed during the descent phase. Orbiting satellites have less than three minutes to intercept in boost phase, when the missile velocity is relatively slow and no decoys have yet been released. Their orbit must be low enough to maximize that window of opportunity, which will cause atmospheric drag and the lifespan of the satellite will only be about six years before it falls to earth. You would need 1100-1200 satellites in orbit to even think about an interception of one ICBM. The system scales 1000 to 1 – for a launch of 100 missiles, 120,000 satellites. You could “punch a hole in the Golden Dome satellite constellation” with an interceptor launched from below, “and your launch would go unopposed.”
Postol expressed his concern that “something is different about Trump in the past few months… something more extreme.” He said that some people have suggested that he may have had a minor stroke. “We have a criminal government right now in control of the United States.”
In response to Postol’s demolition of the Golden Dome scheme, Zepp-LaRouche asked, why is there no one in Trump’s team that will tell him this is unworkable? Postol said that people follow orders, they don’t ask questions. What followed was an exchange about the difference between Lyndon LaRouche’s conception of the Strategic Defense Initiative based on “new physical principles”, as opposed to what Reagan’s program became under the influence of LaRouche’s opponents.
Jens Jorgen Nielsen is the Former Moscow correspondent for the Danish daily Politiken, and an author of books on Russia and Ukraine, as well as being Director of the Russian-Danish Dialogue and assistant professor of communication and cultural differences. He addressed the issue of Trump’s desired annexation of Greenland, stressing that Greenland has its own government and people there are very concerned about the possibility of being occupied by US. Some factions there are calling for immediate independence from Denmark; what would Trump do under those circumstances? Most Danes and Greenlanders were not reassured that U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte reached an agreement over Greenland at the World Economic Forum that did not include them.
A short excerpt was presented from a video interview with Alberto Vizcarra, a leader of the National Front for Saving Mexican Agriculture. He described the dire state of Mexican agriculture, where exports have collapsed due to neoliberal economic policies. He went on to review the past proposals of LaRouche for projects in the mutual interests of Mexico and the US. Daniel Burke of the Schiller Institute announced a new international youth class series. He called the youth movement a “crucial strategic flank.”
Discussion
There was a further exchange between Zepp-LaRouche and Nielsen on what Nielsen calls a “law-based order” as opposed to a “rules-based order. Zepp-LaRouche suggested that “rules-based order” sounds like it is based on something arbitrary. They agreed that the abrogation of treaties, combined with the possible stationing of medium-range missiles in Europe, puts the world on edge.
One participant asked how we can we organize against ICE. This provoked several responses. Co-moderator Dennis Speed observed that America has long been a plaything of intelligence agencies, particularly British. What is going on in Minnesota is closely tied to the debacles in US foreign policy. To break from the downward spiral, we need action which is not merely non-violent, but which also poses solutions. The other IPC co-moderator, Dennis Small, stated that the only reason immigration is an issue is that US foreign policy has wrecked the economies of our neighbors to the south, causing waves of refugees.
Regular participant John Steinbach noted that nuclear weapons are never defensive in nature, and ABM systems are intended to block retaliation after a first strike.
Returning to the question of Greenland, Dennis Small said that the question of the Arctic is not merely a military one. It is a golden opportunity for international collaboration on economic development.
Zepp-LaRouche commented that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at Davos has received much favorable attention, but it is a disguised reflection of Chatham House line. She said that he “stated something that was obvious, that rules-based order is a fraud.” However, the he people who are praising him are oblivious to economics, because he was the author of the “reset” policy.
Jan. 16, 2026 (EIRNS)—The 137th consecutive online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) on Friday, Jan. 16, was a strong call to action, with participants from the historic emergency roundtable on Jan. 12 engaging in intense dialogue about the next steps to be taken. The meeting commenced with an update by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who deplored the present situation as one where “might makes right, and international law is buried.”
Fortunately, it seems that the Iranian government has been able to defuse the imminent danger. Former CIA Director Mike Pompeo and the Jerusalem Post have revealed CIA/Mossad involvement in the anti-government demonstrations. Several countries in the region have intervened and asked the U.S. not to attack.
The European situation is tense. Trump has declared that he wants to “own” Greenland, and European leaders are warning that a U.S. military operation there would mean the end of NATO. A German court has ruled, without naming names, that the Nord Stream sabotage in September 2022 was carried out by a foreign state and its intelligence service.
Zepp-LaRouche emphasized the importance of the Emergency Roundtable Dialogue on Monday, Jan. 12, which was titled “It’s Worse Than You Think: The Implications of the Attack on Venezuela & How To Bring the World Back from the Brink”. The meeting produced a draft document with the name “Declaration of January 12” which is currently being reviewed by those participants of the roundtable and will be circulated shortly. She said we must demand from governments an immediate return to international law, and we must build an international civil society organization to step in when governments fail.
Peace and Development
H.E. Donald Ramotar, former President of Guyana (2011-2015), was one of the participants at the roundtable dialogue, and he offered some thoughts on the Declaration. He said that in his view, the economic proposals are important, but the emphasis must be on peace and stopping the danger of nuclear war. In response, Zepp-LaRouche said that decades of organizing have led the Schiller Institute to believe that the only way to successfully mobilize against war is by offering an alternative of economic development. In order to prevent another world war, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had intended the Bretton Woods System to be an engine for development, but those institutions were subverted after his death. Her late husband, Lyndon LaRouche, had authored important economic proposals which were intended to complement the spirit of the anti-colonial Bandung Conference. Ramotar responded by saying he does not disagree that peace and development go together, and that his comments were more of a tactical nature; we must educate the people of the world on the entire spectrum of these ideas, but when we are addressing governments, a more narrow focus is sometimes more effective.
A Call to Activism
María de los Ángeles Huerta is a former Congresswoman of Mexico who also participated in the roundtable. She said that the return to gunboat diplomacy signals the collapse of the old paradigm and the potential for a new one, which must be characterized by sovereignty and interdependence. The Schiller Institute’s World Land-Bridge proposal is an example of what can be done.
Huerta proposed that we focus not only what states can do, but what we the people, organized internationally, can do. She called for the creation of committees that can break the media control and promote the plans like those of the Schiller Institute. The committees can act as watchdogs and whistleblowers, creating a counter-narrative and moving from being spectators of the collapse to being builders of the new order. She proposed the production of a founding video manifesto and a website with an interactive map of committees. The committees can approve and promote the January 12 Declaration.
Dr. Beatriz Bissio, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Postgraduate Program in Comparative History at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil, said, “We live at a moment in history where we can feel that great transformations are underway.” We all understand that the U.S. is a hegemonic power in decline, which is withdrawing from crucial arms control agreements, making it explicit that it is prepared to impose its views by force. She agreed with Ramotar that this is a “mafia-style state.” We cannot rely on the responses of the states, Bissio said, so we must organize civil society as Congresswoman Huerta proposes.
Turning to the issue of Venezuela, she said that Acting President Delcy Rodríguez offers an intelligent response within the constraints of what is possible when confronting a hegemonic power. The Trump administration seeks to expel China from this hemisphere, but almost every country in Latin America has an extremely important relationship with China, for trade and infrastructure building. The red lines that the Trump administration has crossed are not a novelty, but a continuation of a long-term policy.
The left has not been able to exercise as much influence as it had during the heyday of the liberation movements; socialism must regain its appeal as an alternative to capitalism. In Dr. Bissio’s view, the IPC offers ideas which can help overcome “the fragmentation of progressive movements.” She works with a number of leftist/progressive coalitions, as well as with the “Bandung Spirit” organization, which promotes Sukarno’s ideas today, including his call for a reform of the United Nations. She suggested that the UN be hosted by a nation, perhaps in Africa, which is “not contaminated by the Cold War.”
Her remarks were endorsed by moderator Anastasia Battle, who proposed that the IPC begin to collaborate with the organizations she represents and seek other such organizations with which we can collaborate. Bissio noted “this happy coincidence” between the goals of her organizations, and those of the IPC, and said that we need joint work to meet “the demands of this historic moment.”
Returning to the Issue of Economics
IPC co-moderator Dennis Small intervened to say that “this question of economics is being decided for us by reality itself…. One of the most devastating weapons which has already been deployed is financial warfare.” Sanctions against Iran and Venezuela set the stage for instability in those nations. Milei won the presidency in Argentina due to “total financial warfare” from the IMF and others, which created a de facto coup d’état, Small said. The biggest problem that Brazilian President Lula faces is the Central Bank of Brazil, which is run by Wall Street and the City of London, and has very high interest rates and won’t provide credit for development. Brazil is the chief regional target of the oligarchs.
Bissio agreed totally, particularly on the question of Brazil’s central bank. One of the tools of the imperialists is that the media, in a systematic way, attack Lula’s initiatives, using “so-called specialists in the economic field” to avoid exposing themselves as oligarchic agents.
Discussion
A participant submitted a humorous proposal for a novel, in which the U.S. is run by a lunatic, the U.K. by a zombie, and Germany by a werewolf, who changes at every full Moon. He said that it could be a bestseller. The IPC decided this was a fantastic idea, and it will be floated to a few authors for consideration.
A regular attendee sent a question about Peru becoming a target due to the importance of its Chancay port for trade with China. Dr. Bissio commented that the surprising veto by Brazil of Venezuela’s entry to BRICS must be understood as a consequence of the internal conflicts in Brazil. This error was partially corrected by a statement calling the seizure of Maduro a kidnapping. Dennis Small observed that the British rely on the tactic of “divide and conquer,” and therefore, we must respond with Cusa’s “coincidence of opposites.” Peru, he said, should watch out for Nord Stream-style sabotage of Chancay Port. Brazil and Peru must work together, even though they have different political ideologies.
Congresswoman Huerta and Zepp-LaRouche both called for an immediate push to set up a website and the activation of the proposed committees. Ramotar agreed, and added that because of the strategic importance of the U.S., we must support and promote the U.S. Presidential campaign of Diane Sare. The electoral victory of Mamdani in New York City shows what is possible.
In conclusion, Zepp-LaRouche and the other participants of the IPC were set to launch with a call for volunteers to step forward, the creation of various committees, and the establishment of a central website for organizing purposes.
Jan. 9, 2026 (EIRNS)—The 136th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition opened with remarks by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and International Peace Coalition initiator. She warned that, in the wake of Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela, “there is no more international law, and it has been replaced by ‘might makes right’ and the law of the jungle.” She then introduced Dennis Kucinich, former U.S. Congressman from Ohio and former U.S. Presidential candidate. Kucinich said that we are at an inflection point where we will either stand for peace, or watch the world disintegrate around us. He said that in addition to the Venezuela war, the murder of Renee Nicole Good by ICE operatives demonstrates the lawlessness of the Trump administration. This breakdown of order is leading us ever closer to another world war. “We are tiptoeing through the graveyard of history, pretending that a nuclear war can’t happen,” Kucinich said.
Zepp-LaRouche then noted Trump’s announcement that he wants to increase the military budget by 50% to $1.5 trillion, which should be seen in conjunction with the rearmament of Germany and Japan. Both Trump and JD Vance have stated that they want to take Greenland, and the spokeswoman for the Trump administration has statedly plainly that a military option is on the table.
She said it was important not to forget the attempted drone attacks on the residence of Russian President Putin. Europe’s “Coalition of the Willing” wants to station troops in Ukraine after a peace deal, which is “ludicrous” because the potential stationing of NATO troops in Ukraine is what started the war in the first place. She said that the killing of Renee Nicole Good was bad enough, but what was worse was Trump and Vance taking the side of the ICE agent who killed her. “The only tiny element of positive news,” Zepp-LaRouche acknowledged, was the unprecedented public reaction against the sanctions on Swiss Col. Jacques Baud.
Richard Falk is professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories from 2008 to 2014. He analyzed the failure of the postwar framework established in 1945, which allowed the five nations that were winners of the war a privileged position, an unrestricted veto that was not contingent upon international law. There was one rule of law for the winners, and a different one for everyone else, which was “woven into the normative order,” he said. “The Nuremberg and Tokyo trials only held the losers accountable for their crimes.” Trump’s vision for the world is dominated by geopolitics, not the rule of law. The attack on Putin’s residence and the Venezuela intervention were designed to be immune from the restrictions of international law.
Zepp-LaRouche reiterated her view that geopolitics has been the cause of two world wars, and thanked Falk for shedding new light on the problem.
Col. (ret.) Alain Corvez (France), international consultant and former advisor to the French Defense and Interior Ministries, said that there are certain states, particularly the U.S. and Israel, which do not respect the UN Charter, and the Charter is therefore finished. He just returned from Iran, where he saw the unabashed lies of the international media. Life is difficult for the Iranians after 45 years of sanctions, and there are legitimate demonstrations, which the U.S. hopes to harness to make a “color revolution,” which will not succeed.
Prof. Fernando Garzón (Ecuador) is Director of Solidarity with Palestine and former consultant on Defense Policy Strategies. He agreed with Corvez that there are developments in Iran which, like Venezuela, are being misrepresented by the international media.
He described two models: The military operational model which has been increasing, such as in Gaza, and includes the use of AI, typified by Palantir, for military purposes. In Gaza there was a kind of experimentation which is now being applied in Venezuela, not solely by the U.S., but also with coordination with Britain and France.
The second model is governance, where military campaigns are associated with investments. The oil companies had begun to negotiate well in advance of the kidnapping of Maduro. The “Gaza Riviera” scheme, promoted by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff, applies a method where violent military actions are used to impose a business arrangement. An extremely important counterweight to all of this is the BRICS, which is trying to return to a civilized approach.
A snippet was aired of an Interview with Diego Sequera from Venezuela, who said that Americans are suffering economically and fed up with the endless wars. Trump’s oil grab will be financed by taxpayers, not Exxon.
Former Guyanese President Donald Ramotar observed that the Trump administration is trying to destroy the rule of law inside the U.S. itself, using the military domestically under various pretexts. The murder of Renee Nicole Good is one indication. This is contributing to the deterioration in the international situation.
Co-moderator Dennis Small said that the last ten days have seen a phase change, including three major developments: the drone attacks on the President of Russia; the attack on Venezuela and the threats against other nations; and the “cold-blooded assassination” of Renee Good. Small described this as “the Era of Shock and Awe,” the idea that using sheer terror, you can change the way the world functions. They are turning Venezuela, Cuba and others into “Gaza West,” the approach of “complete strangulation.”
U.S. Presidential candidate Diana Sare had announced her candidacy earlier than planned, in response to the Venezuela attack. She said that the CIA was probably involved in the drone attack on Russia’s President, and this was directed at Russia’s ability to respond to a nuclear attack. Russia provided the evidence to the U.S. military. Did Trump fire anyone? No, he went ahead with an attack on Venezuela and seized a Russian tanker.
Small announced that there will be an emergency round table discussion on Monday, Jan. 12 on “How To Bring the World Back from the Brink.”
Discussion
Humanitarian activist Rafed Aljoboury pointed out that the Venezuela attack happened immediately following Netanyahu’s U.S. visit, and asked, why would Iran aid America to suppress the resistance in Iraq? Colonel Corvez replied that the U.S. has always been against Iran. The Iranians did not associate themselves with U.S. in Iraq.
Frequent participant John Steinbach noted that Israel has a long history of acting as a U.S. proxy, collaborating with the worst right-wing regimes and suppressing independence movements all over the world, so this should be understood when we look at Israeli involvement in Venezuela. He asked Professor Falk to compare international law to the so-called “rules-based order.” Falk replied that there is a “geopolitical de facto veto” when we speak of international law.
Small responded to Aljoboury: if we try to go back and re-litigate each dispute among nations, we will lose. We must use the approach of the Treaty of Westphalia. It has always been British geopolitics that has manipulated very real grievances to play divide and rule.
Zepp-LaRouche said that the previously existing order, the attempt to impose a unipolar world, provoked a backlash and now we have chaos. President Putin has called for a new Eurasian Security Architecture, but if you have an order which does not include everyone, it won’t work. She has carefully studied President Xi’s Global Governance Initiative, and approves of it as a starting point for discussion. Her Schiller Institute proposal and the Chinese proposal are the only two universal plans on the table. Either we learn to think of the One Humanity first, or it cannot work.
The following statement has been released for broad international circulation by the International Peace Coalition. Signatures of endorsement can be added by signing below. Contact questions@schillerinstitute.org for more information.
The United States plans to station intermediate-range missiles (such as the SM-6, the Tomahawk, and hypersonic weapons such as Dark Eagle) in Germany as of 2026. These systems are to be deployed by the 56th U.S. Artillery Command, which was reactivated in November 2021 in Wiesbaden. The SM-6 has a range of 370 to 500 km; the Tomahawk cruise missile is capable of penetrating enemy territory at low altitude, and taking out command centers, bunkers and radar installations; while Dark Eagle is a hypersonic weapon with a range of up to 2,700 km, that flies at up to 17 times the speed of sound and is maneuverable as it approaches target. These systems are nuclear-capable and can be launched from Germany against strategic targets deep inside Russian territory, to hit Russian command centers, among other targets.
The decision to install these systems in Germany is a “cuckoo’s egg,” foisted upon then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz on July 10, 2024, at the NATO summit in Washington by President Joe Biden, and then put in President Donald Trump’s nest. Now, it threatens, at the very least, to sabotage the diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine and it could, in the worst case, lead to war in Europe.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin warned at the time, in July 2024, that Russia would take “mirror-image” steps and deploy its own intermediate-range weapons. This could create a situation even more dangerous than what existed in the early 1980s during the medium-range missile crisis, when both Pershing II and SS-20 missiles were permanently put on “launch on warning,” and the warning time from launch to target was reduced to only 4-10 minutes. At that time, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Germany, because they recognized the threat that, with such extremely short warning times, a Third World War, this time a nuclear war, could wipe out the entire human race “by accident.”
Today, the situation is even more dangerous because the communication channels that were in place even during the Cuban Missile Crisis have been reduced to a handful of people. The deployment of these systems will make Germany a prime target for a first strike in any escalation. In that case, Germany will be wiped off the map.
The stationing of such U.S. weapons systems would represent a danger all the greater, as the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” (United Kingdom, France, and Germany), as well as the EU Commission, are on a sweeping militarization drive, ostensibly because Russia is preparing an attack on NATO member states. This assertion is in total contradiction with the statement of U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who said that U.S. intelligence assesses that Russia seeks to avoid a larger war with NATO, which would trigger implementation of NATO’s collective defense clause, under Article 5. She further wrote on X that U.S. intelligence also assesses that Russia’s battlefield performance shows that it “does not currently have the capability to conquer and occupy all of Ukraine, let alone Europe.”
Therefore, the stationing the U.S. weapons systems would have the effect of destroying the chances for a successful outcome of the negotiations between the Trump administration and the Russian government on normalization of relations.
Given the current rapid escalation of the disintegration of the international legal order—in which the principle of “might makes right” has replaced international law, where a genocide identified by the International Court of Justice is committed before the eyes of the world, and drone attacks are occurring, while censorship threatens freedom of expression, civil rights are suspended, and a state of overall lawlessness threatens—this deployment could be the last straw of strategic destabilization.
America is celebrating this year, in 2026, the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence, which sealed its victory in the first anti-colonial war against the British Empire. The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution represent a historic watershed that established the general welfare for the American people and the right to a government committed to that general welfare. In one of the most famous speeches ever given in America, then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams declared on July 4, 1821:
“Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence, has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.”
America not only established, with its Revolution of 1776, the model of a sovereign republic, but also created, with Alexander Hamilton’s “American System of economics,” an economic model that serves the general welfare and has been applied in all countries that have successfully carried out an industrial revolution. Not least, the German economist Friedrich List took up in his writings the fundamental difference between the “American system” and the “British system,” which is solely based on profits for speculators and the financial oligarchy. The history of America since its founding has been marked by the British Empire’s attempts to reverse the success of the American Revolution. After the War of 1812 and the Civil War, in which Great Britain was allied with the Confederate states, proved that this was impossible by military means, British imperial circles repeatedly attempted to persuade the American establishment to adopt the model of the British Empire and establish a unipolar world order based on the special Anglo-American relationship.
The proud occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Republic of the United States should be taken as the occasion to revive the ideals in the tradition of the American Revolution, and in the tradition of John Quincy Adams, to support a partnership of sovereign republics around the world.
We, the undersigned, as German citizens and citizens of other nations, appeal to the sovereign power of the United States of America, the American people, as well as to President Trump and the U.S. Congress, to reverse the Biden administration’s highly dangerous decision, and to not install any new weapons systems on German soil!
Let us revive the German-American friendship in the tradition of Baron von Steuben, Friedrich List, and John F. Kennedy, which applies to all nations on this planet:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Report on the 135th meeting of the International Peace Coalition
The 135th consecutive meeting of the International Peace Coalition on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, began with remarks by its initiator, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who forecast that “2026 will be a year of even more dramatic changes.” The “all-dominating new development,” she said, was the Ukrainian attack with 91 drones on the residence of Russian President Putin. If Putin had been killed, the situation could have spiraled toward World War III. The Ukrainian government denied responsibility, and the CIA supported their claim, but then on Jan. 1, Russia presented evidence in the form of well-preserved navigation systems from drones which had been shot down in the course of the attack. These systems revealed the Ukrainian origins of the attack.
The killing in Gaza and the West Bank continues, she reported, as Netanyahu is feted at Mar-a-Lago. The attack on Venezuela could lead to a continent-wide destabilization. The China-Taiwan situation is worsening. Japan and Germany, two of the Axis powers, are re-arming. All of these developments underline the urgent need for a new Security and Development Architecture.
Flirting with Nuclear War
Wolfgang Effenberger is a German journalist and author of Pax Americana (2004) and The Underestimated Power (2022). He warned that the U.S. has upgraded its military command structure in Germany, which heightens the threat to peace. Despite initial assurances from the U.S. that no missile systems will be stationed there, the German government has announced that such systems are, in fact, on the agenda, including the hypersonic missiles known as “Dark Eagle,” if the U.S. manages to develop them in a deployable form. This poses a threat to Russia, not one of deterrence, but of a potential first strike. He described the short flight time of nuclear missiles from Germany to Russia as “a knife to the throat.” If the INF treaty were still in place, these missiles would have been prohibited, but U.S. President Donald Trump walked away from the treaty. At the end of February we will see the end of the last strategic arms limitation treaty, the START. He cited Theodore Postol’s warnings against backing Russia into a corner with nuclear weapons.
Beto Almeida, a Brazilian co-founder of TeleSUR, and a member of the advisory board for the Brazilian Press Association, reviewed the world’s hot spots, with an initial emphasis on the China-Taiwan tensions and the U.S. assault on Venezuela. He then went on to review the history of how NATO promised Russia that it would not expand Eastward, and then promptly broke that promise. He recalled that State Department functionary and neocon icon Victoria Nuland publicly admitted U.S. involvement with the Maidan coup in Ukraine, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly admitted the West’s fraudulent involvement in the Minsk Accords. He decried the cynicism of Ukraine’s denial of involvement in the drone attack on Putin’s residence, calling it terrorism. The narrative in the West is framed in such a way as to make it appear that the threat is coming from Russia, he said, when the reality is that Russia is under attack. Almeida echoed Trump’s reported remarks in a phone call with Putin, “Thank God we didn’t give them Tomahawks.”
Zepp-LaRouche thanked them for their remarks, underscoring the danger of the current brinksmanship, such as the threats by NATO commanders, including General Christopher Donahue, of an attack on Kaliningrad.
IPC co-moderator Dennis Small observed that the attack on Putin’s residence meets the criterion for a nuclear response under Russian strategic doctrine. The attack could not have occurred without U.S. technical support, and Russian commentators are also increasingly pointing to the British role. The Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) doctrine of deterrence depended upon a “modicum of sanity,” which is no longer present. NATO leaders have stated explicitly that they think they can win a nuclear exchange.
Almeida described it as significant that Russia, which no longer identifies as a socialist nation, has a working partnership with China that is closer than at any time in the past. The Western nations could also change their paradigm to work with new institutions like the BRICS, rather than clinging to “the unipolar position of destroying everything.”
Proposed Initiatives
Zepp-LaRouche proposed that we should use this session of the IPC to launch several initiatives. She suggested that IPC participants should send a letter to Trump, asking him to “discontinue the policies of the Biden administration” and halt the deployment of strategic weapons in Europe. She also proposed a combined endorsement of Xi Jinping’s Global Government Initiative and Pope Leo’s recommendation of Nicholas of Cusa’s method of the coincidence of opposites, using these two kindred conceptions to raise the level of the discussion globally. Almeida suggested that letters be sent not only to Trump, but also to other leaders from around the planet. During the discussion, this sentiment was echoed by other participants. Dennis Small suggested that anyone who does not precisely agree with the wording of the IPC letter should write their own letter.
Many Germans participated in the discussion. Zepp-LaRouche expressed her disappointment in the failure of the German peace movement to mobilize in sufficient numbers to make a difference. She attributed this failure to factional squabbling, and said that we must redefine the debate from a higher vantage point, which is why she proposes a combined endorsement of Xi’s Global Government Initiative and Pope Leo’s recommendation of Nicholas of Cusa’s method of the coincidence of opposites, to free people from the axiomatic trap of geopolitical dogma.
Economic Issues
Questions came in on economic issues, including one about the exposés of corruption in Ukraine and aid monies going to Ukrainian and U.S. officials as kickbacks, and one about the corruption in the war machine economy. Dennis Small responded by saying, “The biggest corruption in the military budget is the military budget itself.” The military industries in the U.S. are owned by the financial speculators. “You’ve got these categories of pure speculation, which is what is destroying the system.”
Contrasting today’s economy with the highly successful period following the passage of the Glass-Steagall Act, Small said that today we have the inverse of Glass-Steagall: Instead of low interest rates to incentivize production and higher rates to discourage speculation, in today’s economy, we reward speculation and suffocate production.
Almeida added that China’s production-oriented economy is a stabilizing influence globally, while U.S. has promoted a destabilizing orgy of speculation.
In her concluding remarks, Zepp-LaRouche said that she had often asked herself, why was the Age of Reason not implemented at the time of Schiller and Humboldt, when it was so widely discussed? She came to the conclusion that science and technology had not advanced to the point where poverty could be eradicated. The average person must have economic security in order to live a life of reason. Today it is eminently feasible to eliminate poverty; the time is ripe for a New Paradigm. We need “this beautiful vision” and we need to “move with power and energy to implement it.”
Dec. 26, 2025 (EIRNS)—The 134th consecutive meeting of the International Peace Coalition opened with comments by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute founder and initiator of the IPC. She emphasized that we are not experiencing a multitude of discrete crises, but rather an “absolute epochal change” as the 500-year era of colonialism comes to an end.
Reviewing the situation in Europe, she said that the neocon narrative that the Russian invasion of Ukraine came out of the blue in 2022, unprovoked and with no prehistory, is no longer viable. The recently declassified conversations between Presidents Putin and George W. Bush simply underscore the fact that this war was entirely preventable. The West obviously knew that the stationing of nuclear- capable missiles along Russia’s borders was crossing a “red line.” The idea that rearmament of Europe is the solution to Europe’s economic collapse is “economic stupidity.” Free speech and free thought in Europe are under attack; the sanctioning of Jacques Baud, a respected and moderate analyst, exemplifies this. Elsewhere in the world, there are big warnings in the Israeli press of renewed aggression against Israel’s neighbors after the Dec. 29th visit of Netanyahu to the U.S., where he hopes to get the green light to attack. She concluded by saying, “We have to convince the Western governments to give up their arrogant idea” that they must dominate the world. We must move from confrontation to cooperation. 2026 will be a year of decision. Rachel Clark, interpreter, consultant, and international coordinator between Japan and the United States, is a longtime activist for Veterans for Peace. She reminded the participants that the Ukraine war began at the latest in 2014, with the attack on eastern Ukraine by the Kiev regime which killed 14,000 Ukrainians. Keeping this fact in mind, she reported that the remilitarization of Japan, carried out despite that nation’s postwar constitution, was instigated by pressure from the U.S. during the wars in Korea and Vietnam. The U.S. military is effectively an occupation force in that nation. Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, which formally renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation and prohibits the use of force to settle international disputes, has been overridden, despite protests by the Japanese populace. The power of the U.S.-Japan Joint Committee makes Japan’s elected legislature, the Diet, into a Kabuki Theater. Japan, which has a land area equivalent to California, has 350 military installations. Japan may be used as a sacrificial pawn in a proxy war, much like Ukraine. Japan has become the “poster child of Operation Mockingbird,” referring to the CIA project of planting propaganda in corporate media news reports; the media do not report on U.S. provocations toward China, but cover China’s responses as if they were unprovoked. A video was presented with highlights from the Dec. 14 youth conference of the Schiller Institute, featuring remarks from Helga Zepp-LaRouche, former South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor, South African Ambassador to Mexico Beryl Sisulu, former Chief of Staff of the Senegalese Air Force Alain Charlemagne Pereira, and youth from a broad spectrum of African nations, Southwest Asia, and Japan. Larry Johnson, former CIA intelligence official and a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) asserted that there will be no agreement on Ukraine; the demands of the Ukrainians and Europeans are at odds with Russia’s conditions for peace negotiations, which are that the West recognize the territories formerly in Eastern Ukraine as part of the Russian Federation, and that there be no NATO presence in Ukraine. Demilitarization and Denazification, the original stated goals of the Special Military Operation, are still in place and non-negotiable. The Ukraine war will be settled on the battlefield, Johnson insisted, and Europe is irrelevant. Europe is no longer the world’s center of science and industrial production—there is nothing that they can offer that other countries need. The Russians are sitting on the sofa with a big bag of popcorn, watching the U.S. and Europe quarrel.
Regarding Venezuela, he pointed out that it is three times the size of Vietnam; the U.S. does not have the military capability to invade and control it. “I have no idea why we have chosen Venezuela to be the so-called hill to die on.” The U.S. is not in a position to achieve its goals through the use of military force.
Dialogue
Zepp-LaRouche thanked Rachel Clark and insisted that we must somehow ensure that the true history of World War II is communicated to young people. Larry Johnson reminded the participants that Japan and Germany, which are now re-arming, were the axis powers in World War II. Our governments try to depict Russia and China as imperialist aggressor nations, but it is the West which has blood on its hands from innumerable conflicts it has initiated. Trump is boasting about his plan for “Trump-class” naval vessels, but he apparently hasn’t heard about hypersonic missiles. The U.S. Navy could not stand up to the Houthis—how can they challenge China?
Zepp-LaRouche said that she cannot accept the prospect that Germany will go down in history as a nation which “just couldn’t make it, like the Incas or the Mayans.” Larry Johnson said he had never seen such a disconnect between the wishes of the populace in Europe and the U.S., and what their leaders are doing.
Congressional candidate Jose Vega presented the video of his Dec. 23 intervention on Ritchie Torres, which has been seen by roughly 2 million people on assorted platforms. “These people are not authorities, they are clowns and should be addressed as such,” he said. Open Discussion
Frequent IPC participant John Steinbach recalled his long-working relationship with Rachel Clark, and observed that Japan has one of the world’s largest stockpiles of plutonium and an “off the shelf” capability of building nuclear weapons in a relatively short interval of time. Clark proposed that port cities around the world collaborate to ban military vessels from their harbors if they are carrying nuclear weapons.
A question came in from an online viewer: “How do you end poverty under capitalism?” Zepp-LaRouche said that there is no poverty eradication program in either Europe or the U.S., as opposed to China, where it has been successful: In fact, China is responsible for 60% of poverty eradication worldwide. Later, co-moderator Dennis Small stressed that it is important to define what we mean by “capitalism.” Do we mean financier speculation, or do we mean the American System approach typified by Alexander Hamilton, which is very similar to what China is doing today?
Rachel Clark said that we should stigmatize those corporations that profit from war, and pressure companies like Raytheon or Lockheed Martin to retool for civilian production. Part of the enormous U.S. military budget should be diverted to enable high school students to visit the world outside the U.S., an invaluable educational experience.
Clark said this meeting gave her optimism and we must inspire younger generations to lead the fight for peace. Zepp-LaRouche recounted how she was shocked during her first visit to the U.S. at the way Germans were depicted in shows like “Hogan’s Heroes.” She proposed that we encourage a major project for young people to visit actual historical archives, rather than relying on the narrative factory in the popular media. We must persuade the citizens of our nations that they are responsible for changing the policies of their nations: “It is possible to defeat even the strongest arm of the tyrant, if they unite for a good plan.”
Dec. 19, 2025 (EIRNS)—The 133rd consecutive weekly Friday meeting of the International Peace Coalition took place on Dec. 19. Helga Zepp-LaRouche started the event detailing the tumultuous nature of the period. She noted that the European Union has failed in its plans for financing the Ukraine war against Russia. The best that the EU could accomplish is to borrow €90 billion at taxpayer expense, in order to lend this to Ukraine, for Ukraine to turn around and pay back the €45 billion that it already owes to the EU. This is one giant Ponzi scheme which will not advance the war effort since Ukraine has no more soldiers left to fight. This is destroying any remaining unity of the EU with countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and others resisting this insanity.
Threats to steal the Russian frozen assets puts the entire financial system at risk of collapse. The 16-hour EU meeting was a scene of great desperation where representatives were not allowed to leave until a plan was agreed upon. As confirmed by media reports, the Ukraine war could have been prevented in 2020 if Ukraine would have simply agreed to no membership in NATO. Zepp-LaRouche spoke of the danger of war in Venezuela, saying that it would be a disaster. This insanity is splitting the MAGA base since Trump had campaigned against more foreign wars. She spoke of the EU sanctions against Swiss author Jacques Baud for the “crime” of refusing to repeat the official narrative. This violation of free speech is contrary to the Charter of the UN, EU, and the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. Zepp-LaRouche warned that the EU may try to impose sanctions against Pope Leo for having spoken against war. She warned of the dangerous comments by Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chairman of the NATO Military Committee, who argued for a “pre-emptive strike” by NATO against Russia, or other NATO messaging that the nature of man is war. Zepp-LaRouche rejected these claims completely and called on everyone to build support for her call to dissolve NATO. She called upon the world’s youth to join together to end war and build a new paradigm of development. She said that the establishment has no right to take away the future of mankind.
Jack Gilroy spoke next about his theology of resistance. Gilroy has been active with Veterans for Peace and Pax Christi for years. He gave a quick history of geopolitics starting with his experience in 1955 as part of NATO troops on the border of Czechoslovakia, where he and his fellow soldiers knew that they were “sacrificial lambs” if any fighting erupted. In October 1962 war was prevented during the Cuban Missile Crisis due to the negotiating between Kennedy and Khrushchev, with help from Pope John XXIII. In June 1963, and again in June 1963 President Kennedy spoke of disarmament at American University and in September at the UN. JFK also said that he wanted to shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces. When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, many spoke of the potential for industrial conversion for peaceful purposes, but the “merchants of death” needed to keep Russia as an enemy. In 2014 the CIA overthrew the elected government in Ukraine to help create the war against Russia. Stocks soared for the merchants of death when Russia invaded Ukraine. NATO put the entire world in a new Cuban Missile Crisis in 2024 by delivering long-range missiles in Ukraine. It is time that we move away from the lie that militarism gives us security. The only true security comes from development and justice. Gilroy said that the future will see the true heroes of this period are JFK, Pope John XXIII, and Lyndon LaRouche. In the question period Gilroy also spoke of the Raising Together Theater which addresses issues of peace and justice.
Dennis Small spoke of the fight inside the White House over going to war with Venezuela. The war faction is led by the evil Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security, and the very ambitious Secretary of State Marco Rubio. These two are pushing Trump into a trap. Small then compared the imperial wars and colonial looting represented in the recently issued National Security Strategy document, compared to the economic development and cooperation in China’s recent statement on Latin America and the Caribbean. The NSS document states that the U.S. must dominate the world and its security depends upon not allowing any nation or group of nations to become strong enough to represent a threat. However, China speaks of “universal security,” common goals, and cooperation. In particular China uses the term, “trilateral development” in which China invites the U.S. to join in in developing Latin America. The NSS document rejects this offer and insists that the U.S. has sole access to the region’s resources and all other countries be pushed out of the area. Small listed the major projects in South and Central America that China has completed or were sabotaged by the U.S.
Professor Eduardo Siqueira of UMass-Boston said that there is too much focus on war instead of peace. He said that the recent NSS document put on paper what many leaders in Ibero America already knew, that the U.S. intends to use “gunboat diplomacy.” The U.S. will force countries to act against their own interests. This has been the U.S. policy in Venezuela since Hugo Chávez took power. In order to remove Chávez and his followers from power, the U.S. attempted a coup, it bribed Venezuelan military leaders to overthrow the government, it used mercenaries in Colombia, and it created artificial candidates such as Juan Guaidó and María Machado. While the U.S. threatens to attack Nicolás Maduro for alleged drug ties, the U.S. pardoned former Honduran President Juan Hernández. Siqueira said that the U.S. is using the CIA and the National Endowment for Democracy to create puppet regimes, but the big target is Brazil. Stephen Miller changes the narrative every day with new lies, but the plan remains to stop the influence of China and the BRICS nations. Siqueira said that whenever an empire is in decline, it becomes desperate. Jack Gilroy said that he had visited Venezuela several times and was impressed with the Cuban doctors who would go to the poorest neighborhoods to care for the forgotten people.
There were several young speakers who attended the November Schiller youth conference in Paris and the International Youth Conference on Dec. 14. Tim from Uganda spoke calling on all the youth of the world to unite for development to stop wars. Tim said that when Africa is free, then the world will be free. Estevao from Brazil spoke of the urgency to use the principles of the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia to take into account the interests of the other in achieving peace. Estevao went through the Dec. 14 Schiller youth conference with 150 youth from 37 countries, where issues such as the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act could be used to put credit into production instead of speculation. Carla from the Bronx spoke of her organizing student groups around the great projects such as the Bering Straits project and the Oasis Plan, which could bring peace through development, by which she generated an exciting response.
The question period was more of a dialogue. Several people suggested that everyone pick a reading list for the holiday period, but Dennis Small pointed out that several suggested books failed to address the higher principle of the “one humanity.” Small said that people should master the works of Lyndon LaRouche to maximize their impact as organizers. Clearly we all need to act morally, but Small said that only if we educate ourselves can we be effective. When asked about how to change the U.S., Zepp-LaRouche said that Americans need to know their “pre-history,” going back to at least to Paolo Toscanelli. There is a more universal history and she was most concerned about any shift to a chauvinist outlook. American elites have adopted a British colonialist policy as shown by H.G. Wells’ “Open Conspiracy.” Zepp-LaRouche concluded with her call for building support for her statement to “Withdraw from NATO” and reading LaRouche’s works, namely “On the Historical Individual” and “Secrets Known Only To the Inner Elite.”
