International Peace Coalition

International Peace Coalition March 1 Meeting Warns, ‘We Are Sitting on a Powder Keg’

March 2, 2024by madeleine in Activity of the Schiller Institute, General, Global Diplomacy, International Peace Coalition, Our initiatives (petitions, etc)

by Daniel Platt

March 1, 2024 (EIRNS)—The International Peace Coalition (IPC) met today for its 39th consecutive weekly organizing discussion. Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche warned that “the situation is moving from horrible to worse….” Reviewing the events of the previous few days, she called attention to the massacre where Israeli troops opened fire on hundreds of starving Palestinians who were waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City, killing 120 and wounding 750 on Feb. 29. In response to Israel Defense Forces statements that their soldiers felt threatened, she said, “I can’t imagine how starving people can be a threat to a highly weaponized army.”

This event occurred a few days after Aaron Bushnell self-immolated outside the front gate of the Embassy of Israel in Washington, D.C, in protest against the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Also during the past week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague heard from 50 nations on the legal consequences of Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation” of the occupied territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, but will not render judgement until the summer.

Discussing the Likud regime’s apparent objective of driving the Palestinians over the border into Egypt, Zepp-LaRouche warned that this violates the tenets of the Camp David Accords and opens the door to a wider war. Under these circumstances, the implementation of the Oasis Plan, as proposed by her late husband, Lyndon LaRouche, in 1975, becomes more urgent than ever before, because if you don’t inject hope into the situation, she said, there is no remedy for the rapidly worsening regional conflict.

Turning to the Ukraine war, she said that the danger there was greatly escalating, bringing us even more quickly to a possible global war. French President Macron has proposed to send NATO troops into Ukraine, while retired German General Harald Kujat recently charged that there are already NATO troops in Ukraine (in the role of “advisors,” as was the case with the initial American involvement in the Vietnam War.) German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has refused to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine, because their 500-km range would enable direct attacks on Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin warns of possible nuclear war, but the Western press pooh-poohs his warnings. Russia Today has released the full text of what is claimed to be a discussion by senior German military officers on how to attack the Crimean Bridge in Russia. Russia’s government press spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, is said to have demanded an explanation.

Zepp-LaRouche concluded by saying that the only good news she could offer was the election victory of George Galloway, who just won a seat in British Parliament on the issue of opposition to the war in Gaza.

Jacques Cheminade, who leads the Solidarity and Progress Party in France, commented on the declaration by Macron on sending NATO troops to Ukraine, saying that it has been judged insane by a majority of French population. “He’s like a little dwarf playing with fire,” said Cheminade. Illustrating the absurdity of the situation, he reminded the discussion participants that Europe is still importing Russian LNG and enriched uranium. According to experts, the French, and probably also the German, armies are capable of fighting a war with Russia for only seven days.

Dr. James Cobey, who shared in the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines, described his project to create a “Palestinian Embassy” in Washington, D.C., which he called a potential “AIPAC for Palestine.” His partner in this effort is Miko Peled, the son of an Israeli general who fought in the 1967 Six Day War, but then became an advocate for an Israeli dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization after the Israeli cabinet ignored his investigation of a 1967 alleged Israeli war crime.

Next the participants viewed a video presentation by Nazih Musharbash, President of the German Palestinian Society. He said that the Jan. 26, 2024, ICJ Order of provisional measures to prevent genocide is being rejected by Israel. Israel is pushing the Palestinian population from one place to the next, bombing them, cramming them into impossibly small places. Prime Minister Netanyahu thinks that if UNRWA is cancelled, the Palestinian “Right of Return,” as guaranteed under point #5 of the Oslo Accords, will no longer be a problem. The IDF’s destruction of Hamas means that there is no functioning government. Regarding the massacre near Gaza City, he wryly observed that “warning shots are normally fired into the air.”

IPC Coordinator Anastasia Battle presented a report on the upcoming Interfaith , “Emergency Conference for Peace in Gaza” in Detroit. In the Michigan Democratic Party presidential primary elections, a campaign was launched for voters to vote “uncommitted” rather than endorse Biden’s enabling of genocide in Gaza. This resulted in 101,000 uncommitted votes. The next step being planned is a National Day of Action on March 2, to coincide with the Interfaith Meeting.

Executive Intelligence Review Ibero-American Intelligence Director Dennis Small called attention to Brazilian President Lula’s charge that Israel was committing genocide, and his stalwart refusal to “walk back” this accusation. He read an excerpt from a recent statement by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry: “Even so, the inaction of the international community in the face of this humanitarian tragedy continues to serve as a veiled incentive for the Netanyahu government to keep targeting innocent civilians and ignoring basic rules of international humanitarian law.”

Two activists from the UK explained the significance of the landslide victory of George Galloway and the Workers’ Party, who campaigned in opposition to the genocide in Gaza. The British government is trying to suppress growing public protests, calling them a threat to public safety, but there has been no violence. Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman tried to ban them, saying they are antisemitic. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is saying that the demonstrations support terrorism. One of the activists charged that the UK is “a creeping police state.”

An organizer for Veterans for Peace reported on their campaign to circulate a letter, which demands that the U.S. State Department terminate weapons shipments to Israel, and calls on the Inspector General to investigate alleged criminal acts by senior Biden administration officials.

A ghastly video was shown to the discussion participants, a one-minute animation that is being broadcast on German state public television and is targeted at German children, in which talking cartoon representations of cruise missiles debate which of them would be the most effective weapon against Russia. Helga Zepp-LaRouche characterized it as part of the complete indoctrination of the population to prepare them for a coming war.

In concluding remarks, Zepp-LaRouche said that many people think the Zionist Lobby controls the U.S. But, as her late husband always said, the U.S. establishment uses Israel as a hand grenade to destabilize the region. The reason is geopolitical, a scheme to destabilize the region in order to contain the rising global majority.

Returning to the grim situation in her native land, she said, “Germany is right now like a hermetically sealed country. You cannot say anything…. We are sitting on a powder keg, and the ordinary population has no clue.” She urged all participants to organize prominent individuals to endorse the Oasis Plan.

IPC Meeting: Only Through Development Will Mankind Defeat the ‘Structures of Sin’

February 24, 2024by madeleine in Activity of the Schiller Institute, General, Global Diplomacy, International Peace Coalition, Our initiatives (petitions, etc)

by Kevin Gribbroek

The opposite of destruction is love. And what more loving could you do than to create the conditions for every living human being on the planet to fulfill the potential of their life.
Helga zepp-larouche

The 38th meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC), convened on Feb. 23, was a demonstration of why this deliberative body is uniquely suited to address and solve the crises threatening to plunge mankind into a prolonged new Dark Age or even thermonuclear Armageddon. Whereas most forum discussions on the issues of Gaza, Ukraine or any other conflict—be it mainstream or alternative media—are reduced to explanations of why one side is good and the other evil, much of the IPC meeting was devoted to deliberation over the true definition of good and evil from a philosophical standpoint. This proved very fruitful in helping participants to reach a higher-level understanding of why the Oasis Plan and economic development per se are so crucial to the survival of the human race.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche opened the proceedings by focusing on the incredible rift taking place between the Global South and the “tiny minority” of the Global North over particularly the conflict in Gaza. Exemplary of this rift is the recently concluded G20 meeting in Brazil where the U.S. and other Western countries refused to sign a common declaration because both Brazil and South Africa insisted that it include language denouncing the genocide in Gaza. Another highlight of this rift is the ongoing hearings at the World Court, where one nation after another has condemned Israel for its actions against the Palestinians. Ma Xinmin, Legal Advisor to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, called Palestine “a litmus test for the collective conscience of humanity….”

Zepp-LaRouche continued by pointing out the insanity of Western leaders, who, despite the impossibility of Ukraine winning the war, are demanding that more long-range weapons be sent to the Zelensky regime for striking deep inside Russian territory. These leaders seem incapable of thinking about the consequences of their actions; that this could lead to World War Three! Because the strategic situation is so dangerous, it requires that the IPC mobilize that much harder to “offer solutions to an otherwise seemingly unsolvable conflict.” The way to free Palestine is the Oasis Plan because it would transform the entirety of Southwest Asia into a prosperous economic hub between Asia, Africa and Europe—a solution of optimism in the best interests of Israel, Palestine and all their neighboring countries. A similar approach is needed for Ukraine. Only a new paradigm of cooperation on economic development is capable of ending the cycle of violence.

The next speakers, Alan Rivera and Gerardo Castilleja of the Schiller Institute in Mexico, recounted a recent intervention they made at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where they went from classroom to classroom briefing students and professors on the Oasis Plan. One professor even allowed them to show the Oasis Plan video. They then attended a campus ceasefire rally where they encountered a group of old American “lefties” repeating the same empty-headed “anti-imperialist” slogans from 40-years past with no comprehension of how to overturn the system to which they are opposed.

Dr. Mohammad Toor, Chairman of the Pakistani American Congress, stressed the necessity of peace through economic development. Weak countries must develop themselves so they do not fall prey to stronger nations. There are enough resources on the planet so that every nation can develop and become prosperous.

A university professor in Michigan spoke of the fear that permeates campuses, particularly concerning the Gaza issue. Despite a very large Arab and Muslim student body in the state, students and faculty alike feel they cannot express their emotions and feelings—they can’t advocate for what they feel is right. A large number of the students are Palestinian or have friends that are Palestinian, many of whom have lost family members in Gaza. To help people overcome this fear, the professor is organizing an arts and cultural event with the belief that, under conditions of oppression, the only way to speak up is through the arts.

The next speaker, Jack Gilroy of Veterans for Peace, reported on an initiative to deliver a document that outlines the crimes committed by Israel and the U.S. in Gaza to every State Department office in the U.S. The document warns State Department officials that they are complicit in criminal activity—the murder of thousands of people in Gaza—and could be prosecuted for these offenses.

During the discussion period, a profound dialogue was initiated by Father Harry Bury on the nature of good and evil. He challenged two fundamental beliefs that he views as obstacles to bringing about the objective of peace through development: The first is that there are evil people in the world. Father Bury believes that this is false; that there are good people that do evil things because they don’t know any better. These people must be educated to know what is good. The second belief is that the best way to prevent evil is through punishment. This is proven wrong by a worldwide recidivism rate of 80-85%. “Justice is not vengeance; justice is not getting even; justice is restoring the evil doer” according to Bury. Zepp-LaRouche, although agreeing in principle that people are fundamentally good, had one point of disagreement: Given that the human species is endowed by the Creator with free will, why is it that some people are quite capable of comprehending that what they are doing is evil but do it anyway? Why have they decided to be on the side of Satan?

The Michigan professor offered an idea, expressed in a book titled Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt, that evil is the absence of empathy; the inability to see others as equal with oneself. Zepp-LaRouche fully concurred with this view and explained Friedrich Schiller’s belief that only through the aesthetic education—education rooted in noble and sublime concepts—are people elevated to the level of reason.

Dennis Small of the Schiller Institute pointed out that to defeat evil one must put the City of London/Wall Street financial system through a complete bankruptcy reorganization, because that entire system is evil—what Pope John Paul II called the “structures of sin”—and creates the circumstances for evil policies to be carried out. As long as that system prevails, it will obstruct the potential to bring about the good in people. While the Boycott-Divest-Sanction (BDS) movement is fine, if you really want to go after the root of the problem you must take on the financial system.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche concluded the meeting by expressing her profound belief that “poverty is the greatest violation of human rights you can imagine”—children growing up hungry with no education are being robbed of their humanity. The only way to solve the crises of Gaza and Ukraine is through a discussion of how to develop these impoverished regions, something which is eminently doable. In history’s past, the areas of Central and Southwest Asia were developed: Baghdad was the greatest city in the world; Afghanistan was the land of a thousand cities; Syria was part of the Silk Road. “If we connect this great tradition of the past with a vision for the future, if that becomes the motivation of all the people involved, I think we can bring this to a much more beautiful epoch in history.

Humanity Must Have a Vision for the Next Billion Years – International Peace Coalition Meeting

February 23, 2024by madeleine in Global Diplomacy, International Peace Coalition, Our initiatives (petitions, etc)

This article appears in the February 23, 2024 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

by Kevin Gribbroek

We have reached a point in history, where because we are sitting in one boat, we must step up to the level of reason, of finding a solution for the entire human species.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche

Feb. 16—The 37th meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC), convened Feb. 16, 2023, was devoted to fighting the pragmatism which infects the minds of most people in today’s society, which prevents them from conceptualizing higher-level solutions to the grave crises threatening mankind. People are often blinded by the particulars of the various conflicts—Gaza or Ukraine—robbing them of the ability to envision a means of resolving them, which would require simultaneously taking into account the needs of every single nation on the planet. This was the challenge taken up with the showing to the IPC of the new video: “The Oasis Plan—LaRouche’s Solution for the Middle East,” produced by The LaRouche Organization.

*A map of LaRouche’s peace and development solution for Southwest Asia, “The Oasis Plan.” The IPC was challenged to circulate the new video of the plan produced by The LaRouche Organization.*

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the IPC, opened the proceedings with a strategic overview, pointing out that in Germany the annual meeting of the Munich Security Conference was taking place. This conference, in the past a forum for finding solutions to critical security issues, has now degenerated into a public relations event for the military-industrial complex—the tone of the event being that of confrontation, not diplomacy. One exception was António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, who made clear that 1.4 million Palestinians are facing an unimaginable destiny in Rafah. Also, the President of Ghana spoke, demanding a just new economic order, saying it cannot continue that one part of the world lives in wealth and the other part is faced with starvation.

Zepp-LaRouche continued by reporting on the 52 countries that will testify before the World Court in The Hague for one full week, starting Feb.19, on the subject of a UN General Assembly resolution of Dec. 30, 2022, alleging human rights violations against Palestinians by the Israelis over a period of 55 years. This is good, she said, but something much more fundamental is needed: Unless the hopelessness of the situation is changed, a solution can’t be found. This is why Lyndon LaRouche’s 1975 Oasis Plan for economic development of the entire region is so crucial. Unless you kick over the table of geopolitics—which the Oasis Plan would do—and go into a new paradigm of development, there is no hope.

Zepp-LaRouche emphasized the importance of “flooding the zone”; getting the Oasis Plan video out far and wide. With that, the video was shown.

Jason Ross, Executive Director of The LaRouche Organization and producer of the video, then fielded questions from IPC participants. Ross opened by making the point that charting a path toward peace sometimes requires changing the terrain. Under the current paradigm of “hegemonism,” there is no possibility of peace. There are two aspects of this paradigm which must be changed: The UN has estimated that it will cost $20 billion to reconstruct Gaza, and that it would take until 2092. This monetarist conception doesn’t take into account the necessity of transforming not only Gaza but the entire region in a way that benefits all people.

The other aspect is the problem that there are people who oppose war, who also, at the same time, whether they know it or not oppose peace. Ross used energy policy as an example: The Oasis Plan calls for nuclear power as the most efficient means of generating energy. Regrettably, many of the people who oppose war also have a Green, anti-growth Malthusian ideology and are opposed to nuclear energy. This ideology will doom people to poverty and unnecessary death, preventing the establishment of a new paradigm of peace through economic development. Ross concluded his remarks by stressing that the Oasis Plan is not contrary to the necessity of a ceasefire.

A participant from the UK sparked a very useful discussion with a question on how to finance development outside the conditionalities that enslave countries to Western finance. Ross explained that there is a new paradigm of lending outside of the IMF/World Bank policy of debt slavery, focused on lending for real physical economic development. This type of lending is being carried out by the African Development Bank, the New Development Bank, and various Chinese banks that are financing the many Belt and Road Initiative projects worldwide.

Dennis Small of the Schiller Institute added that, operating under the current bankrupt trans-Atlantic financial system, U.S. and British banks will lend for real development only after Hell freezes over. With $2 quadrillion of financial aggregates on their books, Western banks lend for one purpose: more speculation. The aim of this type of lending is to ensure that no physical economic development occurs and to impose Malthusian genocide particularly on poor nations of the world. Those who attack China—an integral part of this new lending paradigm—need to explain how China succeeded in lifting 850 million of its people out of extreme poverty.

Bob Cushing of Pax Christi began by reading from the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 58, Verses 6–14, on the topic of fasting. Then, after adding a quote from peace activist and columnist Frida Berrigan, he concluded, “Here’s the ‘to do list’ now: Release the prisoners; set free the oppressed; share your food with the hungry; open the doors for the homeless; clothe the naked; end the wars. Now let’s get to work!”

Dennis Speed of the Schiller Institute emphasized that with the proceedings before the World Court starting Feb. 19 on behalf of the UN General Assembly (mentioned above), a “field of action” has been made available to us for escalating our intervention into the strategic situation.

Alejandro Zenteno Chávez of Mexico’s Reason and Thought Society offered greetings to the IPC and stated his belief that the Oasis Plan provides a path to a solution for the whole world.

In her concluding remarks, Helga Zepp-LaRouche took the IPC participants on a tour of the “long arc of history,” noting that there have been several “high periods of human civilization” from Confucianism in China through the Greek Classical period to the Italian Renaissance and the American Revolution. However, throughout this historical arc, the dynamic was such that one area of the world could be experiencing a renaissance while another was in a dark age. Today that is no longer the case. Humanity is sitting in one boat: nuclear weapons would destroy everyone; the internet allows global connectivity; because of air travel, pandemics affect the whole world. Zepp-LaRouche expressed her conviction that because of this dynamic, regional solutions to crises won’t work.

Although nations will continue to be important, a paradigm must emerge that does not allow the interest of any one nation to be put above the interest of humanity as a whole. Common economic development among nations makes this possible. A discourse is necessary to establish a vision for how to preserve our immortality as a species—not only here on Earth but throughout the galaxy—given the reality of the inevitable demise of our solar system over the next billion or so years. With the gigantic vacuum of leadership in the North Atlantic, our task is to bring the idea of the new paradigm into the public discourse. This includes “flooding the zone” with the Oasis Plan. A handful of leading people coming out in support of the new paradigm could spark a renaissance and spread it like wildfire.

International Peace Coalition Meeting

February 10, 2024by Mary Jane Freeman in General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, International Peace Coalition, Our initiatives (petitions, etc), Palestine, Russia, World war danger updates

A Transformation of the Moral Universe is Required

Feb. 9—This week’s online meeting of the International Peace Coalition began with moderator Anastasia Battle observing that the Coalition has now met for 36 consecutive weeks without interruption. She announced that a major focus of the Coalition’s activity will be to build a mass mobilization to restore funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which has been the target of undocumented allegations by the Likud regime in Israel and its neocon supporters in the US, UK and elsewhere.

Opening remarks were made to the meeting by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche. She said that the most breathtaking and horrible development in Gaza has been Netanyahu’s rejection of the offer by Hamas for a release of hostages, and the announcement that the IDF will attack the town of Rafah. 1.5 million Palestinians who have been forcibly displaced from other parts of Gaza have been herded into a small area in Rafah, from which there is no escape. An IDF assault on these refugees will result in dreadful carnage. Zepp-LaRouche also commented on the efforts to disable UNRWA, noting that UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called it “irreplaceable” and that if you defund it, you “condemn the people who depend on it to death.”

Even in U.S. establishment circles, she said, there is some recognition that this can’t go on forever. She mentioned an article in Foreign Affairs titled “Israel’s Self-Destruction,” which concludes by saying that Israelis must reach out to Palestinians, and to each other (because of the highly factionalized situation in Israel.)

Zepp-LaRouche reminded the participants that although the Palestinian situation is most urgent, we must keep in mind that there is a danger of escalation to global war unless we can implement a new security and development architecture like the one she proposed in November of 2022. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó recently warned of this exactly: if one more major conflict is added to the ones in Ukraine and Southwest Asia, it can mean global war. Zepp-LaRouche said that the most significant aspect of the celebrated Tucker Carlson interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has already been viewed by at least 120 million people, is that Putin and Russia have at no point closed the door to cooperation with the West.

Greetings to the attendees were offered by South Africa’s ambassador to Mexico, who was thanked by the members of the Coalition for South Africa’s important contribution to the pursuit of justice for Palestine.

Former CIA analyst and Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) cofounder Ray McGovern presented an analysis of the Tucker Carlson interview. He reminded the participants that U.S. President Eisenhower had warned that the military-industrial complex will succeed in dominating American policy if Americans are uninformed. Further, he said, one man who succeeded in making a dent in the otherwise pervasive climate of enforced ignorance was Julian Assange. Tucker Carlson has now made an additional, important contribution.

A significant aspect of the interview was Putin’s reminder that there had been an agreement in early 2022, concluded in Istanbul, to end the Ukrainian war. The U.S.and U.K. intervened to throw those signed documents into the dustbin of history. What followed was the unnecessary killing of up to a half million of the flower of Ukrainian youth.

Carlson asked Putin for his opinion on who’s in charge in Washington. Putin responded by saying that he didn’t know, but it was certainly not the president. McGovern said that Putin should necessarily be concerned about who really controls the nuclear button, and noted the contrast between Putin and Biden, pointing out that the Department of Justice has just said, in effect, that Biden can be excused for untruths because he is old and “not all there.”

The meeting heard from a number of clergy and religious activists. A Christian minister from Dearborn, Michigan was outraged that the American media say that Israel is waging war on Hamas, while in fact, it’s a war on the civilians of Palestine. People who speak the truth are labeled antisemitic, he said. A recent commentary in the Wall Street Journal, which labeled Dearborn a jihadist city, provoked an outraged response from the city’s mayor who then ordered an increase in security due to the danger of Islamophobic violence. The clergyman warned of the danger that Israel will extend the war into Lebanon and other surrounding countries, and said that Israel’s blocking of humanitarian aid should be a major issue. He concluded by saying that the killing of civilians by the IDF will cause further recruitment to Hamas, and the cycle of violence will cause yet more extremist, Netanyahu-like leaders to come to power in Israel.

Other religious leaders discussed citations from Christian, Jewish, and Islamic scripture that bear on the present strategic crisis, concluding that “a total shift in the moral universe has to happen.” They reported on recent activism and discussed plans for the future. Pax Christi has numerous actions planned for tax day against American arms manufacturers, the “merchants of death” who receive a stupendous amount of U.S. tax dollars. Activists from Mexico and New York reported on successful embassy visits, urging funding for UNRWA and support for South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice. Rallies were also held outside the embassy of nations which had cut their funding for UNRWA.

U.S. Senate candidate Diane Sare, who was actually participating remotely in the IPC meeting while attending such a rally, said that she was optimistic about the future because she sees that young people are becoming active. But, she asked, what is next? What should the world actually look like? The rotten old empire is dead; what replaces it?

During the informal discussion, participants commented further on the Tucker Carlson/President Putin interview, saying that it shows Russia remains willing to be in a dialogue with the West. The former president of Guyana, Donald Ramotar, observed that the interview demonstrates that Putin knows he can have a military settlement, but he prefers a political, negotiated settlement. He went on to hail the government of South Africa for acting as the conscience for humanity as a whole. He said that they have ripped the mask off the face of the “genocide actors in Israel and the U.S.” He defended the Yemeni Houthis, saying their actions against Israel-related shipping constitute solidarity, not terrorism.

In her concluding remarks, Helga Zepp-LaRouche emphasized that the Rafah situation must be viewed with utmost urgency, but at the same time the entire world is changing. No one can speak of a “rules-based order” after the West has condoned what is happening in Gaza. Are we going to live by the law of the jungle, or by the universal principles in the UN charter? These ideas must guide our activism in the weeks ahead.

IPC Statement: Gaza Genocide Denounced at the World Court; Now We Must Stop It!

January 28, 2024by tobi in General, International Peace Coalition

The government of Algeria announced over the weekend that it has requested that the UN Security Council be urgently convened this coming Wednesday, Jan. 31, to give “binding effect” to the historic Jan. 26 decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the matter of South Africa’s charges of Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. UN Security Council resolutions—if they can get past U.S. and British vetoes—are in fact internationally legally enforceable. ICJ decisions are legally binding on the parties, but the Court has no enforcement mechanism of its own.

The perpetrators and accomplices of the ongoing Gaza genocide are now loudly whistling past the graveyard, trying to convince the world of the lie that the ICJ somehow gave Israel a green light. The Wall Street Journal called the World Court’s decision “a rare win for Israel”; the Jerusalem Post said it was “a big win for Israel”; and the State Department announced that “the ICJ did not make a finding about genocide or call for a ceasefire in its ruling,” and that “we continue to believe that allegations of genocide are unfounded.”

But the reality is that, with South Africa’s presentation of its airtight legal case against Israeli genocide in Gaza, along with the ICJ’s finding that there are sufficient grounds to fully investigate that charge of genocide, the veil has finally been lifted for all to see. For that, the world owes a debt of gratitude to the Republic of South Africa, and perhaps to Nelson Mandela personally, whose life continues to give meaning and strength to millions who have come after him. The role of the BRICS nations, of which South Africa is one of the original members, in supporting and strengthening South Africa’s resolve, should also be noted.

But ours is not to comment on the ins and outs of the ICJ’s ruling, but rather to escalate the fight to actually stop the genocide. Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche addressed the broader implications of the ICJ ruling in her remarks to the 34th weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) on Jan. 26, which led to a discussion of the next steps to be taken.

Participants expressed their gratitude for the ruling of the International Court of Justice, which was quite remarkable, and took note of the fact that this is an enormous step forward. No matter what Israel is now intending to do, they have to take into account what was stated by the Court, because they have international friends that also have to live with the consequences of it. The big question is what the effect will be on the United States and Germany, for example, that had argued that the South African case was “meritless.”

The wording of the Court’s ruling was in fact very strong, even if it did not call for an immediate total ceasefire. Furthermore, the final document repeated large parts of South Africa’s charges, and therefore it is necessary to get the exact text of what was read out in The Hague by the presiding judge Joan E. Donoghue of the United States, and get that out to all social media, all city councils, churches, mosques and synagogues, with the demand that they should pass resolutions that there must be an immediate ceasefire, acting on the basis of the ICJ ruling. This is all the more urgent because the mainstream media will have a tendency to play it down, and try to get it out of the news cycle as quickly as possible.

The participants in the IPC meetings, and all others who want to end the carnage, should make a commitment to get the word out about the ICJ ruling as widely as possible. This will send a message of support to the South African government, and it will keep a maximized sense of mobilization internationally.

Israel has one month before they have to report back to the ICJ on what they have done to ensure no genocide occurs. Every single day, every single hour and minute, people are still dying in Gaza. Maximizing our efforts, especially now, is more important than ever before.

Greetings to International Peace Day Rally at the United Nations

September 26, 2023by madeleine in General, International Peace Coalition tagged IPC

Below are the greetings sent in for the Humanity For Peace “Special Musical Operation” at the United Nations on International Peace Day.

Twenty-four hours of nonviolence and cease fire is the least we can ask for at this crucial time in our shared work for world peace. Let this day of commitment inspire us to make every day a day of peace.
Frank Kartheiser, Worcester. Ma. Catholic Workers Movement.

September 21^st is International Peace Day! Today we a are faced with growing tensions around the world from Europe and Asia to the Middle East and Africa. Many of these tensions include the involvement or support of Great Powers and have brought us perhaps to closest to an open nuclear conflict. Let us take time this day to step back from the potential abyss, to think, to respect each other, to show leadership and true diplomacy, to resolve our disagreements and work together in joint collaboration for the betterment of all.
Earl Rasmussen, Lt Colonel (ret) U.S. Army, business consultant.

“The 17.5 million Guatemalans support peace in the world and the proposal made by Mrs. Helga Zepp-LaRouche of the Schiller Institute, where she proposes the CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW JUST WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER!”

RAÚL ANÍBAL MARROQUÍN CASASOLA, proud member of the IPC and Humanity for Peace, and Coordinator of “The Pupil of Heaven” Observatory for Peace in Guatemala

PROCLAMATION FOR PEACE TO THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD
“Brothers of the nations of this shared world.
“Today, September 21, we join in a fraternal and unanimous call of solidarity for peace. In the midst of turbulence, discord and global conflict, we raise our voices to reaffirm our commitment to peace…
“Peace, in its essence, is the fabric that binds humanity together. It is the path to coexistence, justice and well-being for all. But in these times of uncertainty and divisions, it is vital to remember that peace is not an automatic gift; it must be built through the efforts and dedication of all the peoples of the world.
“We declare that peace is not just the absence of war, but the presence of justice, social equality and mutual understanding….
The five signers on behalf of
Central American and Caribbean Critical Thought proclaim the need to
Foster Empathy.
Resolve Conflicts Peacefully, rather than by violence and confrontation.
Promote a Culture of Peace through Education:
Combat Social Inequality and Injustice: We pledge to work together to eradicate poverty, discrimination, social and economic injustice.
Protect the environment: and
Support those vulnerable peoples who suffer the consequences of conflict and displacement, to alleviate their suffering.
We affirm that peace is not a utopian dream, but an attainable goal. We must remember that each of us has a role to play in the quest that together we can weave a more peaceful world for present and future generations. Peace is not just a word, but a collective action. Let us raise our hands and hearts to be peacemakers…
For Peace, today and always!
Signing on behalf of Central American and Caribbean Critical Thought are
from Nicaragua: Bolívar Téllez Castellón, Professor, and Fernando Vargas, editor of the Newspaper Socialist Voices;
and from El Salvador’s Universidad de El Salvador:
José Guillermo Campos, Chairman of the Department of Philosophy;
Luis Alberto Guzman, Chair of Marxism and Methodology of Materialism; and
Ivis Barrera, Master in Human Rights and Education for Peace.

“CENTRAL AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN CRITICAL THOUGHT”

Rejoice and stand together, for we are winning in this struggle for humanity and for peace. This struggle is far from over, but we are winning!
I grew up in former Yugoslavia and lived through the wars of succession which broke out in the early 1990s. The experience was almost surreal as we saw the society polarize almost from one day to the next, from a firm belief that war was unthinkable and impossible to fighting the war as the society’s central obsession. That experience made me so worried about a repeat of this social transformation in the buildup of war between Russia and the west that in 2017 I published a book in which I tried to warn about it and call attention to those parts of the ruling establishment in the west who were deliberately dragging us into this World War 3 scenario. They were planning the big wiar, that much was clear. But what they did not and could not plan with is us, humanity, simply rejecting war and demanding peace.
There is no question that Russia was absolutely provoked into its intervention in Ukraine. When President Putin launched the special military operation, the west responded with a total embargo on all Russian sources of information and with heavy-handed censorship of any pro-Russian views. Recall, some universities in the west even cancelled Russian literature classes, and some theaters cancelled performances of Russian composers like Tchaikovsky.
They wanted to make sure that the western narrative about that conflict couldn’t be challenged and that we all embraced the belief that Russia’s aggression was unprovoked and that the collective west was valiantly standing up for democracy, freedom and the rule of law. They wanted us to fear and loathe Russia and to give our consent for that all-out World War 3. But that didn’t happen.
Instead, it became clear that behind the facade of unity kept up by the officialdom and corporate media, a silent majority in the west rejected the official narrative. I encountered a number of informal polls in social media where a large number of respondents expressed very contrary views – allow me to share some of them with you.
On 31 December last year, Twitter account NovElection 2022 simply asked, “Which side are you on? Russia or Ukraine?” Out of the nearly 37,000 people who responded, 78.8% said that they were on Russia’s side!
On 24 January this year, Chase Geiser asked on Twitter, “Which would you rather see win? Russia or Ukraine?” Out of the 15,670 votes, 73.6% said that they wanted Russia to win.
On 2 February David Vance asked, “…if you had to choose between Putin and Zelensky, which would it be?” Out of nearly 41,000 respondents, 77.2% preferred Vladimir Putin.
A few weeks later, George Galloway asked, “Is the west to blame for the Ukraine war?” Out of more than 15,000 respondents, 95% said, yes – they thought that the west was indeed to blame for the war.
In spite of the very large numbers of respondents, some people might object that these are not scientific polls. Well, let me share some further evidence that these polls are broadly correct. As I learned from a NATO official who shared this information with me, NATO itself has been monitoring public mood among member nations very closely. They found that in most Eastern European nations, as many as 3 out of 4 people sympathise with the Russian side in this conflict. In countries like France, Spain, Italy and Belgium 2 out of 3 individuals sympathise with Russia. And when the French polling organization IFOP (Institut Français d’Opinion Publique) asked the average Frenchman about their views on the war only two weeks from its start in February 2022, they found that 52% of the French people believed Russian justifications for war.
The silent majority in the west might indeed be silent, but it seems nevertheless to be a very large majority. That majority is us, people who have awakened and opened our eyes wide to what is truly going on in the world. The war between Russia and Ukraine did not escalate into a nuclear World War 3. For that we can thank the patience and restraint of the Russian Federation, but we should also celebrate the political awakening of the populations of western countries who have rejected the official narrative and the relentless demonization of Russia and her leadership. By withholding our consent for an all-out war against Russia we may have prevented that war and preserved peace. We have not yet prevailed in our struggle for peace, but we are prevailing so do rejoice and stand together! It may just be that we are the ones we’ve been waiting for and thus far we’ve come through!
Alex Krainer, Blogger, author, financial analyst

We need a global move towards de-escalation and away from the accelerating militarisation of international politics. Humanity is becoming increasingly trapped in a security dilemma. The Political West has been negligent in understanding the security concerns of others, thus prompting responses that only escalate the conflict. We must break this cycle, otherwise we will be on the increasingly slippery path to catastrophe. There is another way, and that is a return to the founding principles of the United Nations, above all sovereign internationalism – whereby sovereign states commit to work together to resolve the common problems facing humanity. This is the vision that inspired the creation of the UN in the first place, and we must now resist the attempt by those who wish to substitute the agenda of peace and development with their own agenda of endless deterrence and militarism. The Global South has had enough of the interminable conflicts provoked by the attempts of the Political West to maintain its pre-eminence. Its voice is demanding to be heard, and it is a view that many in the Global North share. On that basis a new peace and development movement is taking shape. There is an alternative, and we are part of it, reaching across continents and cultures. That is the only way forwards, if we are to have a future at all.
Prof Sakwa is the recently retired Emeritus Professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent in the UK. He is the author of many books on Russia, and a widely read book in 2022, Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands.

The Pillars of Peace
The philosophical position which says the engagement of war is always inevitable, is contrary to the concept of peace. God’s imparting of peace is stated in John 14:27 where it says “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” This indicates that peace is in conflict with a troubled heart. It also indicates that God desires us to be at peace with one another at all cost. That cost of war is troubled spirits of people who are engaged directly or indirectly with the actions of war. Therefore I would like to offer the pillars of peace that help us to avoid physical conflicts of war. These pillars are reason, understanding and temperance.
The pillar of reason helps avoid conflict because it helps to exhaust all avenues that lead to peace. When the wheels turn to war, reason should turn also, following the war and standing in the midst ready to continue talks of reason and peace.
The pillar of understanding is a two-way street. Both sides of a conflict should be open to make all attempts to understand the stance and feelings of the opposite side from themselves. Somehow wearing the shoes of someone else helps us to be selfless and seek to show empathy. This is the position of understanding even when we do not understand. In other words, understanding should be sought before we act on the emotions of anger and control. This leads us to our final pillar of temperance.
Temperance is simply self-restraint or self-control. This suggests that self-control over control of others is our main line of defense against war. The age-old Biblical principle found in Luke 6:31 says “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” No country desires to be drawn into war or to be the provocateur of war. Every time a war begins there is a first shot is fired which begins the conflict. It is at that moment that temperance should be exercised because remember the time to talk about peace is before a war begins. That talk must not just be had with one another, but also with the self-individual or self-country to maintain the self-control.
It is my hope that the talk of peace in relation to reason, understanding and temperance would help avoid the need for war. And in the event of conflict beginning, these would be tools utilized in the midst of conflict to minimize the impact and longevity of the conflict.
Rev. Dr. Terri Strong, Senior Pastor at Mt. Sinai AME Church, Arlington, TN

On this day while we commemorate International Day of Peace we ought to
reflect and point out root causes of Wars and aggressions that challenge
the humanity establishing the peace across the globe. We learn from past
and contemporary history that some of the reasons have been; superiority
complexes and difference of social and civic classes, racism, racial and
National arrogance, thirst of power over others and the most importantly
grabbing the material resources and economic exploitation.
Today the economic exploitation and deprivation is the main and central
root cause of Wars and military aggressions. We need to struggle and urge
that world global financial Groups such as World Bank, IMF and WTO
reconsider the terms and conditions that keeps under-developed countries
oppressed, continue to choke their economies and inflated debts.
International community of Nations need to work together in the spirit of
collective human progress and establish peace on the principals of equality
and respect for Human lives. The body of world nations shall mediate
between parties bringing the parties on the negotiating table.
American Muslims and Muslims across the globe strongly support any and all
moral and material efforts to bring the lasting peace in this planet.
Muhammad Salim Akhtar
National Director American Muslim Alliance

Pax Christi UpState New York totally supports the economic uplifting of all
peoples and nations. BRICS, now greatly expanded, will have the natural and
human resources to end poverty in the most populated regions of the world.
All nations, North and South must rally behind this just and egalitarian plan.
Jack Gilroy, Pax Christi & multiple peace and justice organizations

Webcast: Ukraine War Threatens to Escalate — a discussion with Helga Zepp-LaRouche

July 26, 2023by David Dobrodt in General, International Peace Coalition tagged IPC

Send your questions for Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche to: questions@schillerinstitute.org

Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche tomorrow in her weekly dialogue for a discussion about building an International Peace Coalition.

#worldwar3 #newparadigm #peacemovement #decoupling #nuclearwar #russia

Seventh Weekly Meeting of International Peace Coalition: Humanity Must Overcome Differences To Prevent Nuclear War

July 24, 2023by madeleine in General, International Peace Coalition tagged IPC

If you would like to join in the International Peace Coalition, please contact questions@schillerinstitute.org

July 21, 2023 (EIRNS)—The International Peace Coalition (IPC) held its seventh weekly international meeting on Friday, July 21, with representatives of 17 nations, most of whom reported on the mobilizations taking place in their countries, targeting the August 6 international Day of Action on the anniversary of the genocidal U.S. nuclear destruction of Hiroshima.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute, opened the call by emphasizing that the madness of the warmongers at the July 17-18 NATO summit is still escalating towards full-scale war, which will not be stopped until the truth about the cause and the intention is understood by the broad public around the world. The fact that two systems now exist, one based on the unipolar world of Global NATO, and the other based on the BRICS and nearly all of the Global South nations moving to a new system committed to ending colonialism for good.

Zepp-LaRouche held up the case of Germany, where sovereignty is completely lost, where the “rules-based order” (with no one knowing who makes these so-called “rules”) is destroying the economy. Everything that Germans built up after the destruction of World War II is now being destroyed, with businesses fleeing the country in droves—and this despite the fact that 70% of the population think that the government is doing a terrible job. The sovereignty of every country is under attack by the U.S.-U.K.-Global NATO war party—she reminded people that the sovereignty of every country is the first of her “Ten Principles.” We must make August 6 a “clarion call” for a peaceful end to the war in Ukraine. To do that we must live up to the call by Steve Leeper, the former head of the Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, that organizations worldwide must put aside any differences and unite on August 6 at the UN or elsewhere to stop the war drive.

Reports on organizing efforts came in from around the world:

Nicaragua: Bolívar Téllez Castellón of Nicaragua reported that a committee is being formed to mobilize support for August 6 and beyond, and several of the leaders are making short videos to rally support, which he is sharing with the IPC for worldwide use in Spanish-speaking nations. He noted that the country had been subjected to a fratricidal war for over 20 years, but is now working with Russia and China to achieve real development.

Malaysia: Chandra Muzaffar, founder and director of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), announced that he had sent out the release announcing the August 6 event, and the Steve Leeper letter, to the 20-25,000 strong JUST mailing list. [https://schillerinstitute.com/blog/2023/07/19/open-letter-to-friends-enemies-and-people-who-have-no-idea-who-i-am/] He also reported that he had written to a number of peace organizations in Asia, calling on them to join the IPC. JUST is sponsoring its own event on August 6, which is under discussion as to the format. He said that getting a million people out on the street, either in New York City or worldwide, is a very large target, but a necessary one given that what is at stake is the human race itself. The current danger is the greatest in history—in 1945 only one side had nuclear weapons, now many countries have them, and they are far more deadly than the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs. We owe it to history, and to future generations, to succeed in our task. It is “flourish or perish.”

Germany: Jimmy Gerum, who is serving as the press secretary for Humanity For Peace coalition, declared that “every war is started with a lie,” and we must mount massive pressure from individual independent journalists to break through the lies in the mainstream media.

Guatemala: Raul Marroquin, of the Observatory for Human Peace in Guatemala, said he has been associated with Lyndon LaRouche and the Schiller Institute for many years. Now we see that the oligarchs of the world want to see the end of humanity, which we must act to prevent.

France: Karel Vereycken, a leading member of the Schiller Institute in France, described the July 8-9 Schiller Institute Conference in Strasbourg, the first in-person Schiller conference since before the pandemic, where 250 people heard from leading people from Russia, China, India, Africa, Europe, and the U.S. The French Schiller Institute is planning three events: August 6 at Notre Dame; August 9, the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, at the offices of UNESCO; and a later date on science, exposing the role of John von Neumann as the person who encouraged President Harry Truman to use the atomic bomb on the civilian cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Austria: a peace activist described the long-standing pride in Austria that they have maintained their status as a neutral country, opposed to war but advocating active nonviolent neutrality, which is now under enormous pressure from NATO and the NATO-influenced media. He said his associates have held demonstrations for years on August 6 and August 9, and they will again this year as part of the International Day of Action.

Sweden: Ulf Bejerstrand, who started the “Voice of the People” to allow the people to break through the media lies, said that they have 50,000 followers on social media. He said that if the people come together they can defeat the warmongers.

Sweden: Ulf Sandmark, the President of the Schiller Institute in Sweden, said they were planning an event in Stockholm on August 6. He said the collapse of the Black Sea Grain Initiative was a severe blow, orchestrated by NATO and the oligarchs, precisely because it was a small but significant step towards cooperation and peace.

Mexico: Carolina Dominguez of the Schiller Institute in Mexico, described their organizing in support of President John Kennedy’s June 10, 1963 speech seeking for U.S.-U.S.S.R. cooperation for peace and development. She said that the youth in Mexico do not believe the NATO narrative, and that they respect Russia and the BRICS countries. She quoted Mexican hero, President Benito Juárez, who defeated the Habsburg occupation of Mexico, and who insisted that “Respect for the rights of others means peace.” She said the organization had distributed thousands of copies of the “Urgent Appeal by Citizens and Institutions from All Over the World to the (Next) President of the United States!” issued by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, calling for a return to the principles of peace advocated by JFK.

United States: Elliot Greenspan, the head of the LaRouche Movement’s Outreach Task Force, described the efforts to bring the “hyphenated-Americans” from Pakistanis, Indians, Chinese, Guineans, and others, as well as Christian organizations, together for the August 6 demonstrations, further insisting that the differences which certainly exist between these layers must be put aside to prevent a nuclear war. Dennis Speed, a U.S. national leader of the Schiller Institute, said that to get a million people out on the street, as Chandra Muzaffar had indicated, is a difficult but essential task if the genocidalists are to be stopped. He noted that the NATO sabotage of the Black Sea Grain Initiative was yet another case of these Malthusians working to starve millions of people to death, and that JFK’s “Food for Peace” concept is crucial today.

Germany: Barbara Spahn, Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität (BüSo), reported about a coalition of small parties that has already held 2 peace rallies in Frankfurt. For August 5, another rally is planned, where, among others, Bundeswehr colonel (ret.) Florian Pfaff, will speak.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche closed the meeting, praising the progress made thus far in the IPC, but insisting that it must grow faster to reach the goal. Each member must take the responsibility to reach out to other organizations—peace, religious, democracy and other groups—to join the movement. She encouraged the use of the video by scientist Steven Starr on the devastation of a nuclear war, and also promoted reading Friedrich Schiller on how to “bend the tyrant’s arm.”

Attendance IPC#7:
Helga Zepp-LaRouche (Germany), founder and leader, Schiller Institute
President Donald Ramotar (Guyana), Former President of Guyana
Chandra Muzaffar (Malaysia) JUST International/SHAPE
Abdoulaye Balde (US), Guinean and American League of Friends for Freedom
Oliver Boyd-Barrett (US), Professor Emeritus, Bowling Green State University, Ohio
Dr. Balkrishna Kurvey (India) President of the Indian Institute for Peace, Disarmament and Environmental Protection
Barbara Spahn (Germany), BüSo Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität
Mamadou Dathe Diallo (USA/Guinea) Guinean American League of Friends for Freedom
Beatriz Solórzano León (Guatemala), Lawyer, Parliamentary Technician
Bernie Holland (UK) No2NATO
Fr. Robert Cushing (U.S.), Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP), Pax Christi GA, former priest
Bolívar Téllez Castellón (Nicaragua), Lawyer and university professor
Carolina Domìnguez Cisneros (Mexico)
Raul Marroquin (Guatemala)
Peter Weish (Austria)
Verena Konig (Austria)
Udo Leibmann (Poland) United for Freedom
Boubacar Sidy (US/Guinea)
Ilker Özyavuz (Germany) Team Todenhöfer
Hondo Tonumaa (Estonia)
Martin Schotz, (US) author, “History Will Not Absolve Us: Orwellian Control, Public Denial, and the Murder of President Kennedy”
Ruben Dario Guzzetti (Argentina), Argentine Institute of Geopolitical Studies (IADEG)
Christine Bierre (France), Solidarity and Progress
Fr. Harry Bury (US), Archdiocese of Saint Paul in Minneapolis, MN
Jacques Cheminade (France), head of Solidarity and Progress
Jimmy Gerum (Germany), Lighthouse Media
Juan Carrero (Spain), President, S’Olivar Foundation
Juan Gómez (Chile)
Martha Rollins (US/Costa Rica) Int’l Peace Delegations: Ibero America, Columbia, Cuba and Palestine
Ulf Bejerstand (Sweden), Party leader, Musician
Liz Augustat (Germany), Peace Through Culture
Simon Miller (US) LaRouche Youth Movement
Robert Castle (US) LaRouche Youth Movement
Karen Ball (US) Pax Christi – Texas
Mike Billington (US) Executive Intelligence Review Magazine
Muhammad Selim Akhtar (U.S.) Muslim Alliance
Ulf Sandmark (Sweden), President Schiller Institute, Sweden
Wolfgang Lieberknecht (Germany) Internationale Friedens Fabrik Wanfried
Meshack Maxongo (South Africa)
Marianne Liljeholt (Sweden), Party Board member, Freedom Movement
Joyce Hall (US) Pax Christi
David Andersson, (US) Coordinator of NYC bureau for Pressenza Press Agency and hosts a talk-show, Face 2 Face, broadcast on Youtube and Facebook
Jurgen Wolf (Scotland), No2NATO UK, Workers Party BG
Mark Rolofson (US)
Chris Fogarty (US/Ireland), Irish American Leader
Fredrick Weiss (US) Classical musician
Ronald Betag (US) Schiller Institute, Texas
Dennis Small (US), Schiller Institute, Virginia
Dennis Speed (US), Schiller Institute, New Jersey
Diane Sare, (US) U.S. Senate Candidate, New York
Jose Vega, (US) Interventionist, Organizer Schiller Institute
Anastasia Battle (US) Organizer, Interventionist and Editor-in-Chief, Leonore Magazine

**Affiliations for identification purposes only

PRESS RELEASE: International Peace Coalition Holds Sixth Meeting

July 19, 2023by Mary Jane Freeman in Activity of the Schiller Institute, Freedom of Press & Speech, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, International Peace Coalition, Music updates tagged IPC

July 14—The International Peace Coalition (IPC), initiated by Helga Zepp- LaRouche, held its sixth weekly Zoom meeting today, chaired by the Schiller Institute’s Anastasia Battle, with 38 guests from 15 countries and peace organizations, in addition to members of the Schiller Institute.

At their fifth meeting, in an impassioned presentation, Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), had described he just concluded July 4–5 conference sponsored by JUST and the Save Humanity and the Planet (SHAPE) centered in Malaysia, titled “Asia-Pacific NATO: Fanning the Flames of War.” The target was AUKUS, the Australia-U.K.-U.S. security pact whose purpose, Dr. Muzaffar said, is to “contain China.” Most Asians oppose this pact, but the political leaders want to “assure the domination of Asia by the British and the U.S.,” and undermine any peace movement. The meeting was quite successful, with speakers from Australia, China, Malaysia, the U.S China and South Korea, with several new organizations participating in the event. JUST and SHAPE will get the news on the IPC to their mailing lists. Dr. Muzaffar thanked Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche and the Schiller Institute for building the IPC, which he said he “hopes will grow and flourish, as it is key to our future.” [Read IPC#5 Press Release Here]

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder and leader of the Schiller Institute, opened the sixth meeting by noting two globally important events in the week since the IPC’s fifth meeting on July 7: the two-day international conference of the Schiller Institute in Strasbourg, France on July 8-9; and the NATO Summit of July 11-12 in Vilnius (referred to as the “villainous Vilnius Summit” by one speaker at the IPC meeting). While the NATO Summit was a war cry for more escalation of the surrogate NATO war against Russia centered in Ukraine, the Schiller Institute conference provided ideas and discussion on the urgency of substituting cooperation for confrontation, preventing the current rush to an outbreak of global nuclear war, and bringing the world’s nations together in a paradigm of development.

Zepp-LaRouche pointed to the newly-announced decision by President Joe Biden to deploy cluster bombs to Ukraine—altogether 300 million bomblets—a madness that will cause thousands of deaths of innocents, as has already been demonstrated by the death and maiming of children and other civilians in Cambodia and Vietnam from the landmines and cluster bombs deployed during the Indochina war of the 1960-70s—deaths and injuries continuing even today. There is international opposition to this genocidal act, including from within the United States, but Biden is going ahead regardless.

The ugly irony of this move, Zepp-LaRouche added, is that Biden has admitted that even though he once opposed the use of cluster bombs as a war crime, now the U.S. and its NATO allies are running out of ammunition to continue the bloodletting in Ukraine, and therefore will use the cluster bombs to keep the war going. She pointed to the decision to deploy F-16s to Ukraine as yet another insane act, noting that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia will have no way to know if the nuclear-weapon capable F-16s are armed with nuclear weapons or not, and must therefore treat them as being nuclear armed.

Zepp-LaRouche also pointed to the NATO Summit’s embrace of a policy to expand the domain of NATO to the Asia-Pacific region, targeting China with the same war-policy as deployed against Russia in Europe.

As to Ukraine, she reported the intention presented at the NATO Summit to turn the country into a military production center, with the West’s major military-industrial companies setting up production facilities in Ukraine for a “forever war.” In the process, there was no discussion by any NATO participants of a peace plan, or even for negotiations for peace. At the rate of destruction of the Ukraine economy and the death of thousands of young men in the bloody cauldron of war, there will be no way for the country to rebuild even if the war can be stopped.

The lesson, Zepp-LaRouche concluded, is that the International Peace Coalition must grow and create a massive public outcry against the madness. The plan for international demonstrations on Aug. 6, the 78th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima by U.S. President Harry Truman, must be the basis for expanding this effort.

Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst and a co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), gave a situation report on the war in Ukraine, asserting that while Biden is declaring that Ukraine is winning, even that Putin has “already lost” the war, that simply demonstrates that Biden is living in an “alternative reality,” since it is abundantly clear that the opposite is the case. The much-heralded “counter-offensive” by the Zelenskyy government forces has been a colossal failure, with the mass destruction of tanks and other military equipment, as well as yet more thousands of lives sacrificed.

Col. Richard H. Black, a retired Marine officer and former Army Joint Advocate General (JAG) lawyer who headed the Army’s Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon before retiring from the military and serving in Virginia’s House of Delegates and Senate, reviewed the failure of Kiev’s “counteroffensive,” suggesting that the idea of a perpetual war of attrition is a losing proposition for Ukraine, and that they may not be able to sustain the current pace even through the end of August.

Regarding the cluster bombs, Col. Black remarked that the world agreed to ban mustard gas and other chemical weapons as war crimes, and for the U.S. to simply declare that cluster bombs are to be accepted because “Ukraine needs them” does not change the fact that their use is a war crime. Are we to declare later that nuclear weapons will stop being illegal if “Ukraine needs them,” he asked? We are heading for nuclear war, he warned, and there is far too little resistance to it in the U.S., so this Coalition must grow.

Joseph Boyd-Barrett, a professor (emeritus) at California State University and an expert on the uses of propaganda, gave further evidence of the falsification in the mainstream media about the war in Ukraine. Ukraine and its Western backers in NATO have already essentially lost the war, as their munitions are running out and the NATO countries are not able to sustain the supply, while Russia “can produce multiples” of the munitions produced by the combined NATO backers of Kiev. He also estimates that the supply of weapons to Ukraine will run out by the end of August.

The problem remains that the Ukraine government, and its backers in NATO, don’t care that the country and the population are being destroyed by the war policy, and refuse to negotiate. Zelenskyy was elected on a pledge to bring peace, but now it must be said that the Kiev regime’s policy is to see their own population murdered by continuing a war which cannot be won. The Democratic Party in power in Washington appears to believe that the only way to win the next general election in November 2024 is to keep the war going through next year.

Juan Carrero, a peace activist from Spain, said that the Western elites are suffering from dementia, as they repeat without any evidence that Russia will lose the war. He said that he had lived in Hiroshima for a year and a half, and saw the effects of the destruction, calling for the Aug. 6 demonstrations worldwide to be a turning point to stop the madness.

Moderator Anastasia Battle read four demands which the IPC will issue on its website https://humanityforpeace.net/
They are:

1. End the supply of weapons to Ukraine.
2. Begin unconditional peace talks with all parties to the war
3. End the NATO alliance.
4. Establish a new security architecture for all nations, ending the division of the world into warring “blocs.”

Bernie Holland, a peace activist from the U.K., asked Helga Zepp-LaRouche to discuss her concept of the “Coincidence of Opposites” which is the eighth of her Ten Principles of a NewInternational Security and Development Architecture.

Zepp-LaRouche replied with an in-depth discussion of the concept, developed by the 15th-century genius Nicholas of Cusa, who discovered the idea as a method of thought based on the truth that the “One” is superior to the “Many,” that only by recognizing that there is a common principle which unites all human beings, whatever their faith or ethnicity or nationality. This method of thinking made it possible for Cusa to bring about the unity of the Roman and Orthodox Christian religions at the ecumenical Council of Florence between 1431 and 1449, and later was the basis of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 ending the Thirty Years’ War in Europe. In the current age of nuclear weapons, that principle of creative thought, based on love rather than hate, is the only basis for world peace. Other speakers reported on their organizing efforts for peace in Argentina, Chile, England, France, Germany, Holland, India, Italy, Nicaragua, Scotland, and across the U.S. All agreed to build an even larger attendance, including representatives from the Global South, for the next meeting on Friday, July 21.

Rally and Concert:
Humanity for Peace is hosting a “Global Rally for World Peace and an End to All Wars!” On Sunday, Aug. 6 from 1-4 pm at the Dag Hammerskjöld Plaza (United Nations Plaza) in New York City, 47th Street between 1st and 2nd Avenue, followed by an evening concert from 6-8 pm at the Unitarian Church of All Souls, 1157 Lexington Ave. at East 80th Street, of Mozart’s Requiem, performed by a combined chorus and orchestra which will include the Schiller Institute NYC Chorus and musicians. It will be free and open to the public.

A full report on the fifth meeting of the International Peace Coalition, held on July 7, is here: https://schillerinstitute.com/blog/2023/07/13/press-release-fifth-international-peace-coalition-event-reveals-growth-and-extensive-organizing/

In Attendance:

Helga Zepp-LaRouche (Germany), founder and leader, Schiller Institute
Colonel Richard Black (U.S., ret), former head of the Pentagon Criminal Law Division, former Virginia State Senator
Oliver Boyd-Barrett (U.S.), Professor Emeritus, Bowling Green State University, Ohio
Alessia Ruggeri (Italy) Trade Unionist
Anton Winter, (Austria) Nouvelle Alliance, UZG – Initiative Zivilgesellschaft
Dr. Balkrishna Kurvey (India) President of the Indian Institute for Peace, Disarmament and Environmental Protection
Barbara Spahn (Germany)
Beatriz Solórzano León (Guatemala), Lawyer, Parliamentary Technician
Bernie Holland (UK) No2NATO
Fr. Robert Cushing (U.S.), Association of US Catholic Priests (AUSCP), Pax Christi GA, former priest
Bolívar Téllez Castellón (Nicaragua), Lawyer and university professor
Boubacar Sidy (USA/Guinea)
Christer Lundgren, (Sweden)
Ruben Dario Guzzetti (Argentina), Argentine Institute of Geopolitical Studies (IADEG)
Christine Bierre (France), Solidarity and Progress
Fr. Harry Bury (U.S.), Archdiocese of Saint Paul in Minneapolis, MN
Ingo Scharpff (Germany)
Jacques Cheminade (France), head of Solidarity and Progress
Jimmy Gerum (Germany), Lighthouse Media
Juan Carrero (Spain), President, S’Olivar Foundation
Juan Gómez (Chile)
Karen Ball (U.S.) Pax Christi – Texas
Liliana Gorini (Italy), Movisol
Mike Billington, (U.S.) Executive Intelligence Review Magazine
Muhammad Selim Akhtar (U.S.) Muslim Alliance
Ray McGovern (U.S.) former senior analyst, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); founding member, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)
Rev. Dr. Terri L. Strong (U.S.), AME minister from Memphis, TN Chair of the Actions and Global Concern Committee of the Church Women United
Ulf Sandmark (Sweden), President Schiller Institute, Sweden
Wolfgang Lieberknecht (Germany)
David Andersson, (U.S.) Coordinator of NYC bureau for Pressenza Press Agency and hosts a talk-show, Face 2 Face, broadcast on Youtube and Facebook
Jurgen Wolf (Scotland), No2NATO UK, Workers Party BG
Jack Gilroy (U.S.), Organizer, Pax Christi, NY State/Pax Christi International; Board Member, New York Veterans for Peace
Sonja Van den Ende, (Netherlands/Russia) Independent Journalist, covers Russia/Ukraine conflict, for Katehon
Chris Fogarty (U.S./Ireland), Irish American Leader
Fredrick Weiss (U.S.) Classical musician
Dennis Small (U.S.), Schiller Institute, Virginia
Dennis Speed (U.S.), Schiller Institute, New Jersey
Diane Sare, (U.S.) U.S. Senate Candidate, New York
Jose Vega, (U.S.) Interventionist, Organizer Schiller Institute
Anastasia Battle (U.S.) Organizer, Interventionist and Editor-in-Chief, Leonore Magazine

**Affiliations for identification purposes only

NATO Escalates — the Peace Movement Must Move Faster!— a discussion with Helga Zepp-LaRouche

July 18, 2023by Anastasia Battle in General, International Peace Coalition tagged IPC

“The way to look at the strategic situation is that, given the fact that we are on a trajectory towards confrontation, this will not change until we get a real break in the situation. And since we are not anywhere close to that break, which would require that either the United States or some major European countries stop the confrontation and make a clear signal to cooperate with the Global South and China and even Russia, this will continue to escalate, and that is why our activation and effort to put together an international peace coalition of everybody—not just some, but everybody—is so absolutely crucial.”

Send your questions for Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche to: questions@schillerinstitute.org
Join Helga Zepp-LaRouche tomorrow, July 18, in her weekly dialogue for a discussion about building an International Peace Coalition.

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