Aug. 16, 2024 (EIRNS)—The 63rd consecutive online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) met today amidst what Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute, described as an “escalation step-by-step closer to a point of no return.” She said, “There is now an active discussion—maybe already a decision—to deploy the stealth Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, JASSMs, to Ukraine.” Ukrainian jets would then be able to launch these highly accurate long-range missiles. And with this move, the U.S. intends to “influence the German decision” to make available the Taurus cruise missile, which Germany has so far refused to do because of the fear that this would escalate the situation to possibly World War III. She further stated, “The entering of Russian territory in the Kursk region would not have been possible without technological advice by NATO. The decision was, in all likelihood, made by NATO,” which is making the option of a diplomatic solution close to impossible according to Dmitry Polyanskiy, the Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations. Likewise, Israel has made clear its rejection of diplomacy, by assassinating the chief negotiator for Hamas.

Looking at how we got here, Zepp-LaRouche noted that August 15 was the anniversary of the 1971 demise of post-World War II Bretton Woods system, with U.S. President Richard Nixon’s move on that date to floating international exchange rates and vicious austerity. Lyndon LaRouche had forecast the inevitably of such an event, and warned that it would lead to a resurgence of fascism and a new world war. The precision of his forecast and the urgency of his warnings had a global impact, leading to a second important event: The October 6, 1986 Leesburg raid by 400 federal, state and local law enforcement officers, who surrounded the LaRouches’ home with orders to kill if the opportunity presented itself. LaRouche and his supporters warned that if that effort to silence a dissenting voice were not vigorously opposed, actions of this type would continue and no one would be safe.

Lyndon LaRouche’s warnings turned out to be prophetic, as was borne out most recently by the Aug. 7 FBI raid on the home of former UN weapons inspector and U.S. Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter, who was the next to speak.

Ritter said, “once nuclear weapons become mainstreamed,” once the genie is out of the bottle, there will be no limits to their use. As a weapons inspector, he was proud to have been involved, not only in non-proliferation, but in an actual reduction of nuclear weapons. Today, proponents of arms control are mocked and vilified. “We are a nation addicted to war,” he said, which must “constantly search for conflicts that feed the military-industrial complex.” Ritter continued, “Those who raided my house last week are enemies of the United States and the Constitution.” He agreed with Zepp-LaRouche that, had people rallied around Lyndon LaRouche when his home was raided, maybe we would not be seeing these abuses today. Later, in response to another speaker, he replied: “I’m not a politician, I’m a Marine…. The First Amendment is the battle I will fight and die for,” if it comes to that. “I take violent umbrage at the notion that disinformation and misinformation are a threat to democracy…. I believe that the average American is capable of discerning fact-based truth.”

Moderator Dennis Small remarked about some of what made Lyndon LaRouche such a target. In 1982, LaRouche met with world leaders to promote a reorganization of the financial system to reverse the catastrophe which followed the end of the Bretton Woods system. After he met Mexican President José López Portillo, who shortly afterward attempted to implement his proposals, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger asked then FBI Director William Webster to take action against LaRouche. What followed were covert operations, the Leesburg raid, and ultimately, the jailing of LaRouche and a number of his colleagues on spurious conspiracy charges.

Video excerpts about those 1986-1989 events, featuring remarks by LaRouche and former United States Attorney General, Ramsey Clark, who served as LaRouche’s attorney on appeal, were broadcast. LaRouche said that there were groupings inside the permanent bureaucracy of the Department of Justice which act like hit teams. Ramsey Clark spoke of a combination of government agencies, media and NGOs which connived to destroy the LaRouche movement, which he described as a “fertile engine of ideas.” Clark had seen similar operations, but “this case takes the prize.”

Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst and co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), recounted the story of the First and Fourth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of speech and freedom from illegal search and seizure, both big concerns for those who had suffered under British Empire rule. Speaking of the illegal search of Ritter’s home, McGovern said, “You can persuade a magistrate in upper New York State to sign anything if you’re the FBI.”

Zepp-LaRouche briefed the meeting that when she founded the Schiller Institute in 1984, its charter was inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Today, Germany is passing legislation that permits secret searches of homes and electronic devices. “This is a real danger to democracy in the so-called rules-based order.” The global crisis could be easily resolved if the U.S. were to return to the ideas of President John Quincy Adams, who presented a vision of America that “goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.”

Jack Gilroy of Veterans for Peace invited participants in the IPC to the Aug. 16-19 Veterans for Peace convention, where he will be speaking on a panel, Sunday Aug. 18 at 12noon, on the war industry. They will be on college campuses this fall to oppose recruiters from the war industries, asking students to sign a pledge never to work for them.

Prof. Henry Baldelomar, Chargé d’Affaires of the Bolivian Embassy in Washington, reported that the culture of peace is a key feature of Bolivia’s constitution, and it is for that reason that Bolivia has applied to join the BRICS. The U.S. has attempted to impose a unipolar world order, but Bolivia prefers the multipolar alternative. The IMF measures have created a state of dependency which has aggravated income disparities, exacerbating the tensions which lead to war. BRICS creates an alternative which will move Bolivia from a role as raw materials exporter, to a producer of capital goods. No longer a mere observer of decisions taken by the great powers, Bolivia will become a participant. Later, in the discussion, he wryly observed that the “‘migration problem’ which so concerns the Republican candidate” is a result of the exploitation of the South, “the use of resources by some at the expense of others.”

Jonathan Kuttab, executive director of Friends of Sabeel North America and co-founder of Nonviolence International, expressed his indignation that retiring Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, in his swan song, asserted that Israel is “the most moral country in the world.” How is such a thing possible? Kuttab demanded to know, in view of Israel’s wanton killing of civilians and rape of prisoners. He blamed “the absence of international law … that applies to friend and foe alike.”

In concluding remarks, Dennis Small endorsed the comments of Professor Baldelomar, saying that Bolivia speaks for the majority of humanity. Co-moderator Dennis Speed provocatively asserted that Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have a better understanding of the tradition of the American Revolution than people living in the U.S. today.

The 61st consecutive weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) met today, noting that in the preceding 60 meetings, roughly 1,200 individuals from 30 to 40 different nations had participated. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, at the close of the IPC meeting, urged participants to:

1) Circulate the call to implement UN Resolution 377 made by World Beyond War and an accompanying coalition of organizations. The UN Security Council has shown that it can’t function under the present circumstances, and only UN Resolution 377, “Uniting For Peace,” can supersede the Security Council and allow the General Assembly to intervene to stop Israel’s genocidal behavior.

2) Join the August 6 demonstrations, which will be held worldwide to commemorate the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

3) Build next week’s Aug. 9 IPC meeting into a very large gathering, to also mark the anniversary of the 1945 nuclear bombing of Nagasaki.

4) Help us find people from every nation on the planet, who, through their life’s work, have contributed something essential to humanity, because these are the people who can be organized to join Zepp-LaRouche’s proposed Council of Reason to pilot the world safely out of the present existential crisis.

Zepp-LaRouche further explained the concept of the Council of Reason. The idea is not to pull together a large grouping of well-meaning people, but rather to find and recruit the handfuls of “elder statesmen” in each country, the key leaders who are committed to the development and security of all nations and all peoples, to lead the way in organizing for a new paradigm “worthy of the Dignity of Man.”

The IPC meeting began with her strategic overview, noting the targeted assassinations of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon and Hamas chief negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran occurred because Israeli leaders believe that the U.S. will fully back them up, following Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress. The fact that they assassinated the key negotiator sends a clear signal that they don’t intend to negotiate. If the war stops, Netanyahu will face elections and jail.

What is looming is a potential war with Lebanon. Hezbollah is a more significant military force than Hamas. The death toll in Gaza is not just 39,000 people, but more likely the 186,000 estimated by Lancet medical magazine, or the 250,000 by strategic analyst John Mearsheimer. Foreign Policy magazine just published the option of assassinating Vladimir Putin, which Zepp-LaRouche described as an “eerily hair-raising discussion … the breakdown of any civility in international relations and diplomacy.”

Dr. Mubarak Awad, founder of Nonviolence International, opened with a personal account of life in occupied Jerusalem during the 1940s: His father was murdered by Zionist forces, and he, his mother and siblings became homeless refugees. So that he might survive, he was taken to an orphanage by his mother. His mother begged him not to carry a gun, not to fall into the “culture of revenge.” He went on to study in the U.S., returned to Palestine, and founded the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence, for which he “was named, in Israel, the most dangerous fellow” and deported. Awad endorsed the Council of Reason, insisting that “we need new thinking”; we need something new because revenge isn’t working.

Graham Fuller, former CIA analyst, and Islamic scholar, focused on the emerging flashpoint of Iran. “Once again we find the United States completely incapable” of engaging in diplomacy in the Middle East, he said. The U.S. “must acknowledge the stupidity” of refusing to engage diplomatically with Iran. He characterized U.S. diplomats as “amateurs” for viewing the situation as a zero-sum game. The old adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend “is really quite puerile and childish,” Fuller added. The U.S. refuses to engage with Iran because of “Israel and its violent objection to anything that would strengthen Iran…. Bibi Netanyahu would like nothing more than to have the United States involved in a war with Israel against Iran.”

Prof. Dr. László Ungvári, President (emeritus) of Wildau University of Technology in Germany, insisted that “peace that is created through weapons is not real peace.” He reminded participants that the peace agreements that ended World War I became the impetus for World War II. He praised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as “one of the few persons in Europe who can talk with every leading politician in the world.” He posed the question: If the West really wants peace, why are they angry at Orbán?

In an excerpt of an interview conducted by EIR’s Mike Billington with Richard A. Falk, professor emeritus of international law, Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Falk observed that “it’s extremely difficult to penetrate the mainstream media” and to “challenge the fundamental way that the world is organized.” He expressed guarded optimism about the proposed Council of Reason, saying that there is a similar council of former Nobel Prize winners, but it hasn’t had much resonance with the media. He advised that Council members must be chosen carefully, and adequate funds raised. “All such initiatives help,” he concluded; “it’s worth a try.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche said that the IPC must unite the peace movement, including other groups mentioned by Falk: “As long as they are all fighting separately,” it is an uphill battle. If this gets into the UN General Assembly, we can obviate the mainstream media problem.

Answering Dr. Awad, Zepp-LaRouche developed her proposal for the Oasis Plan, which may not be considered practical by some, but we absolutely need an economic development plan that is in everyone’s interest. The situation is desperate, but we need to keep a vision of where we need to go.

During the discussion, Congressional candidate Jose Vega asked Dr. Awad to collaborate with his campaign by bringing his experience with non-violent action to the Bronx.

Eisenhower Media Network director Dennis Fritz addressed Dr. Awad, noting the irony that in the U.S., “we try to portray ourselves as defenders of human rights.” Awad replied saying, “I feel so sorry for the leadership of the United States” because they seem to be dominated by the tiny nation of Israel. He applauded the “American spirit” of the campus demonstrators, many of whom are Jews.

Co-moderator Dennis Speed reminded participants that the U.S. is capable of dominating Israel when it suits its purposes, as in 2020 and 2021, when the U.S. used its influence in Israel to forbid economic engagement with China.

A British journalist suggested we observe the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by reminding Europeans that those bombs could have landed on Germany, had they not capitulated.

There is an awareness of the growing war danger among some German leaders. Some NATO maneuvers were reported by whistleblowers because the maneuvers matter-of-factly took the destruction of Germany for granted. Chancellor Scholz, in February, opposed even sending helmets to Ukraine in order to avoid escalation, and opposed sending the Taurus missiles. Now he acquiesces to U.S. long-range missiles being stationed on German soil with no public discussion, a decision Zepp-LaRouche described as the “elephant in the room.” The EU is “behaving like a total vassal” of the Anglo-Americans. She referenced the “incredible speech” made by Prime Minister Orbán in Romania. He said that the West has abandoned the idea of the nation-state and the values that go with it. The wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, and the “effort to make Global NATO in the Pacific” are all extremely dangerous.

July 26, 2024 (EIRNS)—The 60th consecutive weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) convened today with EIR’s Dennis Small pointing to Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s proposal for a Council of Reason, reminding participants that the danger is driven by the “endgame and demise” of the predatory, speculation-focused financial system. “A significant alternative is being put together” by nations of the Global Majority—the Global South—that can provide the economic underpinnings for a lasting peace. In China, the recent congress of the CCP made clear that science, creativity and innovation are the drivers for economic progress.

Zepp-LaRouche’s July 23rd “Call To Create a Council of Reason,” became an important point of discussion in the meeting. She had warned of the danger “that the world could split into two separate blocs, the collective West on the one side, and the nations of the Global Majority on the other. If this happens, not only could we see a new edition of a cold war, economic decoupling, and tremendous fall-outs and even crashes, but it could lead to a global nuclear war which could end all life on Earth.”

In the West, the political death-throes of the system are becoming more frenzied. With the withdrawal of Biden from the presidential race and the anointment of Kamala Harris as his replacement candidate, Small described how it is telling that the person in charge of selecting Harris’s running mate is former Attorney General Eric Holder, who helped his then boss, Barack Obama, select drone assassination targets, and authored the infamous “Holder letter” which provided a “Get Out of Jail Free Card” to the too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks.

The institutional collapse in Europe mirrors that of the United States. The EU is trying to “run Orbán out of town on a rail,” because the Hungarian Prime Minister dared to pursue diplomacy for peace in the NATO war in Ukraine against Russia as an alternative to saber-rattling.

Ukraine is now blocking the transit of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia. NATO is taking control, not just of the Ukraine war, but also of nuclear war policy in all member nations, superseding national governments and “putting the United Kingdom in the catbird’s seat.”

‘The Bibi Extravaganza in Congress’

Many of the participants commented on the events of July 24, when Israeli Prime Minister and indicted war criminal Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu addressed the U.S. Congress and was rewarded with 52 standing ovations. Netanyahu made “a rather transparent appeal” to Donald Trump, when he spoke of advancing from the Abraham Accords, a deal negotiated by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for the normalization of relations between Israel and a number of the smaller Arab nations, to something Netanyahu grandly called the “Abraham Alliance.”

Dr. Clifford Kiracofe, a former Senior Staff Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and President of the Washington Institute for Peace and Development, characterized the Congressional session as “The Bibi extravaganza in Congress.”: “The spectacle, as disgraceful as it was, was not a new phenomenon,” he said, because Congressional support for Zionism dates back to the 1920s. “The Christian Zionists see the Israeli project as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy,” and because of the pro-Zionist frenzy in government circles, the U.S. is “incapable of any sort of balanced policy in the Middle East.”

H.E. Donald Ramotar, former President of Guyana, said that the Netanyahu visit stripped the U.S. of any pretense of concern for human rights. “We see them now in all their nakedness,” he said. Coleen Rowley, former FBI special agent and whistleblower, lamented the manipulation of American elected officials, saying “they gave ovations for genocide in the U.S. Congress.” Ramotar and Rowley both picked up on the idea of the Council of Reason. She strongly suggested that the Council examine the manipulation of people through the “choosing the lesser evil,” and thus leading otherwise good people to cheer on mass murder. President Ramotar made clear that he looks forward to the creation of such a Council of Reason, a deliberative body to steer the world towards safety and well being for all nations and all people.

Dennis Fritz, Director of the Eisenhower Media Network, on the question of the manipulation of Congresspersons, asserted that their behavior can simply be explained by the “love of money and power,” mentioning AIPAC in this context.

International Flashpoints and the Emerging New Paradigm

Former President Ramotar was a speaker at the conference in China, commemorating the 70th anniversary of Premier Zhou Enlai’s “Five Principles” announcement. His presentation in China was based on much of what he had discussed at IPC meetings: The talk of Southern Countries being a burden on the North is demonstrably false. From 1960 to 2020 there was a net capital transfer of $152 trillion from the South to the North. The Northern nations had created “debt problems and unequal trade relations.”

However, Ramotar now sees a “new balance in the world which was absent since the 1990s,” when the U.S.S.R. collapsed. The Western war frenzy is because they “feel that they are losing ground to the emergence of the BRICS.” Some have now become colonies themselves—with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz allowing the United States to station long-range missiles on German soil, with no consent from the German population. Ramotar, in conclusion, said, “I’m beginning to see more hope than I saw a month ago.”

Coleen Rowley focused on the mass manipulation of public opinion in the U.S., asking, “What can cause otherwise good people to turn into monsters?” She was shocked by the rapturous response to Netanyahu in the Congress. She suggested that if people can be led to realize that they are being fooled, maybe we can break the climate of manipulation. One hopeful sign is that more and more people are saying that they won’t vote party line. We must “defeat lesser-evilism,” she said, which is characterized by “people giving up their ability to analyze and think,” and becoming “what we call ‘good Germans.’”

Dennis Fritz, who is retired from the U.S. Air Force, where he served as the principal senior advisor to four-star commanders, returned to Netanyahu’s address to Congress, saying he was personally affronted by Netanyahu calling demonstrators “useful idiots working on behalf of Iran,” because he was one of those demonstrating, along with other military veterans and esteemed intelligence professionals, such as retired Colonels Larry Wilkerson and Ann Wright. He would not advise anyone to join the military now, “to be used as pawns in a corrupt foreign policy.”

A Good ‘Ground Game’

A conversation between Fritz and independent Congressional candidate Jose Vega in the Bronx on the topic of the public interventions, made famous by Vega and CODEPINK, led to a broader discussion of how to reach people in all nations, and at all levels of society. Fritz said, “We need a ‘ground game’ to educate the people.”

In the discussion, Small endorsed a point, made by Rowley, that the “Council of Reason,” as proposed by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, “has to take up as a central issue how a population can be degraded to support evil.” He added that to get away from “lesser-evilism,” you need “greater-goodism,” which echoes the controversy between Plato and Aristotle. He warned that populist disgruntlement, if colored by pessimism, leads to fascism. We need optimism, of the sort that can be generated by LaRouche’s Oasis Plan and World Land-Bridge proposals.

July 19, 2024 (EIRNS)—Only seconds after Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche opened the 59th consecutive online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC) today, the meeting was subject to an extended disruption, which attack underscores the growing strategic importance of the weekly IPC sessions. About 30 minutes later, the meeting resumed with tighter security.

Note that flights were grounded all over the world today, ostensibly due to a collapse of Microsoft systems, initially attributed to a CrowdStrike update, which disrupted emergency services, hospitals, banks, airlines, trains, media and banks as well.

The International Assassination Bureau

The July 13 attempt on the life of former U.S. President and Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump was an early topic of discussion. Helga Zepp-LaRouche reminded the participants that if Trump had not moved his head a fraction of an inch and avoided death, the effect on the domestic situation would have been dramatic. Trump has expressed his desire to end all wars on the planet, and even if there is only a slight chance that he intends to do that after being elected, that chance for peace would have been eliminated. Prof. Cliff Kiracofe, from the Washington Institute for Peace and Development, added that “We have in our history other assassination attempts against U.S. Presidents.” In the cases of Lincoln and McKinley, the objective was to break up economic development. Trump has occasionally made statements that hearken back to the economic development policies of McKinley and Henry Clay; a successful assassination could possibly have blocked a new industrial policy for the United States. Later, during the discussion, LaRouche activist Kynan Thistlethwaite brought to people’s attention The LaRouche Organization’s report, “Stop NATO’s World War: Dismantle the International Assassination Bureau,” released in February 2023. Zepp-LaRouche responded by listing many of the political, financial and civil rights leaders who have been killed since the 1960s, saying that the common denominator is that these were individuals who were crucial for their nations. Kiracofe added that the list should include the pro-peace politicians in Japan who were killed in 1930s, making a world war inevitable.

Diplomacy Versus Violence

“All the people who are reasonable think that you have to go to diplomacy,” said Zepp-LaRouche, but the leaders of the EU are charging headlong in the opposite direction. She commented on the unfortunate reelection of Ursula von der Leyen to a second term as president of the EU Commission, saying that her speech was “so bellicose … unquestioned commitment to the policies of the Israeli government, not the Israeli people.” Von der Leyen actually called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s diplomacy “appeasement,” and called for a strategic defeat of Russia. Zepp-LaRouche further mentioned the “hair-raising warmongering” of new EU foreign policy chief (and an EU Commission vice president) Kaja Kallas, who will replace Josep Borrell.

Jonathan Kuttab, Executive Director of Friends of Sabeel North America—A Christian Voice for Palestine, and Co-Founder of Non-Violence International, joined as a featured speaker for today’s meeting. He began his remarks saying, “I’m willing to say that there are those who have a vested interest in violence…. I can talk about grave violations of international law … war crimes, genocide … but I’m not going to do that.” He continued: “We absolutely, desperately need to seek other methods for conflict resolution … we need to stop the demonization of each other … every liberation movement has been called a terrorist organization….” He advocated dialogue with all parties, Hamas included, saying, “We need to start the process … we are willing to break the taboos, we are willing to initiate contacts.”

He described that in the late 1980s and early 1990s, peace activists in Israel, the U.S., and elsewhere conducted a serious campaign to urge politicians to talk to Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization. The PLO changed its charter, renounced violence, accepted the principles of compromise, and accepted conditions.

Is there any reason a similar process should not be started with Hamas?

Zepp-LaRouche thanked him and introduced him briefly to the Oasis Plan of Lyndon LaRouche, which is “making big steps forward.”

What Has Become of International Law?

Richard A. Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Not able to attend in person, he provided a video in which he reminded viewers that the Likud/religious party coalition which came to power in 2023 has been characterized as “the most extreme in the history of Israel,” with the “rather transparent intention of completing the Zionist project of Greater Israel,” including the annexation of the West Bank. The most extreme government figures were given jurisdiction over the occupied territories; settlers were given a green light to terrorize the Palestinians. The events of October 7 provided the pretext for genocide, and diverted attention from the West Bank, which was the core of the coalition strategy. Falk described this as the second phase of the death of the two-state solution, phase one being the settlements policy.

During the discussion, an activist reported on the July 19 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible.” Kiracofe pointed out that this decision addresses what has been exactly the principal legal issue since 1948, when the U.S. intervened to block a one-state solution, a democratic republic where Arabs and Jews would have equal rights, in favor of partition. Did the UN have legal authority to cause partition? The ICJ has been prevented from addressing this until now.

Elena Radu, a Romanian lawyer, is President of the Coalition for the Defense of the Rule of Law. She is leading a campaign to make null and void the treaty made by Romania’s President with Ukraine, which could put Romania at war in 24 hours. The Romanian Constitution does not authorize a President to enter into such agreements, only Parliament may do so. One Member of Parliament has initiated an action to nullify the treaty, and 26 other MPs support it. Two other Romanians on the IPC call also spoke out on the war danger, and other participants urged the IPC to support this action against the treaty. Zepp-LaRouche called for publication of their demands.

In concluding remarks, Zepp-LaRouche reiterated her call for a “Council of Reason.” She returned to the image of Trump averting death by a tiny movement of his head, finding in it a metaphor for the precarious world situation: “This is the condition of all humanity, and if you assume that, then you get off your couch.” In response to a question from a Canadian professor on the question of pessimism, she said, “I’m not exactly euphoric about the world situation … why am I nevertheless an optimist?” She reminded participants that Gottfried Leibniz said that “the universe is made in such a way that a great evil always evokes a greater good.” That greater good is within reach; colonialism started around 1500, and now it is ending, with China playing a critical role. The end of 500 years of evil exploitation opens up the possibility of the New Paradigm toward which many of us have dedicated our lives. Averting another world war is not just a desperate act of self-preservation, it is the key to the success of that new paradigm.

by Daniel Platt

July 12, 2024 (EIRNS)–Today’s meeting was opened by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who characterized the recent NATO summit as “incredibly bellicose.” Numerous ironies permeated the event with U.S. President Joe Biden ostentatiously saber-rattling, while the whole world wonders whether he will be replaced, given his painfully obvious mental incompetence. Other putative NATO leaders are not in much better shape politically.

Zepp-LaRouche stated provocatively that NATO leaders are, in effect, declaring democracy to be outmoded, by trying to create mechanisms that will lock the war drive in place, to protect it from the winds of change sweeping the Anglosphere. They hope they can prevent any change “if there is electoral change,” working to make NATO “Trump-proof.” The dramatic demise of Biden makes a second Trump presidency more likely, and Trump has expressed skepticism about NATO. Some of the more rabid war-party European leaders are likely to fall from power. So this group seeks to insulate their policy from the ever-present threat of democracy.

The nations of the Global South no longer agree to the status of colonialism. Zepp-LaRouche said that the Anglophiles have always had the option of taking the “stretched-out hand” of China and Russia, who have made continuous, good-faith efforts to bring an end to conflicts. NATO fanatically opposes a negotiated peace. She said: “The entire narrative of NATO … hangs on the fact that you can’t negotiate with Putin”; this is wrong, and proof is that there was a negotiated settlement in March 2022, until it was sabotaged by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

“We have an alternative shaping up” with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s diplomacy. The EU war fanatics have once again shown their disdain for democracy, by seeking ways to get rid of Orbán ahead of the expiration of his term as EU President. Orbán is bringing together smaller dissident parties in European nations, building a coalition to oppose the war drive.

Col. (ret.) Richard H. Black, former head of the U.S. Army’s Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon and former Virginia State Senator, said that PM Orbán, disgusted with the NATO summit, flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Donald Trump, whom he believes has a plan to end the Ukraine war. “There is no doubt that he can do it quite promptly,” Black added, warning that NATO “continues to encroach on the borders of Russia….There is a belief that the United States, through NATO, should be able to dictate the policies of all nations.” The United States is, in essence, NATO; a four-star U.S. general has been in charge of NATO for all of its 75 years. Originally a defensive alliance, “NATO has become this hyper-aggressive, predatory force.”

Prof. Dr. László Ungvári (Hungary), President (emeritus) of the Wildau University of Technology (Germany), reminded the participants that Hungary has been a nation for 1,000 years, which has been victimized by many wars, and loss of territory. NATO declarations don’t mention peace and the Ukraine-organized “peace summit” in Switzerland was “childish,” not even inviting Russia. He emphasized the Hungarian policies of Christianity, Family and Peace, asking do these nations starting war not have children? He had the impression that politicians these days do not have knowledge, and without knowledge you can never have peace. Knowing each other’s cultures is how we will never have war.

Former U.S. diplomat, CIA official, and Islamic scholar Graham Fuller found this NATO summit to be a “shell of bravado,” highlighting that NATO has two dissidents, Orbán and Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan. He recalled that Ahmet Davutoğlu, a onetime prime minister of Türkiye, had introduced a no-enemies, no-conflict foreign policy virtually overnight, on the principle “we do not have to go that route if we do not want to.” It infuriated the West, but it could happen again. He emphasized the idea that the organizing between Hungary and Türkiye hopefully will inspire braver, more creative thinking from other European nations, who are otherwise cowardly and without any independence of thought.

Luis Bernardo Diaz, dean of the Faculty of Law at the Pedagogical University of Tunja (Colombia), one of the magistrates of the International Opinion Tribunal, reported that the Tribunal will hold hearings July 27 on genocide in Palestine, and was very happy to have been invited to further collaborate with the IPC.

French activist Etienne Dreyfus offered video clips of recent interventions against public officials. These interventions were described by Solidarité & Progrès party leader Jacques Cheminade as “a sort of underground channel which is speaking with more and more force in the country,” adding that the French population is “on the verge of understanding” the need for peace, development, and security.

Two Romanian activists spoke, warning that European nations being drawn into the war policy will become targets. These policies have been implemented without the consent of the population.

In response to a question from Independent Congressional Candidate (NY-16), Jose Vega, on how to view our lives right now in this time of crisis, Helga Zepp-LaRouche said that “a beautiful world is in reach … because of many individuals who had the courage to go against the odds of their time.” They showed that one can “put the well-being of humanity … above your personal interest, and we should be thankful to the long line of such individuals. It’s a decision you make.” She added, “I’m optimistic that we can put this idea of geopolitical interest behind us,” and avoid the “terrible straitjacket of going from one war to the next.”

A Peruvian said that his nation is celebrating the second centennial of Peru’s independence from Spain. He recalled that Lyndon LaRouche showed that the present system is bankrupt and dying, and this must be addressed, beyond the war danger. He asked whether there is a subterranean architecture that manipulates governments: did Nazis who were recruited by the West after WWII have a significant role in “nationalist” formations?

A former 40-year Pentagon employee discussed the neocons and the Wolfowitz Doctrine, saying, “We really told them that we would not expand NATO.”

Two participants, an African leader and an American priest, gave very personal, heartfelt pleas for peace, for which they were thanked by Zepp-LaRouche, who said that in the final analysis, we must become better people. Regarding the Peruvian activist’s question about Nazi networks after WWII, she warned that many people today who profess to be combating a resurgence of Nazism are warmongers, and in effect, Nazis themselves. She called them the “extremist center.” She repeated her call for a project to put together a research project into what actually happened during the past 30 years. She urged the participants to use the Orbán initiative as a focus for organizing; we need massive support for Orbán from the Global South, to defeat those in the Anglosphere who are trying to demonize him.

By Kevin Gribbroek

June 28, 2024 (EIRNS)—“Our task is as urgent as it ever was, and getting more urgent by the hour. But I think that the light at the end of the tunnel is there, because we can see how the majority of nations are moving towards a new paradigm based on completely different principles. And therefore I think we are absolutely on the right track in what we are trying to do.” —Helga Zepp-LaRouche

Today’s 56th consecutive meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC), convened in the midst of a dire strategic crisis with (literally) demented leadership in the West beating the drums for war, nonetheless featured several members of the Schiller Institute expressing their firm conviction that there does exist an opportunity to shift the world in a new, positive direction.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the IPC, opened the proceedings by painting a very bleak picture of the situation in Europe, but very quickly contrasted that with excellent developments happening in both Russia and China. In Europe, the EU leadership is setting a course for disaster: Ursula von der Leyen—a notorious war hawk—will probably be re-elected as President of the European Commission. But worse, the new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy will likely be Kaja Kallis, Prime Minister of Estonia, a more disgusting war hawk than von der Leyen, or her predecessor Josep Borrell; she’s an extreme Russophobe, who openly advocates for splitting Russia into many pieces. On the other hand, Russia and China, the two most prominent voices of the Global Majority, are charting a different course.

Two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin introduced his Eurasian peace proposal before Russian Foreign Ministry leaders, President Xi Jinping of China delivered the keynote address today to the Conference Marking the 70th Anniversary of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence in Beijing. Zepp-LaRouche characterized the Five Principles as the basis of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Her late husband, Lyndon LaRouche, with his 1975 proposal for an International Development Bank, played a major role in shaping the final resolution of the 1976 Colombo, Sri Lanka summit of the NAM, a conference which was devoted to ending colonialism and imperialism. In his address today, President Xi presented his vision for a new paradigm, which not only overlaps that of Putin’s, but at the same time is in affinity with Zepp-LaRouche’s Ten Principles of a New International and Security and Development Architecture. These developments demonstrate that there is indeed “light at the end of the tunnel.”

Dr. George Koo, a U.S.-China policy expert and Chairman of the Burlingame Foundation, expressed his disappointment at the “complete lack of coverage in the media of Putin’s proposal for peace.” His question to the IPC was: How can we more effectively bring this proposal to the attention of especially American politicians in Washington, D.C.? These politicians are “playing with fire and are approaching the ignition point, and don’t seem to understand or appreciate it.”

Prof. Steven Starr, a nuclear weapons expert from the University of Missouri, after stating the truism that “the first casualty of war is truth,” sounded the alarm bells that the Russian Ministry of Defense has directly accused the U.S. of complicity in targeting the ATACMS missile attack at the beach in Sevastopol, and that Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has said that Russia is no longer at peace with the U.S. Russia is likely to start shooting down U.S. drones, according to Starr, something that didn’t even occur during the Cold War was the U.S. involved with direct attacks on the Russian homeland. Why is this happening? Because Russia is winning. Echoing, in a sense, the question posed by Dr. Koo, Starr asked the question: How do we get through to the public the danger of this crisis?

Zepp-LaRouche, in answer to Starr’s question, made the point that the purpose of the IPC is to do exactly that: not only alert the public to the danger but offer real solutions to the crisis—and it’s working. Putin’s peace proposal, for example, is a reflection of the Ten Principles. What the IPC must do immediately is “intensify the process of discussion, especially among those people who do understand why this is so dangerous; why Putin is absolutely correct when he says we are just at the point of no return.”

Jose Vega of the Bronx, a LaRouche independent candidate for the House of Representatives (CD-15), began by apologizing to the IPC participants for the embarrassment of the June 27 U.S. Presidential debate. Despite the debate, and the loss in the Democratic primary of “progressive” candidate Jamal Bowman to AIPAC’s $25 million candidate George Latimar, Vega expressed complete optimism about the future. He made the point that elections don’t begin or end on Election Day: “Election Day is when people decide to elect themselves to take back their government and become an electoral body.” And even though the mobilization by the Bowman campaign was totally inept—telling campaign workers to avoid discussing real issues like the genocide in Gaza—the good news is that hundreds of young people from around the country participated in the effort, and may now be willing to listen to the Vega and Sare for Senate campaigns, and their insistence that the path to victory is talking about real issues and is telling people the truth.

Jacques Cheminade, a long-time leader of the LaRouche movement and President of the Solidarité et Progrès political party in France, began by explaining why he and his associates have decided to run as candidates in the French legislative elections. According to Cheminade, the situation in France is “Orwellian,” with all three major parties supporting the war in Ukraine while claiming they are for peace—peace means war. They are using their campaigns as a platform to confront other candidates on the issue of peace through development in collaboration with the Global South. Cheminade is optimistic that despite the ongoing political chaos in France, “from a bad situation, can come a much higher sense of good,” but that requires that we “fight, fight, fight every day, and sometimes every night.”

Tim Rush, of the Schiller Institute, gave a report on a series of Capitol Hill meetings with senior staff members from eight different Senate and House offices. The irony, according to Rush, is that the meetings were set up courtesy of Ukraine and NATO, by putting members of the U.S. Congress on the latest Ukrainian “hit list”—every member who voted against funding for the Ukraine war—as “information terrorists” or “Putin propagandists.” Briefed on the urgency of negotiations to stop the drive to nuclear war, for the most part there was “very significant engagement” and openness.

In her closing remarks to the proceedings, Helga Zepp-LaRouche stressed that any change of candidates in the U.S. Presidential election would not make a difference. The problem is that the influence of the military-industrial complex over politics is very powerful in both the U.S. and Europe, and people have been brainwashed into believing that military spending benefits the economy, when in fact it is a drain on the economy and only benefits the shareholders of the defense corporations. Change has to come from the people, and the biggest challenge is to help people make a “mental leap” to conceptualize a new paradigm based on nation-states working in harmony for the benefit of the “One Humanity.” She called on all IPC participants to get the OKV resolution out to their networks, and build the ranks of the IPC so that we “have a voice that cannot be neglected.”