July 11, 2022 (EIRNS)–Despite continued attacks by anti-Russian witch hunters, German ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has kept his personal channel to Russian President Vladimir Putin open. As he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine news daily, he opposes the present government’s reluctance to talk to Russia: “Why are they focusing on the delivery of weapons? I do not believe in a military solution. The war can only be ended by negotiations. The fate of the soldiers and the Ukrainian civil population can only be eased by diplomatic negotiations.”
Schroeder said that he concludes from his meeting with President Putin in Moscow in March, that Russia is interested in a diplomatic solution. “How such a solution may look like, can, however, only be clarified in talks,” Schroeder said, adding that everything should be done by all sides “to prevent another escalation of the conflict.”
Indian Farmers Prepare for Action Again—
July 11 (EIRNS) – There are signs that Indian farmers, who were first to stage a sustained – and apparently successful — national protest against the cartelization of agriculture, in 2021, are ready to join in what has now become an international wave of farmers’ protests against inflation and restrictions on their ability to farm. Several Indian English-language publications in India, including The Federal are reporting the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) is getting ready to come out on tractors again after a year in which their producer prices have skyrocketed and BKU says the Modi government has been trying to sabotage the Minimum Support Price agreed as a result of the last farmers’ strike.
While a protest demonstration (without tractors) has already been underway for three days in Haryana State in India, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said on July 10, “Yes, I did ask (farmers) to keep their tractors ready, since one doesn’t know where one needs to go now. However, a tractor is needed on the fields … or any other place…. The movement will go on. Farmers’ expenses are going up. Unemployment is getting worse. The government doesn’t want to address these issues.”
July 8, 2022 (EIRNS)—According to a Reuters wire dated July 7, one of the devastating effects of the Western refusal to allow Afghanistan to use its foreign assets and operate a normal banking system, will be a rise in the deaths of farmers and children due to landmines.
“Foreign governments have now frozen development aid to the Afghan government, unwilling to use their taxpayers’ money to prop up the Taliban, an Islamist group that restricts women’s rights and has been at war with much of the West,” writes Reuters.
Hence, “In a previously unreported development, the Afghan government agency that oversees mine clearance told Reuters it had lost its roughly $3 million funding and laid off about 120 staff in April—the majority of the organization—because it couldn’t pay salaries.” All the sanctions have severely affected us,” said Sayed Danish, deputy head of the agency, the Directorate of Mine Action Coordination (DMAC). “We can’t do strategic work, which is our main responsibility.”
The loss of demining funds could have profound consequences for the country of 40 million people which is one of the most heavily mined places on Earth, after four decades of war. Almost 80% of civilian casualties from “explosive remnants of war” are children, partly due to their curiosity as well as their regular role in collecting scrap metal to sell to bolster families’ incomes. In the seven months since last March, about 300 Afghan children were killed or maimed by landmines and other unexploded devices. Landmines are also a big worry for farmers.
Late last month, a temporary deal was reached when DMAC agreed that the UN could set up an office in the country for about six months. But with funding for the stopgap UN regulator only half that of the Afghan agency before the NATO withdrawal and the Taliban takeover, it has only employed about 30 from the original 120 staff, according to Paul Heslop, Chief of the UN Mine Action Program in Afghanistan. He added that for long-term sustainability, the responsibility of coordinating demining should be with a state, and not an outside humanitarian body like the UN agency. “We’re in a situation where we have a government that’s not recognized,” said Heslop, adding that the lack of funding was “very difficult.” “Even if you pay people, they can’t get the money out of the banks, it’s very difficult for the people of Afghanistan at the moment, they are really suffering.”
Farmers Stand Up Throughout Europe—
July 8, 2022 (EIRNS)—Many of them inspired by the Dutch insurgency, farmers in other European nations are standing up. The Italian Twitter site Radiogenova is covering Dutch, German, Polish, Italian and Spanish farmer actions. They covered Spanish protests July 1 and they covered Polish protests yesterday: “Polish farmers also rise up in Warsaw: ‘That’s enough! We won’t let ourselves be robbed!’ They accuse the political class of destabilizing production by raising interest rates, which does not stop inflation: ‘We workers cannot pay for the crisis created by the politicians!’”
Several independent regional farmers associations have started protest actions in Italy. On July 6, farmers in Calabria, supported by colleagues from Sardinia and Latium, staged a tractor demonstration in Lamezia Terme (Calabria), under the slogan “Stop the Speculators Who Bring Down Farmers.” A press release by the “Movimento Territorio e Agricoltura” (MTA) explains that the action is against “the politicians” who, “instead of listening to producers’ demands,” are protecting those who want to turn Italian agriculture “into a big trading platform in the hands of financial speculation.” Italian farmers cannot survive under the current production costs, especially gasoline, but also fertilizers, seeds, etc. The statement says the Lamezia Terme demonstration will be followed by similar ones throughout Italy.
On its Facebook page, the MTA blasts established trade unions as well and looks at the mobilization of Dutch farmers. They posted several videos and comments such as “This is a revolution!”
July 8 (EIRNS)—In his meeting with Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero in Bali, Indonesia where both were attending the meeting of G20 foreign ministers, China’s State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi offered Beijing’s formal support for Argentina’s entry into the BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The foreign ministry issued a press release to this effect and Cafiero told the state news agency Telam that “China chairs the BRICS this year, and its support and commitment to nominate our country to join is fundamental.” In their meeting, Wang Yi stressed the importance of President Alberto Fernández having attended the BRICS-Plus meeting on June 24 and Argentina having formally entered the Belt and Road Initiative during his visit to Beijing in February of this year.
The two foreign ministers also discussed Argentina’s role as rotating president of the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC), from which post it also promotes the China-CELAC Joint Action Plan 2022-2024. According to Argentina’s foreign ministry, Cafiero told Wang Yi that his nation can contribute to the BRICS by strengthening and amplifying a voice in defense of the interests of developing nations.
Telam observed that membership in the BRICS could provide Argentina a way to free itself from the dollar-based financial system and the restrictions it imposes on the country’s macroeconomic development. Argentina is in need of new sources of financing for its large infrastructure projects, Telam adds, and points out that the BRICS are playing a crucial role in “promoting a new international financial architecture through its New Development Bank,” the BRICS bank. The New Development Bank, Cafiero emphasized, “has a key role in international financial cooperation and in promoting the agenda of the Global South and the structural changes it demands.” The Telam article can be read here.
July 6, 2022 (EIRNS)—This news service received the following statement of support for the independent candidate for U.S. Senate in New York state, Diane Sare. The international scope of the Sare for Senate campaign in world affairs, is reflected in this statement from Italy.
Why Diane Sare’s Campaign for U.S. Senate Is So Important for Italy
As chairwoman of Movisol, LaRouche’s movement in Italy, I endorse Diane Sare’s candidacy for U.S. Senate in New York.
The world is presently at the crossroads: a new financial and security system as proposed by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche, which will take us out of the economic crisis and the danger of a nuclear war; or, the continuation of today’s failed policies of confrontation against Russia and China, and the absurd sanctions which are damaging us, particularly in Europe, much more than they damage Russia. With her campaign for U.S. Senate, Diane Sare can bring the United States back to its origins, which were the American
Revolution against the British slave and colonial system, and made of America the beacon of hope for many all over the world, particularly in Italy after the Second World War.
A New Bretton Woods, like the one invoked by Helga Zepp-LaRouche and many economists in Italy, will only be possible if there is a shift in U.S. policy, away from the policies of war and confrontation of the Biden Administration, towards economic cooperation and peace negotiations.
Diane Sare’s campaign can make the difference. Diane is a brave woman, who dared to challenge Chuck Schumer, and managed to collect over 66,000 signatures [of New York State voters] to be able to run, well over the newly tripled requirement of 45, 000, thanks to many volunteers who support her proposals.
She is a friend of Italy: I had the pleasure of speaking at one of her online conferences on Cristopher Columbus and the Renaissance heritage he brought to America. She built a community chorus in New York, which she
conducts, and is the perfect expression of how music and singing can unite peoples all over the world through beauty, be it the music of J.S. Bach, of Antonio Vivaldi and Giuseppe Verdi, or the beautiful compositions of Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese and Polish composers we heard at the June 26, 2022, Concert for Peace of the Schiller Institute.
Diane is a close associate of the late Lyndon H. LaRouche, who is well known in Italy for his proposals for a New Bretton Woods and Glass-Steagall, which inspired 10 different resolutions for Glass-Steagall at the Italian Parliament. Her proposals are LaRouche’s proposals, and as such they will be viewed with great interest by our Movisol supporters, and by those politicians who do not agree with Draghi’s decisions to send weapons to Ukraine, to increase the military budget and cut all other budgets, including health, education and culture, in the name of a NATO policy which is leading us all to destruction, and of a Green Deal which is destroying our real economy and living standards.
We are aware of the fact that the necessary New Paradigm will have to come from the United States. For this and many other reasons, Diane Sare’s campaign is the key also for the future of my country.
by Liliana Gorini, Chairwoman of Movimento Solidaritá (Movisol)
July 5, 2022 (EIRNS)–“We may be closer to a Cuban Missile Crisis-type situation than many think possible,” former Bundeswehr Chief of Staff and Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Gen. Harald Kujat warned in a June 12 assessment for Preussische Allgemeine Zeitung. “The difference being that the epicenter would not be in the Caribbean, but in Europe. So it is essentially in Europe’s interest to prevent a development of the Ukraine war that would expose us to this danger.”
How great is the danger? Kujat points to reports that Russia had simulated attacks using Iskander missiles (which can be armed with both conventional and nuclear warheads) from its Kaliningrad exclave. The practice launch was reported to have been a simulated launch at a military target in response to a nuclear attack.
“The message from the Russian Defense Ministry is apparently intended as another warning that the use of nuclear weapons is a realistic option for the Russian government,” he writes.
He warns that “the carefully safeguarded strategic stability between the two great powers [U.S. and Russia] does not mean that the risk of a nuclear war limited to Europe is eliminated. On the contrary: If the Russian leadership is of the opinion that the use of short-range nuclear missiles will not trigger a nuclear counterattack by the United States, the risk of a nuclear first use for Russia would be calculable. … [T]he former presidential adviser to Yeltsin and Putin, Sergey Karaganov, recently stated: ‘I also know from the history of American nuclear strategy that the United States will probably not defend Europe with nuclear weapons.'”
The potential for the threat is that the Ukraine conflict is not a Ukraine-Russian dispute, but a NATO-Russia conflict. Kujat warns that Western politicians are increasingly emphasizing that the arms deliveries are intended “not only for the defense of Ukraine, but also for Ukrainian victory over Russia.” He quotes U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin from late April saying that the United States “wants to see Russia weakened to the point where it can no longer do the things it did when it invaded Ukraine.”
“This is a significant change in the focus of U.S. strategy in the Ukraine war,” Kujat writes. “The center of gravity is no longer to support Ukraine in its defensive struggle, but to weaken Russia as a geopolitical rival.”
“However, the course of the war so far shows that there will be no military victor in this conflict. The rational consequence, therefore, is not to prolong the war by setting strategic goals further, but to end it through a negotiated peace. The appeal to seek a negotiated peace is also not a call for Ukraine to surrender. It is not even directed at Ukraine.
The main military players in this war are the United States and Russia. “There have been no negotiations between the two great powers since the war began. War has taken the place of diplomacy. It is the task of politics and an imperative of reason to end the suffering of Ukrainians and the destruction of the country and to prevent the war from slipping into a European catastrophe,” Kujat concludes. The full article is here (in German) and here in English machine translation.
July 2, 2022 (EIRNS)–On July 1, approximately 100 graduate students from China and Switzerland took part in a cross-cultural event for the purpose of engaging more institutions in inspiring young students to explore the unknown. The two astronauts who were chosen to interact with the students were well-suited for the assignment.
Jing Haipeng, head of the Chinese astronaut corps, was the first Chinese astronaut to have flown on three Shenzhou missions. Claude Nicollier was the first Swiss astronaut and flew four space shuttle missions including two servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope.
The interaction was part of the Sino-Swiss Space Science and Technology Cooperation Online Meeting, which was co-sponsored by China Science and Technology Exchange Center and the Swiss Museum of Transport.
The two sides also signed a memorandum to set up a stable exchange and cooperation mechanism, build a platform for the exchange of scientific research institutions and personnel and encourage more entities of scientific research and innovation to participate in Sino-Swiss cooperation.
Claude Nicollier also delivered a video presentation to the Krafft Ehricke 100th Anniversary event in Munich in 2017 sponsored by the Schiller Institute.
July 2, 2022 (EIRNS)–Ferdinand “Bong-Bong” Marcos Jr. was inaugurated as President of the Philippines on Thursday, following up the ceremony with a very substantial meeting with Chinese VIce President Wang Qishan who had headed the Chinese delegation to the inauguration. (It is notable that the Biden Administration sent Kamala Harris’s husband, the “second gentleman” Douglas Emhoff, to head the U.S. delegation, a lowly designation indeed.)
The Manila Times reports that President Marcos told Vice President Wang that China is “the most powerful partner of the Philippines,” and that the Philippines’ “good-neighborly friendship is in the fundamental interests of both peoples.”
“The new Philippine government attaches utmost importance to the relations with China, and is willing to deepen its participation in the joint construction of the [One Belt One Road], join hands with China in coping with regional challenges and elevate the bilateral ties to a higher level,” Marcos said, as quoted by Xinhua. This is precisely what the neocons in the U.S. feared with the Marcos overwhelming election victory.
Wang told Marcos that the Philippine leader and his family have made “great contributions” to enhancing China-Philippine friendship. It was Bong Bong’s Mother Imelda Marcos (the First Lady to Ferdinand Marcos Sr.) whose visit to China in 1974 opened relations between the two nations (see the famous Mao “kiss on the hand” of Imelda here.
Wang added: “The Chinese side has always given priority to the Philippines in its neighborhood diplomacy, and is ready to work with the new Philippine government in carrying on with their friendship, boosting mutual trust and deepening cooperation so as to usher in a new ‘golden age’ in bilateral ties.”
Regarding the South China Sea issue, near the top of the list of U.S. efforts to undermine Chinese relations with the Philippines and others in the region, Wang called for the two countries to “properly resolve differences and jointly safeguard peace and tranquility” in the contested waters.
The Marcos regime is re-opening discussion regarding joint exploitation of resources in contested waters.
During a recent event of the Association for Philippines-China Understanding, Marcos said he would continue Duterte’s independent foreign policy. “This is what we feel is best in the national interest and I feel it is to be advantageous not only to our friends in China but to all our friends around the world,” he said. He added that “our strongest partner has always been… our close neighbor and our good friend, the People’s Republic of China.”
Drumbeat for War-time Rationings in Germany —
July 2, 2022 (EIRNS)–Speaking of an expected total halt in Russian gas supplies from July 11 (the start of the annual routine maintenance of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline), Klaus Mueller, head of the German Federal Grid Agency (a Green Party and “renewables” fanatic), hints that strict energy emergency management may be invoked from that day on. Apart from the fact omitted by him that Russian gas pumping through the Ukrainian pipelines to Central and Western Europe is still occurring and will likely also continue beyond July 11, Mueller is himself politicizing the issue which he falsely blames on the Russians. The absence of gas would create a “very serious situation” and force his agency to decree substantial rationing, Mueller said yesterday, calling on citizens as well as industries to assist by “voluntarily” cutting the use of gas themselves.
The aim of such scenario-mongering is to cover up the fact that there are alternatives to freezing during the winter which the government and Mueller’s agency hysterically reject: giving the okay for the opening of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for continued pumping of Russian gas to German and Europe in the range of what Nord Steam1 supplies.