General updates

Interview with Helga Zepp-LaRouche — U.S., Europe Need New Silk Road Cooperation More Than Asia Does

June 7, 2016by tobi in Geopolitics updates, Helga media coverage or interview, Russia SI activity

Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, called the “Silk Road Lady” in China and the first promoter with Lyndon LaRouche of this policy in Europe, was interviewed by TASS May 31, 2016 on the decision for a new global war or for economic development and cooperation.

TASS: How would you assess the current international cooperation?

Zepp-LaRouche: There are two completely different dynamics on the planet right now. On the one side you have the convergence of President Putin’s very successful military flanks, such as his intervention in Syria, which created the potential for peace, combined with his various diplomatic interventions in Asia, parallel to the Chinese New Silk Road initiatives.

These efforts represent a win-win perspective for over seventy participating countries already.

On the other side there is an extremely dangerous confrontation from the side of the United States, Great Britain, the EU and NATO against Russia and China, which has brought the world to a multiple crisis, more dangerous than at the height of the Cold War.

TASS: In what areas it is more active and where it is not?

Zepp-LaRouche:In the case of Syria the cooperation between Foreign Minister Lavrov and Secretary of State Kerry, as well as the Geneva cooperation between Russia and the U.S., is very positive. However, as long as the United States do not abandon their policy of regime change, the situation remains dangerous. President Putin has proven to be a brilliant strategist.

This allows confidence that the warhawks in NATO will not succeed to lure Russia into a trap, giving them a pretext for a preventive attack.

TASS: What are the issues we need to step up cooperation between the West and Russia? Why?

Zepp-LaRouche: The reality is, that the entire trans-Atlantic sector is bankrupt and about to blow up in a bigger way than in 2008. Japanese Prime Minister Abe, after a very important visit in Russia, made that point at the recent G7 meeting emphatically, but was rebuffed by President Obama, who insisted, that “the recovery is improving”, which is absurd in light of the negative interest rates of the central banks and the debate around “helicopter money”.

Therefore the West needs, more than Asia, the kind of economic cooperation of the One Road One Belt/Eurasian Economic Union cooperation, integrating Eurasia from Vladivostok to Lisbon, but also inviting the U.S. to participate in this perspective. The only way a catastrophe can be avoided, is if we succeed to overcome geopolitics and reach a new paradigm, based on a global development partnership and the common aims of mankind.

TASS: Why, despite the obvious threat of terrorism, cybercrime and other international challenges, does the West so hinder cooperation with Russia?

Zepp-LaRouche: Almost all important conflicts derive from the effort of the Anglo-American empire to maintain an unipolar world, at a point, where it has de facto ceased to exist already. More and more forces in the world realize that they have to make existential decisions, and that the interests of their nations are much better served by stopping sanctions and confrontation against Russia and China.

The fact that Russia and China have created a very strong strategic partnership, with India a third partner, has shifted the strategic balance in the world. More and more countries are seeing it as more beneficial to cooperate for joint development, than to be under the yoke of military confrontation. We are at a branching point in history, and at such moments, what counts is leadership of the kind we have seen from President Putin.

Source: http://tass.ru/mezhdunarodnaya-panorama/3325807

Webcast: Learning the Lesson of the Lost Opportunity of 1989—This Time It Can Be Different!

November 10, 2019by Jason Ross in Helga Webcast, New financial order updates, World war danger updates

What really happened in 1989, when the Berlin Wall came down, and what can we learn from investigating the events of that historic period? In reviewing the reality of what actually happened thirty years ago, when the Berlin Wall was brought down, in contrast to the official narrative put forward by the neoliberals and geopoliticans, Helga Zepp LaRouche makes a passionate case for why this time will be different. The chance for world historic change exists briefly, but this time, she says, the opportunity is bigger. In contrast to 1989, when only the forces associated with her husband, Lyndon LaRouche, and the Schiller Institute, had a strategic plan, today there is the Belt-and-Road Initiative, and a growing recognition that a new crash is coming, and that sticking with the Old Paradigm imposed by the British Empire would be deadly.

She presents the decisive issues of 1989 as one who participated in them, and explains how the British Empire survived then, through assassinations, threats, and corruption, including the jailing of her husband. But the New Paradigm which is emerging globally, shaped by the ideas of LaRouche, is increasingly seen as the only viable option today, as the danger of a new crash has increased. Those defending the old order in Europe and the U.S. are increasingly exposed, with the investigations into the origins of Russiagate bringing out more evidence daily.

Now is the time to read the works of Schiller, she said, to become aware of the potential for each human being—including yourself!—to become a beautiful soul, and to use this discovery to become a force in making history, to make sure that humanity does not miss this opportunity.

EIR Seminar in Frankfurt on New Silk Road for Mideast and Africa

April 5, 2016by tobi in Asia (Southwest) & Africa (Northern) SI activity, Germany SI activity, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, New Silk Road / BRI updates, Our economic development events

The seminar, “Solving the Economic and Refugee Crises with the New Silk Road!” organized by EIR in cooperation with the Consulate General of Ethiopia in Frankfurt, was attended by an audience of 75, consisting of representatives of several diplomatic offices, of subscribers and contacts of EIR in the region, and about 10 Syrians (students as well as refugees waiting for enrollment at universities). Several contacts even came from as far away as Berlin, and cities in Switzerland. Extending over the entire afternoon, the seminar featured presentations by Helga Zepp-LaRouche, chairwoman of the Schiller Institute; Hussein Askary, EIR Arabic Editor, Stockholm; Mehreteab Mulugeta Haile, Consul General Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia; Marcello Vichi, former Director, Foreign Department Bonifica company, author of the Transaqua concept; Andrea Mangano, Vice President, Italian Association of Water Engineers and contributor to the Transaqua outline. The speakers were joined by Mohammed Bila, Lake Chad Basin Commission, and Ulf Sandmark, Schiller Institute Stockholm and Swedish-Syrian Committee for Democracy, for an expanded panel in the second part of the seminar. The seminar was moderated by Claudio Celani of the EIR‘s European center in Wiesbaden.

In her keynote, Helga Zepp-LaRouche stressed that this would not be an academic seminar but rather a discussion about the fact that in this existential crisis of mankind, shown by the refugee crisis, the wars and the financial crash, solutions are within reach and must be realized now. In the wake of the terror attacks in Brussels yesterday, it is more than appropriate to recall former U.S. Senator Bob Graham’s statement of mid-November last year after the terror attacks in Paris then, that had the classified 28 pages of the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 been made public, such atrocities could and would have been prevented.

It is beyond any doubt that the Russian military intervention in Syria changed the rules of game, that it exposed the role of that pro-IS alliance of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United States, and United Kingdom, and particular that of Turkey, whose policies have been attacked harshly by two former U.S. ambassadors to Ankara. The EU agreement with Turkey on the refugees is a travesty which fits in the general picture of Western and U.S. human rights violations which have just been exposed in a Chinese dossier. Whereas the West is talking about an insanity like “helicopter money” to save its own speculative banks, the Chinese “One Belt, One Road” initiative presents a real-economic offer for a win-win strategy; that is, not just in the interest of China but also of the other nations–and real development only will help to dry out terrorism. Either Europe works with Russia, China, India, Iran, Egypt, and other nations to launch a Marshall Plan for Syria and Africa, or its bankrupt economies will crash against the wall, Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche said.

Hussein Askary from EIR, Arabic translator of “The New Silk Road becomes the World Land-bridge”.

Presenting the EIR World Land-Bridge report in its first Arabic translation, Hussein Askary reported that as this seminar was being held in Frankfurt, an event presenting the Arabic report was also taking place in Yemen today under conditions of continued Saudi airstrikes of Yemeni cities. The idea of the New Silk Road is more than just building a few roads and railroads; it is a concept of development corridors improving the life of some 450 million people in the Southwest Asian region, with Syria being at the center. This involves mega-projects of rapid development, financed by national development banks free of the obligation of paying the debt as demanded by the Western monetarist institutions. Like Egypt, Syria will focus on industrial zones, transport corridors and agricultural development, with China showing the way with its massive infrastructural engagement for instance in East Africa.

The Ethiopian Consul-General followed with a presentation on the economic strategy of his country, characterized by policies that have greatly improved the per-capita income, literacy rate, and public health care since the 1990s. With an envisaged annual GDP growth of 11%, Ethiopia wants to become a middle-income level country by 2025, made possible by opportunities for Ethiopians to set up a farm or shop at the price that many pay today to human traffickers to be brought to Europe as refugees. Ethiopia, itself, is the largest refugee host in Africa, with 800,000 refugees from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea taken in–a fact that nobody in Europe talks about. Ethiopia will be transformed from a primary-products exporter to a nation with high-value production and infrastructure, and the country’s cooperation with Russia, China, India, and Brazil in rail projects is important in this context.

Marcello Vichi then gave a review of the history of the Transaqua Project discussion during the past 35 years, from the first proposals presented by Italy’s Bonifica company 1982-1985, to African governments as well as the United Nations, pointing to a transfer of water from the giant Congo River as the only viable option for refilling Lake Chad. The proposal has largely been met with disinterest or pessimism as to the chance of its realization, has been discarded as allegedly “megalomaniac,” but the recent refugee streams have made Europe rethink its views, and Transaqua, which has always been more than just water for Chad — rather the broader framework for the development of entire Central Africa — is the only option that can attract the young generation of African labor force not to become refugees.

Marcello Vichi reviews the 35 year history of the Transaqua Project.

Marcello Vichi introducing Andrea Mangano as a leading proponent of the Transaqua project.

Andrea Mangano then gave an overview of what Lake Chad was 35 years ago and what it is now, with 90% of its water lost. It shares the problem with other evaporating inland lakes in the world that are no longer supplied by their traditional tributaries–the Aral Sea, Lake Urmia, Lake Turikana, the Dead Sea. The only thing that improves the situation is water transfer and reduced consumption by irrigation via new technologies. This is done by Transaqua, which will tap 5% of the water from the upper tributaries of the Congo River, which is otherwise flowing away unused into the Atlantic Ocean at volumes 14 times the water of Germany’s biggest river, the Rhine. Refilling the lake will be done with infrastructure construction that will give the entirety of Central Africa hydropower, irrigation for agriculture, and waterway transport, and relieve the region from its present land-locked situation.

Mohammed Bila elaborated on the Transaqua issue in the expanded panel, pointing to the big and ongoing migration wave southwards from Chad, since the huge drought of 1973 during which the Lake Chad already lost 40% of its water. The farmers and their cattle that have migrated to the south, will not return to Chad unless the lake is refilling, and unless the terrorist movement of Boko Haram has been crushed.

Ulf Sandmark reported on his two visits to Syria in 2014 and 2015, during which it became evident that the reconstruction of Syria actually implies the development of the entire Southwest Asia region, making it an integral part of the New Silk Road–to which he found the Syrians open-minded, and when the “Phoenix” reconstruction plan drafted back in Stockholm was presented to the Syrians during the second visit, it received broad coverage in the country’s media.

The discussion between the audience and the panelists featured more aspects of what was said in the presentations, ranging from the genocidal tradition of the British Empire which has sabotaged real development in Africa and Mideast, the hopelessness of the monetarist system, and the increased threat of a thermonuclear world war if the chance of changing course in the direction of cooperation with the New Silk Road is not taken by Europe and the United States; that it is a race of time to enter a new paradigm before the total collapse destroys everything. Also, that contrary to Western black propaganda, China is not engaged in Ethiopia for raw materials, since Ethiopia has none, but instead is a real partner for development. Zepp-LaRouche repeatedly insisted during the discussion that the participants of this Frankfurt seminar take home with them the commitment to set fire to the behinds of the policy-makers to get things fundamentally changed, that a real mass movement for development has to be created. Vichi made a passionate appeal to be optimistic as a must for people so that things can be changed. A new and creative image of man, as it was developed in the great Italian Renaissance, is required also today, Celani pointed out. Sandmark also insisted that the New Silk Road is not just for engineers but for everyone to study at more seminars and chapter meetings. The first chapter meeting on the Arabic language report in Yemen today was actually being presided over by the leading poet of that country, Askary added.

Webcast: The Tables Have Turned on the Coup Plotters and Global Central Bankers

October 27, 2019by Jason Ross in Helga Webcast, New financial order updates

Helga Zepp LaRouche provided a fascinating assessment of the changes sweeping the globe, and the opportunity these changes have made possible to realize cooperation to usher in a new era of peace and development.

Among the processes she highlighted are:

1. The significance of the Barr-Durham investigation moving into a criminal inquiry, putting the whole British-Obama intel apparatus in the spotlight, while exposing the fraud of the “Ukraine impeachment” drive;
2. The acceleration of the financial crisis, and the de facto acknowledgement of the central bankers themselves that they have no alternative but to continue the same failed policies which created this crisis;
3. The unrest spreading against the neoliberal austerity policies ordered by the central banks, to protect their collapsing system;
4. The realignment underway in the entire Middle East, as a result of Trump’s decision to coordinate with Russia to end the “endless wars”;
5. Despite the continuing anti-China idiocy on display in VP Pence’s latest speech, even he acknowledged the positive potential for a U.S.-China trade agreement, as this is what President Trump wants;
6. The Russia-Africa summit, which provides a vision for the U.S. and Europe of what is possible if those nations would drop their imperial axioms.

Ignore the media, which is trying to do public relations for the criminal British imperial networks—get active with the Schiller Institute, as the time has come for the spreading of the ideas and method of Lyndon LaRouche.

Arabic Daily Hails Zepp-LaRouche’s Role In New Silk Road

March 11, 2016by tobi in Helga media coverage or interview, New Silk Road / BRI updates

The Arabic-language newspaper Al-Ittihad in the United Arab Emirates published a column by Mohammed Aref, a science and technology consultant, on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Iran, congratulating the New Silk Road Lady—Helga ZeppLaRouche—and the Schiller Institute for this new visionary policy.

The column, titled “China’s 51st Century” (according to China’s record of its history), gives a poetic and exciting image of the tour by President Xi to the region and of China’s emphasis on the New Silk Road and economic development in its policy declaration.

In 1997, Aref was the first Arab journalist to write a full-page review of EIR’s first Eurasian Land-Brige Report, in the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat, of which he was the Scientific Editor.

After debunking the argument that China’s economy is in decline, Aref states: “China is redrawing the map of the world, turning the seven continents into six by making Asia and Europe one continent. ‘Let the world be, for no one can succeed in conquering the world and changing it,’ as the Chinese saying goes, and as expressed by the Chinese Foreign Ministry Arab Policy Paper which was issued last week, in which is revived the Silk Road, which used to link Chinese with the Arab world for more than 2,000 years. The road of Chinese wisdom is like the a ‘Silk Road’ which connects the greatest continental AsianEuropean landmass, and extends to the shores of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans through infrastructure for agriculture, industry, trade, technology, science and culture.”

In his concluding paragraph, Aref reports ZeppLaRouche’s historic role:

“‘The Arab-Asian Land-Bridge: The Pulsating Heart of the New Silk Road’ was the title of my report in a London newspaper in November 1997, and I never imagined then that this project, which was designed by the Schiller Institute, would be adopted by China and that the Chinese President would bring it with him to the Arab region this week. Last September, Beijing celebrated the release of the Chinese translation of the new report, ‘The Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge.’ In the next month the Arabic translation of the report will be published, and is prepared by Hussein Askary, the Iraqi member of the Schiller Institute, which was established by the German Academician Helga LaRouche, who is called by the Chinese ‘The Silk Road Lady,’ because she paved the way for the New Silk Road through hundreds of conferences and scientific and political seminars, and she ‘established the concept of the Eurasian Land-Bridge as a war prevention tool,’ according to the Chinese Scholar Deng Yifan. Helga LaRouche and China are like the woman, about whom the Chinese proverb states: ‘The female always surpasses the male by her calmness, and she becomes fruitful even in her silence.’ And the other proverb: The Great Country is like the lower part of the river, where the earth of the world meets the female of the world [Daodejing, Chapter 61—ed.].”

Aref’s column can be found here (in Arabic).

Webcast: The Secret of How Trump Outflanked the War Party

October 18, 2019by Jason Ross in Economic development updates, Helga Webcast

This week Helga discusses Trump’s latest moves to end the regime change wars which he was elected to do and contrasts the American population’s support for President Trump shown at various rallies throughout the country vs. the mainstream media’s attempt to project a completely different reality. With a fragile ceasefire on the Syrian/Turkish border, now is the time to begin the reconstruction of the region by extending the Belt and Road Initiative into the Middle East!

Helga also emphasizes the role our movement plays in the US and in Europe to educate the population on the impending global financial crisis. THIS is the real context of the rush to impeach Trump. He’s proven he’s willing to turn over the chessboard on the decades-long regime change policies of the military-industrial complex, what guarantee does Wall Street have that he won’t do the same to them as the financial crisis continues to spread?

It’s now more important than ever to organize a true economic renaissance on the planet, beginning by reorganizing Wall Street, and allowing sovereign nations to collaborate on their own economic destinies.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche Speaks in New Delhi

March 3, 2016by Jason Ross in Asia (Southern, Eastern, & Southeastern) & Oceania SI activity, General, Helga statement, article, transcript, New Silk Road / BRI updates

March 2, 2016 (Schiller Institute)–Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and Chairwoman of the Schiller Institute, spoke today in New Delhi at the Raisina Dialogue, co-sponsored by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation. The two-day conference is described by its organizers as being “designed to explore prospects and opportunities for Asian integration as well as Asia’s integration with the larger world.” The event hosted more than 100 speakers from over 100 countries.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Presentation (Video)

Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Presentation (Audio)

Transcript of presentation

MODERATOR: Now we have Mrs. Helga Zepp-LaRouche to speak on the Chinese Belt and Road initiative…. You have the floor.

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, thank you very much. I want to thank the organizers of this very distinguished forum to give me the opportunity to speak. Because I think most people know that mankind is in one of its most severe crises, and maybe the most important crisis in all of our history. The strategic situation is described by many analysts as more dangerous than during the height of the Cold War, which was the Cuban Missile Crisis; the trans-Atlantic financial system is headed for a new crisis, worse than 2008; and the refugee crisis in Europe is really not only a tremendous humanitarian crisis, but it is about to explode the EU.

Now, the question is, are we as a human civilization capable of changing wrong policies which have led to this crisis, or are we doomed to repeat the mistakes which have led, due to geopolitics, to two world wars in the 20th Century? But fortunately, we are also witnessing the emergence of a completely new paradigm. Under the leadership of the BRICS countries, a completely new set of relations among states is developing, based on mutual interest, economic cooperation, and collaboration in future-oriented, high-technology areas, such as thermonuclear fusion, the research into space, and therefore a deeper understanding of the physical principles of our universe.

The Chinese New Silk Road program, One Belt, One Road, is offering the Chinese economic miracle to be repeated in every country which wants to cooperate in this win-win perspective. Already 65 states are participating in this new model of cooperation, and it is in the process of overcoming geopolitics, and with that, the source of war, potentially forever.

The new agreement between U.S. Secretary of State Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov concerning a ceasefire for Syria, is potentially a game-changer for the entire strategic situation, provided that especially Russia, China, and India immediately work with the countries of Southwest Asia to implement a comprehensive build-up program, not only for the war-torn countries of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, but for the entire region from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, from the Caucasus to the Persian Gulf. And with the trip of President Xi Jinping to the region, to Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, the extension of the Silk Road is now on the table.

The Schiller Institute published a 370-page study with the title, “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge,” which is already available in Chinese, in Arabic, and soon in Korean, which is a blueprint for a comprehensive build-up of the whole world economy. It contains a very concrete plan for Southwest Asia. So this region, between Asia, Europe, and Africa, has a huge development potential, with great human and natural resources, and it is uniquely located.

The Five Seas strategy announced in 2004 by President Assad can still be a reference point for an infrastructure net between the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Black Sea, making this region potentially a prosperious hub, for the vast increases of trade between Asia, Europe, and Africa. Two major development corridors, one east-west, and another one north-south, will not only include integrated fast train systems, highways, pipelines, water projects, industries, and agriculture. With modern technologies, such as nuclear energy for the desalination of vast amounts of ocean water and the ionization of moisture in the atmosphere, we can green the desert and reconquer large areas of the desert for agriculture and human habitation. The New Silk Road, which already extends from Chongqing and Yiwu to Tehran, where the first Silk Road train arrived three weeks ago, can be extended from there via Baghdad, Amman, Aqaba, and then continue through a tunnel to Sharm el-Sheikh in the Southern Sinai to Cairo. The route crosses the Euphrates River, where ancient travel routes can be transformed into modern corridors, from the Basra port in Iraq at the Perusian Gulf, northwest to Aleppo. Existing railroads along the Euphrates in Iraq and a railroad between Aleppo in Syria and Deir ez-Zor on the Euphrates, should be modernized, and a new line from there to Baghdad connecting the main arteries of the Silk Road should be built. Again, this corridor should not just be rail, but should integrate transport, energy production, distribution, communications, and create the conditions governing the location for the development of industry and new cities. A land route to India connecting the Iranian rail network up to Zahedan on the Iran-Pakistan border, is on schedule to be completed. Other lines, for time reasons very briefly: from Deir ez-Zor to Tadmor-Palmyra to Damascus and Beirut. A north-south link from Syria to the industrial zones of the Suez Canal; a north-south railway from Damascus to Mecca and Medina; a tunnel under the Bab el Mandeb Strait from Djibouti to the Arab Peninsula, and links to Europe, the Black Sea, and Russia. India has good relations with practically all the countries of the region and has been asked already by Russia and China, to play a mediating role in such a developing perspective. As Prime Minister Modi said, 65% of the Indian population is under 35 years of age, and that is the greatest asset of the country.

These youth must be not only given a vision, to help to increase the productivity of Indian agriculture through the use of power, water, fertilizer, high-variety seeds, and so forth, so that the number of working people as farmers can be halved and that land be used for a build-up of infrastructure. But the youth of India can also be inspired to take it as their own mission, to participate in the economic transformation of Southwest Asia and Africa, and in this way, be part of creating a future for all of mankind. The realization of such a development perspective, is the only way how to end the refugee crisis and revive the economies of Europe and the United States, and to develop all of Asia. [applause]

For the first time the Indian Ministry of external affairs hosted together with the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi from the 1^st to 3^rd of March 2016.

The conference, with over 600 guests from over 100 nations, focused on Asia’s physical, economic, human and digital connectivity as well as the needed international partnerships to address the challenges in this century effectively.

The participation of speakers involved policy and decision makers, including cabinet ministers from various governments, high-level government officials and policy practitioners, leading personalities from business and industry, members of the strategic community, media and academia. Among the inaugural speakers were the Ministers of Foreign Affairs from Bangladesh and India, Abdul Hassan Mahmood Ali and Sushma Swaraj, and several former presidents: Hamid Karzai (Afghanistan), Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (Sri Lanka), and Sir James Mancham (Seychelles). Furthermore the conference was addressed by the Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, several other ministers of India, as well as Li Zhaoxing, former foreign minister of China. Ding Guorong, Senior Vice President of the Silk Road Fund, as well as many other incumbent and former politicians and last but not least the founder and head of the Schiller-Institute, Helga Zepp- LaRouche.

The panels addressed different aspects:

Under the title of “Wither European Union” the panelists, among them two members of European parliament dealt with the challenges of the Euro-zone with the refugee crisis and terrorism. Most of them blamed the lack of solidarity among the member states as the core reason to the crisis. In the Q&A session Helga Zepp-LaRouche could intervene by bringing in the only way how to solve the refugee crisis, the kind of Marshall Plan to rebuilt the whole region which was destroyed by all these wars. Even though the panelists did not respond directly to it, it made a huge effect and was brought up by another speaker later in the afternoon and in different side discussions. In her speech in the panel “Connecting a Continent: An Asian Union” Helga Zepp- LaRouche elaborated that idea in a much bigger context of the New Silk Road Process as the only means to avoid thermonuclear war. In the Q&A session she was able to elaborate her on her remarks and uplift the discussion into the strategic outlook.

Throughout the proceedings of the event many thankful and concerned people asked Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche to elaborate more on the issues she raised, especially on the war danger and the New Silk Road initiative.

Other panels included topics as “Asias Strategic Order”, which addressed the role of nuclear weapons vis-a-vis stability in the region, or “Waters of Asia”, which dealt with the transnational development of river basins and implications of energy corridors and international waterways. There were also several panels on different security items, one focussing on asymmetrical and sub-conventional security threats from state and non-state actors and how to respond to these.

The program to the conference can be found at: http://raisinadialogue.org

Ukrainian Government in Chaos, Leftist Opposition Appeals against Police-State Repression

February 25, 2016by tobi in World war danger updates

by Rachel Douglas

23 Feb.—With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dramatic Feb. 22 announcement of agreement between Russia and the United States on joint enforcement of a ceasefire in Syria, it is natural to ask: but, what about Ukraine? There is more than one potential trigger point for a global showdown and world war, and in recent weeks, the United States and NATO have announced plans for a huge build-up of forces in Eastern Europe, keyed off Ukraine as allegedly exemplary of “Russian aggression.”

As Ukraine marks twin anniversaries this month, that “What about…?” question remains wide open. Ukraine, and not its eastern regions alone, could explode in violence at any moment. The night of Feb. 21-22 was the second anniversary of the 2014 coup d’état, when elected President Victor Yanukovych fled Kiev in fear for his life, as crowds dominated by openly fascist armed bands threatened to storm his offices. One year later, on Feb. 11, 2015, all-night negotiations in the Belarusian capital among Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, French Prime Minister Francois Holland and German Chancellor Angela Merkel led to the “Minsk-2” accords, calling a halt to the civil conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Donbass region, in which thousands had died and more than a million became refugees. The Minsk accords, coordinated with “contact group” talks among representatives of the Kiev regime and the eastern Ukraine regions that had rejected the coup, set forth a schedule for a ceasefire, force withdrawals, prisoner exchanges, and a longer-term settlement involving Constitutional changes to give semi-autonomy to the Donbass districts.

The force disengagement happened, but the Constitutional changes, recognition of autonomous status, and the planned subsequent return of control over the Donbass-Russia border to Ukraine, have not. Dr. Gordon M. Hahn of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey (California), in an assessment published Feb. 19 under the headline “Who’s More in Violation of Minsk-2—Kiev or Donbass?” (http://gordonhahn.com). He concluded was that “Kiev is significantly more in violation of the agreement than the Donbass rebels and/or Moscow”, with the Ukrainian regime being “in violation of no less than seven articles and nine obligations” it committed to in Minsk-2.

The chaotic post-coup universe

On Feb. 3, Lithuanian banker Aivaras Abromavičius, imported by Poroshenko in Dec. 2014 to serve as Ukraine’s minister of economics, abruptly resigned. He stated, “My team and I have no wish to be a cover for open corruption or puppets,” citing alleged influence-peddling by Ihor Kononenko, an MP and businessman close to Poroshenko. Within a week, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde warned, “I am concerned about Ukraine’s slow progress in improving governance and fighting corruption,” hinting that the release of IMF funds pledged for stabilizing Ukraine might not be forthcoming.

Next, Poroshenko demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Arseni Yatsenyuk, the infamous “Yats” who was handpicked by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland for his job in January 2014. On 16 February, the Supreme Rada (Parliament) condemned the performance of the Yats government, but several minutes

later failed to pass a vote of no-confidence. The sudden exit from the hall, before the second vote, of dozens of MPs, including opposition members and members of Poroshenko’s party, triggered rumors of bribery and dirty deals.

Yats remains PM, but two parties left the ruling coalition the next day. Either he forms a new coalition, or early elections could be called. Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whose party has risen from barely over 5 per cent of the vote in late-2014 elections to now polling 20+ per cent, and who was one of those exiting the coalition, visited Washington in early February, evidently to curry favor for a comeback bid.

The main issue in Ukraine, however, is not parliamentary scuffles. It is ungovernability, and economic breakdown. A major reason for non-performance of the Minsk-2 accords is that neither Poroshenko nor Yats could secure Parliamentary approval of the Constitutional changes required for Donbass autonomy. Meanwhile, in a country that saw the highest inflation in Europe (30 per cent in 2014, 45 per cent in 2015), people nationwide struggle to survive on wages that barely suffice for their home heating bills. The free trade arrangement with the EU, over which the Euromaidan coup was supposedly staged, has brought no boom for the Ukrainian economy.

The political problems are far deeper than the faction fights of the mid-2000s, when the victors in the 2004 Orange Revolution, Tymoshenko and then-President Victor Yushchenko, had a falling out, and that revolution “ate its own children”. This time, matters are complicated by the role violent neo-Nazi, ideologically fascist radical Ukrainian national groups played from the outset of the “Euromaidan” coup process of November 2013-February 2014. That role was revisited and confirmed this month in French filmmaker Paul Moreira’s documentary “Masks of the Revolution” (http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/finally-masks-revolution-maidan-documentary-full-eng-subs/ri12759), which aired on French TV despite protests by Kiev, while the Hollywood nominated a rival documentary, a Kiev puff-piece called “Winter on Fire”, for an Oscar.

Rostislav Ishchenko, an insightful Ukrainian analyst currently exiled in Moscow, wrote 18 February that the country is experiencing not “dual power”, as there was during the Russian revolutions of 1917, but anarchy. The latest example, he said, is the blockade initiated by Right Sector and other viscerally anti-Russian paramilitaries, again Russian long-haul trucks crossing Ukraine to and from Slovakia and Hungary. In retaliation, Russia blocked Ukrainian trucks, forcing them to take circuitous routes to destinations like Kazakhstan, travelling south of the Caspian Sea through Turkey and Iran. This disruption of routine Eurasian trade is of no benefit to Kiev, but the government is powerless to override the radicals.

Fascist-style measures are found not only on Ukraine’s highways. There is another part of Ukraine’s political body politic, which receives little to no attention in the Western press. The Communist Party, which won 13.18 per cent of the vote and 32 seats in Parliament in 2012, was banned last year from running candidates for office, under new laws forbidding “communist symbols”. On Feb. 4 Dr. Natalia Vitrenko, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine and co-chairman of the Left Opposition bloc, and 18 others released an appeal to UN and EU human rights officials, on the suppression of their fundamental rights and freedoms in Ukraine. The full text of their petition follows.

PETITION: from the All-Ukraine Public Association of Left and Center-left Political Parties and Public Organizations — “The Left Opposition”

to the United Nations and the Council of Europe Commissioners for Human Rights concerning the obstruction of the activities of opposition political parties and public organizations by the Ukrainian government, and need to start large-scale international verification of whether human rights and freedoms are being honored in Ukraine

Editorial note: The document below was sent on 4 February 2016 to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra ‘ad Al Hussein and Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muizniek, with copies to Ukraine’s President, prime minister, chairman of Parliament, chairman of the Constitutional Court, and parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights. Official copies exist in Russian and in English. The English text below has undergone literary editing for clarity.

After the 2014 “Revolution of Dignity”, the organizers and ideologists of the Euromaidan, together with its active participants, came into power in Ukraine. But instead of the promised European standards of human rights and the rule of law, a totalitarian dictatorship has been established in our country.

This regime is flagrantly trampling our citizens’ right, provided for under international law and the Constitution of Ukraine, to political and public association in political parties and public organizations, including opposition organizations, for the purpose of organizing society on principles of political, ideological, and economic diversity.

The aforementioned rights are violated by means of:

* prohibition of unwanted political parties;

* wrongful interference in the affairs of political parties by government agencies such as the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs;

* obstruction of the activity of parties and public organizations;

* criminal prosecution of opposition political activists;

* information blockade;

* defamation of opposition political parties and public organizations and their activities through the dissemination of false information;

* dissemination of wrong information for purposes of inciting to the physical elimination of opposition activists and shaping public opinion to support the banning of opposition organizations.

We believe that in regard to our activity the government of Ukraine is in violation of: Articles 18, 19, 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; Articles 10, 11 and 14 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; Articles 3, 8, 15, 22, 24, 34, 36 and 68 of the Constitution of Ukraine; and the Law of Ukraine “On Political Parties in Ukraine”.

Today, Ukraine as a state is based on the dangerous principles of an effectively Neo-Nazi ideology, which tolerates no democracy whatsoever. The institutions of state deal with their ideological and political opponents using illegal means.

In order to organize political repressions. the Ukraine government adopted two laws: i) “On the condemnation of the Communist and National Socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the prohibition of propaganda of their symbols”; and ii) “On the legal status and the memory of fighters for Ukrainian independence in the twentieth century”. On the basis of these laws, the authorities have toughened up regulations and job instructions for government ministries and agencies.

Let us make you aware of following facts:

1) The government of Ukraine initiated a criminal case to discredit communist ideology and to ban the Communist Party of Ukraine. People who profess communist ideology and were not involved in any repressions or crimes of the “totalitarian regime”, are thereby deprived of the possibility of uniting into a political party and participating in the political life of the country, including participating in elections;

2) The Ministry of Justice refuses to register the Official Decision Note of the Extraordinary XXIX Congress of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU), unlawfully interpreting the Charter of the PSPU in a distorted fashion. The Ministry of Justice thereby blocked issuance to the PSPU of a receipt of amendments to its Charter and Program, and thus deprived this political party of the possibility of full-fledged participation in the political life of Ukraine, including participation in elections;

3) The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine illegally refuses to register amendments to the Charter and Program of the Labor Party of Ukraine (Marxist-Leninist), and thus obstructs its activity and violates the rights of party members.

Moreover, Mr. Alexander V. Bondarchuk, the leader of the Labor Party of Ukraine and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Rabochy klass (Working Class) was arrested on the basis of accusations made by a pro-regime political opponent; he was held without grounds for 10 months at a pre-trial detention center, and continues to be the target of a cynical, politically motivated court case;

4) The activity of the Russian-Ukrainian Union Party is obstructed by the regime’s connivance in a “raider”-style takeover attempt against it and artificially drawn-out court proceedings;

5) Mr. Anatoliy A. Mayevsky, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Raboche-krestyanskaya Pravda (Workers’ and Peasants’ Truth), chairman of Central Bureau of All-Union Communist Party-Bolsheviks (ACPB) for Ukraine, Moldova and Transdniestria, and Secretary of the ACPB, was falsely accused and imprisoned for more than one year, before receiving three years probation;

6) From April 2014 until the present time, the Аll-Ukraine Women’s Public Organization “Gift of Life” has been subjected to criminal prosecution on trumped-up charges of supporting separatists and terrorists (for no other reason than the intention to carry out human rights work). The bank account of this organization was frozen and a campaign conducted to discredit the organization and its leader, Dr. Natalia M. Vitrenko.

7) The government of Ukraine illegally interferes in the affairs of the canonical Orthodox Church and abets the seizure of Orthodox churches by armed gangs and schismatics.

The law enforcement agencies of Ukraine and the neo-Nazi groups of armed fighters they patronize act in concert to obstruct peaceful opposition political gatherings and activities. Here several instances:

* On May 2, 2014, forty-six members of anti-fascist groups were brutally burned and killed during an action at Kulikovo Field in the City of Odessa;

* On May 9, 2014, a peaceful demonstration in the City of Mariupol in the Donetsk region was fired on;

* On September 1, 2015, in the City of Kharkov, armed bands physically prevented the Progressive Socialist Party from holding a peaceful rally under the slogan, “Peace and love for children, not war and hatred”;

* On January 29, 2016, in the City of Kiev, members of the volunteer Azov Battalion forcibly disrupted a conference of the Public Movement “Ukrainian Choice”, breaking into the premises and in effect starting a session of mob justice. The armed fighters’ action, which grossly violated the rights and freedoms of the conference participants and flouted the presumption of innocence, was overtly supported by Mr. Z. Shkiryak, advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs.

Acts of vigilante justice and physical obstruction of the activity of oppositional political parties and public organizations, threats (including of physical violence), political murders and driving people to suicide (the cases of Mrs. V. Semenyuk-Samsonenko, Mr. O. Kalashnikov, the Priest Roman, A. Peklushenko, Mr. Walter, О. Buzina, and the editor of newspaper Khochu v SSSR [I Want to Go Back to the Soviet Union] Mr. S. Dolgov), are all being committed in Ukraine. The perpetrators are gangs of right-wing radicals under slogans such as “Ukraine above all”, “Ukraine for the Ukrainians”, “Glory to the nation—Death to the enemies”, “Knife the Muscovites, hang the Communists!”, “Bandera will come and bring order”. All of this is happening with the full legal, information and political support provided of the Ukrainian government.

According to information at our disposal, about 4,000 people are being held in Ukrainian prisons because of their political opinions, while 2.6 million citizens have been forced to abandon their homes, become refugees, and have left Ukraine, including some because of their political convictions.

We, the leaders of the political parties and public organizations, united in the Left Opposition, DECLARE:

The representation of our country by the Ukrainian government as being democratic and as respecting and defending the human rights and freedoms guaranteed by above-mentioned norms of international law and by the Constitution of Ukraine, does not correspond to reality. In fact, a totalitarian state is being built in Ukraine, with all the attributes of a neo-Nazi dictatorship. In is impossible, in such a political environment and using such methods of fighting against the opposition and intimidating the people, to build a democratic state, to ensure compliance with human rights and freedoms in Ukraine, and to conduct democratic elections.

We ask you to take this Petition under consideration and to organize a large-scale verification of compliance with to human rights and freedoms in Ukraine.

Natalia Vitrenko, Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine

Victor Silenko, Kiev Rus Party

Alexander Bondarchuk, Labor Party of Ukraine (Marxist-Leninist)

Alexander Luzan, Slavic Party of Ukraine

Vladimir Marchenko, All-Ukrainian Labor Organization “Ukrainian Confederation of Labor”

Lyudmila Drobyazina, Public Organization “Assembly of Orthodox Women of Ukraine”

Irina Kravchuk, All-Ukrainian Public Organization “Eurasian People’s Union”

Tatyana Ploshkina, All-Ukrainian Women’s Public Organization “Gift of Life”

Nikolai Lavrinenko, Slavic Committee of Ukraine

Valentin Lukiyanik, Public Organization “Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods of Ukraine”

Yelena Mazur, All-Ukrainian Public Organization “For the Union of Belarus and Russia” (ZUBR)

Gennadiy Selivanov, Public Organization “Union of Soviet Officers of Ukraine”

Evgeniy Pavlov, All-Ukrainian Union of Workers

Amar Al-Anni, Public Organization “St. Sergius of Radonezh Orthodox Brotherhood”

Rudolph Povarnitsyn,

Vladimir Yatsenko

Pyotr Tsybenko, Council of Veterans of Ukraine

Mikhail Kononovich, Komsomol of Ukraine

Georgy Buyko, Anti-Fascist Committee of Ukraine

To Top

Webcast: The System is Collapsing, That is the Cause for Optimism!

October 12, 2019by Jason Ross in Environmentalism updates, Helga Webcast

Zepp LaRouche opened by discussing what she described as the historic press conference by President Trump on Oct. 9, when he made clear he intended to reverse the last 50 years of geopolitical wars. Referring to Pres. Eisenhower’s identification of the “Military Industrial Complex” as the driver for war, Trump ended with a moving personal statement, identifying the costs of these wars, in terms of American lives lost, as well as those millions lost on the other side in the wars.

She came back several times to the importance of two things: first, President Trump must now work with Russia, through the Astana process, and bring in China, to end the wars with real economic development; second, that the guide to this development process should be the life work of Lyndon LaRouche, whose exoneration is the necessary ingredient to make it work.

LaRouche’s voice is important additionally, as the financial collapse is on, and it has been his scientific approach, embodied in his Four Laws, which is needed to prevent the collapse from unleashing misery globally. We must address directly the panic and cultural pessimism which dominates the population — now is the time that our optimistic view, based on an understanding of the true, creative nature of man, shapes the discussion.

Webcast: This is an Unbelievable Historic Moment—WE MUST CHANGE THE AGENDA COMPLETELY!

September 25, 2019by Jason Ross in Economic development updates, Environmentalism updates, Helga Webcast

In reviewing the onrush of events, Helga Zepp LaRouche said today that the only way to understand what is happening is to know that the financial system is blowing up, and the West is undergoing an historic breakdown crisis. The push for the impeachment of Trump, which Nancy Pelosi finally agreed to undertake, on a completely flimsy pretext, is being done out of fear that Trump will not accept the agenda imposed from the City of London. This agenda is on display at the U.N. General Assembly session. While much of the corrupt media attention, and that of many world leaders, was on the rage-filled remarks of Greta Thunberg, the actual agenda was laid out by Bank of England chairman Mark Carney — the same person who pushed for “regime change in global financial markets” at the recent Jackson Hole, Wyoming meeting, sponsored by the Federal Reserve.

She discussed the present liquidity crisis as a sign of the desperation of the bankers, and the breakdown crisis that it reflects, as the real reason why they have been escalating their drive for fascist economic policies, disguised as addressing a “climate” crisis. The eco-fascist agenda was first identified by Lyndon LaRouche, based on his studies in the 1950s and ’60s, which led to his rejection of a mathematical approach to economics. LaRouche’s analysis, and the solutions he designed, including his Four Laws of physical economy, are needed today.

Zepp LaRouche called on viewers to organize with the new pamphlet, “CO2 Reduction Is a Mass Murder Policy…” In closing she discussed why, instead of vilifying China, people should ask themselves why China is advancing today, while the west is collapsing.

Page 97 of 104First...«969798 »...Last

Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Presentation (Video)

Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Presentation (Audio)

PETITION: from the All-Ukraine Public Association of Left and Center-left Political Parties and Public Organizations — “The Left Opposition”

Recent posts

language