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French “Food Production to Come to a Halt”

Dec. 7, 2022 (EIRNS)–“Food production to come to a halt” was the title of an article published by Le Figaro back in Sept. Unfortunately, what seemed unbelievable for many yesterday, has become reality today. After heavy industries, such as the rare French zinc, aluminum, and glass producers –hit by impossible energy price spikes and artificially kept alive government support– agro-food processors are now on the chopping block.

Yesterday, the French canned food specialist Cofigeo which has a €300 million turnover, announced it will “temporarily” shut down 4 of its 8 factories in France as of Jan. 2, which represent about 80 % of its production. Consequently, 800 of the 1200 employees of Cofigeo will receive an agreement of partial activity of long duration (APLD).

The decision is an answer to “the dramatic increase in energy costs (gas and electricity needed for cooking and sterilization of dishes), which will be multiplied by 10 from the beginning of the year,” said the group in a statement. “It will go from 4 million to 40 million euros overnight,” Mathieu Thomazeau, its president, told Le Figaro.

This is a thunderclap in the food sector and other food groups could be in great difficulty in January. Everybody has warned this would happen but the government refuses to listen. Already in September, Le Figaro reported that “After the prices of electricity and natural gas supplying dairies, sugar factories and canneries in France have risen by 350% and 380% respectively in one year, the first cracks in the food industry are showing up.” At that time, dairy manufacturers warned that power cuts could lead them to throw milk away. The French giant dairy industry Lactalis’ energy bill reaches 1 billion euros per year. That of the Breton group Sill (Petit Basque, Malo …) has jumped 800% since 2021. In sugar factories, the fear of winter load shedding has led sugar producers to launch their beet harvesting and processing campaigns earlier, even if this means sacrificing yields.

Besides soaring energy costs, the other worry is that production lines simply will grind to a halt for lack of products coming from farms. In field vegetables (green beans, peas, etc.), due to the drought, harvests have melted by up to 50% this year. As a result, canneries that process and package them are now receiving only half of their needs. Already, some of them are only working three days a week. Enough to fear shortages on the shelves before the next harvest of 2023. In recent days, the fragile balance of the sector has become even more tense, with major risks of disruption on fertilizers for the next crop year. European fertilizer factories have stopped production of 50% of their products and have severely limited their production of ammonia due to the prohibitive price of gas. This raises the risk of shortages for the coming winter. To avoid total collapse, many sectors (milk, meat) plead to be recognized as “trades of general interest” and be exempted from energy rationing.


Your Choice: Unlimited Fusion Power—Or Unlimited War

Nov. 30 (EIRNS)—China’s Science and Technology Daily reported Nov. 28 on the status of the Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion Technology (CRAFT) being built at the Hefei University of Science and Technology. China, the report makes clear, is serious about meeting its goal of generating continuous fusion energy by 2028, for use in a hybrid fission fusion power plant, and generating fusion energy directly for the electric grid by 2035. Materials and technologies needed to control fusion reactions are already being tested at CRAFT, a giant complex which will be fully completed by 2024, as part of the broader fusion project based out of the university, which is home to the superconducting EAST, or Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute for Plasma Physics.

This is great news for everyone worldwide. The phenomenal leap in humanity’s power on Earth and in the Solar System that will flow out of mastering controlled thermonuclear fusion reactions has been known for decades. Lyndon LaRouche founded the Fusion Energy Foundation in 1974 to promote its advance, and by the time the U.S. government shut it down in 1987, the foundation’s monthly magazine, Fusion, was one of the most popular science magazines in the United States.

The development of a full-scale fusion powered-economy has taken as long as it has for purely political, not technical or scientific reasons. The Malthusian, imperial oligarchy has been its mortal enemy, but when people understand the almost limitless progress which fusion power and its associated technologies can bring, Malthusianism is finished.

China is not only committed to developing fusion, but is bringing other nations in, to share in the development. Twelve days ago, China’s Institute for Plasma Physics announced that one of the institute’s four working tokamaks had been dismantled, packed carefully into six containers, and is now ready to be shipped to Thailand in mid-December, where it will be reassembled and put to work at the Thailand Institute of Nuclear Technology!

China is donating the tokamak to Thailand, along with training the Thai scientists and engineers who will run it. When officially launched in the first part of next year, scientists and engineers from across the Southeast 

Asian countries will be able to receive there the training they also need to run future fusion experiments and reactors in their own countries. 

That act is a microcosm of a world order befitting humanity.

Imagine what progress could be made in improving the lives of every human being on this planet, were the United States, Japan, France and Germany—for example—to do likewise.

Instead, the as-yet-unshaken commitment of the Anglo-American powers and their European cohorts to their dog-eat-dog view of humanity continues to threaten the annihilation of the human species itself. Not satisfied with the devastation their war against Russia has brought upon the world (Ukraine emphatically included), are preparing for “the big one,” as U.S. Strategic Command head Adm. Charles Richard puts it: a war against China.

Today, the Pentagon released its annual “China Military Power Report,” declaring that China’s determination to complete “the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by 2049” is what makes China a threat to the U.S. The day before, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency announced that it has established a “China mission group” to integrate all work done by the DIA on China, because China represents “an existential threat to the long-term success of the United States.” 

The U.K. neocon thinktank, the Council for Geostrategy, has launched a campaign for His Majesty’s government to elevate its operations against China in the Himalayas region to the level of its commitment to its maritime Indo-Pacific “tilt.” Included in its recommendations, is fostering the India-China border conflict. Countering China was high on the agenda of the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting on its second day. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Secretary of State Tony Blinken declared before the meeting began today, that NATO is committed to standing together against China, as Stoltenberg bragged that NATO had been training and equipping Ukraine’s armed forces since 2014.

The U.S. military, for the third time, made an ostentatious show of one of its ballistic missile submarines, this time at the U.K.’s military base on Diego Garcia, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Likewise, U.S. Strategic Command reported that earlier in November, it had carried out an exercise, Spirit Vigilance 2022, demonstrating that eight stealth bombers could taxi out and take off at once from a Missouri airfield. 

And they complain that Russian and Chinese strategic bombers flew a joint patrol over the Sea of Japan and the South China sea today? 

Where this is heading, is very, very frightening—and completely unnecessary. Human beings were made for something better; to cooperate in the development of each other, and taking joy in it. Let the citizens of the world take heart and join with the Schiller Institute in establishing a world order worthy of the principle that human beings are capable of governing themselves on behalf of all others. 


Over a Million Mexicans March in Support of AMLO’s Government

Nov. 28, 2022 (EIRNS)–President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called a march in Mexico City on Sunday, Nov. 27, to which he would give a report on his government, four years in. An estimated 1.2 million Mexicans turned out, according to the official report by the (pro-AMLO) head of the Mexico City government, Claudia Sheinbaum.

It was a real show of force by AMLO against the neocon-led destabilization of his government. The crowd was very large and very festive, full of mariachi bands and people doing traditional Mexican dances as they marched, with delegations from around the country participating with their signs identifying their city or region. The slogans chanted were simple: “AMLO, you are not alone;” “It is an honor to be with Obrador;” and “Mexico is my party.”

The Schiller Institute was present, using the occasion to advise Mexicans of the nuclear war danger facing the world. As people gathered for the march to start, organizers gave megaphone briefings and distributed 2,000 leaflets next to their very big banner reading, “Citizens of the World: Unite. Stop Nuclear War! For a New World Economic Order. The Schiller Institute,” which they then carried as part of the march. While some were taken aback by the Schiller Institute’s message in the midst of this great fiesta, many people listened carefully to the briefings and were happy to take a leaflet. Many took videos and photos of the banner.

Unlike the march organized against him by the ultra-right opposition three weeks before, which saw perhaps 60,000 in a rich area of the city, when AMLO began his hour and a half speech, Mexico City’s giant Zocalo central square was full. The President began by noting his happiness that the majority of people participating in the march were young people. He reviewed his administration’s efforts, in particular, to “put the poor first,” and push aside the oligarchy’s grip on the government.

The President told the march that Mexico’s foreign policy is one of “non-intervention, self-determination, cooperation for development, and the peaceful solution of disputes; we act on the basis of the ideal of universal brotherhood.”

He also delivered an implicit warning to the rightwing opposition being mounted against him. Mexico is a “sanctuary of freedom” and the right to freedom of speech and dissent today, he said. “For example, here, in Mexico City, a few days ago, without any obstacle, the most famous personalities of the world’s ultra-right held their summit here.” He then added: “We never again wish to apply Article 33 of the Constitution, and we do not want anyone to call anyone a pernicious foreigner.” He did not say, but everyone knows, that Art. 33, which states that “foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country,” grants the President “the power to expel from national territory any foreigner, according to the law, after a hearing.”


Egeland Warns Europe Faces Hundreds of Thousands Of Ukrainian Refugees This Winter

Egeland Warns Europe Faces Hundreds of Thousands Of Ukrainian Refugees This Winter

Jan Egeland, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), said in an interview with Euronews that there will be hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees this coming winter. “It is really a choice between freeze or fleeing,” he said. “Therefore, very many people are voluntarily fleeing… Europe has to prepare for hundreds of thousands of new refugees this winter, from Norway in the north to the southern European countries.”

“We’re in a race against the clock,” Egeland said. “I’ve been travelling all through the south and the east of Ukraine … and every city you go to is dark and people are freezing.”


Helga Zepp-LaRouche Briefs EIR on Urgency To Implement New Paradigm in Face of World War and Economic Crash Threat

Pre-release of EIR interview:

PAUL GALLAGHER: Today is Saturday, October 22, 2022, and this is the 60th anniversary of the day that President John F. Kennedy of the United States made a speech which told the world that it was in a nuclear warfare crisis, a countdown to nuclear war which could conceivably destroy civilization. Kennedy announced that the United States had determined evidence of Soviet provision of nuclear missiles to Cuba, and said that the United States would not tolerate this, absolutely, under any circumstances, and a crisis was on, which gripped the attention of the world and held people in fear of it for more than two weeks. [JFK speech is here.]

So now, this is Paul Gallagher of EIR. I’m speaking with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, and a frequent lead candidate of the BüSo political party in Germany, about the extraordinary situation which is developing there, and internationally.

So Helga, good afternoon to you.

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Hello.

GALLAGHER: Let me start by saying, just in terms of setting our situation here, the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline is a submarine pipeline project of Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea, that they worked on jointly for more than 15 years. It was suspended in 2022 under U.S. pressure, and on Sept. 26, it was sabotaged, by powerful explosions which were aimed to destroy it completely. It appears that this has had an impact on German political life, despite the fact that it’s being covered up.

Helga, can you analyze for EIR what has happened here, and what does it mean for Germany and the threat of war between NATO and Russia?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, the first thing to say is that the official media and channels are obviously trying to say as little as possible about it, which is already extremely ominous, given the fact that this worsens the energy situation of Germany for some time to come. Military experts have stated that the sabotage was of such a kind that it could only have been done by a state; it could not have been done by private divers, and that naturally limits the number of states which had access. Now the questions to ask is the cui bono, who had the capacity, who had the opportunity, and who had the motive? And then, as some military experts are saying, well, if it would have been Russia, it would have meant that Russia would have to go with submarines and other devices for 300 km through the Baltic Sea under the total surveillance and control of NATO, and therefore, if it would have been Russia, it would prove that they had a huge superiority in undersea warfare, in order to do that, practically under the nose of total surveillance of NATO. If that would be the case, it would have completely other implications about military balances.

But there are also now many people saying, if there would be any proof that it was Russia, you would have seen a barrage of press conferences by NATO, by the EU, by the governments; all the tabloids would have been full of it. But since nothing of this sort has happened, it doesn’t look like it was Russia.

Instead, in an answer to a question from a parliamentarian, the German government put out an official answer, which is also extremely odd: They said that they know it was sabotage—now how did they know that if there was no official investigation? Sweden, by the way, pulled out, and so there was some strange investigation involving only Germany and Denmark, but the German divers didn’t have the diving equipment to go to the depth of 70 and 80 meters, so the whole thing is very ominous. And the statement by the German government says that, for the sake of the wellbeing of the state, they will not reveal any other information.

Now, that is extremely strange: For a sabotage of such enormous economic, and therefore social and political implications, to leave it at that, naturally raises the suspicion which is being said by many people, that this was done by another state which is not friendly to the German government. Now, given the fact that the only states which could have done it would have been the U.S., the British, Poland, maybe Lithuania, but everybody says—also and knows—that nothing in this highly surveilled area of the Baltic Sea could have been done without the control and OK of the United States.

So why is the German government not saying anything? People more and more have the feeling, this present German government is not defending the interests of the German people, and that despite the fact that the German economy is going to crash against the wall this fall and winter, in a dramatic way, to which the sabotage of these pipelines will have played a crucial part.

GALLAGHER: Is anyone in Germany, given the tremendous escalation of prices and the sabotage of the German economy as the result of the loss of natural gas supplies, and oil supplies—but particularly natural gas—is anyone arguing there that Russia and Germany should fix this pipeline? Or are there actions at all against this NATO policy of full warfare against Russia?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I would say so! Just today, there are many demonstrations, and there have been many demonstrations in the last days and weeks, not only in East Germany, but especially there, but also, today, in many West German cities. And what people were saying in these demonstrations is that it is exactly like it was in 1989: This was the demonstrations in which the Berlin Wall came down as a result. And the demands are, stop the sanctions against Russia, stop the weapons sales to Ukraine; this is not our war, we demand a diplomatic solution. And most interesting is, the action of the city of Stralsund, where the parliamentary groups of the Christian Democrats (CDU), the Free Democrats (FPD), and the Linke (the Left Party) and the Social Democrats (SPD), and a citizens alliance called “Citizens for Stralsund,” all signed up for an initiative, offering the city of Stralsund to be the site for Ukraine peace talks. And they say that there’s nothing more important than peace on our Earth, and they refer to the great history of creating the Peace of Stralsund, which is a reference to the conflict resolution from 1370, when a war between Denmark and the Hanseatic League (including Stralsund) ended in the so-called Peace of Stralsund. So, more than 650 years later, they want to have a new Stralsund Peace, and that is just a most spectacular intervention, and I think the spirit of 1989 is clearly revived in these demonstrations. And they’re also demanding the resignation of the present German government.

GALLAGHER: Ah, so there is the spirit of 1989 for sure! There’s one well-known blogger and strategic expert, Alexander Mercouris, who argued in a video that this coverup of the situation with the pipelines, despite some very clear indications of what happened, that it means that the German government is under the control of a foreign power, which is unfriendly to Germany—that was the way that he put it. What’s your view of this argument? Does it bear on these demonstrations that are coming up and the behavior of the government?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes. There are many calls for this government to resign, which many people think is the worst government Germany has had in the entire post-war period. That applies for sure, for the Green Party—this is a so-called “streetlight coalition” involving the Greens, the Liberals [FDP], and the Social Democrats, of which the Greens are really the war party, the NATO party, with the most hawkish, belligerent policy, and you cannot differentiate what they say from Stoltenberg or Blinken. And the so-called Economic Minister Robert Habeck, who used to be very popular in the polls, has now plunged and has become an object of public contempt, because he is clearly pushing a policy which means the deindustrialization of Germany. And we are therefore facing a huge social explosion, not “facing,” we are in the middle of a huge social explosion in Germany.

GALLAGHER: Interesting. We’ve seen this recently in the United Kingdom, where Liz Truss, who was ready to push the nuclear button and a real warrior, she came in like hell on wheels into the prime ministership, and then very quickly her wheels fell off, and now she’s resigned, and they’re in a government crisis as well as a financial crisis. So, we see these things across Europe.

Let me ask you: You’re frequently featured and interviewed in the media in China, again yesterday, on CGTN’s “Dialogue” broadcast. In one interview, they focussed on your assessment of the situation in France and Germany, what can you convey to the Chinese people about the situation in Europe? What do you think is most important that they understand?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, they are looking at Germany, in particular, with complete disbelief: A once-proud people of poets and thinkers, and admired for its scientific and technological excellence in the whole world, is committing economic suicide in front of the world’s eyes. And it’s very difficult for people in Asia in general to understand why Europe is on such a self-destructive course.

What they are doing as a consequence is to speed up the construction of a new economic system, which consists of the countries of the BRICS, the SCO, the CICA [Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia], and other organizations of the Global South, where they building an economic system which is focussed on the alleviation of poverty in the entire developing sector; and cooperation in mutual benefit; and it has to be said, to the grace of China, or to (there’s a word I’m missing), that they continuously offer to the United States and the European countries that they should cooperate rather than try to fight. But right now, it doesn’t look like people in the West have the wisdom to respond to this offer.

GALLAGHER: Well, if German business and households’ access to natural gas coming from Russia has been destroyed, as a result of this economic warfare on Russia, are the Biden administration’s economic measures against China reaching that same scale of the all-out economic warfare on Russia? And what do you think China’s reaction will be?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: You know, if you look at the policy of the Biden administration and such people as German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who have said many times that they want to (quote) “ruin Russia,” or (quote) “prevent Russia from diversifying from oil and gas”—this was said already on Jan. 25 by some unnamed White House official—it did not work out so well.

The effect of this was that Russia turned to Asia and did relatively better than Germany, where you now have a complete blowback, and the country is under the immediate danger of deindustrialization, and given the size of the German economy, this will have a devastating effect for all of Europe.

Now, therefore, the threat to now do the same with China, what was done with Russia, I think it would only occur at the complete price of deindustrialization of the West, at least the European part of it. And China is working with about 150 countries in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Global Development Initiative; and just at the present ongoing party conference of the 20th party congress of Communist Party of China (CPC), the report that was delivered there proudly states that Chinese economic policy is focussed on continuous innovation, scientific and technological progress, and furthering the creativity of their citizens. And the result has been a continuously prosperous economy. So, if the West wants to decouple from China, they will do so at their cost, leading to their own self-destruction: So, hopefully, they will wake up before it is too late.

GALLAGHER: Well, that was the last thing I wanted to ask you about: That the Schiller Institute is obviously mobilizing a large number of leading people around the world, and also young people around the world, to stop this nuclear war threat. And you’re the one that has launched these mobilizations: What do you think can make it possible to reach a situation of peace, and perhaps even development, before we are in an unsurvivable nuclear war?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, if you look around the world and ask normal people, like normal parliamentarians, elected officials, trade unionists, industrialists, farmers, fishermen, and so forth, nobody wants World War III! It’s a very small apparatus which is pushing this geopolitical confrontation which threatens the annihilation of the human species. So, this initiative you’re referring to comes out of meeting with Latin American parliamentarians and ex-parliamentarians, and we recognized that a similar desire for world peace and against this confrontation is prevalent all over the world. [Live event: Stope the War Before It is Too Late, Eliminate the Causes of the War Danger.] So the fact that what is at stake is the possible destruction of mankind, that makes, automatically, every citizen on the planet, to be a world citizen who has the right to speak out for the interest of humanity as a whole. And given the fact that the Schiller Institute is named after the poet Friedrich Schiller, who argued that there is no contradiction between a patriot and a world citizen—or that there doesn’t have to be—basically, we are now appealing to world citizens from all over the world to stand up against this war, and make sure that people understand that we have to make a jump in the thinking, to think in terms of a new paradigm, where everybody learns to think as a world citizen; which doesn’t mean you’re not a patriot, it just means you have to make one more step, you have to take the interest of humanity as a whole into account, and make sure that your understanding of your national interest is not in contradiction to that larger interest of humanity as a whole.

Because only if we all start thinking about the fact that we are sitting in one boat, and that if there is a nuclear war, nobody will live, and that we have, and that we have to find a new model of international relations as the precondition to get out of this crisis, that we will actually make it. And the response so far has been tremendous, because I think everybody who is concerned about world peace and the danger of war, is responding very well about this initiative, once they know about it. So help to spread the knowledge about it. [Second Seminar of Current and Former Elected Officials of the World: For World Peace, Stop the Danger of Nuclear War.]

GALLAGHER: OK, so five days from now, on Oct. 27, there is a second conference of those present and former elected officials whose deliberations you’ve been describing, and of course, at the same time, there are other meetings and discussions of potentially a new money system, a new credit system internationally, which are going on within the BRICS and elsewhere. Do you think that this can lead to an actual formation of development, an actual economic architecture, which can make development possible in the developing sector?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think the need to implement that could arrive very suddenly: Because if you look at the panicky reactions in Great Britain, the desperate action to go for quantitative easing, jump to quantitative tightening, go back to quantitative easing—there’s a rapidity like that of Liz Truss going into 10 Downing Street, out of 10 Downing Street, and now they’re talking about Boris Johnson—“BoJo”—to come back, which is the farce of the century: I think the system of the City of London, and by implication the entire trans-Atlantic financial system, is teetering on the verge of dissolution. So the need to put a New Bretton Woods system, a new credit system on the international agenda may erupt more quickly than people think.

GALLAGHER: Great! OK, for EIR, I’ve been talking with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, head of the Schiller Institute, about those prospects and about this extremely complicated and dangerous situation around Europe, and Germany in particular. With that, I think we’ll wrap up our interview. Helga, thank you very much for your answers, and for taking the time with us for today.


For World Peace: STOP THE DANGER OF NUCLEAR WAR ~ 2nd Seminar of Officials

For World Peace

STOP THE DANGER OF NUCLEAR WAR

 Second Seminar of Current and Former Elected Officials of the World

Date: Thursday October 27, 2022

Time: 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (EDT)

Place: Conference Room E, Chamber of Deputies, Mexico City; and via Zoom (with English-Spanish simultaneous interpretation)

Eight months into the war between Russia and Ukraine, with the active role of the United States and NATO, there are many dead and wounded, great destruction of all sorts of property, and very damaging economic and social consequences in Europe and the whole world, creating shocks which are worsening the very profound problems of the world economy, with consequences of a worsening crisis and greater unemployment, poverty and hunger.

It is known that this war can have far more serious consequences than what we are already suffering, including massive destruction and a crisis of global proportions never before seen, because it can lead to a confrontation with nuclear weapons between Russia and the United States and NATO.

Among the growing voices calling for a sensible approach, we highlight that of Pope Francis, calling for a negotiated, peaceful solution.

The undersigned political and social leaders, current and former legislators, and other elected officials from various countries, urge Russia, Ukraine, the United States and NATO to reach an agreement which, first of all, rejects the growing loose talk about the possible use of nuclear weapons and reaffirms the fundamental commitment of the Reagan-Gorbachev Formula of 1985, that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” To be lasting, such an agreement must also establish a new international security architecture that recognizes and respects the legitimate security interests of all the planet’s nations.

We recognize and emphasize that Russia, like the United States, NATO, Ukraine and all countries, has legitimate security concerns which must be taken into account and become one of the cornerstones of the new security architecture. A return to the successful principles of the 1648 Peace of Westphalia – respect for sovereignty, commitment to the good of the other, and forgiveness of debts that make true economic development impossible – is the kind of architecture we seek today.

The common good of the One Humanity is the obligatory premise for the good of each and every nation. In that way, among all the nations of the world we will be able to help build an organization of citizens in collective global action, and establish ourselves that way as a force to influence the international policy debate.

We call on people of good will around the world – notwithstanding our diverse and natural differences – to participate in this process of deliberation and search for peaceful solutions, including a thorough examination of the alternative economic policies to replace speculation, which has generated so much poverty and suffering, with a system of production and progress to meet the needs of a growing world population.

We reject all attempts to limit, intimidate, or prohibit such a deliberative process. And we call on the United States, NATO, Ukraine and Russia to advance in the direction that we present in this respectful call.

SIGNATURES:

  1. Donald Ramotar (Guyana); former President (2011-2015), former member of parliament (1992-2011, PPP)

2. Helga Zepp-LaRouche (Germany); founder, Schiller Institute

3. Jorge Robledo (Colombia); former Senator (2002-2022, Partido Dignidad)

4. María de los Ángeles Huerta (Mexico); former Congresswoman (2018-2021, MORENA)

5. Dr. Kirk Meighoo (Trinidad & Tobago); former independent Senator (2004, United National Congress)

6. Dr. Rodolfo Ondarza (Mexico); former Representative, Mexico City Legislative Assembly (2015-2018, PT)

7. Diane Sare (U.S.); candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York (2022, independent/LaRouche)


Tulsi Gabbard Tells Americans to Wake Up to Nuclear War Danger, Threats to Freedom of Speech

Oct. 12, 2022 (EIRNS)–Former Democratic presidential pre-candidate Tulsi Gabbard is using the flurry of political attention generated by her announcement that she has walked out of the Democratic Party, to raise the alarm bells on those two strategic points.

In her appearance on Joe Rogan’s show, a podcaster and comedian whose podcasts average about 11 million viewers per episode, Gabbard focused on the imminent danger of nuclear war with Russia, which she argued is not provoked by Vladimir Putin, but by the United States and some European nations in NATO which are using the Ukrainian military and people as ‘chess pieces’ with the aim of regime change in Russia.

The military-industrial complex is happy to send all those weapons to Ukraine, but, she asked, “if we vote to send these billions of dollars to Ukraine, is that strengthening our national security or undermining it?”

She charged: “What we’re seeing now is essentially a proxy war. The US is engaging in a proxy war with Russia using Ukraine essentially as their military.” US leaders pushing to prolong the Ukraine war have “put us in the most dangerous position we the American people and the world has ever been in, in that a nuclear war could break out in a week.”

She dismissed the idea that nuclear war could be limited: “Whether they‘re tactical or strategic nukes, it doesn’t matter, there is no way to win this. That would spark a nuclear war, World War Three, and the result of that is the destruction of the world as we know it…. People need to know that this is the reality we are facing. Our leaders have pushed us and led us to the brink of nuclear war. They have their own bunkers and way to protect themselves. There is no shelter for the American people.”

Rogan and Gabbard discussed how Hawaiians discovered in 2018 when a “false” incoming missile alert was set off over the island that “there’s no place where you can take your loved ones and your kids to be protected not only from the blast, but the fallout, the lack of food and water….” They broadcast for viewers the absurd Public Service Announcement put out by New York City authorities in July, which told viewers they would be safe if they did three things in case of a nuclear attack: (1) Get inside. (2) Stay inside. (3) Stay tuned in. In outrage, the two asked stay tuned to what?

Instead, Gabbard insisted: “The United States and some of these European NATO countries are fuelling this war and need to provide the leadership to bring about a negotiated outcome. That is what needs to happen here to prevent the destruction of the planet and life as we know it. They’re not doing that and they are failing the American people and putting us in this position of not knowing where we’re going to be in the event this kicks off.”

In her appearance on Fox News’s Tucker Carlson show the same night, Tulsi tied the failure of American people to stand up against this imminent danger of nuclear war to witch-hunt against anyone breaking with the official narrative:

“The whole environment of fear that those in power, these elitists in power, have fomented to where people are afraid to speak the truth… They’re afraid to exercise their right to free speech because, hey, you might lose your job, you might be canceled, you might be trashed. And God forbid in Washington, you might not be invited to the cool kids parties. You might not be as popular,” Gabbard charged. So rather than “taking a stand standing up for peace … we have too many people who are war-mongers subservient to the military-industrial complex… with no mind to the costs and consequences of their decisions which are actively pushing us to the brink of nuclear holocaust…”

The 15-minute clip of the nuclear discussion in Gabbard’s appearance on the Rogan show had over two million views within 24 hours of its posting on his YouTube channel https://youtu.be/rAfwpfUBw1M


Putin Offers Europe Option to Freezing in the Dark: Just Open the Nord Stream Tap

Oct. 12, 2022 (EIRNS)–Russian President Vladimir Putin did not beat around the bush. Addressing the annual Russia Energy Week today, he opened: “Such direct and transparent communication is essential now, when the global economy in general, the fuel and energy sector are in the middle of, let me be direct, an acute crisis due to unstable price dynamics of energy resources, an imbalance in supply and demand, and the overtly subversive actions of individual market participants, who are guided solely by their own geopolitical ambitions, resort to outright discrimination in the market, and if that does not work, they simply destroy the infrastructure of their competitors.

“In this case, I am of course talking about the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. There is no doubt that this is an act of international terrorism, the purpose of which is to undermine the energy security of the entire continent. The logic is cynical: to destroy and block cheap energy sources, hence depriving millions of people, industrial consumers of gas, heat, electricity and other resources and forcing them to buy all this at much higher prices.

“The attack on the Nord Streams has set an extremely dangerous precedent, which shows that any critical piece of transport, energy or communications infrastructure is under threat, regardless of its location, management or whether it lies on the seabed or on land.” 

CNN‘s failed to cover most of Putin’s opening, but they did note his energy offer to Europe: “Russia is ready to start such supplies. The ball is in the court of the EU. If they want, they can just open the tap… if, together with our European colleagues, we take the decision to supply gas through the remaining one link of Nord Stream 2. Apparently it still remains operational; unfortunately we are not allowed to test it.” [Putin’s speech can be found here.]


China’s and Germany’s Prospects: Global Times Interviews Helga Zepp-LaRouche

Oct. 9 (EIRNS) – Ahead of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China which convenes Oct. `16, Global Times has published an extensive interview with Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, “the second piece of a series of GT‘s interviews with influential scholars” on China’s economy and the BRI.

In answer to one of many question in the interview, Zepp-LaRouche warned, “The neoliberal financial system may disintegrate, either in a hyperinflationary disintegration – it would not happen in only one country – or if the central banks try to curb inflation through a ‘Paul Volcker style’ high interest rate policy, there could be a sudden chain reaction of bankruptcies of both emerging markets and over-indebted firms. While this will obviously affect China, its economic blueprint approach of caring for each segment of the economy with appropriate incentives will be invaluable.”

And to another, on Germany’s predicament, she answered: “Top executives are already ringing the alarm bells, warning that Germany is about to crash into a wall and that its identity as an industrial nation is at stake. The straw that is about to break the camel’s back is the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines. The destruction of these pipelines means they cannot be re-opened as a fallback source, which means the energy crisis in Germany will get extremely serious in the short term with a great deal of social upheaval. The only way to solve the situation would be for all European nations to put an end to the sanctions against Russia, and throw all their weight into insisting on a negotiated solution for the Ukraine situation. This situation has moved beyond an energy crisis. A comprehensive approach is needed, which is why the Schiller Institute has called for a completely new international security and development architecture, which takes into account the interest of every single country on the planet.” [The entire interview is available here.]


Anti-NATO Ferment Grows in Europe

Oct. 9 (EIRNS) — A large crowd, certainly many thousands judging from video of the event on Twitter, demonstrated in Paris today with the slogan “Let’s Get Out of NATO,” many waving the Tricolor. One person passing on the tweet said, “Tens of thousands in Paris say France must leave NATO.” [The Twitter video is here.]

In Italy, the popular governor of the Region Campania, Vincenzo De Luca, who is among the leaders of the Democratic Party, made a statement Oct. 7 against NATO. Taking distance from the war policy of his own party and of the Draghi government, De Luca made a strong demand that Italy stop being the passive appendage of NATO and take initiatives for peace, because, he emphasized, the alternative is a nuclear war.

“Since February 24 we have had an increasingly dramatic evolution of the war in Ukraine, we have been speaking out clearly about Russia’s responsibilities, we have been supporting Ukraine to defend itself. And in the last few days we have seen an unimaginable evolution and dramatization.” So said Vincenzo De Luca in his usual Friday Facebook live underlining that today “the hypothesis of the use of nuclear weapons has begun to circulate in a worrying way.” Therefore, according to De Luca this “obliges us to take mass initiatives in support of peace.” 

“Italy and governments can no longer be a passive appendage of NATO, De Luca said. “We have the duty to reintroduce in the language of politics the word peace that has disappeared. And we have the duty, governments and parties, to tell the Italian people what is the goal we are pursuing because we are coming by force of inertia toward a dramatic social crisis and one step away from nuclear war…. The government and parties must say we are at war if the goal is Ukraine’s military victory; we cannot live in a war economy without saying so explicitly.” 

In Berlin on Saturday, Oct. 8, a crowd which Deutsche Welle called “supporters of the far-right Alternativ fuer Deutschland (AfD) party” [quite a lot of them, from DW’s photo] demonstrated in front of the Reichstag building against rising inflation. A party leader, Tino Chrupalla, accused the German government of declaring economic war on Russia and waging war on its own people. He said, “the gas price will become normal again when we buy cheap gas from Russia.” Demonstrators chanted “Away with Habeck,” meaning Energy and Environment Minister Robert Habeck, a Green. Some 2,000 police were deployed around the rally, whose views were not expressed but would be interesting to know.


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