COPENHAGEN, Oct. 29, 2022 (EIRNS)—Tom Gillesberg, the Chairman of the Schiller Institute in Denmark, is on the Nov. 1 ballot for Parliament from Copenhagen, campaigning for shifting from sending weapons to Ukraine, to pushing for peace negotiations, and de-escalating the nuclear threat. His campaign is run in connection with the Friends of the Schiller Institute Election Platform, calling for a new paradigm in international relations, of peace through development.
Gillesberg has run in all but one parliamentary election since 2005, on this platform, with a significant impact, in opposition to the ruling political factions which have made Demark a loyal participant in NATO’s wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Since 2015, Danish soldiers have been training Ukrainian forces, and Denmark has been sending weapons to Ukraine.
In this context, despite the warhawk effort made to black out his campaign, Gillesberg’s candidacy has had an important impact, in particular through an operation putting up 500 dramatic posters in Copenhagen, with the slogan, “Stop NATO’s Wars: Cooperation—Peace Through Development.” The placard features flags of nations working together—Denmark, Ukraine, Russia, China, India and the U.S., plus an image of a construction project in Africa.
In a scandalous development, at least 140 posters were removed by unknown political vandals, and the police are investigating. In reaction to the scandal, the national radio station program The Independent interviewed Gillesberg on Oct. 26, asking the candidate, who would have taken down the posters? Gillesberg made clear that he is not the victim of the vandalism, but Danish democracy is. His campaign is challenging the narratives used for public opinion control, to back warfare, and to impose hardship in energy and hyperinflation.
As of three days before the election, no other national media have even interviewed Gillesberg, but his campaign is succeeding in sounding the alarm over the war danger, and what we should do. He asks all the hot questions, for example, why is there no one questioning who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm? Cui bono?
His campaign has thousands of copies of his statement circulating, which asks, “Do you dare pose critical questions, or remain silent and lose both welfare and risk nuclear war?” He poses questions designed to provoke people to think, for example, “Is it Russia’s fault that there is an energy and inflation crisis?”
His statement also provides solutions. In sum, his three main points are: Stop NATO’s Wars; cooperate with Russia, China and the rest of the world; and stop predatory finance and speculation, and build up the world economy, with the “Four Laws of Lyndon LaRouche.” This approach calls for Glass-Steagall regulation of banking, directed credit for infrastructure, and science-driver projects.
The statement’s mass circulation has reached key parts of Copenhagen. Earlier this month, it circulated inside the Parliament at the yearly Copenhagen Culture Night, reaching people in all 14 parties, and 20 candidates. On Oct. 26 the statement was at Copenhagen University, at a student meeting for candidates from eight parties. The attempt to limit discussion failed, when two candidates responded to an EIR News journalist, asking for contenders to address how the Ukraine war should be ended? The journalist stated that Gillesberg is laying out the danger of escalation to nuclear conflagration, and how we must activate to stop it.
What adds to the force of Gillesberg’s warning is that he is well known for his past campaigns for Denmark to change course on foreign and economic policies. Tom Gillesberg and his posters are a special institution in Danish politics since his first campaign in 2005, when he put out the poster slogan, “When the Bubble Bursts…New Bretton Woods,” warning about derivatives and hyperinflation, as has come to pass. There were signature poster/policy slogans for each campaign since. In 2015, it was, “Win-Win with BRICS—Not Collapse and War.” Now, Tom Gillesberg is a crucial voice on the European stage.