Today was the first of a two-day international conference held by the Schiller Institute, titled “On the Verge of a New World War: European Nations Must Cooperate with the Global South!” Today’s proceedings, organized in three panels, and an evening concert, featured 22 speakers, from 14 different countries. The dialogue took place before more than 200 attendees. Another two panels are set for tomorrow.
This event, and the process of deliberation it represents, stand in sharp contrast to the “Summit for a New Global Financial Pact” on June 22 in Paris, where leaders of the Global South ridiculed the hypocrisy of their European counterparts. As opposed to the not-so-hidden Malthusian “green imperialist” depopulation agenda of the presumptuous Paris summit, the Schiller Institute colloquy is an opportunity for peoples of all continents to gather for the purpose of deliberation on how to bring about a peaceful and prosperous future for the entire human race.
The Schiller Institute conference is also a timely and necessary intervention against Global NATO’s July 11-12 Vilnius, Lithuania summit, where bloodthirsty leaders of the West’s military-industrial complex will be plotting more measures which, unless stopped, will bring about the destruction of the human race through thermonuclear war.
The Schiller Institute’s panels covered a broad range of critical economic, strategic and cultural themes. Notable was the fact that due to the pandemic, this was the first in-person Schiller Institute conference in three years! The event opened with the famous Adagio cantabile of Beethoven’s C minor Pathétique piano sonata, performed by Alexander Hartmann of the Schiller Institute.
Panel I: Peace in the World Through a New Security and Development Architecture for Each and Every Country: The Indispensable Strategic Autonomy of European Countries
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder and leader of the Schiller Institute, keynote the conference’s first panel: “Let a Garden amidst a Million Gardens Bloom!” [see Briefing lead] She set the tone for the panel by contrasting the tragic consequences of the collapsing trans-Atlantic “rules-based order” attempting to maintain its hegemony, with the rising nations of the Global South, freeing themselves from centuries of colonial servitude and asserting their right to economic development.
Although “now in the most dangerous moment the human species has ever faced"—given the danger of thermonuclear war—nonetheless there is hope! Were the arrogant leaders of the West to abandon their suicidal desire for world domination and join with the nations of the Global South in a new epoch of development, the potential would exist to create a beautiful new paradigm for the future of humanity. Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche asserted at the beginning of her presentation her commitment that “we will revive the best of what European culture has produced … and we will bring that into the shaping of the New Paradigm!”
‘The Multipolar World is Emerging’
The next speaker, H.E. Lu Shaye, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in France, delivered his presentation, titled “China’s Role for Peace and Development.” In his remarks, Ambassador Lu stated: “At present, changes unseen for a century are taking place at an accelerated pace, giving rise to unprecedented transformations of our world, our times and history.” He then characterized the world as divided into two camps: pro-peace and pro-war. The question is: Which camp will prevail? Ambassador Lu detailed the incredible opportunities Western nations would realize were they to cooperate with China and the Global South through participation in the multitude of development initiatives China is leading, such as the Belt and Road Initiative.
Lu stated, “An African proverb says: ‘Alone we go faster, together we go further.’ ” He appealed to European leaders to “actively play their part and contribute their wisdom and strength to lead their respective countries and the whole of humanity to make the right choice.”
The third speaker of the panel was H.E. Ilia Subbotin, Minister-Counselor of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in France, on the topic, “What Russia Really Wants in Its Relations with Europe: Peace or War?” He recounted his own personal perspective of the history of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the subsequent tumultuous transition to the post-Soviet era, all the way up to Russia’s current special military operation in Ukraine.
Of significant note, contrary to proclamations by President George H.W. Bush that the West had “won” the Cold War, from the Russian perspective it was President Mikhail Gorbachev who had stopped the Cold War. Most people in the former Soviet Republics looked forward to a new union with a desire to become a part of the “Western world.” Despite countless efforts by Russian leaders over a 30-year period, particularly President Vladimir Putin, every attempt at Western integration was sabotaged, leading to the current situation where, according to Ambassador Subbotin, “the special military operation became the just and non-alternative step to guarantee Russia’s security and to protect Russian people, whom the Kiev regime wanted to deprive of their language, religion, culture, values.”
Ambassador Subbotin ended his remarks with the prophetic statement that “The hegemon who loses its dominance reacts maliciously.” Although the multipolar world is now a fact of life, the question is, will the European nations free themselves from the “shackles of U.S. control” and join with the “new centers of economic growth” of the Global South? “When and if this happens, Russia will be ready for mutually beneficial dialogue of equals, on the basis of our fundamental interests.” [The Chinese and Russian Ambassadors’ remarks appear in Documentation.]
Panel I concluded with presentations by speakers from India, Italy, Germany and France, addressing the potential that exists for European nations to join with the Global South to create a New Paradigm.
Panel II: Why It Is in the Strategic Interest of European Nations to Cooperate with the Global South
Jacques Cheminade, President of the Schiller Institute-affiliated Solidarité et Progrès political party in France, gave the keynote, titled “The Rise of the Global South against Geopolitical Blocs.” He characterized the current historical period as “the battle between the Malthusian, domineering financial oligarchy that occupies our Western countries and those who believe that the human species has a right to development.” He noted that the first signs of a potential “conflagration” are everywhere evident in Europe, particularly in his own country of France.
In the midst of this gathering storm, nations of the Global South see the Russia-China alliance of February 4, 2022 as a “positive option and chance to escape the trans-Atlantic straitjacket"—a path to realize what President Xi Jinping calls “the common future of mankind.” [http://en.kremlin.ru/supplement/5770]
Mr. Cheminade then highlighted the crucial role of the late statesman and economist Lyndon LaRouche, husband of Schiller institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in discovering the principles of physical economy critical for a New Paradigm of development. This was stated explicitly by the famous Russian economist Sergei Glazyev, Minister of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission [EAEU], who said on September 8, 2022, that “it is the principles of physical economics championed by Lyndon LaRouche that underpin the Chinese economic miracle today, and that are the basis of India’s economic development policy.”
Other panelists included speakers from Argentina, Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Ghana and Türkiye.
Panel III: The Peace Movement Worldwide Above Party Lines: The Special Case of the United States; The Role of the Vatican and the Global South
Harley Schlanger, the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Schiller Institute U.S.A., gave the keynote. He began his presentation by playing the first four minutes of President John F. Kennedy’s June 10, 1963 American University “Peace Speech” [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA_kjj2c0Qc] Mr. Schlanger then went through a brief history of Kennedy’s Presidency, from his battle with the U.S. Senate to ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union, to his efforts to extricate the United States from the war in Vietnam and end the Cold War. Although constantly having to discover ways of outflanking the war-hawks within his administration—dead set on escalating the Cold War—just as great a challenge was overcoming the mass brainwashing of the American population, who believed that it was “better dead than red.” All his efforts unfortunately died on November 22, 1963 when the President was murdered in Dallas, Texas.
Mr. Schlanger then delivered a short history of the anti-imperialist history of the United States—from the American Founding Fathers to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon LaRouche. Exemplary of that tradition is the famous July 4, 1821 speech by then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams in which he declares: “[T]he United States does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy….” Schlanger contrasted this anti-imperialist tradition with today’s defenders of the “rules-based order” such as the hapless Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Other speakers on Panel III included H.E. Donald Ramotar, former President of Guyana, who spoke on the topic “The World’s People Must Make Their Voices Heard"; Diane Sare, Candidate for U.S. Senate from New York, her topic being “Make the U.S. a Force for the Good"; Hussein Askary, Southwest Asia Coordinator of the Schiller Institute, Sweden who spoke on “The Revolutionary Changes in Southwest Asia"; as well as speakers from Denmark, Germany and Italy.
Classical Beauty
The first day’s proceedings were capped off by a wonderful Classical music concert. Many remarked what an uplifting relief it was from the daily, maddening ugliness of the so-called “music” of “contemporary culture.”
The program featured Albanian pianist Dhurata Lazo and Swedish soprano Leena Malkki. Ms. Lazo began with four compositions for solo piano, with a romance by Albanian composer Tonin Harapi (1926–1992) and three pieces by Frédéric Chopin: the Muzurkas Op. 67; the Scherzo No. 2 Op. 31; and the Andante spianato et grande polonaise brillante Op. 22.
She then accompanied Ms. Malkki on vocal compositions: a piece from Mozart’s opera La Clemenza di Tito; Schubert Lieder Nacht und Trӓume Op. 43 No. 2 and Auf dem Wasser zu singen Op. 72; Verdi’s “Ave Maria” from Otello and “Pace, pace mio Dio” from La Forza del Destino.
