The Lead

Zepp-LaRouche on German Farm Protests: "This Is Just the Tip of The Iceberg!"

by Dennis Small (EIRNS) — Jan. 10, 2024

Two strategic developments which reflect a shift from the passivity of accepting outrageous policies, to fighting for what is right and just, were the central topics of the Jan. 10 weekly Dialogue webcast with Helga Zepp-LaRouche.

“Let’s start with the situation in Germany, because I think this is really the beginning of a game-changer,” Zepp-LaRouche stated. On Monday Jan. 8, more than 100,000 tractors were out across the country in protest, “and there are many videos circulating on the internet: 100,000 tractors is a lot! Demonstrations took place in 100 cities, in all 16 states, and they were supported by the truckers, by workers from the construction sector bringing in their trucks or cement machines or other construction vehicles; and also craftsmen. And if you go through some towns in Germany, you see in the windows, they have signs reading, `We support the fight of the German farmers.’”

It is as if things have become uncorked in Germany virtually overnight, Zepp-LaRouche explained. “This has now erupted. Because the farmers, and many others with them, but especially the farmers, are expressing very clearly that they see their existence threatened through a combination of ever greater cuts—this time, the diesel fuel subsidies, but also lots of bureaucratic rules that have made their lives impossible, that they have no control over their prices—so this has erupted now.”

A large part of the reason for these deadly budget cuts is the huge amount of money going to finance the war in Ukraine and the military-financial complex more broadly. The crisis has made it clear to all that it is time to beat swords into plowshares, to produce tractors and not tanks.

“I must applaud the German farmers,” Zepp-LaRouche continued. “I think every German is extremely proud that some segment of the population [is fighting]... For a long time, the German situation looked really terrible because the German economy was collapsing and collapsing, and especially after the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, where everybody suspects that Seymour Hersh is right to say that the United States did it, demanding an investigation; but people knew that the terrible collapse of the German economy, German agriculture, was in large part the result of the sanctions against Russia, which were really forced upon Germany, to carry them out as part of the general trans-Atlantic policy, but also the increase in the energy prices, since the gas from Russia was no longer available.”

Zepp-LaRouche added that Germany plays a strategically significant role in the Western nations’ relations with Russia and China, and with the Global Majority in general. “I think this is now the beginning of something, where I do not see how it can be undone; because the action of the farmers has given them a new sense of confidence about what they can do… Next Monday, Jan. 15, they have called for a huge, national demonstration; and for the whole week [there will be] local demonstrations, and cutting off access to highways and blocking roads is going to continue. As of today, the strike of the locomotive engineers trade union is going on for three days. So I think there is a real shift in Germany… 90% of the population support the farmers, and only 10% complain, `they are disrupting my daily work.’ But people really understand that the German farmers are fighting for all of Germany. So this is excellent.”

Zepp-LaRouche then turned to the second critical development of the week. “Tomorrow starts the hearing in The Hague, on the demand by the South African government to investigate if Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. There are now many organizations and many individuals, many hundreds of organizations that have joined to support South Africa. And here, again, I would say, it is a sign of the times that there is a country of the Global South, of Africa, of the BRICS, that takes the moral leadership to try to stop what is going on in Gaza.”

Zepp-LaRouche called on all listeners around the world to mobilize and send expressions of support to the German farmers and their fight for development and justice. She also urged everyone to back the South African action before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and demand an immediate cease-fire in Gaza; large-scale humanitarian aide; support for an international conference, such as that proposed by China, to discuss a comprehensive, two-state solution for Israel and Palestine; and launch the immediate reconstruction of Gaza, including great infrastructure projects for the region, such as Lyndon LaRouche’s Oasis Plan.