Sept. 27—More than a thousand scientists, academics, medical professionals and activists from around the world joined forces today for the 69th weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC). The opening presentations were broadcast live on YouTube, and several other platforms, and are available here.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the IPC, began her remarks by citing the most obvious danger as stemming from the Sept. 25 announcement by Russian President Vladimir Putin of the revision of Russia’s nuclear weapons doctrine. That policy change was in direct response to the escalating open threats from the U.S. and NATO to give Ukraine permission to begin bombing Russian cities with Western guided weapons. She pointed to the brawl behind the scenes in Washington, with restraint being urged by military leaders in the Pentagon, which appears to have temporarily persuaded President Biden to not sign on to the “target list” of Russian cities to be bombed—which British Prime Minister Keir Starmer brought to the White House on Sept. 13—and also restrained any similar deal with Ukraine’s acting President Volodymyr Zelensky when he met Biden in the White House on Sept. 26. This dangerous escalation toward open confrontation with the world’s largest nuclear power by the politically unstable U.S. and European nations is now joined by the escalation of Israel’s effort to spread the genocidal war on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank into Lebanon, trying to draw Iran into the conflict.
China Is Not a Threat
Zepp-LaRouche excoriated the geopolitical madness of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, who, speaking to the U.S. House of Representatives, called China the greatest threat to the U.S. ever, not only militarily but also technologically and through its relations with the Global South. “This is a lie, which must not be allowed to stand,” she said. China is not an aggressive country and doesn’t have imperial ambitions. It has developed its economy and its people and is now doing the same across the Global South, with the intention of ending the legacy of colonialism through building infrastructure, education, health, industry and agriculture—and is succeeding. She reported that she had just returned from the “International Peace Day” celebration in Shandong, China, and contrasted that to her first visit to China in 1971, marking the astonishing transformation of the nation from extreme poverty to rapid development.
“If the West would say ‘We cooperate, we stop the fight for supremacy. We agree that the world is a multi-polar world and we move from confrontation to cooperation,’ all these conflicts would virtually evaporate overnight. Because if the large powers—the United States and China and by the same token, Russia—would enter such a mode of cooperation, all regional conflicts would be immediately extremely manageable. So, the way out is very clear. And I can only say the International Peace Coalition is mobilizing to educate people that there is a way out. The threat is enormous; it is breathtaking. But the way out of this situation would be relatively easy.”
The View from Europe
Biden will be visiting Germany on Oct. 12. Zepp-LaRouche will address the dangerous implications of this visit frontally in a German-based Zoom conference to be held on Oct. 2. Featured guests will include Jack Matlock, U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991, Dr. Theodore Postol, professor emeritus of Science, Technology and International Security at MIT, as well as German and French experts. The primary focus of the conference will be on the crisis now erupting in Germany: “Should it come to war, Germany will be the prime target for attack, and if nuclear weapons are used, nothing will be left of Germany: no industry, no cities, no infrastructure—and no people. Is that in Germany’s interest?” states the invitation to the conference.
Zepp-LaRouche concluded her opening remarks by stressing that “we need to mobilize to really take to the streets; get large numbers of people to the streets to protest this. And more fundamentally, to work internationally to get the new security and development architecture on the agenda. That is what we should be discussing here.”
Prof. Glenn Diesen, a well-known Norwegian strategic analyst, detailed Putin’s new nuclear doctrine, including the declaration that an attack by a non-nuclear state, supported by a nuclear state, would be treated as a joint attack, with an appropriate response—and that an attack on Belarus would be treated in the same way. This is clearly a Russian response to the 2022 policy conference in the U.S. which concluded that a nuclear assault on Russia would provoke a nuclear response, so better to strike Russia’s ally Belarus.
Steven Starr, an expert on nuclear weapons, warned that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fear of nuclear weapons has been lost in the U.S., and the danger of nuclear war is no longer taught in U.S. schools. He showed a video of the explosion from the Russian “Tsar Bomb,” the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever created, and a video depicting all-out nuclear war between Russia and NATO, leading rapidly—in only 72 minutes total—to the killing of 85 million people. This would be followed by a “nuclear winter,” caused by soot from the explosions filling the stratosphere, blocking sunlight, and resulting in a prolonged global cooling effect that would kill most life on Earth. “Nuclear winter” has been called a “false theory” by some, but in reality is an existential issue for mankind. His presentation is here.
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a California trauma surgeon and fellow of the American College of Surgeons, who travelled with Dr. Mark Perlmutter to Gaza this Spring, reported that in addition to the mass death by starvation, that health and sanitation facilities have been virtually eliminated, that there is only one toilet for every 4,000 people, four liters of water per person (15 liters is considered the minimum for emergency situations), concluding that if this U.S. sponsored genocide were not stopped, the world is in grave danger.
Dr. Jorge Rachid, a medical doctor from Buenos Aires, Argentina, announced the founding of the Argentine/Latin American chapter of the IPC, whose founding members include the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Adolfo Perez Esquivel. Dr. Rachid told the gathering that he will be going with a team of Argentine doctors to Gaza. He concluded by naming Gen. Laura Richardson, the Commander of U.S. Southern Command, as personally responsible for the effort to break all ties of South American nations with Russia and China, on behalf of BlackRock and other hedge funds.
The discussion section of the meeting began with Jose Vega describing the effort by his New York congressional campaign team to distribute a report on Gaza, from doctors Perlmutter and Sidhwa, to delegates attending the UN General Assembly, only to have UN security guards engage in blatant censorship by confiscating the report from delegates!
Jacques Cheminade, the head of the LaRouche-associated Solidarité et Progrès party in France, reported on the Sant’Egidio peace forum of 3,000 people in Paris, with representatives of various religions from around the world, which received a message from Pope Francis. Cheminade read a statement on the breakdown of the global financial system driving the wars, which the chair, a former French Ambassador to the Vatican, attempted, unsuccessfully, to stop. He and his associates distributed over 1,000 leaflets to the participants.
A Spaniard reported that there would be demonstrations in 50 Spanish cities on Sept. 28 in defense of Palestine, with supporting strikes by several trade unions, calling for ending diplomatic relations and arms shipments to Israel. The Spanish government recognizes Palestine, but has failed to take actions against Israel. Another person from Spain reported that on Oct. 2, the International Day of Non-Violence, the World March for Peace and Non-Violence will start in San José, Costa Rica.
Rallies for peace will escalate on Sept. 28, with a Humanity for Peace rally in Stockholm, Sweden—with statements of solidarity from several Americans including former CIA analyst Ray McGovern and Col. (ret.) Douglas Macgregror—in parallel with the Rage Against the War Machine rally being held in Washington, D.C. That same day, the Peace and Freedom Rally will be held in Kingston, NY featuring Scott Ritter, and other prominent speakers. There will also be major peace demonstrations across Germany on October 1.
