ANASTASIA BATTLE: Welcome everyone! This is the International Peace Coalition, this is our 70th consecutive meeting, 70 weeks in a row. Thank you everyone who has been a participant up to this point. My name is Anastasia Battle. I will be your moderator today, as well as my co-moderators Dennis Speed and Dennis Small.
The reason why we’ve created this International Peace Coalition, this forum, is to bring together and unite the peace movements from around the world: Above people’s ideologies, despite people’s disagreements, we have to bring together the international peace movement if we want to stop thermonuclear war. I’m sure many of you joining us today, are joining us because you know we are that close to that, as well as facing a horrible genocide happening in Palestine. Thank you again all of you who have been working tirelessly to make this coalition happen.
We will have a number of speakers today, from around the world, to go through what’s happening. We have a number of battle reports. We’re coming off a week that included at least three major demonstrations—two in the United States, one in Sweden, and many more I believe in Germany. So we’ll have many reports coming in of the activities of the IPC and the participants in that. Also, interventions that people are making.
With that, I want to open it up to Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who is the founder of the Schiller Institute and the initiator of the International Peace Coalition. Please, go ahead, Helga.
HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Let me first say hello to all of you.
It is as if our efforts may be laudable, but I think everybody on this call probably shares the feeling that the events are cascading more quickly towards a potential nuclear war than our efforts so far have been able to slow them down or even reverse them. If people have a more optimistic view, please go ahead and tell me. But right now, we are sitting on the verge of a full-blown war in the Middle East. That is also the view of Fyodor Lukyanov, who is a very well-known Russian analyst and commentator and policy formulator, who thinks that the Middle East is on the brink of a full-scale war. It is very hard to imagine how this is to be stopped at this last moment, but that is what our call is all about. What happened was that on the 1st of October, Iran—finally, after two months of waiting since the killing of Hamas leader Haniyeh—did send 400 missiles against Israel. Now, the Israelis said that this was very ineffective. The Iranians claimed that 90% of those missiles got through. It’s very difficult to verify this independently. It seems to be clear that quite a number of such missiles did get through, meaning that the Iron Dome is not completely successful, and how could it actually be?
It is expected, and one can almost say that the world is waiting by the minute for that, that Israel will naturally make a counterstrike against Iran. The Biden administration said they think a full war can still be avoided. Apparently, President Biden did not approve that Israel would strike the nuclear facilities in Iran, which would be the most severe escalation, but only go for oil fields or refineries in Iran. And then naturally the question is, what will be the Iranian reaction: If Iran would then make a counterstrike against Israel, and Israel would retaliate against that even more, and then we are on a very short escalation level to the absolute catastrophe.
The Iranian Foreign Minister has just arrived in Beirut, where there are massive efforts to try to find a successor to Nasrallah. The Israelis have apparently sent a second strike on multiple apartment buildings where the meeting of the Hezbollah leadership is suspected to be. All of this is not totally verified yet, because it’s ongoing in a war zone, so you can imagine how tense the situation is.
In any case, the Russian government has called on all its citizens to leave Israel, as long as there are still options to catch a flight, if they care for their lives and safety. And in general, I can only say that everything is really preparing for an escalation of the situation. Naturally, the U.S. aircraft carriers are still sitting in the region with many warships in a clear deterrence against Iran. And naturally, Iran, which has been trying to avoid a general war so far, because I think the present leadership has clearly signaled that they understand that there can be no winners in a general war in the Middle East.
I think that the new book which was written by Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, The Killing of Gaza: Reports on a Catastrophe. I only have read a report by a major journalist, Chris Hedges, that was reprinted in Consortium News, who reports how this Israeli journalist was one of the few journalists speaking out in this way. Levy is reporting on what is the effect of all of this killing in Gaza, in now the West Bank, in Lebanon, on the minds of not only the Palestinians, but also the Israelis, saying that this is leading to the mental destruction of Israel and Palestine, and that Israel has lost its humanity, and that the biggest problem is that all the people watching, both in Israel, but naturally also the international community, which is just shrugging their shoulders about what is happening, especially in Gaza, since it has been one year, that this is threatening to lead to the collective suicide of Israel; and one may add, given the explosive potential and the danger that eventually nuclear weapons could be used in the Middle East, the collective suicide of all of human civilization. It’s that serious.
Obviously, the other major crisis around Ukraine is no less, maybe less in the headlines, but it is an ongoing escalation there as well. It seems that the Ukrainian Air Force tried to hit the nuclear power plant in Kursk—unsuccessfully, but apparently there was such an effort. The Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, put out a very stern statement saying that the Biden administration would be pushing the world to a nuclear catastrophe. This was reported in Russian TV, and he also reported on personal threats against himself and other Russian diplomats.
In general, the war hysteria in the West is unbroken. There are a few exceptions like Hungary, Slovakia, Georgia, Serbia, and some voices here and there. But in general, the EU policy is still one of going for war with Russia, sometime in the future. There is a new EU Commissioner for Defense and Space: His name is Andrius Kubilius. He is calling for the European Union to boost their military production, and that there must be immediately the establishment of a European defense union. He is on the same line as German Defense Minister Pistorius, that war with Russia in 6-8 years is inevitable. Why do they push the confrontation now, if the European Union and European nations are not “war-ready”? It’s all totally irrational. And as we discussed many times, the real reason for it is neither the situation on the ground in the Middle East, nor in Ukraine, even so, there are specifics which give the trigger points and reasons and so forth. But the real fundamental conflict, which we see going obviously into its final phase, is what will happen to the collective West, whose neo-liberal system is clearly collapsing, as the economy in Germany is in a free fall; and the fear that the countries of the Global South are forming an alternative with the BRICS+, the Global South representing in the meantime almost 90% of the human population. And they are determined not to go down with the West. Even so, naturally if it comes to a nuclear war, that could be the fate of all of humanity.
We had a very important event I absolutely do not want to neglect to mention: This was on Oct. 2nd, we had an event organized by the Schiller Institute, with such extraordinary experts like Jack Matlock, former American ambassador in Moscow at the end of the Cold War. He gave an account, that there was no such thing as an unprovoked war by Russia. I think it’s extremely important that you have contemporary witnesses who come forward and speak the truth, because the warfare and who controls the narrative is becoming more ferocious. And unfortunately, some people on the left are opportunistic and not speaking the truth. He gave an account of how actually did we get here, 34 years after German reunification, the date we “celebrated” yesterday. Naturally then he was followed by a leading nuclear weapons expert, Ted Postol, who gave an absolutely hair-raising account of what will happen if it comes to nuclear war. Not to dismiss the other speakers, but especially because of those two extraordinary presenters, I would urge the IPC participants to not only watch this video, but to help to spread it around the world. Because people have to wake up to what a nuclear war would do. The minimum that would happen is a destruction of very, very large parts of human civilization, and in the worst case, all of human and other life on the planet, and that is the risk that we are looking at.
I think that is the immediate situation we are confronted with right now. Therefore, I think we have to hear the different witnesses report about what the degree of mobilization is against this. Yesterday, there was a relatively good demonstration in Berlin, but compared to what we are looking at, it’s very, very far from what it would need to stop it. Because, only if these demonstrations become so big that governments have to fear that they will be pushed out of office, if they don’t respond to the demands of the people in the street, do they have any chance to stop this pending, looming catastrophe. Let’s discuss all of that, and make some really serious brainstorming of how we, as the International Peace Coalition, can escalate our efforts to really stop this unspeakable danger.
Remarks during the Discussion:
[to Imam Elahi] I want to express my sympathy with you, and naturally all the people who are in this incredible condition. I hope your words are helping to shake up the world conscience, because it is not just the Middle East. Because if we don’t stop this, it will be on a worldwide scale, what you referenced with Pastor Martin Niemöller, that first they came for the Socialists, then for the Gypsies, then for the Jews, and when they came for me, there was nobody left to defend me: That is the condition of the world right now.
I would just say, let’s not give up our hope that we can move the situation. Because what Sara [Madueño] was reporting about before, there is another system already in the process of being built. I have the feeling that we are going for a big shake-up, some big catastrophe. It looks as though you cannot stop it from happening, and one can only hope that it’s not the final, really big nuclear catastrophe which eliminates all life on Earth. But I think we absolutely should proceed with the optimism that our method of dialogue among the great religions, dialogue among the great cultures, insisting on nonviolence, that that is the stronger method. So, please stay with your convictions, and do not give up hope.…
[response to question] Very briefly, I’m very grateful for this question, because I think it points in the right direction that I would emphatically add to the principles that were mentioned earlier, like not annexing territory and the different principles which were mentioned before: That I think we need to add a couple of things, like for example, the enemies of peace, and that needs to be defined. But I think, if you just think about the fact that it’s now internationally acknowledged and established that in March 2022, there was a few days after the outbreak of the special military operation, there was an agreement by both Ukraine and Russia for a diplomatic settlement of the crisis which was negotiated in Istanbul. And it would have been perfectly possible to end the war, save about 500,000 Ukrainian lives and I don’t know how many Russian lives, and how was it destroyed? Well, we know: It was Boris Johnson, who flew in from London to Kyiv and told President Zelenskyy that he should keep fighting, that he should not agree to the settlement, because he would have the backing of NATO and the whole West.
Now, that, in my view, and many, many incidents where a diplomatic solution was already about to be signed and done, and then, some intervention, many times coming from the British, instigating and the war would continue. And I think we have to absolutely introduce a new category of “enemies of peace,” and we must discuss a way, either in the United Nations’ process or in some form, that this be banned! In other words, we must raise a consciousness among the people of the world that there are such enemies of peace, and because otherwise, people keep going and going, and the genocide continues and the murder continues, and the misery continues, and the people who are actually the ones who are personally and concretely instigating that are never held accountable.
I don’t have a ready-made answer for what is the correct diplomatic procedure—should it be referendums, should it be in the national parliaments, should it go to the UN General Assembly? That needs to be sorted out and discussed. And I would also invite real legal experts who have probably thought about that, [there’s] a lot of discussion about the need to reform the United Nations so that it can address many of the problems which are not manageable right now, but I think it’s a very valuable point.
Closing Remarks:
I think given the state of affairs which are really upsetting, as you look in the news, internet coverage. But the speaker from Palestine was saying, Mr. Kuttab, the people in Beirut are sitting there right now, waiting for one strike after the other, no place to go. And reports were, while I was just looking, that the Israelis made some very hard strikes again, aiming obviously at the successor of Hezbollah general secretary Nasrallah. People are just sitting there, as if waiting for death. And, I really want to also remind people to take the words of the imam Elahi from Dearborn, because we have to get people awakened! People are numb before the genocide going on. It’s almost as if all feelings have been killed off, and things are just happening and you look at it, and that moral indifference, we cannot tolerate.
Otherwise, I can only say I don’t think we have exhausted all possibilities, because, I give you one example: At this peace demonstration in Berlin yesterday, there was an unlikely speaker, namely Mr. [Peter] Gauweiler from the CSU. That is on the political spectrum in Germany more on the right side. He said that he was a little bit shy, even if he is not shy, but it was his first speech to a peace rally in his life. And then he quoted Franz-Josef Strauss. For those of you who have been around for a while, you will remember that he was a very, very astute figure—hated by many, but he was a figure, he was a real character. He was a politician as they should be. You may not like what they say, but he was real, as compared to these artificial figures you have many times today. And Gauweiler quoted Strauss, and he sounded like from the left—left to Baerbock, left to Scholz. It just shows you how the political spectrum has disappeared. In any case, he pointed to a very interesting thing, and that is that what the German government is actually doing with the German Army is illegal and anti-constitutional, because the German Constitution only defines the task of the German Army to defend the country—not to be involved in any international incursions and so forth. So, I’m sure, given the fact that he is a lawyer, he probably will come up with a strategy to make that a stronger issue. And I think likewise, in many constitutions have or legislations have quite good laws which are perfectly sufficient to throw at what is going on, at this point.
But I would really urge people: Look, what is happening right now is so unbelievably, not only heartbreaking, but it is suicidal, it is driving civilization towards a collective suicide, and in the face of that, have the courage to act. Yesterday, the proposal was made that maybe we should call for demonstrations to be held every two weeks. Now, immediately came the argument that this is too much, it’s so costly to have loudspeaker machines and big tents. Maybe that’s not what is needed. Maybe we should just call people to gather every second week without all of this ado, just gather in a marketplace in your city. Because I think it does require a mobilization. I think we are now four weeks away from the U.S. election, and I’m afraid these are the most crucial weeks in our lifetime, in the history of mankind. And we have to somehow bring everything into force and power, whatever we can. Or maybe we can’t get it organized this time, but I want to start to circulate this idea of having this every two weeks in the marketplace, wherever you are.
Secondly, I want to reiterate: We need to have the discussion about the international security and development architecture. Because as these crises in the Middle East and Ukraine unfold—and one could add the situation in the Far East around China and the Philippines and the South China Sea and Taiwan—I think we absolutely will not get out of this, if we don’t have an international security and development architecture, which does take into account the interests of every single country. That is not a utopian idea: I think that’s a prescription for survival. So, please help us to circulate this idea.
I think the BRICS are on a good way. There is a lot of discussion of the Chinese proposal about the Global Security Initiative, Global Development Initiative, Global Civilizational Initiative, which should be seen together. It’s just a different way, coming from the Chinese, going in the same direction as our proposal about the new security and development architecture also expresses, which eminently always also included the idea of a dialogue of cultures and civilizations. So, help us to get this on the agenda. And let’s try to build the next IPC event as a very powerful one, because we have to shake up the people of the world to intervene in any possible way, to stop the horror show which is unfolding in front of our eyes.
