Schiller Institute founder and leader, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in reviewing the world strategic situation today, asserted, “Our moment in history is here!” We can be sure, she is not referring to the U.S. elections Tuesday! Not to the voting result, nor the aftermath. Rather, Zepp-LaRouche refers to the undeniable fact that “the old system is crumbling,” and this means, “this is the chance for a new system.”
The Western casino financial/economic, and neo-colonialist system has reached the phase of its own demise, to the point that its once leading nations are themselves in economic and social breakdown. Their own elites are responding with Global NATO warfare and brutality, in their attempt to maintain dominance.
But the human response to the Global North degradation is, instead, for the Collective West to cooperate in the development of the Global South. That is the only way to have a humane solution to the crisis: Build economies, create billions of jobs, cooperate with the Global Majority, whose leadership dynamic is strong and increasing.
Discussion of this will be the focus of an international (online) conference, hosted by the Schiller Institute, Dec. 7-8, on the theme, “In the Spirit of Schiller and Beethoven: All Men Become Brethren!”
As it happens, an example of how the old system is crumbling is shown today in the location where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are both campaigning for the U.S. Presidency: Pennsylvania. That state was once a world center for steel, energy, river infrastructure, and dairy farming. Besides having abundant coal, the state had the first U.S. commercial nuclear power plant, in 1956. Pittsburgh, where both candidates had rallies today, is the headquarters of U.S. Steel, now in such severe financial trouble that it is up for sale.
Total annual steel output in the U.S. has fallen dramatically. It has gone from 112 million metric tons in 1973, down to 80 mmt in 2023. Dairy farms in Pennsylvania and elsewhere are being ruined by the fact that farmers’ income is far below their production costs. On energy, the state’s electricity generation and transmission capacity is so insufficient, that on Nov. 1, even federal authorities—not known for their integrity—stepped in to stop an Amazon data center from making a sweetheart custom electricity supply contract with the nuclear plant on the Susquehanna River, because it would deprive the public in Central Pennsylvania of their needed power. It is noteworthy that Pennsylvania’s state capital of Harrisburg had to declare municipal bankruptcy not so long ago.
With local variations, that is the same picture all across the United States.
Zepp-LaRouche today pointed to the same picture in Europe. For example, ten years ago, Germany was in the forefront of industrial production, technology, exports, health care, among other production. Now it is far down on the ladder, with de-industrialization, bankruptcies, shortages, and impoverishment. Last winter German farmers staged mass tractor protests against the European Union and German government policies shutting them down. Moreover, “green” policies continue to make everything worse.
This trans-Atlantic decay goes right along with NATO’s expansion and warfare. Contrast that with the concrete examples of support for the principles of development among the Global Majority, especially of the Belt and Road Initiative:
This month Peru will witness the grand opening of the modern, outstanding new port of Chancay. China’s President Xi Jinping will attend. He will be in Lima, Peru for the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, Nov. 10-16. Also this fall, the new Mutun integrated steel complex went into operation in Bolivia, home to vast iron ore deposits. Africa this year saw the opening of the huge Dangote Refinery in Nigeria, the new Julius Nyerere Dam in Tanzania, and the Mvuma iron and steel works in Zimbabwe. There are Asian examples.
These few, but wonderful examples indicate the boundless horizon for development, once the change in the system is accomplished. This is the historic task. It is already underway in the Global South. But the “miracle” to be made is mobilizing the potential goodness still left among those in the Global North to force into being an outlook of cooperation, and working together the world over, for a future of common benefit. That must be the content of the anti-war mobilization.
One bright light from the U.S. election period, comes from those Americans leading the charge for such a shift. On the ballot in New York State are the independents, Diane Sare for U.S. Senate and Jose Vega for Congress, in the Bronx, 15th CD. In Ohio, Dennis Kucinich, a former member of Congress and mayor of Cleveland, is on the ballot again for Congress, making a key issue stopping the dangerous drive toward nuclear war.
In Connecticut, independent candidate Ben Wesley for Congress (CD 4), wrote “A Call for Sanity and Renewal” in a letter published in the Nov. 3 Connecticut Examiner. Wesley described his deindustrialized city of Bridgeport: “Everyday I drive by the vast empty production warehouses…. I believe the great issue confronting our district, and frankly our nation, is we do not build anymore. We do not create anymore with the exception of the machines of war.” He called to turn that around, to stop the funding for the Ukraine war and Israel’s mass killing, and issued “a call for sanity and renewal for our district, our state, our country and the world.”
The threat of nuclear war is worsening, as the anti-development Collective West escalates war provocations. The latest maneuver involves the prospect of South Korean military experts to go to Ukraine, promoted by the U.S. and U.K. A South Korean delegation was in Brussels and Kyiv, discussing this over the weekend. Today, the EU’s High Representative Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell is in Seoul. The U.S., U.K., Japan and other nations called for a special session of the UN Security Council on North Korea, held today, at which the U.S. stressed a sub-theme charging Russia with sending North Korean soldiers to fight Ukraine. That push is occurring even as the Ukrainian military forces are being driven back and hollowed out.
In Southwest Asia, the Netanyahu regime issued the decree today of its intent to control all land in Lebanon up to the Litani River. Israel also informed the United Nations on Nov. 3 that it officially withdraws from the 1967 agreement recognizing the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), thereby not allowing it to function. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continues unspeakable shelling and starving of Palestinians.
The next opportunity to confer on action against this and toward a new system is the 75th consecutive weekly meeting of the International Peace Coalition, Friday, Nov. 9. Watch also for short-notice events and actions.
A new video was released Nov. 3 of American orthopedic surgeon Dr. Mark Perlmutter’s briefing, “Censored American Doctor Reports Truth on Gaza,” which he gave in New York City on Nov. 1.
