The opening focus of today’s weekly online meeting of the International Peace Coalition (IPC, the 117th week straight) was on the urgency of mobilizing action to stop the genocide in Gaza. IPC initiator Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, led off, saying that, “If the whole world community proves unable to stop it … this is the end of civilization. This is the last chance….” She stressed, “If the world community fails to act, we are losing everything … even the ability to look at oneself in the mirror.”
Zepp-LaRouche presented an action perspective, with a number of points. On Sept. 18, the deadline expires, issued a year ago, for Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice order to stop its killing in Gaza and other occupied territories, or it falls to the UN General Assembly to act. “This creates a window.” The UN General Assembly convenes Sept. 9 for its 80th session, so it will be meeting in New York. If the UN Security Council is blocked—which it is by the continued backing of Israel by the United States—nations can initiate action in the UN General Assembly, under the rubric of the 1950 Uniting for Peace Resolution 377. Specifically what kinds of action measures can be worked out, such as whether and how to deploy the UN Blue Helmets, or some other contingency.
There are tectonic shifts in the world on behalf of humanity. Leaders of major nations are right now making their way to Tianjin, China, for the heads of state summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting Aug. 31-Sept. 1, then the Beijing Sept. 3 commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Victory in World War II; and then dozens of nations will be represented in Vladivostok for the Sept. 3-6 Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).
Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a welcome to the attendees coming to the EEF, saying, “As the center of global economic activity continues to shift towards the Asia-Pacific, new opportunities are emerging to develop mutually beneficial ties among countries across the region, not only through bilateral partnerships, but also within multilateral frameworks such as the SCO and BRICS.” He called for building, “a fair system of international relations in the Asia-Pacific—one based on genuine equality and mutual respect for each other’s legitimate interests.”
Meanwhile, the Collective West remains gripped by the madness of militarism, and social and physical economic breakdown, while its elites act to retain their failed financial system. Manufacturing job losses, transportation breakdown, family farm shutdown, education decline, and the like are the order of the day in the Trans-Atlantic.
Take the situation in health care, a sector which should self-evidently be worth supporting, for the benefit of people and productivity. But, no. In Germany, several hundred hospitals are to be shut down, through the government withdrawing co-funding, done in the name of “efficiency.” The German services union ver.di is staging protest rallies against this. One banner states, “First the hospital goes, then the coffins come.”
In the United States, 700 hospitals, mostly rural, are at risk of shutdown, starting in a few months, because their income depends heavily on federal payments of Medicaid (federal/state medical payments for the poor), which the Big New Beautiful Bill Act will cut, starting in 2026. States and localities are scrambling. Then comes even more madness. This week Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went to Texas—where 15 hospitals are at risk of shutdown, to showcase Texas as the example for how all states can hope to cope. Calling his solution, “Strengthening Rural Health,” his message is: “Go MAHA” (Make America Healthy Again). Kennedy and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott celebrated how the state legislature passed three “MAHA” laws this week—on reducing sugary drinks and candy in schools, lessening dyes and additives in food, etc. In exchange for which Kennedy promised: maybe Washington will give you some federal aid to your hospitals. Public health is out the window.
In these degraded circumstances, every sane, focused initiative counts, every voice needs to be heard, the world over. This week at the United Nations, some 500 UN staff at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights penned a joint letter calling on Commissioner Volker Türk to take a “clear and public position” that Israel is committing genocide.
In a transformed dynamic, where the Global North joins with the Global Majority, there are no insoluble problems. Even at this late date, the prospect of another “Alaska Moment,” where President Trump would meet Sept. 3 in Beijing, with Presidents Xi and Putin, and Prime Minister Modi as well, is the sane and moral vantage point.
A beautiful concrete example of North-South collaboration in Africa, comes up in September, when the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will be inaugurated. Years under construction, its reservoir has been filling since 2020, most of its turbines are in place, and it will be officially celebrated, likely Sept. 9. The Italian firm Webuild did the main construction. Its project is a model for Euro-China-Africa win-win cooperation.
This mega-project approach is on the agenda at the upcoming Vladivostok meeting for the Far North and Asia Pacific. EEF panels include such topics as: “How Megaprojects Are Contributing to Development in the Far East”; and “Responsible Partnership for the Comprehensive Development of the Arctic and Far East.” The long-anticipated Bering Strait Tunnel is a priority in every respect
Mobilize for emergency action in Gaza, and for a future for all humanity.
