Creating an international youth movement organized around the seminal ideas of Lyndon H. LaRouche was the central subject of the second day of the Nov. 8-9 Paris conference, co-sponsored by the Schiller Institute and France’s Solidarity and Progress party. As the invitation to the event stated, the intense, day-long cadre school was designed “for the young and the most motivated among you. What is the physical economy and why should we study and teach it? What does a culture of life and discovery mean? How can we enable everyone to develop their creativity and use it as a tool for the common good? What could a culture of beauty and truth be?”
Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche had issued the challenge in her remarks a day earlier, on Nov. 8, at the beginning of the day’s third panel, whose theme was “Youth From Around the World for Peace and Mutual Development.”
“So, I think that the need to create a new international youth movement is more urgent than ever before,” Zepp-LaRouche began, “because it is very clear that we have reached, in terms of the long arc of history, that if we make it through this period, historians will look back and say this particular time was when the decision had to be made to change the system or not survive. Because never before in history was there a situation where all of civilization was at stake.”
She emphasized the central strategic issue: “As long as we keep this geopolitical confrontation between NATO on the one side, and Russia, China and possibly other countries, such as Iran and North Korea, we are sitting on a complete powder keg,” which could even bring the world to the brink of nuclear war.
“But if you look at the world as a whole, you don’t want to compete geopolitically for influence in Africa between the West and China. That’s exactly what you don’t want. What you want is a cooperative approach, including equal partners from African nations to do this.”
To address this crisis, Zepp-LaRouche explained, “what we are offering is a plan that we will build an international youth movement in Africa, and in as many countries as possible. That we will build youth movements everywhere we can, in Asia, in Latin America.… That then we will perfect this plan for the industrialization of Africa, and naturally likewise in Latin America. And then we go to the industries [in the West] and tell them these are the options where you should invest.”
Zepp-LaRouche explained that such an approach is in the interest of the so-called West, as well as the Global Majority. “If Europe would make the decision to industrialize Africa, together with China and maybe Russia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Brazil, it could be done. We could change the direction quickly.”
She concluded: “So that’s really my challenge to you, that you all join this movement, now, on the spot, and commit yourself to be part of it.”
