At the 178th consecutive weekly session of the International Peace Coalition (IPC), Dennis Small, Executive Intelligence Review Ibero-America Intelligence Director, began by saying that “the glass is half full,” and suggested that we look not just at this moment, but at the ongoing action: Is the glass being drained, or filled? He said that Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute and initiator of the IPC, who was not available for this meeting, had already addressed this issue several weeks ago. When asked whether the world was closer to nuclear war or to realizing the prospects for peace, she replied: “I’m afraid that both options, the new paradigm and the total degeneration of the strategic situation, are within reach. How this will play out, I cannot say.”

For those who might be puzzled by this, Small suggested that rather than passively focusing on the news events, they should instead focus on, and be part of, the process which shapes events. In the past week, in particular, he said, there have been notable advances in a positive direction: the Global Governance Forum in China’s Xiongʼan New Area, Oct. 23-25; the stunning turn-around in the second round of Brazilʼs presidential election, with the re-election of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Oct. 25; the Vatican-sponsored meeting on war and peace held in Assisi, Italy, Oct. 25-27, with the participation by video of Pope Leo XIV; and the Third Russia-Africa Summit held in Moscow, Oct. 28-29. Small said that today’s IPC meeting would feature first hand reports from participants in three of those four major developments. Some details of these developments are:

• The Global Governance Forum included participation by Helga Zepp-LaRouche (see below);
• In Brazil, Lula came from behind to win the Presidency, which prevented all of Ibero-America from falling into the clutches of the Shield of the Americas gang. Small noted the comment by former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar (2011-2015): “Sovereignty matters.” Faced with the decisive defeat of both “Plan A” (victory for their candidate Flávio Bolsonaro) and “Plan B” (a narrow electoral victory for Lula which Bolsonaro could challenge), Small noted that the City of London and Wall Street have turned to “Plan C,” unleashing financial warfare against Brazil;
• Pope Leo addressed the Assisi meeting via video, because he has not fully recovered his health, but he plans to go ahead with his visit to South America in November. In the course of his remarks, he said, “We have to cultivate the spirit of Assisi, which entails a rejection of the religious justification for war”;
• The Russia-Africa meeting was the third such summit. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in his keynote address that “Westerners are making an aggressive attempt to drive Africans back into financial bondage.” In contrast, the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum Action Plan for 2027-2029 has identified 236 individual points for action, grouped into 19 clear categories and areas of cooperation, ranging from nuclear power, to education, to combating infectious diseases, combating terrorism, and much more.

Trump’s Iran War Plan Is Insane

On the negative side of the ledger, the Israeli election was inconclusive, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains in office (for now), which is an imminent threat to world peace. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is clearly contemplating a renewal of the war on Iran. Small reported that, following a meeting of U.S. senators at the White House, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) was quoted by Middle East Eye to have said, “their plan is insane. It will lead to devastating escalation and the likely destruction of our commitment to the rule of law.” Small referred to a recent interview in which Russia’s leading economist, Sergei Glazyev, speaking on the sidelines of the Global Governance Forum, had pointed to the underlying problem: “This financial bubble will in any case collapse. And I am certain that in the near future the American and Western financial system will suffer a huge crisis, not only because of the artificial intelligence bubble, but also because of the derivatives bubble. According to some estimates, the derivatives bubble is more than $2 quadrillion.” In response to a question, Glazyev stated that the war in Ukraine “will finish together with the collapse of the artificial intelligence financial bubble.”

Estevão Damacena of the Brazilian Schiller Institute youth movement reported that Lula’s electoral victory “did not come easily,” and that the mass mobilization in the streets by Brazilian youth had played a critical role. He displayed a photo from a rally, with a poster in Portuguese that read, “He who sleeps in a democracy, wakes up in a dictatorship.” Damacena read aloud from U.S. presidential candidate Diane Sare’s statement on the Brazilian election, and emphasized that this victory “can be a message of hope for the youth, and the people around the world.”

Jose Vega, U.S. independent congressional candidate for New York’s 15th Congressional District (The Bronx), offered a survey of social turmoil around the world, including the case of evicted Spanish octogenarian María del Carmen Abascal, widely known as Maricarmen, and the abuses of power by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in his own district. He argued that the United States should join the BRICS in order to work with the Global South to implement the kinds of solutions that the LaRouche movement has long promoted. He emphasized the importance of the ongoing elections around the world, including the one in which he is on the ballot for Congress.

Martin Kaptein, youth leader, classical pianist, and music educator, spoke on China, which he had visited this past Summer to organize concerts. He had considered himself well-read and knowledgeable about China, but was unprepared for what he found there. He described the experience as “incredibly humbling.” In addition to the spectacular achievements in infrastructure and urban planning, he was very impressed by the cultural attitudes of the Chinese people, their embrace of social responsibility and the arts. He found that the piano, which is his instrument, is highly valued in China, and that culture in general is given great importance. He went on to develop Friedrich Schiller’s ideas on the Beautiful, and its importance for the general progress of mankind.

France at the Epicenter of the World Crisis

Sébastien Drochon is an organizer for the French political party Solidarité et Progrès. He asserted that France is presently at the epicenter of the world crisis. France has a history of erupting into violence during periods of political crisis—the police are presently using violence against peaceful demonstrators. The crisis today stems from a collapsing economy. Solidarité et Progrès intervenes in the demonstrations, promoting non-violence and a program of solutions to the economic breakdown. “The real looters and vandals are the big banks,” he said.

Claudio Celani is co-editor for the EIR Strategic Alert Service. He reported that there is a general strike going on right now in his home nation of Italy, with a million people in the streets. This was inspired by the protests in France, but had been preceded by a mobilization of farmers, fishermen, and truckers in southern Italy, sparked by increases in fuel prices. He attended the Assisi conference, the theme of which was an “Unarmed and Disarming Peace.” He described Cardinal Matteo Zuppi’s polemicizing there against those European leaders who favor proxy wars. Cardinal Zuppi warned that a prevailing “vortex” is seducing the world toward rearmament and war, describing this trend as a “false reality” that leads to an abyss of violence. Celani’s colleague, Christophe Lavernhe of the Schiller Institute in France, described their distribution of Schiller Institute materials to the participants. He offered a description of the conference, and discussed the history of peace activism by Catholic leaders, and the legacy of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche sent a video report from her participation in the Global Governance Forum. The conference, which she described as “truly historic,” with about 400 participants, half of them international high-ranking participants and about 200 from China, was devoted to the Global Governance Initiative, one of the four global initiatives presented by Chinese President Xi Jinping over the previous years to establish a world order of harmonious cooperation among sovereign nations. The spirit of the conference participants, she reported, was “unbelievably optimistic.” The conference took place in the Xiongʼan New Area, a dazzling “smart city” that was built from scratch over just the past nine years.

Discussion

A question came in from someone who asked what citizens can do to prevent Trump from renewing his war on Iran before the possible meeting between Presidents Trump, Putin, and Xi at the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China on Nov. 18-19. Dennis Small replied that the tripartite summit seems very likely, and that all participants need to vigorously promote the emerging structures that favor the creation of a sweeping paradigm shift, consistent with Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s proposals for a New Security and Development Architecture.

Small concluded by warning that the ferment we see in demonstrations around the world is not sufficient to turn the tide on the war danger, adding that “ferment does not a new paradigm make”; it is ideas which can ensure that the glass is being filled, not drained.