ZEPP-LAROUCHE WEBCAST

New Paradigm Moves Forward with ‘Singapore Model’: Dialogue, Not War!

This is the edited transcript of the August 2, 2018 Schiller Institute New Paradigm webcast, an interview with the founder of the Schiller Institutes, Helga Zepp-LaRouche. She was interviewed by Harley Schlanger. A video of the webcast is available.

Harley Schlanger: Hello, I’m Harley Schlanger with the Schiller Institute. Welcome to this week’s international strategic webcast with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who is the founder of the Schiller Institutes, and who is at the forefront of the fight for bringing together a New Paradigm, to replace the collapsing, dangerous old paradigm of geopolitical confrontation.

Following the BRICS Summit featuring the leaders of the BRICS nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—last week’s developments have further consolidated that New Paradigm—a series of new initiatives, dialogues opening, and dialogues continuing. There were hysterical counter-reactions coming from the City of London and the neo-cons in the United States.

Helga, why don’t we start with the continuing momentum from the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, because there’s a lot to report. Why don’t you give us an update on what you know about that?

Post-Summit New Paradigm Progress

Helga Zepp-LaRouche: Yes, we discussed this last week, but since then, more reports have revealed that, in addition to the BRICS Summit itself, the BRICS Plus and BRICS Outreach programs brought in representatives of very many of all important developing-country organizations, such as the G-77, Mercosur, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and many regional organizations. One can say that what is emerging is very, very rapidly becoming a completely new economic order, a new system of governance based on win-win cooperation and full respect for the sovereignty of each nation. This is really delivering on the New Silk Road Spirit, which has now captured the majority of nations, at least of the Southern Hemisphere and the developing sector.

This is creating completely different conditions for those nations involved, so that many conflicts which had seemed unresolvable, are now being worked out in a peaceful manner. I’ll give you just one example: Pakistan’s new Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has now said that Pakistan will follow the Chinese model; he also said that he wants rapprochement with India. For every positive step India makes in respect to Pakistan, he is willing to take two steps. So there is actually, for the first time, the possibility of resolving the India-Pakistan conflict. For the first time, Russia’s and Pakistan’s militaries have conducted joint maneuvers.

China plays a big role in Pakistan. Russia has very good relations with India. And now the new spirit of the enlarged Shanghai Cooperation Organization makes it more possible to resolve this conflict.

The North Korea breakthrough in Singapore, which we discussed in previous webcasts, contrary to the media lies, is on a very good track—it’s moving forward in the right way. The New Silk Road Spirit has caught on in the Horn of Africa. For the first time we are witnessing a rapprochement among the nations of Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia.

In this context, the Houthi leader in Yemen made a unilateral peace offer to the other side: saying that for the sake of the peace of the Yemeni people who are suffering the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet, there should be a ceasefire and a move towards peace.

I think all of these developments are really absolutely fantastic, and they show that under the leadership of the BRICS nations—China, Russia, India, South Africa and Brazil—there is an effort to replace the old, collapsed, geopolitical order with a new system of international relationships, which I think is very, very promising. It’s horrible that our mainstream media in the West are so gleichgeschaltet, so absolutely controlled, that most people know absolutely nothing about these fantastic developments, because the media just don’t report it. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

So therefore, I appeal to you, our viewers, to make sure that this program becomes more known—share among your friends and acquaintances, and join the Schiller Institute. We have to get the West to participate in shaping the new world economic order. It’s absolutely possible, it can be done; however, there is a lot of work to be done to bring Europe and the United States into this new paradigm of global relations centered on real economic development for everyone on the planet.

Peace Breaks Out in Syria

Schlanger: It’s somewhat unbelivable, the degree to which these developments are not reported. One example that you’ve brought up, and that the Schiller Institute has been very much involved in promoting, is the effort to reconstruct the Syrian city of Aleppo, which was destroyed largely because of Western support—British, American, Obama support—for the terrorists inside Syria. And now there’s motion to reconstruct that city. This is part of the New Paradigm, isn’t it?

Zepp-LaRouche: Yes. You would think that the Western media and politicians, especially in Europe which has been completely destabilized and shaken up by the refugee crisis, would be among the first to report this, but, no, they don’t. The Governor of Aleppo has announced a three-part program: first, to rebuild the infrastructure; second to help every single affected family; and third, to bring them safely back into the reconstructed Aleppo. There is also a Russian refugee center in Syria, where refugees returning from Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey are being brought back to their respective regions.

You would think that this would be capturing the news headlines: that the refugee crisis can now be solved by rebuilding the country. It’s completely outrageous that the knowledge of these developments is being kept from the citizens of the United States and most European nations. I must say: The story about who created and who finances the White Helmets, and who invented the false narrative against Syria, must come out, and indeed, will come out, and the criminals responsible will be brought to justice.

A New Role for Italy . . .

Schlanger: Another very important example of non-coverage was the July 30 meeting at the White House between President Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. The European and American media gave big play to the fight between Trump and the Europeans at the recent NATO Summit. There has been a constant media barrage against the Italians in the European media. With the Trump-Conte meeting, which seemed to have quite a bit of substance, there is virtually no coverage in those same media outlets.

Are people in Europe aware of the importance of this meeting, and is this getting around to the people you’re talking to, Helga?

Zepp-LaRouche: There has been some reporting of the meeting, which was really historic. Trump and Conte formed a new strategic partnership between the United States and Italy, especially to address the crisis in Libya, but also, Trump said he recognizes the Italian leadership role for the entire Mediterranean. I think this is very good. They struck up an immediate friendship. Naturally, the German media were quite freaked out, and they talked about a “new axis” between Washington and Rome, against the Berlin-Paris “axis.” This is all quite ridiculous, but it is one more instance showing that the famous European unity does not exist, and will not exist because the policies of the EU are such that they make enemies out of their own members. So, this Conte-Trump development is very positive.

Schlanger: Part of that is that the new government coming into power in Italy, was not only opposed by the EU bureaucracy, but one of the reasons it was opposed is its support for Glass-Steagall—among some in the Lega party in the coalition government. I bring this up because there’s a huge fight emerging in Europe over what’s going to happen to the City of London in Brexit. We have the derivatives crisis, with the City of London threatening Europe that it will not provide backup for derivatives. This is set to explode, isn’t it?

Zepp-LaRouche: Yes, there is very clear panic. The British financial “industry” is about the only “industry” they have. The demand now is, according to unnamed British government officials, that despite the Brexit, that unless City of London firms are allowed free rein to sell derivatives contracts in the EU, EU firms will be excluded from the UK, that is, that the City keeps control over European derivatives trading. Now, this unnamed government official said, if this not allowed, then thousands of investment firms will go bankrupt, and that this is not a threat, he says, but a warning of how much both sides could lose if a deal is not struck in Britain’s favor.

Now, this is really mafia talk. The fact that Deutsche Bank moved its derivatives trading to Frankfurt, was commented on by multibillionaire Sir Alan Sugar—not so sweet, but that’s his name—who said that the fact that Deutsche Bank moved its derivatives trading to Frankfurt is the beginning of the end of the importance of London as a financial headquarters of the world. Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has also warned that the quantitative easing must continue, or else financial panic could break out.

Despite the fact that in some places, people pretend it doesn’t exist, the danger of a new financial blowout is imminent all the time and could be triggered by anything. We need to have Glass-Steagall in place.

When Prime Minister Conte arrived at the White House, he saw the big banner our colleagues in the United States had made: “Benvenuto Prime Minister Conte. Go for Glass-Steagall!” He waved in recognition. This was all covered very nicely by some Italian media, quite surprised to find such a warm welcome for their prime minister.

This is all very interesting. It really makes clear how super-urgent it is to enact the Four Laws of Lyndon LaRouche. Glass-Steagall, a national bank, a credit system, and a New Bretton Woods are all absolutely urgent.

The only country seriously doing anything about that financial crisis is China. There were meetings recently led by President Xi Jinping and State Council Premier Li Keqiang, including practically the entire Chinese leadership, warning of potential external shocks and the completely changing international environment—therefore China needs to focus on the physical economy, strengthen small and micro-firms, strengthen R&D and innovation. All kinds of speculation must be curbed to secure the country against external shocks.

So I can only say it would be good if the Western governments would all learn from this Chinese approach. If you have an uncontrolled collapse, we will be in a terrible chaos in no time.

. . . and Mexico and North Korea

Schlanger: It’s somewhat ironic that Jamie Dimon and people of his ilk are saying that the solution is more funny money from the central banks! Whereas the Chinese are saying, “more production, more investment.” And that, of course, is the message that you and your husband have been fighting for, for years.

I want to bring up another example of what we were talking about earlier: the kind of potential that exists within the New Paradigm. One that’s very shocking to most people, is the potential for an emerging relationship between President Trump and López Obrador, the President-elect of Mexico. Kesha Rogers, a LaRouche PAC-endorsed candidate for Congress from Texas’s 9th CD, issued a proposal for a North American Belt and Road Initiative (NABRI). What you do think about that, Helga?

Zepp-LaRouche: I think it is a brilliant idea, because there was discussion from President Trump to renegotiate NAFTA. But why would you renegotiate something which was so absolutely detrimental to the interests of every participating country: Canada, the United States, and Mexico? And therefore, she proposed not NAFTA, but NABRI, picking up on President-elect López Obrador’s invitation to the United States to invest in infrastructure projects in Mexico, as the best way to solve the migrant problem.

This is very good, and Rogers told me that she is planning a whole bunch of events around that, both in the United States and also involving Mexico. The Schiller Institute has been campaigning for the United States and European countries, but especially the United States, to join with the Belt and Road Initiative and make joint investments in South and Central America for infrastructure projects, in the tradition of what my husband had worked out with Mexican President José López Portillo more than 35 years ago, in Operation Juárez, for an integrated infrastructure plan for all of Latin America.

All that is now absolutely back on the table. China is having many dealings with the Latin American countries. And it’s very good that López Obrador invited both Xi and Trump to his December 1 inauguration. I think there is great recognition that there is no contradiction in the United States and China working together with the Latin American countries to bring them out of poverty, to bring them into a better way of life. I think that is the way to go. I think you will hear a lot from Rogers about this in the next month.

Schlanger: It might be appropriate to make sure that Trump, Xi, and López Obrador have copies of your husband’s Operation Juárez pamphlet, because that actually shaped the fight that was going on in the 1980s—the debt bomb and the move away from a bankrupt system. Instead, the West doubled down on speculation, deregulation and so on, and wrecked everything.

Giving Up the Failed Geopolitics

Zepp-LaRouche: They just can’t get rid of their old, geopolitical thinking. One good example of that thinking is former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who, according to some press accounts has advised Trump to work with Russia to contain the rise of China. You know, it’s funny, because in 1971, when I was in China for the first time, the news was announced that Kissinger would come and visit China. If I remember correctly, he was then advising the Chinese against Russia. So these people just cannot think in terms of the higher idea of one mankind, “a community of a shared future of humanity,” as Xi always calls it. They can only think in terms of a zero-sum game; they can only think one must lose so the other can win.

In spite of the likes of Henry Kissinger, a New Paradigm is coming into being very, very quickly, and it is win-win! Everybody wins, if you respect the interest of the other and vice versa. I think this new world economic order is marching in very quickly. Almost every day you have a breathtaking, positive development. The only problem is, if we don’t manage to get the West—the United States and the European nations—on board, they will be sidelined. They will be completely unimportant, to the detriment of their own populations. That is the only thing we should be worried about, so we must increase our efforts to get them to join the New Paradigm.

Schlanger: There was also a new exchange between President Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea, an exchange of letters: Trump thanked Kim for returning the remains of 55 U.S. soldiers from the Korean War and referred to the possibility of Kim addressing the United Nations General Assembly in September. Again, this is something which should have received headline coverage, and more importantly, it should have received an enthusiastic response from all political quarters. But again, we have seen a reaction against that. How do you see things shaping up between the United States and North Korea? There’s a lot of continuing back-biting and nasty coverage in the media; but it does appear as though there’s some progress.

Zepp-LaRouche: Yes. Kim Jong-un sent a letter to Trump, writing that he’s convinced that epochal changes will come out of their next meeting, which he is looking forward to. Kim mentioned Trump’s tweet in which Trump thanked Kim for releasing the remains of the U.S. soldiers. All the signs point to progress that is continuously moving forward. The fake news media is just at it again.

Declassify Remaining 9/11 Documents

Schlanger: Helga, something came up that I think the Schiller Institute would very much support: a call to release all 9/11 documents. An enormous amount remains classified. Do you think releasing those documents would have a powerful effect?

Zepp-LaRouche: Oh, absolutely. The 9/11 story was a game-changer for the United States and in different ways for the rest of the world. Rep. Walter Jones in the House and Sen. Richard Blumenthal in the Senate, have both said they plan to introduce resolutions calling for declassifying all remaining documents related to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. And I think Blumenthal said: Look, put yourself in this position: Assume you were a family member of one of the victims and you are looking at the documents and then you come to the part where it says, “and the following persons are guilty for this,” and then it’s blacked out, blacked out, blacked out. He said that these family members have the absolute right to know who is responsible for the deaths of their loved ones.

Quite interesting in this context, is that an FBI agent, who was the one who warned in July 2001 that there were plans by Saudi Arabia for a terrorist attack in the United States—which was not followed up at the time—said that he was told to do everything in his power to prevent the 9/11 families from suing Saudi Arabia. He has now said that he feels it’s his duty to speak out on this.

In addition, Congressman Devin Nunes has demanded that all the documents related to the FISA warrant regarding the Christopher Steele dossier and the whole coup against Trump be declassified. Nunes said if the American people were to read these documents, they would be shocked. He promised that, despite the Congressional recess, his committee would stay through August and work overtime, to have interviews, to have people subpoenaed, investigate them, and absolutely stay at it.

We have not seen the end of it. Trump suggested in a tweet, two or three days ago, that Attorney General Jeff Sessions should just shut down this witch hunt given that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has so many conflicts of interest; it should just be shut down. This could actually happen; perhaps criminal prosecution of the guilty parties would follow soon after.

We do need to support the demand that the 9/11 documents be declassified. This is one of the three areas that point to the role of Robert Mueller—not the only case, but one of them—and therefore, it is extremely important. If the United States is to go back to being a full constitutional republic, then the damage of the Bush-Cheney-British use of the 9/11 attacks, and everything which came with it, must be reversed.

Schlanger: It’s not surprising that Mueller was trying to use classification and other means to suppress the emergence of these documents. I saw a one-minute clip on YouTube of Mueller testifying before Congress in the time after the 9/11 attacks, fully endorsing the war against Iraq, saying that there was definite evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He was clearly part of developing the narrative that led to the war. The anger against that false narrative played a very significant role in Trump’s election victory—Trump attacked George W. Bush for lying to the American people over this.

Another story that has to come out is real nature of the situation in Ukraine. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, has been in some discussions recently on the real facts on the ground in Ukraine: It is the government of Ukraine, the Kiev regime, that is blocking any progress. Helga, is there any chance that this is going to come to fruition, or is this going to continue to be a sticking point in improvement of Western relations with Russia?

The Ukraine-EU Nightmare, and
Africa’s Dreams

Zepp-LaRouche: Lavrov actually said that behind closed doors, many Western leaders will admit that they are quite aware that Kiev is controlled by Nazis, but these same leaders don’t have the courage to say so publicly. This is an ongoing problem. Not only did the Obama Administration—Victoria Nuland and her friends in the EU—back the coup in Ukraine, but this group is now doing exactly the same sort of operation—or trying to—this time in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe just had an election in which the ruling party was re-elected, winning an overwhelming majority of seats in Parliament.

Elmar Brok, a German member of the European Parliament, who is associated with the Bertelsmann Foundation, was the only election observer, among all the observers there from many different organizations, who claimed election irregularities. This is the same Brok who played a leading role in the Maidan fascist coup in Ukraine—cheering and steering demonstrators to bring down the elected government. In Zimbabwe, he demanded that the election results be published immediately, even though it normally takes five days until all the results are known. Brok demanded this, saying there was great mistrust of the election authorities. His accusations were then the trigger for the Movement for Democratic Change to call for riots.

People started to burn cars and other property. In the context of this violence, three people were killed and many wounded. There is video footage of these things, so we can expect that there will be some follow-up. Inciting people to violence, violence in which people are killed, is a serious crime. An appropriate response should be expected.

This illustrates that elements within the EU are not only blocking the collaboration of Africa and other regions with China, but are continuing the policy of regime change and destabilization. This should be denounced and must be stopped.

Schlanger: Helga, we’ve covered a lot. Is there anything we’ve missed that you want to bring up?

Zepp-LaRouche: Let’s go back to where we started this discussion. There is so much reason for hope. With peace processes involving India, Pakistan, the Koreas, the Horn of Africa, and an absolute commitment to overcoming underdevelopment and poverty in the developing countries, we have reason for great joy. The reality is that there is a bright future now unfolding—despite the hysteria being created on many fronts by various forces in the West. Germany is a sad example, using this heat wave that is causing terrible damage to the farmers and creating other problems, to go completely overboard, saying we now need to completely abandon the use of coal to reduce CO₂ in the atmosphere. There is even a call for a commission on vehicular traffic to discuss how to reduce traffic.

All of Africa will soon have nuclear plants, and they’re perfectly manageable. At the BRICS Summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia will help to “light up Africa” by installing electrical generating capacity, powered by not only gas and oil, but especially nuclear energy—a field in which Russia is the world’s technological leader—for the 600 million people in Africa who still don’t have electricity. Many other developing countries are going in the same direction of building nuclear plants, which are absolutely manageable by humanity.

And if countries such as Germany remain in their super-greenie fit, it is terrible, and they will collapse! Since I love my country—I’m not only a world citizen, but I’m also a patriot—I really think we have to change our ways and go back to the humanist values we used to have in Germany, when we thought of Germany as a country of poets, thinkers and inventors. I’m not giving up hope, but we need a change. I have always said that it is probable that Germany will be the last country to come around, but if it’s surrounded by countries all wanting to be part of the Belt and Road, which is increasingly happening in Europe, eventually we’ll crack even Germany.

So, I’m optimistic. It’s a challenging situation, the world is extremely complex, but the vector of development is positive. So, join the Schiller Institute and help us continue this work until we have brought the world into safe waters.

Schlanger: If people want to share Helga’s optimism, you need to not only catch the New Silk Road Spirit, but spread it. Make sure to tune in every week to this webcast. Help us build the audience and build the membership of the Schiller Institute. And Helga, sitting here in Germany with you in this heat wave, I can attest to the fact that we need more nuclear plants in Germany, so we can have some more air conditioning here.

So until next week, thanks again, Helga.