Helga Zepp-LaRouche

The Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites

This is the edited transcript of Mrs. LaRouche’s presentation, which opened Panel 3 of the Schiller Institute conference, on December 13, 2020. The idea for the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites was initiated several months ago.

Well, if you were to look at the condition of the world, you might think that all the governments and all people of good will would have to immediately say, this cannot go on, this has reached a point of moral civilizational breakdown. We have a situation where, due to the pandemic COVID-19, so far about 1.6 million people have died. Many of those have died for no good reason, because if you would have applied different economics, you would have health systems in every single country.

Biological Holocaust Task Force

My late husband, Lyndon LaRouche, was very aware of that, so in 1973, he put together a Biological Holocaust Task Force, which had the job of studying the impact of the IMF conditionalities policy on the developing sector. Because, at that time, this was in the aftermath of President Richard Nixon’s dismantling the old Bretton Woods system, and starting the kind of IMF conditionalities which prevented the Third World countries from investing in health care, in education, in infrastructure, in order to be refinanced. These were the famous, or infamous IMF conditionalities.

My husband clearly recognized that this would be the seed of future pandemics, the reemergence of old diseases, and the emergence of new diseases, because he argued—and this was supported by the study, or actually six studies over the years were made—that you cannot lower the immune system of entire continents over long periods of time, which is the effect of these policies, without inviting new diseases and making the people helpless against the pandemics which would emerge. This is clearly proven.

Despite all the incredible lies being circulated about China and its role in supposedly spreading the pandemic all over the globe, it is not true. Maybe China or some local authorities did make some mistakes in the first days. If an unknown new disease emerges, that could happen. German doctors made mistakes afterwards when it was already clear that it would be a pandemic.

Nevertheless, China was able, with very rigid means, within two months in Wuhan, to basically eradicate the pandemic, and has been able since then to pretty much contain it—as did other Asian countries, like Vietnam, Laos, South Korea, and a couple more. Which proves that if you have a functioning health system and you apply the known methods to contain a pandemic, these are standard methods, you can do it!

But if you don’t have a health system, you can’t do it and that is why the Schiller Institute, from the very beginning when it was clear this was a pandemic, we said that we have to fight until every single country on this planet has a modern health system, so that not only COVID-19 can be contained, but future pandemics, and they are threatening at any time. It’s already clear that the next probable pandemic will be from the SARS virus. There are already doctors in Germany who are studying it, because they anticipate that this will happen.

A Modern Health System in Every Country

The final aim of our efforts is to make sure that there is a modern health system in every single country, because otherwise, if you can’t protect the weakest ones, you will not be able to contain it. This, by the way, was the idea of Mahatma Gandhi, that you have to absolutely leave no child behind, or leave no nation behind, and this actually went into the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations for 2030. So the idea to help the very poorest to acquire such modern health systems is what needs to be official policy.

Now, this is not happening. And that is why I think we need to catalyze this private initiative first, the idea of a Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites. Yesterday we discussed the philosophical foundations of what that concept means, and why it can be applied to all major problems, but especially these present ones of the pandemic and the famine. Unfortunately, we have already lost some precious time, for reasons which are not to be discussed here now, but there were some internal reasons, inside the United States, why it did not go forward in a necessary way. But now, it is clear, it is more urgent than ever, and we are very happy to have on this panel today some very experienced, top professionals, who already have experience in how to do that.

The original idea was that we create an initiative whereby medical experts, doctors, nurses, universities, make partnerships with states and appropriate institutions in Africa, to start with, and start training programs for young people. Young people need a mission in life, because you see right now, it’s not just Africa, but you have something like one-third of the United States being in a condition almost like a Third World country, and it’s mostly colored people but not only—you have a lot of poor white people as well—who are left behind and who are suffering the most from this pandemic.

These people must be engaged in this effort, especially young people must be trained, according to the model of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps program. And then you need to collect medical supplies. Vaccines are a big aspect of that. Then start training programs in the United States, but especially in African countries. Phillip Tsokolibane, in an earlier call about two months ago, pointed to the fact that everybody who has been in Africa, knows, that many places have no infrastructure; they only have dirt roads or not even that. Phillip pointed to the fact that you need the help of the military, because the problem is so big, that you need the vast logistical capability of the U.S. military, hopefully working together with the militaries of other countries to address the problem; because if you want to bring the aid—both medical and food—into the remote areas of these countries, you need a gigantic effort.

Jump In and Help

What we want to do with this committee is to catalyze an action, and since it’s a private action, it can only be of a catalytic nature; but hopefully, by demonstrating what should be done, we can inspire governments—especially the U.S. government, but also other governments—to jump in and help.

The problem is big. The pandemic will probably be with us—the worst expectation is it will be a couple of years—because even if you have the infrastructure for the distribution of the vaccine, this is not something which can be done in only a few months. And naturally, the food problem—I think David Beasley is talking now about 270 million people dying of hunger in 2021, which is completely unnecessary! We have farmers in the United States and in Europe who would help immediately, who are willing to double food production to help to start shipping the food and then also help the agriculture development in the developing countries, so that they can then carry on, on their own.

But this requires now a real mobilization, because it is clear the G20 should have done it already. They have not. So, this is why I’m very, very happy that we have this group of extremely distinguished individuals here, today, with us. We will learn from them, because they have experience; and hopefully we will come out of this conference with a plan of action to move this, and avoid the greatest tragedy at least since World War II, which is about to happen, and is happening already.