EDITORIAL

No, There Is a Limit to the Tyrant’s Power!
Support the Brave Saviors of Germany!

by Helga Zepp-LaRouche

[Print version of this editorial]

No, there is a limit to the tyrant’s power!

When the oppressed man finds no justice,

When the burden grows unbearable,

He appeals with fearless heart to heaven,

And thence, brings down his everlasting rights,

Which there abide, inalienably his,

And indestructible as the stars themselves.

This is what it says in the Rütli Oath from Friedrich Schiller’s drama, Wilhelm Tell.

German farmers are doing exactly that: They are opposing the arbitrariness and incompetence of a policy that pursues only the interests of international cartels and profit maximization by speculators, and ignores the population’s right to affordable, regionally produced food. Farmers represent the interests of all of us, and that is why it is of vital importance that all parts of society support them, as craftsmen, truck drivers, haulers and others already do.

This courageous resistance must now also be mobilized by medium-sized industry and the trade unions, because the entire economy is in free fall due to the same policies. In Germany we are in danger of losing everything that was built over generations after the Second World War!

Why is that? Is it the result of a natural disaster? Absolutely not! The crisis is the result of wrong politics! When the Cold War was over and we no longer had an opponent, we could have easily built a new peace order that included Russia. But the West intended to subject the entire world to a “unipolar order” and the neoliberal economic model. These included increasing deregulation of financial markets to fuel speculation, which has led to the widening gap between rich and poor around the world; the relocation of production to so-called low-cost production countries, which did not benefit the countries of the Global South and harmed our own economy and agriculture; and finally the “Green Deal,” which was ultimately intended only to enable speculators to create a new bubble, which now threatens to totally destroy the economy and agriculture with its destructive bureaucratic rules.

Six NATO expansions to the east instead of a “common European house” have unnecessarily ruined the relationship with Russia, which is certainly not in Germany’s interest. The sanctions against Russia have become a huge boomerang, Russia is now the strongest economy in Europe, and Germany is going down the drain economically. Whoever is responsible for the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, it had the geopolitical purpose of driving a permanent wedge between Germany and Russia.

And who benefits from all the arms deliveries to the various war zones? The military-industrial-financial complex, which in turn is closely intertwined with the major investment firms of Wall Street and the City of London, which in turn are connected to the cartels that in turn benefit from the Green Deal. It is here that the prices for agriculture are set—and not in the interests of the farmers so that they can provide food for the population! We finally need a sovereign economic policy in the interest of the common good!

For All of Humanity

There is a solution! The nations of the Global South are in the process of finally freeing themselves from the epoch of a colonial era that has lasted for 600 years. They no longer want to be just exporters of raw materials, but rather process these raw materials in their own country, and thus increase value creation under their sovereign conditions, in order to finally overcome poverty and underdevelopment.

These nations, which have long since become the global majority—around 85% of humanity—are in the process of creating a new economic and financial system this year, 2024, based on sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, etc., and the right to determine their own development path.

It is the declared goal of many of these states to become middle-income nations with a flourishing common good as quickly as possible through economic cooperation with one another. They have long since begun to conduct trade with each other in their own national currencies. With the New Development Bank, led by former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, they have their own credit institution that is in the process of becoming the “great bank of the Global South.” Very soon they will create their own reserve currency.

China’s extraordinary civilizational achievement in lifting 850 million of its own people out of poverty, and the unprecedented economic miracle that has transformed China from a very poor country into the world’s largest economy over the last 40 years, means that the countries of the Global Majority have found an economic alternative to the neoliberal model. The cooperation between the now ten BRICS-Plus nations—to which more than 40 other states are applying for membership—embodies an economic model in which these nations can develop to their own advantage instead of simply being raw material exporters and hosts to U.S. military bases. And in all of these nations there are economic growth rates that we in Germany can only dream of.

Every sensible (reasonable) person should be happy that the Global Majority is developing into modern, thriving economies. Because that means that all children worldwide will soon have the opportunity to have a productive life. And only with comprehensive development of the Global South will there soon be no more refugees!

The way out of the crisis, therefore, lies in cooperation between Germany and all of Europe with the nations of the Global Majority. That’s why we have to say no to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s so-called “turning point.” Germany does not have to be industrious to prepare for an imminent war, as War Minister Boris Pistorius is demanding, but rather be industrious for peace. The militarization of households is now being demanded everywhere. The Swedish Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin is demanding that all Swedes must prepare for war, and Pistorius wants to station a “Lithuanian brigade” with around 4,000 soldiers on the Russian border. If we continue down that path, the result will indeed be a third, this time nuclear, world war.

At a dramatic moment, farmers have taken over the political leadership for all of Germany because they know what is necessary to make the economy and agriculture work again. It is therefore of existential importance that all parts of society show solidarity with them, because they are fighting for the well-being of us all.

Therefore, we demand:

• The withdrawal of all the cuts of the traffic-light government (red-yellow-green coalition)!

• Parity prices for agriculture!

• Cooperation among Germany and all of Europe with the BRICS-Plus, including Russia and China, and the nations of the Global Majority!

Jan. 12—Our editorial was translated from the original German Schiller Institute statement, which was issued for mass circulation at the planned demonstration of farmers and supporters in Berlin Jan. 15, culminating the Week of Action that began on Jan. 8. Helga Zepp-LaRouche is EIR’s Editor-in-Chief, and founder of the Schiller Institute.