This article appears in the August 12, 2005 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.

Zepp-LaRouche Presents Economic,
Foreign Policy Plans in Berlin

by Nancy Spannaus

The Chancellor candidate of the Civil Rights Movement Solidarity party (BüSo), the party of the LaRouche movement in Germany, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, presented her election program in the German capital Berlin on Aug. 4. Despite a concerted press blackout by the major media, Zepp-LaRouche gave her presentation to several independent journalists. In her speech, Mrs. LaRouche emphasized two major points: the need for Germany's return to its national currency, the deutschemark, and the acute danger of a global "asymmetrical" war.

With extraordinary national elections scheduled for Sept. 18 (although the Constitutional court could still cancel them), Germany is in the throes of election fever. But the only national candidate who is addressing the fundamental crisis facing Germany, and Europe, is Helga Zepp-LaRouche.

Back to the D-Mark

Zepp-LaRouche began by laying out the economic crisis in its international dimensions, and stressing the imminence of a worldwife financial blowout. "In truth, Germany has not 5 million unemployed, as the Christian Democratic Union has said on its election posters, but up to 10 million," she said, citing a recent report by the Institute for Labor Market Statistics. Thus unemployment is by far the largest cost factor in the German economy. And no other party has put forward a program that will address this problem.

As Chancellor, Zepp-LaRouche continued, I would immediately pull out of the European Currency Union, and bring back the D-mark. This will allow Germany to implement the necessary 400 billion euro per year state credit program, which will create millions of jobs rebuilding necessary infrastructure. She cited the fact that other European leaders are also talking openly about leaving the euro.

"I know, from discussions with people in leading positions, that there is a discussion within elite circles, of a return to the deutschemark, state credit creation, and a new financial system. But it has been agreed to maintain silence about it in public," Zepp-LaRouche said.

She then outlined her proposal for a new world financial system on the model of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Brettons Woods. Such a financial reorganization would turn short-term debts into long-term debts, while banning speculative instruments such as financial derivatives. Fixed exchange rates must be established, she said, so that criminal elements cannot destroy people's livelihoods through speculation.

The larger context for this policy would be the resumption of the infrastructure projects of the Eurasian Land-Bridge, in the tradition of the Transsiberian Railroad and the Berlin-Baghdad Rail project. Only through the integration and reconstruction of Eurasia could Germany have a perspective of real economic growth.

(Mrs. LaRouche's full economic program appeared in EIR, Aug. 5.)

The Danger of World War

In the second part of her address, Zepp-LaRouche warned of the danger of a war of aggression by the United States against Iran. In that discussion, she highlighted the role which her husband, economist and politician Lyndon LaRouche, is playing in the United States, where he is mobilizing to stop Vice President Dick Cheney's "Guns of August" scenario for nuclear war.

"The pattern of threats by the Cheney-Bush regime resembles the construct of lies which was built up in preparation for the Iraq War," Mrs. LaRouche stated. These included the stories that Saddam Hussein had connections with al-Qaeda networks, and that he possessed weapons of mass destruction which could be made ready within 45 minutes. All of this has been shown to be false. Today, total chaos reigns in Iraq.

If the United States hits Iran, a nation with 70 million inhabitants and much more military capacity than Iraq had, there is likely to be a huge counterattack against the U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Turkey. The great Asian powers, Russia, India, and China, have good relations with Iran. Whether such a U.S. action would cross the "red line" with these nations is not clear, but, altogether, such an adventure against Iran would certain bring the danger of the third world war.

The only way to stop this threat, Zepp-LaRouche said, would be a timely mobilization of all political forces against the neo-conservatives and a rapid impeachment proceeding against Vice President Cheney and President Bush. A sign of strengthening resistance are the efforts by sections of the U.S. Cognress to pursue criminal proceedings against associates of the White House, such as Bush's political guru Karl Rove and Cheney's chief of staff Lewis Libby, for their illegal exposure of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Plame's husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had provided important evidence showing that the case that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction was false, and was therefore being punished for that.

"In this race against time toward a possible new war, it is urgently necessary," Mrs. LaRouche said, "to pull Germany's soldiers and members of the aid organizations out of Afghanistan." The mission of the German deployment has totally failed, as shown by the fact that the drug lords control the region, and economic reconstruction of the country has not occurred. German soldiers have withdrawn for self-defense into their barracks. Their pullout should be ordered immediately. German security will not be defended in the Hindu Kush, Mrs. LaRouche said. Only a fundamental change in policy toward Eurasia could stabilize the area.

In the ensuing discussion, members of the press asked about the chances for her candidacy and about the feasibility of issuing the 200 billion euro (400 billion D-mark) yearly. "Purely technically," Mrs. LaRouche said, "the Federal President has the possibility of calling in an expert to deal with the escalating crisis. That could be a technocrat, but it could also be a Helga Zepp-LaRouche." On questions of credit, one must understand the difference between current budgets, and long-term economic growth and development. Only in the realm of long-term economic growth, above all for those of the lower income classes, could the budget be stabilized.