Russian Conference Hears LaRouche,
Calls for Global Glass-Steagall
by Rachel Douglas
Nov. 8—Participants in the International Conference on Fundamental Problems of Sustained Development in the System of Nature-Society-Man, which took place Oct. 24-25 in Russia, unanimously endorsed Lyndon LaRouche's calls for global application of the Glass-Steagall principle and a fixed-exchange-rate financial system, and the launch of infrastructure and industrial development projects for the next 50 years. Held at the Dubna International University of Nature, Society, and Man, the event was the second annual session of Dubna's International Scientific School—"Project Management of Sustained Innovation-Based Development."
A video presentation titled "Principles of a Credit System for Economic Recovery and Transformation of the Earth and the Cosmos," by Lyndon LaRouche, and Sky Shields of the LaRouchePAC Basement team, was the conference keynote. The project's initiator, Dubna University Prof. Boris Bolshakov, was a collaborator of the late Pobisk G. Kuznetsov, a visionary scientist and organizer of industry, who hosted LaRouche on his visit to Russia in 1994.[1]
LaRouche greeted the gathering by discussing the tremendous potential of Russian-Chinese-U.S. cooperation in leading Pacific Basin-centered development of the planet, as the way out of the Dark Age. He invoked the memory of his intellectually exciting discussions with Kuznetsov, saying that what the Russian scientist had had on his agenda were the kinds of questions that "must be brought forward and discussed, because we are entering a new period, a new period of galactic history, as well as just the history of Earth. And the way to do it is to go back to our souls, which is our commitment to science in those times when Pobisk was still alive, and to take up the issues of today, from that starting point" (see below for a transcript).
In attendance were 120 representatives of scientific institutions in Russia, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine, including a dozen universities throughout Russia: from the St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University in the west, to Arkhangelsk's Northern Arctic Federal University, to the Far East State University in the Pacific Ocean port city of Vladivostok. Greetings were received from the deputy chairman of the Federation Council (the upper house of Russia's Federal Assembly) A.P. Torshin, Academician Yu.S. Vasilyev, who heads the St. Petersburg State Polytechnical University, and the vice president of the International Engineering Academy, A.A. Speransky.
It was announced during the conference that the Dubna International Scientific School—"Project Management of Sustained Innovation-Based Development" has been awarded the Order of the Glory of Russia, a prestigious recognition of outstanding public service in the national interest, as determined by the official Russian Heraldic Chamber.
Principles of a Credit System
The 15-minute video briefing by Shields, following immediately upon LaRouche's words of greeting, was prepared by an LPAC Basement team. It discussed the urgent need to implement the Glass-Steagall principle, protecting normal lending for useful activity against the predations of monetary speculation, to bring about economic recovery in every country. The video message illustrated the unique suitability of a non-monetarist credit system for enabling the intentional development of the physical economy, tracing the emergence of this principle through the history of evolution on Earth, up to the powers of today's potential "reconnection" of mankind and our planet through the construction of the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA) and the Eurasian Land-Bridge, connected across the Bering Strait.
The video includes new topological animations of this transformation of the Earth. Narrated in English with Russian subtitles, it is available on YouTube.
The LaRouche-Shields address was received with enthusiasm by the conference participants from Russia and the neighboring countries, notably Kazakstan. The ideas of Kuznetsov and those of LaRouche are especially popular in leading circles of Kazakstan, thanks inclusively to the circulation there of studies published by Dubna University. The University itself incorporates LaRouche's Physical Economy in its curriculum.
Other speakers at the event invoked LaRouche's concepts, which had been introduced at the opening session through the showing of the video.
The participants' unanimous endorsement of the Glass-Steagall principle, which was incorporated into the final resolution of the conference (see box), came after study of Helga Zepp-LaRouche's Aug. 12 document, "Breakdown Crisis Out of Control: Urgent Appeal for a Global Glass-Steagall System,"[2] which was circulated in Russian translation during the event.
LaRouche's videotaped workshop presentation from last year's inaugural meeting of the Dubna school was also published as a subtitled video titled "Infrastructure Platforms of Economic Development." It has been streamed or downloaded by 6,000 Russian viewers over the past year, making an important contribution to the debate of these crucial ideas within Russia. The October 2011 video likewise has drawn over a thousand viewers in its first ten days online. One of them posted a representative comment, exclaiming that Shields "is close to the Russian Cosmists in his thinking"—the term refers to a school of scientific thought including the Russian-Ukrainian biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, one of the fathers of space flight—and expressing amazement that "somebody is working to popularize the ideas of Vernadsky in the United States!"
'Great Danger, But Also, Reason for Optimism'
Here is Shields' introduction of LaRouche, followed by LaRouche's remarks.
Sky Shields: Hello to Professor Bolshakov and the other conference attendees. Thank you for allowing us to make this keynote. I would like to introduce to everyone there, to those who aren't familiar, Mr. Lyndon LaRouche, who will be giving an introduction to the presentation from his Basement Project, which is addressed to this conference.
Lyndon LaRouche: We have now come into the most interesting part of this part of history, I believe. We're at the point where there's a great movement in Russia, also in China, and we would hope, in the United States as well: that these three nations will come together around a devotion to a great Pacific revolution, in terms of the development of the Pacific Basin of the world, as the new driving point for the future of humanity. And in this connection, I'm very happy to speak in memory of my old friend Pobisk [Kuznetsov] and his associates, with whom we had, during his lifetime, a great deal of fun together, under the most difficult circumstances of the aftermath of the Soviet Union during that time.
We came close to winning something. We didn't win. We had hopes in President Clinton of the United States, who was interested in the cause which I represented, in part, for Russia's recovery; we were disappointed in that hope, for various reasons, including the attacks on President Clinton, from within his own party, and as well as by the Republicans.
But the time has come to review some of those intentions, which we had in the immediate post-Soviet period of Russia. We now have come to a time, where we see an evolution, past the time of Pobisk's passing from life, we see now an emerging tendency, of a new form, toward a convergence of Russia, on the Pacific development, together with China and other countries. We see a natural inclination, a historic inclination of the United States, again, to renew its relationship to Russia, which was primarily trans-Atlantic in my time, until recently, and has now become trans-Pacific, as Russia has moved more and more toward renewing its Arctic and Pacific development; this, in cooperation with China, in a way which would have been thought impossible some years back.
We're now looking at the same old world, and many of the same old questions and issues of science and society as then, but now we look at them with great fear, because there's great danger to civilization now, from all sides. There is also great reason for optimism, because there has been, despite everything else, a resurgence of a scientific motivation which can lead to greatness.
For example, we've had, for a long time in the United States, since the time when Kennedy was still President, a commitment to what was called NAWAPA, the development of a great water system, covering the entire Western part of North America: the United States, from Alaska, down Canada, down into the United States, and down into northern Mexico.
Since that time, technology has progressed in one sense, in knowledge, though not much in practice. We've gone into a dark age, relatively, on the planet as a whole. Our efforts are now in danger.
But I think by our assembling now, on this occasion, to which I've been invited, that we may look at some of the things that our old friend Pobisk had on his agenda, which are unresolved matters left over today, and look at those issues from the standpoint of the great challenge, which, implicitly, the United States has potentially, as a partner of Russia and China today.
We should look at those new questions, concerning space and space technology; concerning the threat to life on Earth from within the galaxy. These kinds of questions must be brought forward and discussed, because we are entering a new period, a new period of galactic history, as well as just the history of Earth.
And the way to do it is to go back to our souls, which is our commitment to science in those times when Pobisk was still alive, and to take up the issues of today, from that starting point. And I think that is what is going to happen here, at this convention, and I look forward to seeing what is produced.
Thank you.
[1] "A Modern-Day Leonardo Reached Out to LaRouche," EIR, Dec. 28, 2001.
