This article appears in the November 29, 2019 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
LaRouche and Science
Dr. Mikloško is the former Vice Prime Minister of post-communist Czechoslovakia before it divided into Czechia and Slovakia. We present here an edited translation of his remarks presented on Nov. 17, 2019 at the Schiller Institute conference, “The Future of Humanity as a Creative Species in the Universe,” in Bad Soden, Germany. Subheads have been added.
Thank you—you’re clapping, and you don’t even know what I’m going to say. It is too early!
Thank you very much. Dear Helga Zepp-LaRouche, dear friends, ladies and gentlemen. It has already been said that I am Slovak. First, a minute about our situation. Today it is exactly thirty years after our “velvet revolution” in the former Czechoslovakia, on November 17—our national holiday. At that time a tranquil snow fell and released us from 40 years of dirty communism. At that time, Marxism-Leninism disappeared from our history. That was the best day in my life. That’s why I have to speak at a party in Bratislava this afternoon, so I have to leave a little earlier.
We in Slovakia have many problems, like all states in Europe, but we are free; that is very important, we are free, free people. We can organize our lives according to our own ideas, we can speak freely, write, publish, do business, travel.
I was President of the Slovak Christian Seniors for twelve years; three days ago I passed that on to someone else. Our pensioners have on average a 430 Euro pension. We do not complain, we live, and we are free.
LaRouche, An American Sakharov
Lyndon LaRouche was an American Sakharov: politician, economist, mathematician, writer, and musicologist. He wrote dozens of books and thousands of articles. He was a generator of new ideas, a fighter for the salvation of Christianity, the family, and life.
I met him 17 times—in America, in Germany, three times in Rome, where I was an ambassador. He said that the United States and Europe lack vision. It’s not only about money and the economy, but about spiritual and moral values. In my book, Velmi prísne tajné—Ako sme boli slobodní (Very Top Secret—As We Were Free, 1999), I dedicated more than 90 pages with 20 photos to Lyndon LaRouche and his institute, which I later handed over to Ms. Helga, along with other materials I wrote about this great personality.
His views have triggered great criticism and slander, especially in the United States, and also in Germany. His movement was severely persecuted, especially in America. I recall October 6, 1986, when the then government tried to shut down the movement’s Leesburg headquarters, with 400 police officers, and to arrest Lyn. This was followed by a political trial and absolutely unjustified punishment. When we were beginning to carry out our biggest revolution against communism, he was sentenced to 15 years on December 16, 1989, and five of his colleagues were sentenced to a combined 209 years in prison. Mike Billington was the record holder, by the length of his sentence, then.
There were so many irregularities in the trial of LaRouche and his colleagues at the end of the 1980s, that the international community often protested that it was unfair and politically motivated.
I became acquainted with his case in 1990, when I served as Vice Prime Minister of the Government of Czechoslovakia for Human Rights. I wrote several letters of protest to the highest officials in America, along with former politicians in several countries. I am proud that I played a small role in the liberation of Lyn in 1994, five years after his conviction, and later for the rest of the “Virginia Five.” [Applause.] I visited them all in prison, and I wrote about it, in this book.
In September of 1995, I attended a hearing in Washington where the case was presented to an international tribunal of prominent judges and lawyers, including Ramsey Clark, former Justice Minister of the Johnson Administration. The commission concluded that there had been a great deal of abuse in investigations and prosecution in this case, which aimed at condemning and eliminating LaRouche and his movement.
When Lyn celebrated his 75th birthday, September 8, 1997, we hosted a gala program with prominent singers, musicians and politicians in Washington. That’s a little self-praise, but then I was the master of the ceremonies. I have never seen such stars of the Metropolitan Opera in my life, and together with them I sang Glory, Glory Hallelujah. It was a fantastic concert, and a fantastic time; I have many photos of it. My grandchildren always admire me.
I have 13 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, and a wife with whom I have spent 55 years. And as we celebrated that, my wife said, “Thank you! 55—but you have not been home for five years!” (Excuse me—that does not fit here.)
LaRouche’s Moral Principles in
Economic Development Policy
In the political program, Lyndon LaRouche did not mince words. The economy should produce, not speculate. Politics and the economy must be bound by moral principles.
He also came up with the idea of projects for the development of Europe, Asia, and Africa; debt relief for Latin America; and projects for the development of Eastern Europe. His proposals for the reform of the financial system were an alternative. He predicted the crisis, especially the malignant effect of derivative speculation. Today you print fiat money in the U.S. and in Europe; this is now called “quantitative easing.” That’s terrible, they print and print and print helicopter money. They spend 60 billion a month free of charge for the states of Europe. This reduces the interest and pumps the money into the bad old central bank system, which saves the bad banks. The financial system is separate from the productive economy.
When I left, I phoned our first Prime Minister, Jan Čarnogurský, and told him that I was coming here. And he said: “Say hello to Helga and all the people who are there”—he is unfortunately in a different place today—“but tell them, that all the prophecies of Lyn for Europe since 1986 have come true.” The Prime Minister of Slovakia said this, and I’m proud of it.
On the 30th of November we always have a meeting of Czechs, Moravians, and Slovaks in Brno in Moravia, all Christian politicians of that time. We will talk about it there as well.
Six times I visited him and the other members of the movement in the American prisons.
In 1994, Slovakia was the second country that Lyn visited after his detention. On his second visit to Slovakia in 1996, he wrote:
Slovakia is a happier country than others. It has not lost the sense of spiritual values; it has a national identity. You need honest and determined leaders. When I heard the crowd of 50,000 singing on the pilgrimage in Nitra, I understood that this is a good country.
Everything is still like this. We lack honest and determined leaders. But hopefully they will come. And I would like to say that there are 20 such pilgrimage sites in Slovakia, and in Levoča there were half a million Slovaks, it’s a center in Slovakia for these pilgrims.
Let me now turn to Lyn’s 1998 draft to overcome the crisis, that is still interesting today. Really, it still applies! Let me talk about his principles.
Today is the time of a dangerous financial and economic emergency. Only preventive measures can prevent a collapse of civilization. Every nation must insist that there is no higher political authority than the sovereign nation-state republic. Supranational institutions such as the International Monetary Fund have authority only as a forum for consultation between sovereign nation-states. Each nation retains sovereignty over its financial, monetary and economic affairs. These are the principles.
During such a crisis, no international loans should be issued. State-subsidized loans for infrastructure, the productive sector, agriculture, world trade should be issued at an interest rate of no more than 1 to 2% per year. The banks must cancel the derivatives, as an accounting fraud. No international authorities are necessary for the conclusion of international agreements. The global economy is stifled by an overdose of supranational institutions.
Lyn always proposed a new Bretton Woods deal that would establish fixed but adjustable exchange rates; the ability to restrict convertibility, if the national government considers it necessary.
As a layman, I realize that it is immoral for someone to get as much money in a few days of speculation as other people get through hard work in their entire lives. [Applause.]
The collapse of the American hedge fund Enron and many banks is just the tip of the iceberg.
Now, at the end of my speech, there are some remarks from Lyn, which are not well known, but as a Christian, I have mentioned this idea in my books and in my blog, and I want to mention it here as well. You may be a little surprised that Lyn really said this. He was a devout Christian who spoke about his faith.
Imago Viva Dei
Let me return to some of his ideas. Man is created in the image of God; thus every individual has to be valued highly. We must stop the killing of unborn children. Everything is decided in childhood. Children have to be educated to be creative. Today nobody has time for the children, so television and the internet make them stupid. [Applause.]
I do not watch television, but I’m a bit addicted to the internet. Every day I post 10 to 20 statuses with video on Facebook—unfortunately, but what should I do? But if someone’s with friends, tell them you’re with the Schiller Institute, then we’ll talk about it. I have also sent some news from this conference, because if you are not on the internet, then you do not exist. [Laughter] Pardon!
The world kills the souls of the children. The preservation of the family must be protected. The most important thing in education is the knowledge of classical music, history and mathematics.
Some reminiscences have been published in Slovakia, by some of our priests and bishops, with absolutely open and harsh criticism. And I mean, that’s very important that one talks like that. Because when the people who saw it die, then in 100 years the story is very different. For the last year or two, I’ve always said that you really have to tell the truth about history. The truth frees us.
The best cultures in Europe—that’s another idea from Lyn—the best cultures in Europe came from Christianity. Uneducated people know nothing about history, culture, science, art. Only stupid people believe what’s in the newspaper and on television. We have a lot of newspapers in Slovakia, but now the owners decide what to say. That’s why you cannot read some of them. It’s all half lies and half-truths. Then an alternative or the internet is very important. Of course, there are many stupidities, but there you have to choose and read different sources.
The ideology of hedonism is sick. The free market rapes the weaker, destroying agriculture, industry and finance. The third way in the economy is an economic policy based on Christian principles. Money, counterculture and unlimited freedom lead people into prison. The compromise with evil and tolerance for evil must stop. The comment on the lie is a lie. As in mathematics, if an axiom is not good, then all the theories are bad; a proposition is not truth.
Let us begin a revolution in Christian love, as the Good Samaritan did then. And the last from Lyn, it’s a bit poetic: What is the goal of Man? He comes into the world as an angel, and he should leave it like an angel. That’s what Lyn said. [Applause.]
Dear friends, that is the end of my speech. Honor the memory of Lyndon LaRouche! He will always be in my heart.
And now I want to give these books to Helga, with a little comment. This one is the book of 1999, ten years after the turn of 1989. There are 90 pages about Lyn. Unfortunately, it is only in Slovak.
