Schiller Institute Conference Provides a View of the New Paradigm in Action

by Daniel Platt

[Print version of this article]

April 16—The Schiller Institute held an online conference April 15-16, titled “Without the Development of All Nations, There Can Be No Lasting Peace for the Planet,” which featured a dialogue between American peace activists and leaders of institutions on the Global South, providing a preview of what the world could look like with the advent of what Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche calls the “New Paradigm.”

Panel One moderator Dennis Speed opened the conference by posing an ironic question to today’s Cold Warriors: If, in our hatred of all things Russian, we boycott the poetry of Pushkin and the music of Tchaikovsky, why not boycott the periodic table of Mendeleyev? These all represent the same thought process, the uniquely human capacity for the discovery of new principles. Speed presented archival video with remarks by Schiller Institute co-founder Lyndon LaRouche, asserting that contrary to present day belief, our American political culture comes from universal thinker Gottfried Leibniz, not John Locke or Adam Smith (whose ideas typify the British system that our founders rejected). Mr. LaRouche went on to say that an American citizen’s mission in life was intended to be that of the good Samaritan.

The conference keynote address was delivered by Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche. She lauded the BRICS New Development Bank under the new leadership of Brazil’s former President Dilma Rousseff, which will issue development loans “free of the shackles of conditionalities,” and recalled that her husband, Lyndon LaRouche, had proposed the International Development Bank in 1975 which had the same goal.

“It took many struggles and 48 years,” she said, to see this idea come to fruition. Colonialism has continued to exist in modern forms. That system is now coming to an end. A new global currency is being created as a form of self-defense against the weaponization of the dollar. She pointed to one of the many ironies in the current situation, the fact that a significant fight over banking separation has erupted in the secretive banking haven of Switzerland, which due to the present finance crisis “sits on the volcano.” Why, she asked, is the West not happy about the “lifeboat” represented by the emergence of an alternate, non-dollar-based financial system?

Some Asian Perspectives

Connie Rahakundini Bakrie of Indonesia, an academic and strategic defense and security analyst, followed Zepp-LaRouche. She discussed the attitudes of the Global South toward the so-called “Rules-Based Order,” and decried what she called the “Global North über alles attitude” of the West. Dr. Bakrie described what she called “quadruple foundations for the New Deal,” starting with the BRICS, the New Russia, and the New Non-Aligned Movement. Her fourth foundation, in an assessment that may come as a surprise to Americans of both political parties, would be the re-election of Donald Trump as President, which she said would result in America “looking inward” rather than constantly meddling in the affairs of other nations.

Prof. Wen Yi is a Chinese macroeconomist, and former Senior Researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States. He explained that the secret of China’s rapid development can’t be explained by conventional economic theory, and neither can the European industrial revolution. But after 250 years of industrial revolution in Europe, only 15% of the world lives in developed nations. China achieved industrialization in just 70 years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and did it without all the predatory wars that characterized the rise of Europe.

Professor Wen revealed the “secret recipe”: Poverty is based on an inability to mass produce. Mass production requires a mass market. The three pillars of a viable market are stability, social trust, and infrastructure. All three are functions of government. The market is a public good which can only be created, sequentially, by the state, following these steps: Start with rural proto-market; follow that with light industry such as textiles; complete the process with heavy industry, for which light industry is the mass market. China shows that this can be done without “war capitalism.”

The Prospects for Africa

These presentations were followed by a Q&A session, where many of the questions focused on how to develop Africa. Professor Wen warned that for Africa, starting with financial liberalization is a poison. The most important resource is labor, not minerals. China’s mistake under Mao was to rush into heavy industry. As an analogy, he pointed to how a child learns mathematics: babies can’t learn calculus, they must progress to it sequentially.

Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche observed that the African nations remember who their actual friends are from the lessons of the past century, and they are not receptive to the demands of the “West” that they not deal with China or Russia. The West had plenty of time to develop Africa, and they didn’t do it.

Another question came from a viewer who quoted Russian economist Sergey Glazyev that China’s focus on the general welfare, instead of super-profits, was key to success. He posed the question to Professor Wen: Do you see the connection to Alexander Hamilton? Wen responded by saying that Hamilton’s economic principles were indeed important, yet today’s economic theory ignores Hamilton’s ideas. The failure of the British-style market reform in Eastern European countries was that it only created a wealthy oligarchy, leaving the general population in penury. China concentrates on the grass roots.

European Views

After brief greetings from Russian Ambassador to Peru Igor Romanchenko, and from Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Ryazanskiy observing World Cosmonautics Day on April 12 (the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s first flight into space), the conference received a statement from former East German Lieutenant General Manfred Grätz and Major General Sebald Daum. The two retired officers had written an open letter in January of this year about the significance of German tanks put into the war against Russia. They recalled Heinrich Heine (“If I think of Germany at night, I shall lose sleep”) and expressed their concern that the increasingly obvious intention of German policy is to destroy Russia, and drag China into a war. They insisted that security interests of Russia and China are legitimate, and denounced the “hate and war propaganda, reminiscent of unfortunate times in Germany.”

Scott Ritter is the famous former UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq who warned the world that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction when the Bush Administration was insisting on war in 2003. In Ritter’s conference presentation, he recalled that in June of 1982, arms control negotiations were stalled. A million Americans rallied in Central Park to demand arms control, and this liberated Ronald Reagan to negotiate. Now arms control is once again dead. Joe Biden ran on a platform of the “sole purpose doctrine,” away from pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons; but now we are told that he can’t implement the sole-purpose doctrine because “the interagency process wasn’t ready.”

This is the Deep State, Ritter said; they are more powerful than the President. Frustrated Russians are contemplating adopting their own doctrine allowing pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons. In Ritter’s view, the oft-discussed “90 seconds on the nuclear clock” is overly optimistic.

Argentinian Adolfo Pérez Esquivel is an activist and artist who received the 1980 Nobel Peace Prize for his opposition to Argentina’s last civil-military dictatorship, during which he was detained, tortured, and held without trial for 14 months. His greetings were delivered by Juan Carrero of Spain: Esquivel calls for the UN to cease to be a puppet of the great powers. We are at an inflection point, he said, and must reach a humanitarian solution. The warlords are feeding the conflict in Ukraine, which was provoked by America and NATO. The UN has become an “echo-less” chamber run by the United States.

German author Wolfgang Effenberger noted that April 25 will mark 78 years since the “Elbe handshake,” when American and Soviet troops celebrated their joint victory over Nazism on an Elbe River bridge near Torgau, Germany. But as this was taking place, British strategists were already planning war against the Soviet Union. Mr. Effenberger presented a rather terrifying chronology of various post-World War II psychotic schemes to annihilate the USSR with nuclear weapons, with code names such as “Operation Totality” and “Operation Dropshot.” From this milieu emerged NATO, whose first Secretary General, Lionel Ismay, Lord Hastings, famously declared NATO’s mission was “to keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”

Dr. Alexander Bobrov, Acting Dean of the School of Government and International Affairs at MGIMO University (Moscow State Institute of International Relations), described a new Russian Foreign Policy Concept, a strategic document which underscores Russian support for the emerging multipolar world comprising not just big nations, but also regions such as Latin America and Africa. We are witnessing a crisis in diplomacy, Dr. Bobrov said, due to unilateral actions which circumvent the decisions of the UN Security Council. Russia is no longer Eurocentric; it prioritizes relations with CIS countries, China, and the Global South in general.

Lt. Col. (ret.) Ralph Bosshard, a Swiss consultant on military-strategic affairs, stated that the Global South is rebelling against the West. The Biden Administration hoped to consolidate its relationships by playing upon a fear of Russia, but this tactic has failed. There has been a pattern of European nations pursuing aggressive agendas; Ukraine is trying to regain control of territories where the resident population never wanted to be Ukrainian. The failure of NATO and Ukraine to win their war demonstrates the West no longer enjoys total military dominance, said Bosshard. He added,

We are so convinced of our Good Guy status that we cannot see why other countries might consider us a threat.

Michael von der Schulenburg, a former UN/OSCE diplomat from Germany, warned that the prestige of the world’s two largest nuclear powers hangs on the outcome of the war in Ukraine. The UN Charter is being disregarded; but expansion of NATO to Russia’s borders caused the Ukraine war, a war that could have been prevented under the UN Charter, von der Schulenburg maintained. The West did not shy away from supporting the overthrow of a democratically elected government in Ukraine. The Minsk Agreements were legally binding under the UN, yet they have been admitted to have been a sham. Naftali Bennett, a former Prime Minister of Israel, has said that America and Britain blocked a ceasefire he was negotiating.

Further Questions and Dialogue

In a second discussion session, queries came in about global hot spots. Dr. Bobrov was asked about developments in Southwest Asia. He replied that some external powers are trying to inflame and manipulate conflicts there to further their own agendas, while China and Russia, in contrast, are interested in stability there. Professor Wen added that we must move beyond market competition taking the form of warfare, to global cooperation. If China can develop so rapidly, so can all the other developing nations, and economic strength will give them a greater voice in world affairs.

Dr. Bakrie warned from an Asian perspective that if the U.S. disturbs the China-Taiwan relationship, it will be a global calamity. The Non-Aligned Movement is a factor here. The NAM must be able to prevent the West from “playing god.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche was asked, what do we do? Do we demonstrate, vote, rebel? In response, she explained that it will not be a linear process. Soon she expects to see a big event in the financial system. It may sound incredible, she said, but the West could still join the new system which is coming into being, which offers a solution. Otherwise, we face World War III. “We have to think,” Zepp-LaRouche said, “of catapulting the world into a new paradigm.” Africa is the continent of the future; Asia is the engine of the world economy.

To conclude, she took the conversation to a philosophical plane, invoking the principle of “coincidence of opposites” from Nicholas of Cusa. Albert Einstein’s idea is similar, that people should not expect a solution that follows logically from axioms whose acceptance is the cause of the problem. And Friedrich Schiller, for whom the Schiller Institute is named, said there must be no contradiction between being a world citizen and patriot of one’s own country.

A Panel on Peace and Justice

Panel Two of the conference was hopefully titled, “The ‘Global Majority’ and the International Peace Movement Are Fighting for the Same Goal.” Moderator Stephan Ossenkopp, of the Schiller Institute in Germany, described the debacle of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s visit to China, where she launched a slanderous tirade against her hosts, insinuating that China had the same corrupt colonialist intentions that had characterized the rise of Europe. He compared her performance unfavorably to the more competent and enlightened diplomacy of French President Emmanuel Macron in China. Ossenkopp concluded that we cannot leave Germany and the world in the hands of tragic figures such as Baerbock.

The keynote address was given by Diane Sare, LaRouche Candidate for the 2024 United States Senate race in the state of New York. She used another video of Lyndon LaRouche, describing the modern nation-state as a break from earlier forms of society, one which finally brought real justice. It came with the development of modern science, discovering universal principles which revolutionized the economy and enabled it to meet the challenges of disease and hunger. LaRouche characterized progress as increasing population density, life expectancy, and education.

Mrs. Sare went on to say that while all of us feel the tug of habits and instincts, we can choose to ignore those lower motives and choose higher ones. It is natural, and necessary, for humans to produce and consume more energy from generation to generation. We need a society which reveres, and is capable of assimilating, the discoveries of its creative geniuses. She concluded by reviewing Zepp-LaRouche’s “Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture.”

H.E. Donald Ramotar, former President of Guyana, began his presentation by stating that the Ukraine war were avoidable if the principle of equal security of nations had been observed. NATO has sabotaged every attempt at peace. Regarding Finland joining NATO, President Ramotar observed that the new President of Finland, in his accession speech, acknowledged that Finland had already long participated in NATO activities, as a partner. Similarly, President Ramotar noted that sanctions against Russia were planned far in advance. The United States, he said, gives only lip service to environmental concerns, as is demonstrated by the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. The poor countries have been bullied into voting a certain way in the international institutions. The International Criminal Court indictment of Russian President Vladimir Putin brings this to a ridiculous extreme.

President Ramotar drew parallels to the decolonization struggles of the previous century, with NATO now the collective colonial power seeking to keep the Asian, African, and Latin American nations powerless and helpless. The sanctions policy, he said, has shown countries all over the world how vulnerable they are, which is why the BRICS is growing. President Ramotar called for support for the peace efforts of the Pope, the Presidents of China and Brazil, and Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche.

On Left and Right, ‘West’ and ‘Global South’

Prof. Georgy Toloraya, Deputy Director of the Russian National Committee on BRICS Research, explained that the BRICS brings together the oldest civilizations of the world. The issue is how to harmonize their interests. The West is trying to manipulate conflict between India and China, but the BRICS-plus nations need not be hostile to the West, Professor Toloraya said—the West’s interests must also be respected.

Nick Brana is the National Chair of the People’s Party in the United States, and co-organizer of the Rage Against the War Machine demonstrations during February and March, in which the Schiller Institute collaborated. Mr. Brana analyzed the crises that he sees looming on the horizon: beyond the war in Ukraine he warned of the coming financial collapse, as well as the potential misuse of new technologies for dystopian surveillance and censorship, and loss of medical freedom. He painted a foreboding picture of new weapons, such as genetically engineered super-viruses and weaponized AI.

Later Brana said, however, that left and right coming together against the corporate state is a source of hope to prevent war and scarcity. He called for the creation of a new international currency that cannot be monopolized by any one power. He also spoke of a “wisdom race,” and the ability to go out into the stars as a unified human family. Similarly, Jack Gilroy of Pax Christi observed that diverting 3% of the U.S. military budget could end world hunger. We must teach love and compassion, he said, instead of incessant demonization of one nation after another.

Mr. Gilroy is an organizer for Pax Christi Upstate (New York)/Pax Christi International and a board member of New York Veterans for Peace. He regretted that we don’t yet have a mass movement for peace in America, but added that there is a proliferation of organizations calling for peace. In the opposing camp, there are defense contractors and subcontractors in every congressional district; and Mr. Gilroy warned that the military is penetrating our schools.

Nick Brana’s collaborator in the Rage Against the War Machine effort, Angela McArdle, Chair of the Libertarian National Committee, also spoke. She said that she was happy to work with others who were passionate about peace, and then reminded the audience of her party’s support for free trade: “When goods don’t cross borders, troops will.”

Michel Cibot of France, representing Mayors for Peace with its 8,000 member cities worldwide, concluded this second conference panel April 15.

In the discussion session, the participants were asked how the Global South can employ “soft power.” Diane Sare called attention to recent diplomatic successes in Southwest Asia, thanks in particular to China (see article by Hussein Askary in this issue).

President Ramotar added that the “Global South” nations must get news media to cover reality instead of taking Western media reports at face value. In response to a questioner from Canada, he supported the movement in the Caribbean for nations to become sovereign by throwing off the antiquated institution of the British monarchy. He also emphasized that the impression that Americans have, that China is competing with them, is false, since China’s investment in developing countries is qualitatively different than Western investments for the extraction of raw materials.

President Ramotar insisted that we have to challenge the theory that nuclear weapons have kept the peace for all these years, and rather revive the objective of total nuclear disarmament.