EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 2021
On the Eve of the Three Summits—Mobilize for a New Paradigm
June 8, 2021 (EIRNS)—On Wednesday morning, June 9, President Joe Biden and Mrs. Biden will depart for the President’s first travel abroad in office, an eight-day trip for three summits—the Group of Seven, June 11-13 in Cornwall, England; the NATO heads of state and government meeting, June 14 in Brussels; and the June 16 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva. The principle of leaders of major nations meeting for collaboration is sorely needed in today’s world of crises—the continuing pandemic, famine, and confrontation to the point of the danger of all-out war.
However, the counter-forces against potential collaboration, and even against the principle involved of serving the public good, are in high gear to either sabotage the Biden-Putin summit from happening at all, or, in some fantasy-ridden way, to try to dominate the events to steer whole nations into a doomsday course of green deconstruction and conflict. It was announced yesterday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will be alongside Biden when he meets with Putin. Not surprising, but not propitious.
As it happens, Blinken was the witness at marathon, day-long Congressional hearings of the Appropriations and Foreign Relations Committees, in the House of Representatives all day June 7, and in the Senate today. The recurring theme, expressed with smarmy bipartisanship, was that Russia and China are U.S. enemies; they oppose U.S. “values,” and so on and on. For example, Rep. Gerald Connelly (D-VA) asserted that NATO must no longer be only a defense organization, in the military sense in which it was founded, but must now be active “for democracy,” against allegedly malign leaders. “It must be an antidote to Putin and Xi.... Democracy must be built into the architecture of NATO” itself, for “democratic resilience.” Blinken assured him, it will be. He said that in 2010—the last year of NATO’s formal “conceptual” mandate— Russia was referred to as a “partner,” and China hardly mentioned at all. Now, preserving democracy against these nations must be NATO’s official conceptual charter. There were dozens of such exchanges and kindergarten-level jingoism. As NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said this past week: NATO is no longer just a military alliance, but a “military-political” alliance, and “global,” not just in the “Atlantic” as the name may mistakenly imply.
In line with all this, Biden’s first stop tomorrow will be to Mildenhall, England, to the Royal Air Force base, where the U.S. Air Force 100th Air Refueling Wing is located, the only permanent U.S. refueling site in the European theater. He will address American personnel. June 10, he will meet with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in what media itineraries describe as an occasion to stress the special U.S.-UK relationship. On June 13, the Bidens will go to Windsor Castle to meet with the Queen.
The political alignment is as venal as it is dangerous, but it also is delusional. The monetarist financial system associated with the Anglo-American special financial relationship of Wall Street and the City of London, is now in its terminal phase. It cannot continue. Look at today’s hyperinflation, worsening by the hour. There will either be a break-forward into a new paradigm of economic policy, and foreign relations, favoring peoples and nations, or there will be chaos and misery, with the likelihood of war. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute Chairwoman, is forcefully stressing this in recent communications, warning that the hyperinflation shows that a major phase-change is in store. “It is not endless ... not a bad infinity.”
One manifestation of the end-phase is that people cannot afford to eat. Internationally the prices of basic foods, taken as a group, in May are up 38% over May 2020, measured and weighted by different categories, according to the latest monthly tracking survey from the FAO Food Price Index, issued on June 3 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The FAO details the price of the staple maize up 89% over that period and dairy products up 28%.
Look at COVID-19, now raging in the Global South, including India and points in Southeast Asia. The Pan American Health Organization’s latest survey reports surges from Chile to the Caribbean.
Amidst this terrible picture, there are instances that stand out of the opposite paradigm of compassion, sanity, and sound policy. On the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 4, President Vladimir Putin met with international representatives of many pharmaceutical companies and investors, on plans to rapidly establish Sputnik V vaccine production facilities in many places. It was there that ceremonies were held to establish production sites for the vaccine with President Aleksandar Vucic of Serbia and President Alberto Fernández of Argentina. So far 25 firms and 14 nations are involved, plus 30 investors from 17 nations. Nations participating in setting up vaccine facilities include Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Germany, South Korea, India, Italy, Mexico, Belarus, China, Brazil, Iran, Serbia, Turkey and Argentina.
This exemplifies the spirit to be addressed everywhere, in mobilizing for a new paradigm for mankind. The theme will be elaborated in four panels online at the June 26-27 Schiller Institute international conference: “For the Common Good of All People, Not Rules Benefiting the Few!”
