EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR MONDAY JULY 31, 2023

Russia-Africa Summit Proves the Train Has Left the Station

July 30, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Lyndon LaRouche used to insist that any competent scientist must know the role that “weak forces” play in the physical universe. While it may seem to the everyday blockhead that virtually all events are determined by the everyday push-and-pull of the things around you, the reality is that other “weak” forces play an even more powerful effect on the whole—even though you may never experience their actions. Such is the case with the exceptional fragility of life, hardly a speck amidst the enormity of the cosmos, yet somehow has become one of nature’s most powerful forces.

So when you hear the blaring shouts of obnoxious news pundits, or the maddening stupidity and pandering of politicians, remember: Just because something seems to be a certain way, doesn’t mean that that’s actually what’s going on. In fact, the harder these thought police try to convince you that something is one way and not the other, it’s often because the opposite is true!

This is what was exemplified at the highly-successful, yet highly-slandered Second Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg on July 27-28. Take the fact that major Western media spent the recent days gloating over there being fewer African heads of state at this year’s summit than there were at the previous one in 2019—which undoubtedly were due to enormous Western pressure put on African leaders to not attend. Or consider that Bloomberg is now claiming the BRICS summit is destined to fail, because there are tensions growing between their group over whether or not to expand the membership of the bloc.

Now compare this to the actual response from African leaders who attended the summit in Russia. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki took the opportunity to speak freely during a formal meeting between him and President Putin, along with each other’s top government ministers. Afwerki got straight to the point: “There is no Russia-Ukraine war ... this is a war declared by NATO on Russia ... but, not only Russia—NATO is for dominating the whole world!” He continued blasting NATO, saying they demand to contain “any power, big or small, that challenged them.” Afwerki called instead for a “new financial architecture for the world,” for which Russia must play a leading role: “Russia has an historic mission to play, on behalf of everyone in the world.”

While Western media and bureaucrats may try to chock this up to some radical Africans, or “puppets of Putin” (racism, anyone?), it becomes harder to ignore the reality when the details are considered. During the summit, Russia committed to send tens of thousands of tons of grain free of charge to the poorest African countries—whereas Western sanctions have prevented the sale or export of these same shipments over the previous year and a half. Russia also announced 30 energy projects for construction within the continent, and has reportedly offered to write off $23 billion of African debt.

In addition, read the words of Roland Lumumba, son of the assassinated Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba at the hands of colonial actors in 1961. Roland Lumumba, in St. Petersburg for the summit, told RT in an interview: “With Russia, everything that happened was on an equal footing.... Despite the propaganda that is being carried out in Africa against the Russians, it is noticeable that it does not affect people as it was intended,” Lumumba said.

What has been unleashed is that most precious idea which distinguishes between slavery, oppression, and victimization, and that of free mankind. That new idea, that “weak force,” is currently being unleashed among the Global South and their collaborators in the BRICS—sparked by today’s global crisis—and cannot be stopped by even the most powerful forces in the world. As was said by Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye, President of one of the “poorest” countries in the world: “I would never call Africa poor, this is a common delusion. On the contrary, it is a very rich continent.” African states should therefore “contribute to the development of all humanity,” he declared.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche has insisted that this anti-colonial explosion is a reflection of the same process as the drive toward global war today—namely, the breakdown of the Western neoliberal order. Those insane factions in the West are dead-set on preventing any threat to their “rules-based order,” including the use of global nuclear war. However, if today’s growing peace movement can be united with this new spirit emerging out of the Global South, then something actually capable of putting this world on a different path can be ignited.

This upcoming weekend is the date of the international Humanity For Peace rallies on August 6, and is an excellent opportunity for exactly this. Join the mobilization.