Most of this week's newsletter will be devoted to a report on the conference which happened yesterday, February 4th. You can view the conference in its entirety here. However, the purpose of viewing it should be to rouse you to action. Here are two things you can do:

1. Continue to circulate the Open Letter to Pope Francis, supporting his offer to host peace negotiations. Send it to your friends, post it on social media, approach political and religious leaders and ask them to sign it.

2. Organize for the February 19 Rage Against the War Machine event, and attend it if you can. LaRouche organization activists are participating as part of a broad coalition of groups that represent all sorts of ideologies—just the sort of "united front" that the enemy fears. There have already been attempts to fracture this coalition; for example, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter was disinvited as a featured speaker after complaints from fake progressives, and then reinstated at the insistence of other featured speakers. US Senate candidate Diane Sare is also a featured speaker who has drawn flak. Let's make this event a huge success.

Highlights from the Schiller Institute Conference:

The theme of this conference was that the only basis for real war-avoidance is to adopt a policy of global economic development. As Pope Paul VI said in his encyclical, "Populorum Progressio," development is the name for peace.

Participants of panel one together for the discussion period

The conference moderator, Dennis Speed, opened the proceedings with brief remarks in which he noted that February 2nd was the anniversary of Russia's victory over Nazism at Stalingrad, which was the largest battle in world history. His introduction was followed by a video presentation of a 1997 speech by Lyndon LaRouche in which he presented the reasoning behind his proposal of a new doctrine of Mutually Assured Survival based on new physical principles which was initially adopted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Because LaRouche's proposal was rejected at that time by the Soviet leadership, and undermined by the Anglophile faction in the U.S., the danger of nuclear war persists, and as one speaker at the February 4th conference noted, is now at an all-time high. Numerous speakers reminded the viewers that the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists now reads 90 seconds to midnight.

The opening presentation was made by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche. She incisively demolished every component of the official, neocon-inspired "narrative" regarding the history of the Ukraine war, and mocked the "legions of mentally disturbed journalists" who obsessively repeat it. She noted that Russia gave up hope for diplomatic solution in June. However, she expressed her satisfaction that newly elected Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is forming a "peace club" which will strengthen the pope's initiative. She characterized the Anglo-American faction's intransigence and bellicosity as "attempts to reconquer control over a unipolar world." She concluded with a reference to her Ten Principles of a New International Security and Development Architecture, and noted that the most controversial is #10, "The basic assumption for the new paradigm is, that man is fundamentally good and capable to infinitely perfect the creativity of his mind and the beauty of his soul". She said that the tenth principle goes to the essence of our ability to solve the crisis. Only the various forms of oligarchism insist on the intrinsic evil of man, and therefore we must "rid the world of oligarchism once and for all."

H. E. Donald Ramotar, former President of Guyana, decried the complete colonialization of Europe by the US through the EU. He discussed the growing movement to find replacements for the dollar as the basis for the global financial system, including a possible role for China's yen, or the possibility of a new currency taking shape. This is necessary because financial sanctions imposed by the U.S. are like a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of nations across the globe. Ramotar went on to say that many of the masks of democracy and human rights are being ripped off the face of the so-called democracies. The "peace club" initiative of President Lula da Silva gives the Global South a place at the table.

Ray McGovern, former senior analyst, U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a founding member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) titled his presentation, "Know Where You Stand, And Stand There!” This is drawn from the title of a commencement address given by McGovern's mentor, Daniel Berrigan. McGovern wryly ask the viewers to "remember that anger is a virtue. None other than Thomas Aquinas said that." He cautioned that it should be just the right amount of anger, and went on to describe some of his numerous interventions at public events where public officials were engaged in lying or other objectionable activity.

Dr. Jur. Wolfgang Bittner is a German jurist and author. He reviewed the history of the Ukraine conflict, pointing out that when Obama admonished Russia to respect Ukraine's sovereignty, the U.S.-staged coup in Ukraine—in defiance of their sovereignty—had already taken place. Kiev ignored the Minsk agreement. Putin's offers to negotiate were dismissed as propaganda. The U.S., for more than 100 years, has aimed to prevent cooperation between Germany and Russia. He said, "The U.S. wants to assert with all its power its claim to global domination," and "this hubris emanates from the neoconservatives in Washington with the financial and economic elites there and their figurehead Joseph Biden, who has shared responsibility for almost all the conflicts and wars of recent decades."

Diane Sare, candidate for U.S. Senate (New York) then held a colloquy with the People’s Party national chairman Nick Brana and the Libertarian Party National Committee chairwoman Angela McArdle. Brana and McArdle are the principle organizers for the upcoming "Rage Against the War Machine" event to be held February 19 in Washington, D.C. Diane reminded the viewers that we were the first nation to defeat the biggest empire in history, the British, and we did not do so only to replicate their crimes. "We very much lost our way," she said. Brana characterized the U.S. as an "empire that is falling apart in militaristic fury, like so many empires before it." Nick and Angela eloquently made the case for people of different ideological stripes to put aside their differences and join forces to oppose the military-industrial complex.

Rev. Kinzer Pointer, Pastor of the Agape Fellowship Baptist Church in Buffalo, NY, recalled Martin Luther King's speech on "breaking the silence" about the Vietnam War, and said that we are once again in that place where it is time to break the silence. He pointed out that we can't seem to spend money on the poor, but we are excited to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to support an unjust war in Ukraine, just as we did in Vietnam.

Participants of panel two gather to discuss

Dennis Small introduced the second panel with a provocative map of the BRICS+, which represents the hope of a new paradigm to supersede the parasitical London/Wall Street system which is presently in its death throes. What followed was a video presentation of Lyndon LaRouche speaking in 2004, reiterating his warnings of the inevitable bankruptcy of the present financial system, and developing the distinction between humans and animals: the ability to discover and wield universal principles of physical science and classical art.

Jacques Cheminade, President of Solidarité et Progrès party in France and a former Presidential candidate, described how the trans-Atlantic economies are now organized for war production at the expense of meeting the needs of their populations, saying, "Let's face it: the true name is a culture of death... If we abstain from acting, we become the collaborators of evil." He provided shocking figures on poverty in Europe. Cheminade insisted that we must provide leadership to those people who are "disgusted with the transformation of NATO into an offensive alliance."

Ugandan attorney Ellison Karuhanga, who is a trained oil and gas lawyer, gave a very polemical presentation on energy development in Africa. He reported that Uganda has discovered 6.5 billion barrels of oil. They are building pipelines and a refinery. Uganda has a constitutional commitment to a clean environment, but "that does not mean the conservation of poverty." He described the tactics of the Climate Change ideologues as follows: stop investments in oil and gas, which will cause the price of oil and gas to rise until renewables become competitive. "The people who will pay for this transition will be poor people. It is a transition which favors incumbents." He vowed, "Come hell or high water, we are going to develop our energy projects... in the most responsible manner imaginable Those who are flying on private jets to moralize to us... we will listen respectfully... but we have listened far too long."

Dr. Fred M’membe, President of the Socialist Party of Zambia, former editor of the Zambia Post, and a former Presidential candidate, reviewed the history of China's support for national liberation and anti-colonial movements in Africa. The relationship between China and Africa is a strategic alliance. China has never had colonies. China seeks win/win relationships. He said, "Today China is target #1 for those countries who think that only they have the right to develop." They are "choking with envy" over China's success. But China does not respond in kind; "They are able to cope with all these provocations in the most mature way."

Helga Zepp-LaRouche said in conclusion that as someone who has fought for nearly half a century for a new world economic order, she is worried that some idiots may blow it all up, but also optimistic that we can win it and eradicate poverty within a few years.

The conference concluded with presentations of beautiful music, appropriate to the occasion.

Upcoming Events

Mon. Feb 6:
9pm (Eastern)
The LaRouche Movement Activists Call
(267) 807-9605, access code 536-662#

Thurs. Feb 9:
9pm (Eastern)
"Fireside Chat"
(267) 807-9605, access code 536-662#

Sat. Feb 11:
2pm (Eastern)
Manhattan Project Town Meeting

-- The LaRouche Organization
http://laroucheorganization.nationbuilder.com/