Nov. 6, 2024 (EIRNS)—Strategic webcast with Schiller Institute Founder and Chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche
Wednesday, November 6, 2024
HARLEY SCHLANGER: Hello and welcome to our weekly dialogue with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder and chairwoman of the Schiller Institute. It’s Wednesday, November 6, 2024. I’m Harley Schlanger and I’ll be your host today. You can send questions and comments by email to questions@schillerinstitute.org or post them to the chat page.
Helga, yesterday former President Donald Trump was elected, again, to be President of the United States. He had defeated Vice President Kamala Harris, who had been selected by the party establishment, after they decided to put Joe Biden into an early retirement, through what many called a “soft coup.” In other words, sacrifice Biden to save the policy. Well, It appears it didn’t work: Caitlin Johnstone commented: “Turns out campaigning on the promise of continuing a genocide while courting endorsements from war criminals like Dick Cheney is not a great way to get progressives to vote for you.”
Now, Helga, when you were looking at developments in the recent days, you said, “Our moment in history is here, because it is very clear that the old system is crumbling, and the chances to put in a completely new system are absolutely there.” So how should our viewers think about the developments of the last week, including the election of Donald Trump?
HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think it’s definitely a moment of a break in a very tense strategic situation. Trump has promised to stop wars. Now, obviously, we have to see if the words are followed by deeds, but also events—the Vice President said something similar. So, I would take the attitude, he’s a newly elected President, and let’s see if he follows through with his promises.
Now, obviously, the key question is not only what he does inside the United States, but naturally the foreign policy is crucial: I think he will do something to bring the Ukraine war to an end. I think there is a potential for that, even if the Russians are very cautious, which is understandable, given their point of view. But I think that point of view exists. I’m not so optimistic concerning Southwest Asia. But I think the really crucial question is what will be the attitude of the Trump administration, to the efforts by the Global Majority to build the new economic system. And I would just hope there are enough voices internationally who show the potential: The initial reaction from the Chinese, from Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, was, that the Chinese position is basically one of offering a win-win cooperation. And given the fact that Xi Jinping, several years ago, had already offered to Obama, that the Obama administration should cooperate with the BRICS and the Belt and Road Initiative, to which Obama reacted very negatively by putting out the “Pivot Asia” instead. But that offer obviously still exists and given the fact that the countries of Hungary and Slovakia, who are very interested in ending the Ukraine war, because it’s a neighboring country and it’s a terrible thing to have such a war in their neighborhood, are also on a very positive course with China, I think there is a potential to end the Ukraine war, and to build bridges!
You know, I think the countries of the Global South, that have proven in Kazan that they are definitely determined to move in the direction of a more just and equitable, new world economic order, I think they also will see the opportunity and I could very well imagine that many of them are reaching out to the Trump new government, to look out whether a new, positive attitude can be arranged.
Now, that may be whatever it will be. I can only say that our task, The LaRouche Organization, the Schiller Institute, basically that we have to use the moment to really catapult the world situation into a new paradigm, a new security and development architecture, because, I’ve said this repeatedly and it’s more true than ever before: If we do not overcome geopolitics, which is the Wolfowitz Doctrine, which is the idea, the Wolfowitz Doctrine even demanding that the U.S. should remain the hegemon of the world forever, but also geopolitics, which is the idea that one nation or a group of nations have the right to impose their interests over other nations, that thinking has to go, especially in the time of thermonuclear weapons; and we really have to use the present situation to try to move out of this extremely dangerous zone. How dangerous it is, is underlined by the fact that just hours before the election result was known, the United States launched a Minuteman ICBM missile test, which is nuclear-capable, to demonstrate the nuclear readiness of the United States. Now, I think this just shows you that the mindset of the present administration is still in the old paradigm, and that is exactly where the problem is located.
So, I think the next period will be extremely dangerous. I think the period until the inauguration of Trump remains one of utmost suspense and danger, and naturally even beyond that. But I think if one can hope that what Trump said, he will do, naturally one has to watch very carefully what cabinet he is putting together: If it’s people who will insist, as Trump himself had said during the election campaign, that he wants to split the relationship between Russia and China, which I think has zero chances, given the fact that the reason why these two countries have moved together so closely, has everything to do with the strategic danger. So I don’t think there’s any chance to split these two countries, but I think it would be very unfortunate if the message coming from the new Trump administration would be if he wants to go in that direction.
If, on the other side, there is a concerted effort to try to move the world into a better place, and that’s what our upcoming Schiller conference is all about, to establish a new security and development architecture, which takes into account the interest of every single country, in the tradition of the Peace of Westphalia, we are possibly on the verge of a completely new era: But it does require a lot of efforts by a lot of people of good will.
So I’m on the one side, optimistic that something big can be done, but on the other side, it would be a fatal mistake to take down the alarms, because we are not out of the danger zone in the slightest, and therefore, I think it still does require a maximum mobilization of people who are fighting for peace.
