“On the Verge of a New World War: European Nations Must Cooperate with the Global South!”

We are devoting our issue this week to the extraordinary conference held by the Schiller Institute in Strasbourg, France, on July 8-9, 2023, under the banner of the title above. Being the first in-person international conference in three years, following the Covid pandemic, the spirit was all the more optimistic and combative. The proceedings were organized in five panels, with 31 speakers from 16 countries. The Schiller Institute was particularly honored to welcome in Strasbourg His Excellency Lu Shaye, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in France (cf. below).

This was an opportunity for participants from very different backgrounds and countries to come together and deliberate on how to bring about a new paradigm internationally, which guarantees a peaceful and prosperous future for all. That stands in sharp contrast to the “Summit for a New Global Financial Pact” held two weeks previously in Paris, where leaders of the Global South ridiculed the hypocrisy of their European counterparts (cf. SAS 26, 27/23). It was also a timely and necessary intervention against the summit of Global NATO held just a few days later, July 11-12, in Vilnius, Lithuania, where leaders of the infamous trans-Atlantic military-industrial-political complex were to plan the continuation of more wars and provocations, in the name of defending the West’s dying “rules-based order”. And it occurred immediately after the shocking decision of the Biden Administration to send cluster munitions to Ukraine, which will only increase the suffering of the Ukrainian population.

The Schiller Institute’s panels covered a broad range of critical economic, strategic, environmental and cultural themes. A leitmotif running throughout the two days of presentations was the question: Will Europe have the courage to break with the dictates imposed by that same complex, transmitted principally by the United States, the United Kingdom and NATO? The Schiller Institute (SI) is commited to making that happen, as Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the chair of the Institute, stressed repeatedly.

But it is equally important, she and others insisted, that the U.S. free itself from the geopolitics of the “British Empire” and return to the republican tradition of its founding fathers and other great leaders of the past – a mission which the Schiller Institute there has taken on.

Since we cannot give a full report of the conference in this newsletter, we have included the detailed program at the end. Videos of the five panels will be progressively posted on the SI websites, including versions dubbed, where applicable, in English, French and German.

The Danger of Nuclear War

The first panel of the conference (“Peace in the World Through a New Security and Development Architecture for Each and Every Country: The Indispensable Strategic Autonomy of European Countries”) was keynoted by Mme Zepp-LaRouche (cf. below for lengthy excerpts of her speech). She set the tone for the panel by contrasting the tragic consequences of the attempt to maintain the hegemony of the collapsing trans-Atlantic “rules-based order” with the rising of nations of the Global South that are freeing themselves from centuries of colonial servitude and asserting their right to economic development.

Although we are “now in the most dangerous moment the human species has ever faced”—given the danger of thermonuclear war — nonetheless there is hope, she said. Were the arrogant leaders of the West to join with the nations of the Global South in a new epoch of development, the potential would exist to create a beautiful new paradigm for the future of humanity.

Mrs. LaRouche was followed by the Chinese ambassador to France, H.E. Lu Shaye, who pointed out that the world is divided into two camps: those who are pro-war, led by the U.S., and those who are pro-peace. He also presented the incredible opportunities that are open to Western nations should they cooperate with China and the Global South through participation in the multitude of development initiatives China is leading, such as the Belt and Road Initiative (see below for excerpts of the ambassador’s speech).