Zepp-LaRouche Weekly Webcast: Time To Shut Down British Imperial Operations and Join the New Silk Road

Schiller Institute New Paradigm Webcast With Helga Zepp-LaRouche

January 18, 2018

Time To Shut Down British Imperial Operations and Join the New Silk Road

HARLEY SCHLANGER: Hello, I’m Harley Schlanger. Welcome to this week’s webcast from the Schiller Institute, featuring the Founder and President of the Schiller Institute, Helga Zepp-LaRouche.

Helga, in just looking at the world in the past couple of days, it’s clear there’s been a worsening of the strategic situation. Much of this has to do with what you might call a neo-con offensive, but it seems to be verging on a real crisis. And I want you to catch us up on that, to get started.

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yeah. While there were these hopeful signs about Korea, that the conflict could be solved in a détente manner, because North Korea and South Korea had many exchanges on the cultural front around the joint delegation to the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang; also a joint women’s ice hockey team, and in general the Red Cross trying to bring families together again, so this was all very promising. But then, unfortunately, the situation is being totally hyped up now, because there was a conference in Vancouver, where between the U.S. and Canada, they invited 24 ministers of all the countries which were the allies of the United States in the Korean War, from 1950-53 — and such countries as Greece and Cyprus were invited, but not Russia and not China. And this was obviously seen as an effort to re-institute a military alliance against Russia and China in this case, which was met with very sharp criticism from these two countries. And this comes in the context of North Korea warning that the United States has started tunnel drills preparing an invasion, and they’re using for this the 82nd and 101st U.S. Airborne Divisions, and these were used for the invasion of Iraq and Grenada, and so they’re warning about this.

And then there is a very sharp article by the Chinese Global Times referring to all of this, where they start off by saying, 2017, in terms of U.S.-Chinese relations was much better than expected because the good understanding between President Xi and President Trump; they had three face-to-face meetings, they’ve had many letters and phone call exchanges. But then, they basically say, the difficulty is we’re not talking with the United States, but the “Divided States,” which is a total division between the pro-Trump and the anti-Trump people. And then they basically say that the U.S. is becoming increasingly uncomfortable with China, because China is becoming more confident and the United States is absolutely not used to that. [http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1085302.shtml]

Then they talk about trade war would increase as the GOP is expected to use the trade deficit issue in the election campaign of this year, but then they say, the fact that North Korea has made such unexpected advanced, referring to the fact that it’s now a nuclear power with ICBMs, that this has crossed the red line for the United States, and that they would “prepare for a showdown this year,”—I mean, they’re just saying it like that.

And then they also say that sanctions against China will not function because half of the products exported from China into the United States come from firms which are American firms.
And then in the very end they say, that the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act 2018 includes the intention to strengthen the military relation with Taiwan, have U.S.-Taiwan Navy port of call exchanges. And then, when they say when the first U.S. Navy aircraft carrier docks in Kaohsiung port, that will be the moment the People’s Liberation Army will force the unification of China by military force.

So I find this quite worrisome. And you had this Hawaii false alarm, and we should talk about that in a second, but that was also commented on by Chinese media, saying that this is a warning sign that there is obviously a full-fledged prepared plan for a military war with North Korea. And then three days later you had this so-called false missile alarm, in Hawaii.
I think this is all a reflection that the situation is really very much unstable. Tillerson at this Vancouver meeting, rejected the “double freeze” offer by Russia and China, and even Trump, in an interview with Reuters said that maybe there is no peaceful solution for North Korea. I think that these are all incredibly warning words and signs.

SCHLANGER: It also seems that there’s a bit of schizophrenia here, because at the same time President Trump had a very positive discussion with President Xi Jinping, I think two days ago, and you have the motion in South and North Korea, when the South Korean President last week praised President Trump. Now, at the same time, you have this growing chorus against China. The Economist back in December had a story about China’s “sharp” power, and China’s “infiltrating” and “menacing” American universities, recruiting people through what? The Confucius Institute, doing such subversive things as teaching Chinese to Americans. So there’s definitely something afoot here, but Helga, you mentioned the Hawaii situation. Do you have anything more on that?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, it’s now well known that there was this alarm, that nuclear missiles were in flight against Hawaii, and all the people would start to look for shelter, call up their relatives, because they thought this was the last time they would be able to talk to them; and only after 38 minutes did the message get through that this was a false alarm.

So Tulsi Gabbard, the Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii, made a very important statement about that. She said that obviously, this idea that you could have an instant nuclear war, has everything to do with the crisis in Korea, and the only way to stop it, is for the United States to stop the policy of regime change, because as long as Kim Jong-un is convinced that to be a full-fledged nuclear power is the only way for North Korea to avoid the same fate as Saddam Hussein and Qaddafi, this problem will continue. So she demanded an immediate end to this policy.

And also I already mentioned that Global Times said this is a signal that there is already a full-fledged war preparation for a U.S. military conflict with North Korea, which obviously could easily get out of hand. This article also mentions, by the way, that the U.S. forces are on high alert all the time, and you have minutes to either stop the crisis or it could get out of control.

I think we are in a very, very difficult and very dangerous moment again.

SCHLANGER: And another part of that is the discussion of a new U.S. strategy towards Syria. After both President Trump and Secretary Of State Tillerson said the U.S. policy is not regime change, it appears as though they’re again bringing this up, the fact the Assad must go. Why is that happening now?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: There seems to be a reassertion of neo-con policy in the Trump administration, because, as you said, there was many times said that the focus on Assad would no longer be there, but now Tillerson in a speech at the Stanford University Hoover Institution basically talked about a new Syrian strategy; he said it was a mistake for the United States to prematurely leave Iraq in 2011, we will not make this mistake again and the U.S. will stay there [in Syria] for an indefinite period of time, until ISIS would be defeated completely and Assad would be replaced.

Now, this is unacceptable! Because this is a sovereign government, and this is basically a precursor for a new crisis around Syria.

Then also, there is a new military conflict, where [Turkish President] Erdogan and also some other politicians in Turkey have accused the United States of militarily supporting a group which the Turkish government name as terrorists, because there are certain members of the PKK involved and so forth; and there are already Turkish tanks and troops being deployed right now. And basically, Erdogan said that this is a plan to divide Syria. Another spokesman said this is plan to divide NATO, because this is unacceptable for Turkey.

This is all part of a similar escalation, like you see around North Korea, and I think it has everything to do with the fact that you have this absolute coup insanity against Trump in the United States and it seems that he is sometimes being surrounded by such people. I mean, Trump’s policy was—and that has been acknowledged by Putin and Xi Jinping—to improve the relationship with Russia and China, but there are these vacillations which are very, very worrisome.

SCHLANGER: In talking about the neo-cons, some of the institutions involved in this, the attacks on China and Russia on their press arms, citing the press arms, RT and {Global Times} and so on, this is coming from the National Endowment for Democracy which is very much involved in the coup against Ukraine. You also have the Hoover Institution as you mentioned, so it’s the same old networks, and these are the people Trump ran against in his Presidential campaign.

You mentioned the Mueller investigation: Do you think this is a major part of the resurgence of the neo-cons, trying to pin Trump down and keep him totally tied up with this investigation?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes. The British newspaper, The Spectator, which already one year ago, basically said these forces will not stop to try to neutralize Trump and they said either by getting a coup against Trump, by impeachment or by assassination. One option is to pin down Trump so he capitulates to these neo-con policies, and get him “reined in” as they say, into the existing trans-Atlantic geopolitical policy. I don’t think that is the end of the whole story, but I think the coup forces are clearly not yet defeated. I find it quite remarkable that somebody who doesn’t like Trump at all, Ray McGovern, from the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), that even he said this is a {clear coup} what the FBI is involved in, and only somebody who is completely blind will not see it, that it’s a coup involving British intelligence against the sovereign government of the United States.

And there are also now a growing number of congressmen who are demanding prosecution against Clapper, for his role in all of this, and the ongoing hearings in the Congress may lead to indictments, to a special prosecution against the people who are doing this, so it’s not decided.
But I think we better stay alert.

SCHLANGER: Clapper has also been running around saying that Russia and China have been attacking the (quote) “very fundamental underpinnings of our democracy,” (unquote). So he’s someone who’s very much involved.

And on this same note, I just picked up a story today that a spokesman for Barack Obama said that he’s going to play a prominent role in the 2018 elections. Now, in some ways, he never left, because hasn’t he been one of the people coordinating the whole Russia-gate story?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yeah, he moved into a house somewhere on the outskirts of Washington to be practically the leader of this “resist” movement. And I think people have forgotten, what is the danger now is that Trump would fall back into the same policies which were absolutely characteristic for the Obama administration in respect to the escalation in Syria and so forth; and people should remind themselves that it was Obama who had all these drone attacks, complete state of illegality, and this is very worrisome: Because the problem is that there is right now nobody appearing in the United States who is capable of implementing the kinds of policies which we are campaigning for in the United States very hard, which is the immediate ending of a danger of a financial crash through Glass-Steagall, and the Four Laws which my husband has designed already several years ago. It’s really an appeal to our viewers to refer to us, because I think that what is lacking right now is a positive leadership for the United States.

SCHLANGER: It’s not a coincidence that this new escalation is occurring as the warning signs of a new bubble popping has emerged, and this is having a profound effect in the United States, because we have possible government shutdown coming up; they’re playing games with that—these are all diversions. Because the real issue is, why are we still tolerating the Bush-Obama policy of protecting Wall Street and destroying the physical economy? That’s the basis for the mobilization around the Four Laws.

If you could just say a little bit more on that, because we do have our organizing teams are on Capitol Hill, we have a new pamphlet on LaRouche’s Four Laws, and this is the unique solution to this crisis.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yeah. You have right now the beginning of the exploding of the corporate debt bubble. There was a huge firm in Great Britain which is folding up; then you have the Steinhoff Group in South Africa which has ramifications for many major banks, which had significant losses; and that has all to do with the fact that you have a corporate debt bubble which is much, much worse than in 2008. And the situation is simply much worse in terms of all the parameters than 2008.

The very interesting author, Nomi Prins, who used to be a high-ranking management person in Goldman Sachs, she has now written her sixth book [Collusion: How Central Banks Rigged the World; May 2018], where there is a preview available—the book will come out in May—but she describes as a real insider, she said that she was working for Goldman Sachs for 15 years, and as she was climbing up the career ladder, she came to know how criminal the activities were on the higher level of this bank, and all the others as well. She decided not to pursue this career any longer, and instead become part of the solution. So she is a whistleblower so to speak, and she described how, after 2007-2008, the Federal Reserve and the other central banks, by issuing zero interest rate money, turning on the liquidity pump, alone since 2007 and 2010, pumped $16 trillion into the system. And as you know, this is still going on to the present day.

That money did not go into investment in the real economy, but that basically gratis money, money for absolutely no cost, was used by the big banks and big corporations in large part to buy back their own stocks, which naturally increased the profit of these people by incredible margins, so they became richer and richer; but the corporate debt bubble became also bigger. And this is now about to start to explode.

Anything could trigger that. We are sitting on a powder keg, and as you say, I think there is a direct connection between the worsening of the financial crisis, and the willingness of these same people to go for military adventures which could lead to World War III. Because obviously this geopolitical faction does not want to see a situation where China and the Belt and Road Initiative is growing; the Chinese economy is doing excellently, all the countries which are cooperating with China are doing excellent, while their own system is collapsing. So I think there is an immediate connection between the danger of a new financial crash, and the military escalation.

That makes our own intervention globally very important, but our colleagues in the United States in particular, they are deployed, they go to the Congress; they have many meetings in both Houses of the Congress. They are deployed to go to the state capitols and they have many meetings. And we have a brochure out going through the need for the implementation of these Four Laws and why the United States must join with the New Silk Road in a new paradigm.

That mobilization is really important, and the good thing is that we find more and more people who are really trying to understand the principles involved, why a Glass-Steagall is absolutely urgent; why you need to go back to a Hamiltonian National Bank and a credit system; and why you need a crash program in space exploration and fusion technology in order to increase the productivity of the economy. So people are trying to understand these concepts and show a bigger seriousness, and naturally, we hope that this will also influence the surroundings of the State of the Union address, which Trump will give on Jan. 30th. But we need a mass mobilization of people who really urge their Representatives, their Senators, and Congressmen to go for this.

Because you know, the problem is the Democrats are generally not far from Wall Street and neither are the neo-cons in the GOP, so it does require a very strong mobilization from the base of the population.

SCHLANGER: And just a couple of figures to amplify what you were saying: In the last five years, corporations have added $4.5 trillion to their debt, so it’s now over $14 trillion. And of that, $2.7 trillion was used to buy their own stocks! So more than half of the lending to corporations went directly into stock purchases, and that’s why the stock market is up—and that’s why it’s a bubble.

Now, Helga, I’d like to pose a simple question to you— it’s not really that simple, but—in the face of all this insanity, you’ve remained a fount of optimism, and a lot of people communicate with me, and they say: What is it that you guys know, that we don’t, that we pessimists don’t know? I think this is an important point, because we were talking before the program, about the Chinese intervention into Latin America and in Africa: There’s so much going on that Americans don’t know about, but where does this optimism come from?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: It comes from several sources. Let me first talk about the objective one and then I come to the subjective one.

Objectively, when you look at the world from the top, so to speak, — I mean, you don’t look at it from inside Germany, or inside the United States, or some other country—but look at it from the overall historical process which is unfolding right now, you see the clear division. You have in the trans-Atlantic world, people generally expect that the future will be worse, that the coming generations will be worse off than they are, that that is a foregone conclusion. After all, they are told that the resources are limited, that you have to have restraint and conservation, and all of this kind of ideology; and naturally, if you look at the social injustices, the rate of poverty in the United States, in Europe—even in Germany, every sixth child is poor; an unbelievable situation in countries like Italy, Spain, Greece, you have youth unemployment of 50-60%. So people have a grim perspective of the future.

And you have in large part, politicians who have absolutely nothing to offer as a vision for the future. The best example for that is right now, the never-ending coalition talks in Germany, which have been going on already for more than four months since the election; and none of the parties has said one, single word, what should be the future of Germany? Where should the world be? So people generally are desperate, they’re frustrated, they think things are getting worse, and then they see all these calamities in the world, and they say, “I can’t even look at the news any more, it’s all terrible.”

But that is only half of the truth, or less than half of the truth. Because if you look at the world from the standpoint of China, you see a completely different vector of developments. First of all, China has undergone the most incredible development: They have lifted 800 million people out of poverty in 20 years! They want to eradicate poverty by the year 2020, entirely. They are doing wonderful things in Africa, in Latin America, in other Asian countries, even some European countries, so there is a sense of confidence; there is a sense that there is a future. And then, Xi Jinping at the recent 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China laid out this vision for where China should be in 2020, in 2035, and 2050; where he laid out an incredible vision that by that time, China should be a fully modern, strong, socialist country, where the people are living happy lives, that it should be culturally advanced, scientifically strong. And that people not only in China, should have happier lives, but around the world.

Now, we know that the economic underpinning of that vision is progressing with the Belt and Road Initiative, building infrastructure, building R&D centers, building industrial parks, energy distribution and production—this is all a realistic perspective, but it has a cultural dimension to it: They want to have a space Silk Road, a cultural Silk Road. These are all initiatives which have given the Chinese people a tremendous sense of confidence, and that is a spark which has jumped over, so to speak, to the other countries which are participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Now, obviously, as I mentioned in the beginning, these very stark warnings for this year around North Korea, Taiwan, and similar situations, shows that the Chinese are not naïve, and they’re willing to react, and react to defend their interests. So it’s not all rosy and without a realistic view. But the way how people go about it, is absolutely one of optimism.

And I think for most people in Russia, they have the same attitude: This is why the popularity of Putin is at the high level of over 80% as it is, despite the difficulties of the sanctions and so forth. But, I think the difference is, if you have a mission and if you have a vision for the future, and then you are optimistic, because it is in your own will and power to realize those visions.

So I think there is a clear division in the world population on this issue.

Now, I wanted to say something about the subjective reasons why, despite all of these dangers, I’m fundamentally very optimistic: And that is there is no point to worry. You have to have a vision where you want to contribute with your life to the improvement of the human species. And I have a vision which is not exactly the same as that of Xi Jinping, but my vision is also very much like that of my husband, with whom I’ve been working on this since more than 40 years, that we have a world where every human being on this planet can have a decent life, can have fulfillment of all of the potentialities that each person has, and that mankind can become adult. And that we go back to the values which are characteristic for the American Revolution, for the German Classical period, for the Italian Renaissance, and other high points of culture. And I’m optimistic that we can retrieve these qualities by having a cultural Renaissance of Classical music, Classical poetry, and since China is on that road already, by reviving the Confucian tradition, by having a lot of emphasis on Classical culture and on scientific breakthroughs, I think that the West should just really re-think, what were our contributions to the advancement of universal history, and then revive them and have a Dialogue of Cultures among the best traditions of all countries.

I think this is the human nature. I don’t think the idea of geopolitics or ravings or rantings like we hear from Ted Cruz right now, that that is not what makes us human. I think we should not regard other cultures as an enemy per definition: China has reached out and said “let’s join for a shared future of mankind. We are a community of destiny,” and I think this idea of a joined humanity, of one mankind, that is what we have to accomplish if we want to exist as a human species. But I think it is in the human nature that once you have the will and a good plan, and many people are working together for the good plan, you can succeed.

SCHLANGER: I would recommend to our viewers, that this winter, instead of catching the flu, people catch the Silk Road Spirit.

Helga that brings us to a close. Thank you very much, and we’ll see you next week!

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes, good-bye.