Sept. 9—The Schiller Institute’s September 9, 2023 conference “Let Us Join Hands with the Global Majority To Create a New Chapter in World History,” held one day after the 101th birthday of Lyndon LaRouche, brought together over a dozen thinkers from around the world for a powerful dialogue on the new paradigm taking shape, in the context of the historic BRICS summit last month in South Africa.
The conference opened with a panel moderated by Dennis Speed, starting with the beautiful Spiritual “I Don’t Feel No-Ways Tired,” performed by the Schiller Institute New York City Community Chorus with soloist Reginald Bouknight. The musical introduction was followed by a powerful 1978 video clip from Lyndon LaRouche, in which he demanded that the world think big—to export not some billions of dollars worth of equipment to what was then called the Third World, but to export hundreds of new cities, powered with nuclear technology, equipped with modular infrastructure, and designed to last for a hundred years. LaRouche’s powerful demand echoed throughout the conference.
Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche then gave a tour d’horizon of the current world strategic situation, of the mounting danger of war, the disintegration of the “Western” economies (in particular Germany, which has been devastated by insane green energy policies and the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia), and the history of Lyndon LaRouche and the LaRouche movement in making development proposals for regions all over the world: Africa, Saudi Arabia, the Pacific, Operation Juárez for Mexico and Ibero-America, a multi-decade Indian development plan, the Oasis Plan to bring water and peace to Southwest Asia, and, with the fall of the Soviet Union, the Eurasian Land-Bridge to join Eurasia and beyond.
How can the world structure itself to make such development possible? The decision taken at the ongoing G20 meeting in India to add the African Union as a permanent member of that group is “good, but insufficient” she explained; what is needed is a new security architecture, based on the development of all. The Schiller Institute published in 2014 a proposal for developing the New Silk Road announced by China the year before into the World Land-Bridge.
The driving force of development is scientific and technological advancement. China’s recent achievement of the EAST tokamak of a stable 1 mega-amp current points to the growing potential for nuclear fusion as the power source of the future.
“There is reason for a culturally optimistic view for the future of mankind,” she said, “provided we replace hatred, envy, and resentment with love, generosity, and curiosity for the potential of other cultures.” She concluded: “We still have time to reset the axioms of our thinking.”
Former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar spoke about the prospects and challenges for the world following the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, contrasting the major efforts to create conflict with BRICS nations and among them, with the excitement in the world for the new paradigm they offer. Efforts to destroy cooperation must be thwarted, so the enormous potential of the moment can be realized.
Deputy Chairman of the Russian National Committee on BRICS Research Georgy Toloraya titled his presentation “BRICS: A War Prevention Medicine.” He explained that he has long expected that the day would come when the BRICS would become a real actor in global politics. “But I am really amazed that this day has come so soon,” he said. “I would say that the recent summit in late August in Johannesburg was truly a historic event,” including the decision to more than double BRICS membership. The excitement represented by the 20 to 40 prospective members represents a sea change in world affairs. Russia’s February 2022 special military operation in Ukraine, and the reactions by the global majority, mark a new chapter in world history. The danger of conflict is very high. We could see a new system emerge after a new Thirty Years’ War. Or we could see the end of civilization in a Thirty Minutes’ War. Or the West can end its isolation and accept the open-armed invitation of the BRICS to join in making a new paradigm. “I have waited for 13 years to see BRICS to become a real force in international relations,” he concluded. “I hope that the next step, when the West will be included in this process, will come sooner than that.”
Religious representatives of the International Peace Coalition Father Harry Bury and Robert Cushing made impassioned pleas for peace, based on principle. Jesus demands that we love our enemies, that we do good to those who hate us. God wills that the U.S. should love Russia, should love China, should love North Korea. Seek to satisfy the needs of those who seem to be your enemies. We must, in thought and action, create a world organized by the benefit of others.
And that’s just the beginning! Check out the full conference [here](https://schillerinstitute.com/blog/2023/09/08/conference-let-us-join-hands-with-the-global-majority-to-create-a-new-chapter-in-world-history-2/). The transcript of Panel 1 appears in “History & Culture” in this briefing.
The G20 (perhaps better known now as the G21) has welcomed the African Union as a full member of the group. The final joint declaration of the leaders’ summit refrains from mentioning Russia when discussing the conflict in Ukraine, as the 2022 summit declaration had done. On the same day that X (formerly Twitter) filed suit against California for making demands on social media companies that violate the First Amendment, a U.S. federal appeals court has left partially intact a preliminary injunction ordering the federal government to stop telling social media sites to censor material they don’t like. Elon Musk has acknowledged that he declined to activate Starlink into Crimea, out of concern that facilitating Ukrainian attacks on Russian assets could lead to a nuclear counterattack. And NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has said aloud what everyone knows already, but would have been denounced for saying: That Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine out of fears of an expanding NATO.
The West should dissolve NATO and instead join the new paradigm taking form. This is no time to sit on the sidelines! “Those who are lukewarm, they are on the side of evil,” said Helga Zepp-LaRouche at the conclusion of the first panel of the conference. “Be passionately for the good!”
