Author: Alicia

In an important policy piece published Saturday, the Chinese news agency Xinhua elaborated on the strategic outlook presented by the Chinese government in its latest white paper, at the G20 Summit earlier this year, and in the formation of the AIIB and the BRICS New Development Bank, that their goal is to extend to all nations China’s extraordinary success in ending poverty, achieving development, and creating a “win-win” new paradigm.

Xinhua quoted Ni Shixiong, the former dean of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, to make the point. “It is a dream with a global vision,” Ni said, referring to the concept of the Chinese dream that President Xi Jinping first presented four years ago. This same point has been repeatedly made by Helga Zepp-LaRouche in her discussions of the intent behind China’s policy. Ni added: “China is now a participant, supporter and constructor of the international system.”

The important article, headlined “Xinhua Insight: Chinese Dream Is a Dream for All,” elaborates that the concept of the Chinese dream “inspires China to responsibly share development opportunities with the rest of the world. China proposed the Belt and Road initiative in 2013…. The results have exceeded the expectations of many, as the initiative has now over 100 participants and advocates, including countries and international organizations.” This approach, the article added, has led China to launch institutions such as the AIIB and the BRICS New Development Bank. “Most notably, the recent G20 summit — held in Hangzhou, China, in September — placed development issues on a prominent position.”

China is now actively helping to direct the course of humanity, the Xinhua policy piece concludes, paraphrasing Ni: “The Chinese dream [is] a common aspiration of the world. In a way the Chinese dream is not just about China, but represents the common value and ideals of all human beings.” 

An earthquake, this time a political one, came Sunday night from Italy, where voters — according to early results — rejected the EU-dictated constitutional reform with an overwhelming majority of 60% to 40%.

After Brexit and the anti-Obama/Hillary Clinton vote in the U.S.A., this is the third shock to hit and it has European-wide and global implications.

A turbulent phase has now been opened. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is expected to resign today and a pre-announced speculative attack against Italian assets will be unleashed. This can precipitate a banking crisis which can rapidly spread contagion throughout the entire financial system.

Italy will shortly face a choice: either impose financial fascism or leave the euro and implement national emergency legislation. It is possible that new elections will be held in a short period, on the backdrop of such a crisis.

On November 9, 2016, the morning after the dramatic U.S. presidential election—when Trump’s victory left most analysts at home and abroad either babbling nonsense or in stunned silence— Lyndon LaRouche stated clearly that Trump’s victory was part of a global, not a local or national process, in which the entire edifice of globalization and free trade was crumbling. LaRouche said that nothing is yet a settled question, and that the process is being steered by Presidents Putin of Russia and Xi of China, and by the global alternative that they are presenting—an alternative based on policies for which Lyndon and Helga LaRouche have long fought.

Today, that global process continues to unfold at an accelerating rate, to the point where the New Paradigm is the dominant dynamic in the world right now. In Italy, the country delivered a stunning 60%-40% defeat to Britain’s EU dictatorship. The Sunday referendum—following in the footsteps of the Brexit and Trump votes—may well be the final knock-out blow to the entire euro system.

As the trans-Atlantic system’s old paradigm implodes, Chinese President Xi Jinping is actively offering the entire world access to the “dream” of development which is working so stunningly in China. As Xinhua put it in a signature piece: “The Chinese dream is a dream for all.” And Xi, like his partner Putin, continues to extend an offer of productive cooperation with the United States, to President-elect Trump. The potential is enormous—but yet to be realized.

Meanwhile, the voices of the has-beens of the old paradigm continue to act like there has been no change in the presidency of the U.S., and that the New Paradigm doesn’t even exist. They continue pushing the world in the direction of nuclear war, with their outlandish and dangerous provocations against Russia and China.

What we do in this global process, LaRouche emphasized back on November 9, and again this weekend in discussions with associates on both sides of the Atlantic, is absolutely crucial. We must keep pushing for the adoption of LaRouche’s Four Laws, and use the fact that there is an increased openness to discuss daring ideas, such as was found in LaRouche PAC organizing on Capitol Hill earlier this week. Many people for the first time were willing to discuss fusion power, space policy, and even the ideas of Einstein and Krafft Ehricke.

We must lay out for people the need for Glass-Steagall and a Hamiltonian system of credit to replace today’s bankrupt system, and show them how it will work. And above all we have to hone in on the central characteristic of Man that makes such continuous development possible: his creativity.

We have to absolutely focus on the creation of a better quality of the human mind, LaRouche stressed; we can’t leave out the need to create and generate genius, as the Einstein example emphatically demonstrates. That is the standard to be applied. We have to upgrade our own functioning as organizers, he said, and seek out people who have at least, in a germ form, that quality of genius and who are willing to build a new society and create a future for mankind.

We cannot compromise with the development of genius. This requires that we strive to develop the kind of quality which must at least have a taste of genius, because we want the population to be on that trajectory.

This idea of appealing to people who have at least an inkling of what it means to bring mankind forward, Helga Zepp-LaRouche stated, is also the key to recruitment. In such individuals we must light the spark to join this new revolution which is underway worldwide.

China has issued a major white paper, The Right to Development: China’s Philosophy, Practice and Contribution. In it China asserts that there is an “an inalienable right” for countries and people to develop.

“The right to development must be enjoyed and shared by all peoples. Realizing the right to development is the responsibility of all countries and also the obligation of the international community,” the paper says.“It requires governments of all countries to formulate development strategies and policies suited to their own realities, and it requires concerted efforts of the international community as a whole. China calls on all countries to pursue equal, open, all-round and innovative common development, promotes inclusive development, and creates conditions for all peoples to share the right to development.”

But the white paper does so much more. It clearly shows that China’s model for development and China’s political and social structure has achieved unqualified success. And while the model continues to develop, it is at a pace and in a form that is determined by the Chinese people themselves. The paper notes how China has already raised 700 million people out of poverty, now with only 5.7% of the population living under the poverty line — the first nation, the report notes, to reach the UN’s Millenium Goals.  But it is not going to stop there. China is determined to eliminate poverty altogether. In March 2016, the “Outline of the 13th Five-Year Program for the National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China” was published, in which the Chinese government outlined a strategy of eliminating poverty among the rural population by 2020.

The paper also presents other stunning accomplishments in terms of the development of its labor force. In 1949, average longevity was only 35 years; in 2015, it was 76.34 years. Enrollment of school age children was about 20% in 1949; in 2015, it was 99.88%. These parameters were also reflected in the growth of GDP and the raising of the standard of living since 1978, at the beginning of the reform and opening up. From 1978 to 2015, the annual GDP increased from RMB367.9 billion to RMB68,550.6 billion, and per capita GDP grew from more than US$200 to above US$8,000. In 1978, per capita disposable income of urban households was only RMB343.4, and per capita net income of rural households was only RMB133.6. In 2015, per capita disposable income of all residents reached RMB21,966; the figures were RMB31,195 for urban residents and RMB11,422 for rural residents.

In addition the document goes on to detail the reforms that have been made in other areas, reforms in judicial system, voting reforms at the local and village level, instituting compulsory education and improving the educational and medical facilities in the countryside and for the numerous minority groups in China. A social welfare system has been set up throughout the country and a system of medical insurance is steadily expanding. The white paper also underlines the developments in the area of culture, the cultivation of the arts and music even in the more distant parts of the country, the opening up of libraries and the establishment of public museums and cultural centers. The promotion of digital museums and the expansion of the internet in rural areas, and a national campaign to encourage people to read.

The document also points out how the country is also contributing to the development of its neighbors and countries in the developing sector through the Belt and Road Initiative and through the “100 Programs” targeting developing countries, through the establishment of 100 poverty reduction programs, 100 agricultural agricultural cooperation programs, 100 hospitals and clinics, and 100 schools and vocational training centers in developing countries. In addition, 120,000 training opportunities and 150,000 scholarships will be made available to developing countries in China, and 500,000 vocational technical personnel will be trained. China will also set up a South-South Cooperation and Development Academy. 

China has issued a major white paper, The Right to Development: China’s Philosophy, Practice and Contribution. In it China asserts that there is an “an inalienable right” for countries and people to develop.

“The right to development must be enjoyed and shared by all peoples. Realizing the right to development is the responsibility of all countries and also the obligation of the international community,” the paper says.“It requires governments of all countries to formulate development strategies and policies suited to their own realities, and it requires concerted efforts of the international community as a whole. China calls on all countries to pursue equal, open, all-round and innovative common development, promotes inclusive development, and creates conditions for all peoples to share the right to development.”

But the white paper does so much more. It clearly shows that China’s model for development and China’s political and social structure has achieved unqualified success. And while the model continues to develop, it is at a pace and in a form that is determined by the Chinese people themselves. The paper notes how China has already raised 700 million people out of poverty, now with only 5.7% of the population living under the poverty line — the first nation, the report notes, to reach the UN’s Millenium Goals.  But it is not going to stop there. China is determined to eliminate poverty altogether. In March 2016, the “Outline of the 13th Five-Year Program for the National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China” was published, in which the Chinese government outlined a strategy of eliminating poverty among the rural population by 2020.

The paper also presents other stunning accomplishments in terms of the development of its labor force. In 1949, average longevity was only 35 years; in 2015, it was 76.34 years. Enrollment of school age children was about 20% in 1949; in 2015, it was 99.88%. These parameters were also reflected in the growth of GDP and the raising of the standard of living since 1978, at the beginning of the reform and opening up. From 1978 to 2015, the annual GDP increased from RMB367.9 billion to RMB68,550.6 billion, and per capita GDP grew from more than US$200 to above US$8,000. In 1978, per capita disposable income of urban households was only RMB343.4, and per capita net income of rural households was only RMB133.6. In 2015, per capita disposable income of all residents reached RMB21,966; the figures were RMB31,195 for urban residents and RMB11,422 for rural residents.

In addition the document goes on to detail the reforms that have been made in other areas, reforms in judicial system, voting reforms at the local and village level, instituting compulsory education and improving the educational and medical facilities in the countryside and for the numerous minority groups in China. A social welfare system has been set up throughout the country and a system of medical insurance is steadily expanding. The white paper also underlines the developments in the area of culture, the cultivation of the arts and music even in the more distant parts of the country, the opening up of libraries and the establishment of public museums and cultural centers. The promotion of digital museums and the expansion of the internet in rural areas, and a national campaign to encourage people to read.

The document also points out how the country is also contributing to the development of its neighbors and countries in the developing sector through the Belt and Road Initiative and through the “100 Programs” targeting developing countries, through the establishment of 100 poverty reduction programs, 100 agricultural agricultural cooperation programs, 100 hospitals and clinics, and 100 schools and vocational training centers in developing countries. In addition, 120,000 training opportunities and 150,000 scholarships will be made available to developing countries in China, and 500,000 vocational technical personnel will be trained. China will also set up a South-South Cooperation and Development Academy. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin today delivered his annual “State of the Union” address to the Federal Assembly, which he chose to focus largely on “the economy, social issues, and domestic policy,” as Putin himself stated. In its closing section, Putin also included a prominent call for cooperation with the incoming Trump administration in the United States:

“Russia is also ready to work with the new U.S. administration… Cooperation between Russia and the United States in addressing global and regional issues will benefit the whole world. We have a shared responsibility to ensure international security and stability.” Putin also stated: “We do not want confrontation with anyone. We have no need for it… We do not seek and never have sought enemies. We need friends. But we will not allow our interests to be infringed upon or ignored.”

Putin reviewed the condition of Russia’s physical economy, starting with its population and demographics, and was quite blunt about both achievements and failures. After noting that infant mortality is falling, and that more people now have access to high-tech medical services, he added: “On the whole—to put it bluntly—problems in the healthcare sector remain and there are still plenty of them. They are related mostly to the primary care level. Its development should be given priority.” He emphasized the special problems of remote areas of the country that lack access, and explained that he was emphasizing all of this in his address, so that “the whole country will now follow the issue carefully.”

Putin’s discussion of education and youth focused heavily on science and creativity:

“Our schools must promote creativity. The children must learn to think independently, work both on their own and as part of a team, address unusual tasks and formulate and achieve goals, which will help them have an interesting and prosperous life… We must promote the culture of research and engineering work. The number of cutting-edge science parks for children will increase to 40 within two years. They will serve as the basis for the development of a network of technical project groups across the country. Companies, universities and research institutes should contribute to this, so that our children will see clearly that all of them have equal opportunities and an equal start in life, that Russia needs their ideas and knowledge and that they can prove their mettle in Russian companies and laboratories.”

Putin returned to this theme: “There are several things I would like to stress. Our education system must be based on the principle that all children and teenagers are gifted and can succeed in science, in creative areas and sport, in careers and in life. Our task is to help them develop their talents. When they are successful, Russia is successful too. Colleagues, I view the young generation as Russia’s reliable foundation in a turbulent and complicated 21st century. I believe that they are able not just to rise to challenges but also to make their contribution to the development of the intellectual, technological and cultural agenda of global development.”

In a formulation reminiscent of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s discussion of the need to introduce new growth factors in the Chinese and world economies, Putin emphasized that Russia has by no means turned the corner: “If we do not address the underlying problems of the Russian economy, if we do not launch new growth factors at their full force, it will stagnate for years, and we will have to constantly scrimp and save, to delay development. We cannot afford that.”

The second round of the presidential primary organized by the right wing and center parties in France, elected François Fillon as their 2017 Presidential candidate with a whopping majority: 65.5% against Alain Juppé’s 32.5%. The vote result, however, represents 4 million votes, a small sample of the French political spectrum, composed essentially of wealthy and elderly voters. If Fillon wants to win in the general election, he will have to expand his voter base, something difficult to do with the program he is defending.

As a leading member of Les Républicains and former Prime Minister of Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-12), he faces a very complicated task, because he wants to incarnate both Gaullist and Thatcherite policies.

On foreign policy he wants to re-establish a certain independence of France. He considers the U.S. France’s main ally, but he wants to free France from “the too strong dependency on the United States” and thought Sarkozy’s decision to bring France back into NATO was “stupidity.” He is open to collaborating with Russia to resolve the Southwest Asia wars and wants to lift the sanctions. He developed a close contact to Putin when they were both Prime Ministers, and since then he has attended the Valdai Discussion Club meetings. There is a, however, dose of “realism” in his thinking, towards Russia but also China. As he stated, “Russia is a dangerous country, full of nuclear weapons; it must not be pushed to make diplomatic mistakes, to harden up, to isolate itself, and to turn towards China.”

While this change is a relief for all those who feared that Hollande’s submission to the Anglo-American elites was leading France straight into a new world war, Fillon’s economic “shock therapy,” explicitly modeled on Thatcher’s policies, is no solution to the existential crisis in the trans-Atlantic zone and can only create conflict with a majority of the French population. Fillon has not once addressed the issue of a needed financial reform, not a word about Glass-Steagall, nor of a Roosevelt-modeled reconstruction. He is proposing the elimination of 500,000 public employee jobs (10% of the public workforce), replacing the 35-hour workweek with 39 hours, at lower pay; extending retirement age from 62 currently to 65 years. He thinks his ” fiscal shock” will restart the economy: EU40 billion in “social costs” paid by employers (social security and other social contributions); EU10 billion in tax cuts; elimination of the tax on fortunes (ISF), the 75% tax on fortunes of more than EU1 million per year; a reduction of taxes on companies from 35% currently to 25%.

On European questions, he is not for a full reform. Fillon calls for creating a Eurozone government, which however would not be run by the EU Commission, but by a secretariat made of member states. He will maintain the Maastricht criteria — 3% ceiling on national deficit to adopt the euro currency — but calls for the ECB mission to be enlarged from mere defense of the currency to promoting economic development. Fillion also calls for the construction of a European defense for necessary cost sharing, and concerning the problem of mass immigration, he calls on Europe to set up guards at its borders, to stop migrants from coming in.

Running Sans Perspective

His Thatcherite conversion occurred in London in 2014. At that time he complained to the Daily Telegraph that “since the end of Second World War, France has never had its Thatcherian revolution.” A former minister of Les Républicains who views himself as a Gaullist, Henri Guaino, commented that Fillon’s statement that “de Gaulle was a liberal on economics,” had a “hallucinated version of history” and called his policies “a program of devastation of national solidarity which will create great difficulties, if applied, to all those who want to rebuild the nation, reinforce social cohesion and restart the economy.”

Fillon’s primary win, while a big surprise for the media and polls, cannot be really seen as part of the ongoing wave of international change that started since Brexit, the Trump election, in that, the people voting for him are not the middle classes or working poor who are questioning the paradigm of globalization and want to go for industrial and infrastructure reconstruction of their countries. Fillon’s electorate is essentially wealthy and retired people, of conservative religious values. In fact, Fillon got a large part of the vote of “Sens Commun,” the Catholic traditionalist organization which opposed Hollande’s gay marriage law.

Because of its nature, Fillon’s candidacy could reshuffle all the cards of the presidential campaign. Until now, the polls were predicting a first round of the Presidential vote as being between Sarkozy or Hollande, and Marine Le Pen, and a second round being won by Sarkozy or Hollande, against Marine Le Pen, benefitting from a national mobilization to stop Le Pen.

Fillon’s rabid “shock therapy” policies will have the opposite effect, of strengthening the Socialist Party, which is today almost dead. That is already happening. Following Fillon’s victory, Hollande’s Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, more popular than Hollande, told the media that he would be willing to participate in the left-wing presidential primary, even if Hollande decides to run.

The Front National (FN) will also be affected in its drive for power. Fillon’s call for greater independence, his alliance with the conservative traditionalist right, and his pro-Putin stance, will drain a fair part of support that had contributed to FN’s recent rise. Marine Le Pen is left with no other choice than to go for the vote of the forgotten men and women of France. Last night she denounced “the social destruction” that that policy would create. But in that task, the Front National will have to confront France’s equivalent of Die Linke, the Communists led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

The flight forward of all these actors into the extremes, none of whom has any perspective, for the future will lead to chaos in France. In this context, Cheminade’s own candidacy defending a strong Glass-Steagall Act reform, and policies of peace through mutual development with Russia and China’s New Silk Road, are crucial for the future of France.

In an interview with Sputnik Christine Bierre, Chief Editor of Nouvelle Solidarite, the newspaper of the French political party Solidarite & Progres, formulated Cheminade’s views on the victory of François Fillon of the right wing primaries preceding the April 2017 French presidential elections.

The good news is that “François Fillon’s foreign policies would be a break with those of François Hollande, which have been, with very few exceptions, practically dictated by Obama and his British allies. A regular participant to the Valdai Club meetings and favorable to a healthy, if not uncritical collaboration, with Vladimir Putin, Fillon announced already he will act to lift the sanctions against Russia and collaborate with President Putin to re-establish stability in Syria with president Bashar al-Assad and eliminate ISIS [daesh],” Bierre emphasized.

The bad news is the fact that at the same time, Fillon’s economic policies “will not make it easy for him to win,” the journalist pointed out. The crux of the matter is that Fillon, dubbed by The Telegraph as “the first truly Thatcherite leader of the Right,” is pushing ahead with radical economic reforms. “Fillon wants to eliminate 500,000 public jobs during his tenure! No less than 10 percent of all public workers. He will reduce the ‘social’ charges paid by companies (covering for costs of unemployment, retirement, public health insurance, social security, etc.), by 50 billion and scrap the tax on large fortunes (ISF) and the 75 percent tax on revenues exceeding one million euros, and extend retirement age to 65 years,” Bierre highlighted. These tough policies will undoubtedly provoke an upsurge on the part of left-wing forces, playing into the Socialist Party’s hands, the journalist noted. “Whether he will be able to rally a majority of the country to those ultra-liberal policies with his present policies is yet to be seen…” she said.

What are Fillon and Le Pen’s strengths and weaknesses? “Their strength from the standpoint of world politics, is that they both want peace with Russia and a France which recovers its traditional independence from the Western powers,” Bierre emphasized.”Their weakness is that neither has the economic policies to break France loose from the Western oligarchy, i.e. the top financial powers operating out of Wall Street and the City of London, which define the policies of the West, including its hawkish attitude against Russia,” she stressed.

The journalist highlighted that neither Fillon, nor Le Pen is calling for a financial reform which will bring an end to pumping trillions of euros into “Too big to fail” banks since the 2008 crisis. “Deutsche bank is virtually bankrupt, the Italian banking sector, according to the Italian government, has 200 to 400 billion euros of bad loans,” the journalist pointed out, warning that the implosion of the West’s financial system is just round the corner. “So long as this is not solved, no President elect will be able to do anything, because those banks are unable to lend for investment, and totally dependent on liquidity injections (quantitative easing), in the trillions of euros, from the European Central Bank (ECB), monthly or yearly, which they use strictly for speculation, in order to survive,” Bierre observed.

In contrast to Fillon and Le Pen, Jacques Cheminade, the Solidarité & Progrès party’s presidential candidate, calls for “for a strict separation between useful banks (deposits and credit to the economy) and investment banks (speculation),” she emphasized drawing parallels between Cheminade’s concept and the US’ Glass-Steagall Act. “Following such a reorganization, a re-industrialization policy will be urgently needed to restart the economies,” Cheminade says, as quoted by Bierre. For his part, Fillon “wants to change the orientations of the ECB from its current function — which is only to fight against inflation — to being a Bank promoting investment in productive activities. This amounts to try to cook a new soup with the same ingredients,” she elaborated.”M. Fillon does not say it, but all this requires a complete overhaul of different treaties going back to the ‘Maastricht Treaty’ (1992) which set up the ECB as an autonomous bank with only one responsibility: ensuring the stability of the currency,” the French journalist continued. “The statutes of the ECB explicitly forbid it from extending loans to governments for investment in infrastructure or whatever other needs,” she highlighted.

Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen promised that she will organize a referendum on whether to remain in the EU. However, “her proposals for a follow-up are totally unfounded,” Bierre believes. “[Le Pen’s] economic and financial plan for the 2012 presidential elections which is still valid, proposed to go back to the French Franc, and called for the Banque de France to issue the equivalent of 100 billion francs debt per year, of which 90 percent would go to in advance down payment of the totality of the French debt, and only 10 percent to new investment projects!” the French journalist noted. “During that period the same policy of ‘fiscal rigor’ which we have now, would apply to French citizens,” Bierre warns.

For his part, Cheminade proposes to re-establish Europe’s original central banks and return to their original currencies, while keeping the euro as a common currency. He is calling “for pulling out of the Euro and of the EU treaty (1992 — 2017), and rebuilding Europe around the core nations that founded Europe,” the journalist emphasized highlighting the importance of European nations taking over control of their monetary policies. “In order to free themselves from the grip of the Western predatory financial centers, France and Europe, says M. Cheminade, should orient towards the BRICS and support the strong dynamic created by China and Russia in particular, in the last years, to create the credit institutions of a new world economic order (AIIB, NDB, Silk Road funds, etc.),” Bierre stressed.”His approach, if compared to that of Russian economists, is based ‘on the issuance of public credit for research and industrial development, of the type promoted by [Russian economist] Sergei Glaziev,'” the French journalist underscored.

The overwhelming primary election victory of Francois Fillon to be the presidential candidate for The Republican Party of France in Sunday’s primary election is further proof that Barack Obama’s drive for war on Russia is intolerable to the human race. Like Hillary Clinton, Fillon’s opponent campaigned against Russia, while Fillon campaigned to work with Russia to defeat the terrorists in Syria, to end the anti-Russian sanctions and expand economic cooperation, winning nearly two-thirds of the vote.        

Hillary Clinton, who ran her campaign as a continuation of Obama’s war cry against Russia, is now frantically trying to blame her defeat on Putin! The lunacy of the claim that Putin used “fake news” feeds and computer hacking to steal the U.S. election, now in headlines across the U.S., says nothing about Putin, but everything about the state of mental breakdown by the war party in the United States — the neocons of both the Republican and Democratic parties, who joined forces behind Hillary and were defeated by the electorate, especially the rural and urban workforce.        

In fact, Putin did contribute to the defeat of the Obama/Hillary war party, but not secretly or covertly. His consistent demand that the US stop sponsoring terrorists under the guise of arming the “moderate opposition” in Syria to overthrow the legitimate government, calling for cooperation in the war on terror, helped expose Obama and Hillary for what they are.        

In the same manner, Xi Jinping’s repeated calls for the US to join in the New Silk Road process of global nation building was rejected by both Obama and Hillary in favor of military confrontation with China, thus exposing their imperial outlook to a population which increasingly admires the incredible development process unleashed by China both within their country and internationally.        

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who has campaigned in the past for the Chancellorship in Germany, said today that despite Fillon’s Thatcherite economic policies, his election further demonstrates the growing disgust in Europe with the anti-Russia hysteria and the danger of war. Trump’s open declaration that he will work with Putin to defeat terrorism led the loser Obama this month to attempt to anoint Germany’s Angela Merkel as his successor, to be the “leader of the free world” in a campaign against Russia. But Merkel is now as isolated as was Obama — like the fake-Gods of Olympus, shouting their demands to the world even as Mount Olympus is crumbling under their feet.        

On the same day as the French vote, the Swiss soundly defeated a referendum launched by the anti-nuclear green movement to shut down the nation’s nuclear power facilities. Again, the message to the world is that the “New Dark Age” mentality of deindustrialization and permanent warfare is no longer tolerable to the human race. It is especially a message to the anti-nuclear Merkel that her time has come.        

The western world is experiencing a revolutionary transformation. The LaRouche movement has for years forced the populations of the U.S. and Europe, often against their will, to look at the leadership of the new paradigm coming from Russia and China, and to compare them to the policies dictated by London and Wall Street which have destroyed the trans-Atlantic nations economically and culturally. That truth can no longer be suppressed. Lyndon LaRouche today told his associates: “We are in a leading position right now. We are on top. We know what we’re doing, so let’s have a victory.”

During a just concluded four-day visit to Serbia, Elke and Klaus Fimmen of the Schiller Institute found great openness and optimism about the potential of China’s One Belt-One Road policy for the region. Academics, representatives of various organizations and media were familiar with and appreciate highly the crucial work and record of the Schiller Institute for the World Landbridge. One leading academic, who has written on the importance of the New Silk Road for Serbia, stressed that he completely agrees with Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche, that this is of global significance and a new paradigm.

Schiller Institute organizer Elke Fimmen delivering remarks on the World Landbridge and new paradigm.

In the end of the trip, a lecture on “The New Silk Road – a regional and global peace policy of development” was held in Serbia’s second-largest city Novi Sad for about 50 students and economic faculty members, organized by the regional association of economists.*

For the first time in decades, full of regional wars, economic and social destruction, people see now hope for the future. One former politician said, with the Silk Road, Serbia for the first time in history is in a position to use its geographic and strategic location for the good, instead of being ruined by geopolitics for millennia. Adding to this sense of a new maneuvering room, were the result of public “votings” published by the media: results had been 95% for Trump. For the population, Hillary was the embodiment of NATO-aggression. People agreed that with the Trump victory, for now war with Russia has stopped. There was great interest on the possibility to realize Glass-Steagall now and reshape the whole economic policy towards real economic development in the US and worldwide.

Serbia has become quite central for China’s approach to the CEEC region. At the recent CEEC-summit in Latvia, a first visa-free agreement between Serbian and China was signed, starting in January; the National Bank of China is going to open up a branch under Serbian charter starting next year. Final agreements were made on starting now the Belgrade-Budapest high-speed railway construction, which will revolutionize the inland rail grid in Serbia as well. At this point, just going the 80 km from Belgrade up north to Novi Sad, the train needs almost two hours.

On other projects: the Smederovo steel plant with 3000 workers, which the Chinese have bought, is about to be modernized, including complementary port development (at the Danube), where the plant is located. While the EU has been trying to drag its feet, there is nothing it can do, since all regulations (including “anti-dumping”) have been carefully followed. An industrial park for high-tech firms is planned for Belgrade, possibly combined with a new harbor as well. Also, the development of one of the largest European huge copper, silver and gold mine in Bor, which never had been properly invested in during the last 25 years, is planned. China thus is going to vitalize projects and sectors, which have been put under privatization for decades, and were just left hanging in the air, with a huge burden on the state budget.

While growth of GDP has moved up by 1% (from 2 to 3%) in the last year, which some attribute to the effects of Serbian-Chinese cooperation already, industrial production is abysmal, with a disproportionate service sector. Many goods are imported cheap (or not so cheap), including from China. Unemployment is still massive, officially around 16%, while real unemployment is much higher. Youth do not have a future, university graduates end up as taxi drivers or tourist entertainers. In the second biggest city of Serbia, Novi Sad, the average income of a waiter is about 200 €, while the cost of living is 500 €. Young people are moving to the few cities and abandoning the countryside, but do at present not find jobs in the cities either. Investment need for renewing of infrastructure is immense, ranging easily in a range of 30-50 bio € for the capital city of Belgrade.

The EU, which is putting a lot of pressure in all ways (Serbia is an accession country), is regarded as a real stumbling block for development during the last 15 years. Not only were there no projects financed, but EU-accession to Serbia has been constantly delayed. Serbia has a huge population traditionally living and working in Germany after World War II. People are fed up with the empty promises. So either Germany and other EU-countries shape up now and change course, or they will have lost their chance.

*(Fifteen years ago, in June 2001, at Novi Sad university Jacques Cheminade and Elke Fimmen had presented the Eurasian Landbridge, the need for a global New Bretton Woods and the principles of physical economy, as defined by Lyndon LaRouche. Another lecture was held during that same visit at the prestigious Institute of Economic Science in Belgrade, which was founded in 1958 and has managed to exist still to this date.)