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...... ...................![Larouche Online Almanac](../../../onlineimages/alman_bn.gif)
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Published: Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Today is:
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Volume 4, Issue Number 19
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As a follow-up to the appeal launched in July 2000, in favor of reorganizing the world's financial system, which appeal was endorsed by many international leaders, including former heads of government, MPs, trades unionists, businessmen, civil rights, and church figures, the Schiller Institute's Chairman Helga Zepp-LaRouche has now issued an updated appeal. The text below is currently being circulated worldwide, and will appear, with the signatories' names, both on Internet sites and in newspapers. We call upon our readers to circulate and support this initiative, in view of the immediate crisis we face.
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The paradigm shift of the last four decades, a period in which the world economy increasingly abandoned manufacturing and gave itself over to untrammelled speculation, is now drawing to an end. The world financial system is about to implode. Gross production worldwide stands at a mere $40 trillion, over which looms a gigantic debt bubble 50 times that size, viz., $2,000 trillion worth of financial liabilities. The impending bankruptcy of General Motors and, potentially, of the entire U.S. automobile industry, is but one of many factors that could well lead to the collapse of the U.S. dollar, and thereby, that of the entire financial system.
To prevent the world's people from suffering the untold harm that the breakdown of the system would unleash, we the undersigned demand that an emergency conference be convened, to agree upon a new financial architecture along the lines of the Bretton Woods System launched at Franklin D. Roosevelt's initiative in 1944...
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Latest From LaRouche
Here are Lyndon LaRouche's remarks to LaRouche Youth Movement cadre schools in Toledo and Seattle, on May 8, 2005.
We're in an interesting situation. You're almost in the middle of it, or approximately in the middle of it, geographically in Toledo.
We have the following problem: We have a number of people in UAW locals, UAW presidents, who are in a sense "on the ball" conceptually on the nature of the problem before us. We also have reported from the Democratic Party and from the Congress, the fact that some alleged UAW officials say there is no problem. I don't know what the problem is, that they would say that! Particularly after what happened this past week. We're now in a situation, where, as I've read it.
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This Week in History
May 9-15, 1942
Henry J. Kaiser Organizes an Incredible Leap in American Ship-Building
In the late winter and spring of 1942, Hitler had ordered his U-boats to attack American shipping, from Nova Scotia to the Caribbean. Because of the lack of U.S. Navy ships to act as armed escorts for America's merchant ships, the U-boat captains found easy pickings. Due to the fact that the large East Coast cities did not go to wartime blackout rules until mid-April, the German submarines could just wait offshore and fire at American ships as they were silhouetted by the lights of the cities.
Sometimes the survivors would be rescued, at other times they were machine-gunned. By March 1942, 788,000 tons of dry cargo shipping and 375,000 tons in tankers had been sunk. The loss in tankers was so great that they had to be withdrawn from the Atlantic coastal routes. President Franklin Roosevelt was frustrated by the Navy's slow mobilization against these attacks, and began to rely on planes from the Army Air Force. But this was only a stopgap measure, and meanwhile, embattled Britain desperately needed ships as well. Roosevelt decided that the only way to overcome the shipping losses was to outbuild them. He set a goal of 8 million tons of new shipping by the end of 1942, which most people thought was absolutely impossible.
One man who did not, was Henry J. Kaiser. Kaiser was born on May 9, 1882, the same year as Franklin Roosevelt, and shared with him the belief that great problems could be overcome with creativity, careful planning, and, often, bold actions. Kaiser had originally made his career as a construction contractor, and even in the early 1900s, had become known for his unusual methods of enhancing labor power, which enabled him to finish his construction jobs in record time. In an era when much road-building was done with picks, shovels, and mules, Kaiser put rubber tires on wheelbarrows and had them pulled by tractors. Later, he replaced gasoline engines with more efficient diesel engines.
During the 1930s, Kaiser not only built the piers for the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge, but he also headed the companies which built the Parker, Bonneville, and Grand Coulee dams. In 1931, he put together the combine of companies which would build the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, a project so large and complicated that it took seven different firms to bring it to completion. Kaiser's firm also built levees on the Mississippi River, pipelines in the American West and in Mexico, naval defense installations on Wake, Guam, and Hawaii, and a 30-mile aqueduct to bring water to New York City.
But Kaiser had never built ships. As the Nazis took over more and more of Europe, the danger to the Americas became critical. If the Fascists were to conquer Britain and acquire her fleet, North and South America would be facing the fleets and air forces of the rest of the industrialized world. Therefore, Roosevelt ordered the construction of a fleet of Liberty Ships, which would carry supplies to Britain to aid her in her battle against the Nazis. Although the ships were slow, "ugly ducklings," they could carry 2,840 jeeps, 440 light tanks and 3 million C-rations. Henry Kaiser was convinced by Adm. Emory Land, Chairman of the U.S. Maritime Commission, to enter the shipbuilding business, but he initially knew so little about it that he had to go to the public library to look up shipbuilding terms.
Kaiser went into partnership with an experienced shipbuilder from the East Coast, and chose the site for his enterprise on the mud flats of Richmond, Calif., bordering San Francisco Bay. He had contracted to build 30 cargo ships for the British, and when a British delegation came to inspect the site in 1940, they asked where the shipyards were. Kaiser pointed to the mudflats and answered that within months there would be a shipyard with thousands of men and women building ships for Britain. The delegation was dubious, but in their desperate straits they had to count on a miracle, and they got one.
Kaiser put Clay Bedford, a young engineer, in charge of the project and gave him an outline of what should be done. This included a generous use of space so that the production would never be crowded, a program of prefabricating huge sections of the ships using the kind of massive cranes that had been used in building dams, and using welding instead of the old technique of riveting the ship together.
According to Bedford, "We designed the yard. Actually, there was a race between the Kaiser draftsmen and the field people as to whether we could build it first or the engineers and architects could draw it first. We finished the office in thirty-four days, during which it rained heavily every day. Actually, it rained steadily for fifty-three days. We had water six inches deep along Cutting Boulevard resulting from a high tide and a hard southwest wind, yet we kept twenty trucks busy night and day for three months bring in fill, and dredging the area. It was a miserable time, but we took it in stride because I had a lot of fellows from Bonneville Dam where it rained eighty-four inches a year."
...more
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Feature:
The Revolutionary Aspect Of the LaRouche Method
by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
April 27, 2005
The subject of this report is a specific class of mental disorders, disorders which are the most typical cause of today's commonplace, major man-made disasters of modern economies. Ask yourself: Why are we, as a nation, and as a world, in the awfully dangerous, worsening mess we are in today? Since human beings are not animals, but capable of making the discoveries which enable us to improve the conditions of life in and among nations, why have we permitted this civilization to collapse in the way this has happened during the recent three and a half decades since someone elected Richard M. Nixon as the U.S. President.
Economics:
Health-Care 'Fundamental Infrastructure' Threatened by Medicaid-Cuts Mentality
by Marcia Merry Baker
A bipartisan, widespread resistance movement came into being this Spring, against the Bush Administration's commitment to cut government outlays to the 1960s-enacted program for health care under the Social Security law, known as Medicaid. Though intended as a temporary-use safety net for citizens in need, Medicaid now has become the only resort for some 55 million Americans. The President's Fiscal Year 2006 budget called for $60 billion in cuts to the program over ten years; and Medicare cuts are pending as well.
LaRouche: Move Fast To Save Auto; GM Sliding To Bankruptcy
by Paul Gallagher
A late-February forecast of debt blowout in the American auto sector, clearly announced by Lyndon LaRouche when all 'accredited' economists were proclaiming an accelerating U.S. economic recovery, was confirmed in the first week of May. It became evident then that General Motors, if not also Ford Motor Co., and scores of their supplier companies, are mudsliding faster and faster towards bankruptcy and dismemberment of the most important machine-tool and related industrial capabilities remaining in the American economy.
Report From Germany
by Rainer Apel
Debate Rips Across Political Spectrum: Catalyzed by LaRouche movement, the key issue on the table is 'shareholder value' versus the Common Good. The April 13 call by Social Democratic Party (SPD) Chairman Franz Mu¨ntefering for the protection of industry from financial 'locusts' (see last week's EIR), was the official kickoff for a stormy debate on the future of Germany as an industrial nation.
International:
China-KMT Visit Judoes 'Taiwan Independence' Ploy
by William Jones
The visit of Kuomintang (KMT) leader Lien Chan to mainland China has dealt a serious blow to the diabolical policy of the Cheney-Rumsfeld neo-conservative faction of maintaining a high-tension state between Taiwan and China. At a loss over the continued strong economic growth of this nation of 1.3 billion people in East Asia, combined with a very successful diplomatic initiative by China to improve its economic and diplomatic ties with the other nations of East and Southeast Asia, the neo-cons have exerted every effort to provoke instability in the region in an attempt to keep those nations in their camp, and at each other's throats.
Japan, India Move To Build Strategic Ties
by Ramtanu Maitra
The April 28-30 visit to India by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is expected to herald a new phase in IndiaJapan relations. Included among the eight agreements signed, is a dedicated, 5,790 mile freight corridor, along the Golden Quadrilateral (Delhi-Kolkata-Chennai-Mumbai) railroad project, connecting India's four largest cities.
War, and a Big Piece Of the West Bank
by Dean Andromidas
Are Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his backers in Washington planning a strike against Irana move that would enable Sharon to ditch his so-called disengagement plan and tighten his hold on the West Bank? Any decision for a strike against Iran is unlikely to come from Sharon alone. That decision would come from the bunker in the White House where Vice President Dick Cheney might give Sharon a green light to create a major crisis, perhaps as a diversion from Washington's political and economic woes.
In Memoriam
Ezer Weizman: From Hawk to Peace Advocate
by Dean Andromidas
With the death of former President Ezer Weizman on April 24, Israel has lost one of its key advocates for peace between Israel and its neighbors. It is important to reflect on Weizman's role, not to eulogize him, but to show that success in achieving peace in the region requires leadership. Lyndon LaRouche once commented thatWeizman was a 'tough guy,' who saw the wisdom of an ecumenical approach to peace, the necessity of negotiating with one's enemy if one wishes to have peace.
Ecuador
Dollarization Brings Down Another Government in the Americas
by Gretchen Small
It was a familiar scene: On April 20, in the midst of mass protests escalating out of control, a rump session of the Congress of Ecuador voted to oust the President, Lucio Gutierrez, and replace him with his Vice President, Alfredo Palacio,who was sworn in the same day. Gutierrez was the third Ecuadoran President in less than 10 years to be ousted in the midst of mass turmoil.
Mexico's LYM: Ready To Change the World
by David Ramonet
'We are changing the world, and having lots of fun doing it,' was the message delivered by Carlos Cota Moreno of the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) in Mexico, to more than 90 young people gathered May 2 at the University of Sonora, in Hermosillo. The youth had come to hear Bruce Director, a spokesman for U.S. economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche, during Director's early May tour through the state of Sonora.
Iraq's Partial Government Won't Last for Very Long
by Muriel Mirak-Weissbach
After three months of haggling, horse-trading, and faction fighting, the new Iraqi leadership that emerged from the Jan. 30 elections, announced that it had put together a governmentalmost. As soon became clear, the government announced by Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari on May 3, was no government at all. Out of 37 ministerial posts planned, five remained essentially vacant: the ministries of oil, defense, electricity, industry, and human rights, which are filled by 'acting' ministers. Also vacant are two Deputy Prime Minister positions.
National:
BONKERS IN THE BUNKERS
Bush White House Flight Forward Is a National Security Threat
This statement was issued on April 30. Executive Intelligence Review and the LaRouche Political Action Committee have been informed by several extremely reliable Washington, D.C. sources that in the past several days, a prominent Republican United States Senator has been confronted by Karl Rove and other White House officials on his alleged 'connections with Lyndon LaRouche.' The Senator, who is not, in fact, in any way associated with LaRouche, denied the charges, but his denials were not believed by the White House officials. He was pressed by Rove, according to the sources, to issue a public statement denouncing LaRouche, to 'prove' his denials. EIR has crosschecked the initial incident report with several other wellinformed Washington, D.C. sources, and is satisfied that the essential features of the report are accurate and can be further documented.
Arrest of Pentagon Official May Help Unravel Neo-Conservative Cabal
by Jeffrey Steinberg and Nancy Spannaus
Pentagon Iran desk officer and neo-con patsy Larry Franklin was arrested on May 4, on charges that he passed classified information based upon secret Pentagon documents to two American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) officials in June 2003, at a restaurant in Arlington, Va. The two AIPAC officials, who were not named in the complaint, were Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, who were both fired by AIPAC in recent weeks.
Arnie the Fascist Bashes Immigrants
by Harley Schlanger
Reeling from a series of potentially devastating political setbacks, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has resorted to an old tactic used by one of his predecessors, Pete Wilson: When in trouble, bash illegal immigrants.
Guantanamo Revelations Point to Rumsfeld
by Edward Spannaus
'The intent was to humiliate this detainee, and to create a barrier, through sexual humiliation and sexual enticement, between the detainee and his faith . . . to create a wedge between the detainee and his God.' This is Army Sgt. Eric Saar being interviewed on a May 5 National Public Radio show. Saar spent six months as an interrogator and translator at Guantanamo, from December 2002 through June 2003, and has now written a book called Inside the Wire: A Military Intelligence Soldier's Eyewitness Account of Life at Guantanamo. He was describing an incident in which a female interrogator used sexual taunts and behavior to try to make a prisoner feel 'unclean,' so that he could not pray and draw strength from his religious faith.
Disintegrating GOP Rams Through Budget
by Carl Osgood
The ramrod passage of the conference report on the Fiscal 2006 budget on April 28, provides further evidence of the flight-forward panic that is taking over top echelons of the Republican Party in Congress. In an attempt to quell the growing revolt within the GOP against the fascist austerity demanded by the White House, the Congressional Republican leadership wrote most of the conference agreement behind closed doors, without the knowledge and participation of the Democrats. In fact, the House didn't even appoint members of the conference committee until April 26, two days before the House voted on the conference report, suggesting that most of the work was done by a handful of party loyalists and their staffs, before the conference committee was even formally constituted.
From the Congress
Waxman: Bush 'Wrong Morally And Legally'
The following letter from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) was sent to President Bush on April 28, 2005, concerning the President's statements denying the existence of the Social Security Trust Fund. Bush has repeatedly claimed that money collected for Social Security in any given year, that is not spent on Social Security, can be used by the President for anything he deems fit, and does not have to be repaid. Representative Waxman, ranking minority member of the Committee on Government Reform, noted that Bush has so far borrowed $500 billion from the Social Security system, and Bush's most recent budget projects that the Federal government will borrow an additional $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years.
Commentary:
The ADL, George Bush, and the Christian Right
In recent weeks, it has come to our attention that White House political hatchet-man Karl Rove has solicited the help of Abraham Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL), in going after some leading Democratic Party figures who have, of late, turned George W. Bush's nascent second term in office into a political near-death experience. While, on the surface, the idea of a Rove-Foxman collusion might strike you as a political oddity, a brief review of Mr. Foxman's decade-long flirtation with the Christian Rightincluding somepatently anti-Semitic figuressheds light on the current alliance-of-convenience.
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LaRouche: `The Immortality of Martin Luther King'
Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
speaks to the Martin Luther King Day Prayer Breakfast in Talladega County, Alabama on Jan. 19, 2004
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