Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Message
for the New Year
[Print version of this transcript]
Dec. 31—This an edited transcript of Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s New Year’s greeting, filmed for the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee.
Dear Citizens of the World,
First, let me wish you a good and peaceful New Year 2018. I want to define as the most important goal for 2018, the overcoming of geopolitics. Geopolitics has been the cause of two world wars in the Twentieth Century, and it should be clear to everyone that in the age of thermonuclear weapons, war cannot be a means of conflict resolution any longer. Geopolitics is based on the outdated thinking of Cold War and of a zero-sum game, that is, the idea that if one country wins, the others have to lose. It is simply the wrong idea that it is legitimate to pursue the interest of one nation or a group of nations against the interest of others.
Now fortunately, China has put on the international agenda the new concept of foreign relations, of relations among nations—win-win cooperation to the benefit of all. The reaction to this has been mixed: China has offered this cooperation to the United States and also to European countries. Some nations have reacted enthusiastically, because they see the benefit of cooperation in the field of infrastructure and other areas. For example, Central and Southern Europe have reacted very positively, and many developing countries are on board. Altogether more than 70 countries are already part of this New Paradigm.
But certain others have reacted with hysteria, which is increasing right now, because they see the rise of China, and they know that China has a more successful model, which is more attractive to many countries in the world. They claim that the “China model” is a threat to their democracies.
But maybe the Chinese are actually doing something more correctly than these Western democracies. After all, China has moved 700 million people out of poverty, and they have declared that they intend to bring the remaining 42 million poor Chinese out of poverty by 2020. China has even pledged to eliminate poverty worldwide by the year 2050.
Now that means that Europe has to overcome poverty for its 90 million citizens who are living in that condition. The United States has about 42 million. This is absolutely possible if they cooperate with the New Silk Road.
One of the biggest challenges for overcoming geopolitics is the outcome of the fight in the United States. There are hearings right now in the Congress, on the unbelievable collusion of the Obama administration, the Hillary Clinton election campaign, the Democratic leadership, and the heads of the secret services of the Obama administration, in cahoots with British intelligence, to steal the election from Trump in 2016. If all of this comes out, and Trump is successful in his efforts to re-establish a decent relationship with Russia and China—which was the first reason for Russiagate—then, indeed, a new era of civilization can begin.
The cooperation of all nations with the New Silk Road is also the only way that we can prevent a crash of the financial system in 2018, which, if it happens, would be much worse than that of 2008. This will require ending the casino economy in the West, enacting Glass-Steagall banking separation, establishing a credit system, and then, cooperating with such banks as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the New Silk Road Fund and others, to rebuild the real economy.
This is not only important for the United States and Europe, but especially, if we want to reconstruct the Middle East after many years of horrible wars, which were the result of interventionist policies, regime change, and color revolution—then we need to cooperate with China and the New Silk Road to extend that conception to the Middle East.
The only way we are going to solve the refugee crisis in a humane way—in a human way—is to cooperate with China in the economic development of all of Africa. If we do that in the coming year, we have the potential for incredible breakthroughs for world peace—but also in the area of science and technology, where, for example, real breakthroughs in the achievement of thermonuclear fusion power are on the horizon. If we succeed in this, we can have energy security and raw materials security.
If we combine all of this with a dialogue of cultures, where each nation represents its own best traditions, so that the others can learn about it, I’m absolutely certain that this will result in greater love for mankind.
There is every reason for optimism for the coming years, because solutions do exist. Let us implement them in a decisive way: Have a good year!