EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR MONDAY, APRIL 18, 2022

‘The Subordination of Everything to the Well-Being of Mankind’

April 17, 2022 (EIRNS)—As we move forward from the achievements of the April 9 Schiller Institute conference, we rightly also look back for further sustenance, clarity, and courage for the battles that lie immediately ahead in these most troubled of times.

In a March 8 interview on Pakistan TV’s World Tonight program, Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche stated: “I think what is the most urgent question, is that a debate occurs internationally, by as many forces as possible, to have a new paradigm; to have a world order based on the UN Charter, based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, the whole Non-Aligned Movement conception that went into the Bandung Conference—these ideas have to be revived urgently. I think it is especially the independent countries, like Pakistan, like India—and in that point I think they are very much similar right now—which can take a stand that the system must be changed, because it’s like before World War I: If you continue like this, a catastrophe will happen. And do we have to repeat history? I don’t think so.”

Nineteen years earlier, in May 2003, Lyndon and Helga LaRouche had returned to India for the second time that year to participate in a major international conference co-hosted by the Schiller Institute and the Center for Social Justice of India. In his presentation, Lyndon LaRouche emphasized the theme of the Non-Aligned Movement and Bandung:

“We must have what we fought for at Colombo, Sri Lanka in August of 1976. We must revive the spirit of Bandung, as a part of an international movement. We must revive the concert of a just, new world economic order—now!

“How can this be brought into being? We need large-scale projects, infrastructure projects. We need long-term agreements among nations on trade. We need fixed parities in currencies. We need interest rates on long-term loans which are not excessive: 1-2% simple interest rate. We need 25- to 50-year agreements and treaty agreements, among nations on trade and development. We need a monetary system, with many of the best features of the Bretton Woods system, of the immediate postwar period. But, this time, the United States can not run it, as the United States did back then.... We must have a concert of nations which does this. We must have a concert of nations take over the international financial institutions, and reform them. We must use the power of government, to put bankrupt systems into bankruptcy reorganization. We must use the power of government and treaty agreements, to create large-scale credit and credit systems, to enable these potentials to be realized.”

What, then, is the Spirit of Bandung of which Lyndon and Helga LaRouche spoke? The following is excerpted from Indonesian President Sukarno’s speech to the Bandung Conference, delivered on April 18, 1955—67 years ago today.

“Perhaps now more than at any other moment in the history of the world, society, government and statesmanship need to be based upon the highest code of morality and ethics. And in political terms, what is the highest code of morality? It is the subordination of everything to the well-being of mankind. But today we are faced with a situation where the well-being of mankind is not always the primary consideration. Many who are in places of high power, think, rather, of controlling the world.

“Yes, we are living in a world of fear. The life of man today is corroded and made bitter by fear. Fear of the future, fear of the hydrogen bomb, fear of ideologies. Perhaps this fear is a greater danger than the danger itself, because it is fear which drives men to act foolishly, to act thoughtlessly, to act dangerously. In your deliberations, Sisters and Brothers, I beg of you, do not be guided by these fears, because fear is an acid which etches man’s actions into curious patterns. Be guided by hopes and determination, be guided by ideals, and, yes, be guided by dreams!...

“The battle against colonialism has been a long one, and do you know that today is a famous anniversary in that battle? On the eighteenth day of April, 1775, just one hundred and eighty years ago, Paul Revere rode at midnight through the New England countryside, warning of the approach of British troops and of the opening of the American War of Independence, the first successful anti-colonial war in history....

“Yes, it shall echo for evermore, just as the other anticolonial words which gave us comfort and reassurance during the darkest days of our struggle shall echo for evermore. But remember, that battle which began 180 years ago is not yet completely won, and it will not have been completely won, until we can survey this our own world, and can say that colonialism is dead....

“War would not only mean a threat to our independence: it may mean the end of civilization and even of human life. There is a force loose in the world whose potentiality for evil no man truly knows. Even in practice and rehearsal for war, the effects may well be building up into something of unknown horror.

“What can we do? We can do much! We can inject the voice of reason into world affairs. We can mobilize all the spiritual, all the moral, all the political strength of Asia and Africa on the side of peace. Yes, we! We, the peoples of Asia and Africa, 1,400,000,000 strong, far more than half the human population of the world—we can mobilize what I have called the Moral Violence of Nations in favor of peace....

“Our task is first to seek an understanding of each other, and out of that understanding will come a greater appreciation of each other, and out of that appreciation will come collective action. Bear in mind the words of one of Asia’s greatest sons [Sun Yat-sen]: ‘To speak is easy. To act is hard. To understand is hardest. Once one understands, action is easy.”