The LaRouche Connection

Program Summaries: 2008
707-Current

Updated June 2, 2008

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Program No. 707

“Schiller Conference, Kiedrich, Germany. Panel IV:
Rebuilding Civilization”

The outcome of the presently accelerating world-wide crisis is not yet decided; but the alternatives can and must be politically clear. It is certain that the kind of global monetary-economic system which has evolved in the aftermath of the crisis-events of 1968, will not survive the presently onrushing calamities.

On Sept. 15-16, 2007, the Schiller Institute held an amazing two-day conference in Kiedrich, Germany. The subject: “The Eurasian Land-Bridge is Becoming a Reality.” Three hundred fifty guests from forty nations gathered amid the most momentous period of change in globally extended modern civilization since the great 1648 Peace of Westphalia. As the proceedings of this two-day conference show, we have great and hopeful options for change.

The agenda featured prominent speakers from around the world, including Russian scholars and political leaders; an American consulting engineer; an Italian economist; and an American civil rights pioneer. The conference concluded with a report on the work of the LaRouche Youth Movement, with presentations by leading LYM members from around the world.

The LaRouche Connection began its coverage of this historic conference (Program 704) with the Schiller Institute’s founder and chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s welcoming remarks and introduction of the keynote speaker, her husband, Lyndon LaRouche, who spoke on “This Present World Financial Crisis: Credit vs. Monetarist Usury.”

This week’s edition features the following presentations, from Panel IV, which convened on Sept. 16:

· Amelia Boynton Robinson, 96 year old Vice Chairwoman of the Schiller Institute, and heroine of the U.S. civil rights movement: “Civil Rights for All People of the Planet”

· Jacque Cheminade, leader of Solidarité et Progrês, the LaRouche movement in France, and thrice a candidate for the French Presidency: “Beyond the Eurasian Land-Bridge: the Cultural Paradigm of the Millennium to Come”

· Daniel Buchman, a leader of the LaRouche Youth Movement in Germany: “Restore a Real Scientific Method”

· Lyndon LaRouche: “Liberate Man from the Shackles on the Mind: On the Difference Between Man and the Animals.”

[All presentations have been somewhat abridged in order to comply with Public Access time limitations. For a full transcript of the entire conference, see EIR magazine, Vol. 34, No. 38, Sept. 28, 2007. pp. 4-51; No. 39, Oct. 5, pp. 4-31; No. 40, Oct. 12, pp. 48-71; No. 41, Oct. 19, pp. 58-71. Or, visit www.schillerinstitute.com, and click on “Eurasian Land-Bridge Conference: Transcripts & Audio Files.”]

Release Date: Jan. 7, 2007

Program No. 708

“Six Months Into the Greatest Financial Crash Ever,” Pt. 1

January 17 saw three events which clearly define the battle lines in a showdown over how to respond to the accelerating disintegration of the U.S. and world economy:

On that afternoon, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before the House of Representatives Budget Committee, and joined the chorus calling for a “fiscal and monetary stimulus,” to try to inject some life into an already moribund system.

On that same afternoon, Lyndon LaRouche addressed an international webcast from Washington, DC, sponsored by the LaRouche Political Action Committee (L-PAC). When the question of the myriad of “stimulus packages” was raised, Mr. LaRouche ridiculed the idea: “Everybody is talking about stimulation, like this is a sex clinic or something. This is not the problem!” The present crisis is not a mere financial crisis, nor a depression, but a global breakdown crisis, which, if not stopped, will radiate out from the Trans-Atlantic English-speaking community, “to bring every part of the world into a general breakdown of their respective social systems.” But, by following the example set by President Franklin Roosevelt, and basing ourselves on the U.S. Constitution, which is derived, in principle, from the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which placed the “benefit of the other” as the highest good, the crisis is manageable. Mr. LaRouche outlines the measures which must be taken now to prevent civilization from disintegrating into chaos.

Two of those measures were the subject of the third Jan. 17 event, which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, where Schiller Institute Chairman Tom Gillesberg presented testimony to a parliamentary committee, urging adoption of Mr. LaRouche’s New Bretton Woods proposal, and informed committee members of the groundswell of support rising in the U.S. for Mr. LaRouche’s Homeowners and Bank Protection Act.

The choice before us is clear: Continue the plunge into the worst human catastrophe since the 14^th Century New Dark Age, or adopt LaRouche’s policies now!

This edition of The LaRouche Connection features Mr. LaRouche’s opening remarks to the webcast. The event was moderated by LaRouche’s national spokeswoman, Debra Freeman.

[For a complete transcript of the webcast, including the discussion session, see EIR magazine, Vol. 35, No. 4, Jan. 25, 2008. Pp. 4-29. Or, visit www.larouchepub.com, click on “LaRouche’s Writings,” and search for the January 17 Webcast listing. ]

Release Date: Feb. 4, 2008

Program No. 709

“Six Months Into the Greatest Financial Crash Ever,” Pt.2

January 17 saw three events which clearly define the battle lines in a showdown over how to respond to the accelerating disintegration of the U.S. and world economy:

This edition of The LaRouche Connection features first the conclusion of Mr. LaRouche’s opening remarks to the Webcast, in which he discusses his famous “Triple Curve,” first presented in 2000, showing the U.S. economy reaching a critical point of instability; the fact that the human mind is not digital, that creativity does not exist in any digital system; that the time has come when the technological and scientific requirements of maintaining humanity are such that humanity can no longer exist without committing ourselves to the entirety of the human race—a new, global “Peace of Westphalia.” The remainder of the program is a portion from the discussion session. The entire event was moderated by LaRouche’s national spokeswoman, Debra Freeman.

From the Webcast Discussion Session:

Homeowners and Bank Protection Act

From State Rep. Joe Almeda of Rhode Island (primary sponsor of a resolution calling for immediate Congressional action on the Homeowners and Bank Protection Act (HBPA) in the Rhode Island House): Statement calling on all state legislatures across the country to support the HPBA.

Stimulus Package or Sex Clinic?

From someone previously associated with the Hamilton Group, and who is now with the Congressional Budget Office: “Given the nature of this crisis, there are two potential approaches: One is President Lyndon Johnson’s, and I believe Hillary Clinton’s misnamed economic stimulus proposal falls into this one (which I support). The other is the one President John Kennedy took with his Moon Mission. Can one lead to the other? Do you think we still have the capability to launch a JFK-style approach?

Infrastructure Plus Stimulation?

From someone with responsibility for one of the Congressional committees that deals with economic issues: “While infrastructure spending is among the initiatives under consideration in Congress, there are concerns that legislation providing additional spending through infrastructural development would simply take too long to enter the economy. So, from this standpoint, do you think that ‘stimulus legislation’ is appropriate, and should additional investment in infrastructure be included in any stimulus package, or should it be separate?”

A Plausible Pitch?

From the Hispanic Caucus on Capitol Hill: “What would you think about dividing your legislation into two pieces? I think we’ve got the votes for a moratorium on foreclosures. What if we were to put that first, and then bring up separately, the bank protection? And, if we were to do it that way, how much time would we have, after a moratorium on foreclosures, to deal with the banks?”

After the HBPA: Reactivate Industry

From someone involved with a national campaign: “You’ve built into the HBPA a firewall to protect what I assume you mean to be the chartered banks? Why do you call it a firewall? How would it function? It won’t really stop the collapse. I don’t understand how you could separate banks’ exposure to hedge funds and vice versa. Why does Wall Street have such a violent reaction to your HBPA? From the standpoint of domestic policy, how would you immediately follow up on the HBPA?

Release Date: Feb. 11, 2008

Program No. 710

“Six Months Into the Greatest Financial Crash Ever,” Pt. 3

January 17 saw three events which clearly define the battle lines in a showdown over how to respond to the accelerating disintegration of the U.S. and world economy:

The LaRouche Connection covered this event in three parts. Part I featured the bulk of Mr. LaRouche’s opening remarks to the webcast. Part II featured his conclusion and the first five questions from the Discussion session. Part III features all but the last question, which, unfortunately, had to be omitted for Public Access time limitations. The entire event was moderated by LaRouche’s national spokeswoman, Debra Freeman.

From the Webcast Discussion Session:

From a Maryland state Legislator: “I serve on the committee which is dealing with the immediate implications of the mortgage crisis, and while I do plan on signing on as a co-sponsor to the HBPA, I wonder if there isn’t something we can do on the state level to mitigate the crisis, while we are pressuring Congress to act.”

Ted Weill (Chairman of the Mississippi Reform Party): “If the Venezuelan government can set up oil-cracking plants to make gasoline for their people, we should be able to do the same thing. What do you think?”

From John Jeffries, a machinist in Louisville, KY: “Is the HBPA Constitutional?

From Ruby Nelson (Warrensville Heights, OH City Council): If the HBPA passes Congress, and I certainly hope that it does, what can we look forward to? Who will it work? What motivates you to wage this very challenging fight, and how can we spread it?”

From José Villar, an economist for more than 29 years (in Spain): “Is it possible for a nation to issue money through a national bank without interest?”

From a Presidential campaign: “Does Barak Obama know what he’s doing? Is he a witting player, or just a throw-away?”

From the Freshman Congressional Caucus: “Can we still build our way out of this crisis, or is it just too late for that? Waiting for a massive public works program to kick in, just does not seem to be sufficient to address the problem.”

From Mr. Temba (in Tanzania): “How were Structural Investment Vehicles formed, and what are their effects on the global economy? Also, who owns these things, and what are we to do with them?

John Bosnitch (consultant, and former Executive Director of the Serbian Unity Congress): “Were you in the situation of Serbia and Russia today, what steps could be taken to stop the effort to destroy the entire world order through the issue of independent Kosovo?”

Release Date: Feb. 24, 2008

Program No. 711

“Averting Doom,” Pt.1

On March 12, Lyndon LaRouche conducted an international video webcast from Washington, DC, sponsored by the LaRouche Political Action Committee. Debra Freeman moderated the event. This edition of The LaRouche Connection features the first hour of Mr. LaRouche’s opening presentation.

LaRouche: “First of all, Felix Rohatyn is guilty of something tantamount to high treason against the United States, in the fact that he is supposedly a citizen of the Unites States, but is working, to my knowledge, with sources which are intent on destroying the United States. And therefore, the man is a traitor, and should be regarded as such by any honest citizen who is not absolutely stupid.”

Mr. LaRouche immediately takes his audience back to the FDR Legacy—to March 1933, the day Franklin Roosevelt entered the White House as President—the same day he began to dictate the outlines of action which saved the Untied States from the Great Depression, and prepared the country for war to defeat British-installed fascism. And how Harry Truman worked for the ideas of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, to reverse Roosevelt’s intentions for the post-war period. Since then, the country has been put through shock after shock (McCarthyism; the assassination of John and Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.; 9/11) to shape a cowardice in the Baby Boomer generation, which has set us up to accept the early destruction of our country.

Between 1969 and 1981 we saw the take-down of the 1944 Bretton Woods fixed-exchange-rate system, wrecking the dollar (Aug. 15, 1971); the destruction of the physical economy, via massive deregulation of the FDR-era structure of the economy; a halting of nuclear power; and a change in our culture.

LaRouche: “The time has come, when we’re now at the end of the rope. You have a great conspiracy, by the same people, on both sides of the Atlantic: one destroying the Untied States with the fascist Michael Bloomberg for President campaign; the other in Europe, by the introduction of the fascist “Lisbon Treaty” system.”

LaRouche: “This is not necessary. If we go back to our Constitutional foundations. In order to have a representative form of government, you must have nations, which are sovereign, which represent the culture of that people. Not globalization.”

The crisis we face today is a collapse of the World System. “We are not in a depression; we’re in a general breakdown crisis, comparable in form to what happened in Europe in the 14^th Century, when the general dark age hit. We are in the middle of an onrushing dark age!”

Mr. LaRouche urges his listeners to use our nation’s uniquely Constitutional powers to get things moving again: “Protect the household. Keep people in their homes and communities. But you can’t save the homeowners, if you don’t save the banks! You have to save the local banks—the real ones that take deposits and loan money, and are vehicles of the Federal government and state governments to conduit funds through them, for local purposes or state purposes, and thus stimulate the growth of the economy. In this way you put people back to work, exactly the way Roosevelt did.”

[For a complete transcript of the webcast, including the discussion session, see EIR magazine, Vol. 35, No. 12, March 21, 2008. Pp. 4-33. Or, visit www.larouchepub.com, click on “LaRouche’s Writings,” and search for the March 12 Webcast listing.]

Release Date: March 28, 2008

Program No. 712

“Averting Doom,” Pt. 2

On March 12, Lyndon LaRouche conducted an international video webcast from Washington, DC, sponsored by the LaRouche Political Action Committee. Debra Freeman moderated the event. This edition of The LaRouche Connection features the conclusion of Mr. LaRouche’s opening presentation, and the first seven questions to Mr. LaRouche from the Discussion Session.

At the end of Part One of our coverage of this event, Mr. LaRouche was urging his listeners to use our nation’s uniquely Constitutional powers to get the U.S. economy moving again. “Protect the household. Keep people in their homes and communities. But you can’t save the homeowners, if you don’t save the banks! You have to save the local banks—the real ones that take deposits and loan money, and are vehicles of the Federal government and state governments to conduit funds through them, for local purposes or state purposes, and thus stimulate the growth of the economy. In this way you put people back to work, exactly the way Roosevelt did.”

He then proposes setting up a two-level credit system. Loans for authorized programs could receive Federal created credit, through the local, State, and Federal chartered banks at 1-2%. Loans for all other purposes would carry a floating (higher) rate. In this way, the banks are protected, by putting them through bankruptcy protection, and so are the people, and local communities, by keeping folks in their homes.

Also required is an economic driver program, involving large projects, especially nuclear power, which would “break the world free of petroleum slavery.”

LaRouche: “What we need is a revolt of the patriots: people who see what patriotism really means. Are you committed to some practical benefit for your nation, and the world?”

“We must overcome the stupidity which seems to control most members of the Congress and many citizens who prefer to be ignorant, because they like desperation better than solutions, in order to accept these three simple steps:”

1. Enact the Homeowners and Bank Protection Act, protecting legitimate banking functions, and homeowners.

2. Establish a two-tier credit system: 1-2% for government-authorized credit, letting the interest rate float, to 7-8-9% for other things. No stimulus package.

3. Bring together an alliance of the United States, Russia, China, and India, and bring other countries, and bring other countries into the same alliance, on economic policy, to create a new international monetary-financial system of fixed exchange rates, ending the presently hopelessly bankrupt floating exchange-rate system.

“Under these conditions, we can mobilize most of the world to get the Hell out of this thing and come back to a system where human beings can decently live again.”

From the Discussion Session:

· From someone associated with writing policy for one of the Presidential campaigns: “Sen. Clinton has refined her housing proposal to adopt policies that forcibly reduce the amounts of money owed by homeowners…. Can this be done without the establishment of a separate and new Federal institution?”

· From a Democrat member of the Senate, with close historic ties to the military: “Vice President Dick Cheney has recently called for an anti-missile defense system. You are repeatedly identified as the intellectual author of the Strategic Defense Initiative. Has Cheney finally come around to your point of view? Or, has your advocacy of an SDI changed?”

· From a group at the Hamilton Group: “We are grappling with the issue of economic vs. fiscal stimulus. Please address the question of a strong dollar. How would you defend the dollar in this framework?”

· From a member of the Black Congressional Caucus: Do you actually believe that Barack Obama is a fascist, or is he just being used? Isn’t it possible that he’s smarter than those who think they’re using him, and that he’s really using them?”

· From someone holding statewide office in New York: “Can you comment on the targeting of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer?”

· From someone associated with a Presidential campaign: “Talk a bit more about what specifically corporativism is, and how it differs from what we know as the American System.”

· Composite question (from several sources): “Felix Rohatyn openly refers to himself as a follower of John Maynard Keynes, but recently tried to reverse his previous public hostility to Franklin Roosevelt, by saying he supported the New Deal. There are many ill-informed or lying authorities, who would insist that FDR and his Bretton Woods system were essentially Keynesian. Please address this.”

Release Date: April 9, 2008

Program No. 713

“Interview: M.J. Mapuranga, Zimbabwe Ambassador to the U.S.”

On April 12, Dr. Machivenyika J. Mapuranga, the Zimbabwean Ambassador the United States, gave an interview to the LaRouche Show, the weekly internet radio program. Host Lawrence Freeman was joined by LaRouche Youth Movement member from Zimbabwe, Portia Tarumbwa Strid by telephone from Berlin.

In a world in the throws of a melt-down of the global financial system, where City of London financiers are looking for control, looking to save their system, while instigating destabilizations, potentially leading to wars, certainly including Africa, host Freeman begins the discussion with a question to Dr. Mapuranga on the status of the recent elections for President and Parliament in Zimbabwe.

Ambassador Mapuranga discusses the elections as a “culmination of the process started in March 2007, when the heads of state and government of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) met, and issued a communiqué in which they requested the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, to play the part of facilitator—some say even mediator—in talks between the ruling party, ZANU-PF, and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).”

The talks resulted in Amendment 18 to the Zimbabwean Constitution, which cut the Presidential term from six to five years, and stipulates a maximum of two terms. It also created Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), with two members each nominated by the opposition party and by the ruling party.

Amb. Mapuranga, after outlining the course of the recent elections, held according to ZEC rules, details a lot of interference by British, who “if you listen to some of the debates that go on in the House of Lords, you would in fact get convinced that as far as they’re concerned, Zimbabwe is not yet an independent sovereign state.”

There follows a discussion of the history of colonial Africa, going back to 1890, up through 14-year War of Liberation, and the continuing scramble for the “treasure trove” of raw materials in Zimbabwe.

Portia Tarumbwa Strid intervenes at this point, on President Robert Mugabe’s land reform policy, and similar policies to redress the disgusting British policies of forced starvation, wars, and disease: “Any government that tries to go against globalization, or against the IMF, or against the British Empire, will get crushed.”

This allowed the Ambassador to elaborate. “The economy we inherited was an integral part of the Anglo-American economy, and so, very vulnerable to sanctions, including ‘regime change’”

There is a new determination of African countries, however, to take their destiny into their own hands. The problem is, they are not getting any help from the West.

Dr. Mapuranga: “As far as the British are concerned—and Kenya was a British colony—it doesn’t really matter if it is Raila Odinga in power, or Mwai Kibaki—both of them are very close allies of the British. In Zimbabwe, it is different. We are talking of two different paradigms of development. On the one hand, you have a puppet party, which takes instructions from London, the MDC, which is funded by London; and on the other, you have the party of nationalists that spearheaded the liberation war, and is saying that the indigenous people should also have a say in the ownership of land, and the mineral resources. They cannot just continue to be laborers in the mines of the British, or on British farms.”

In answer to Ms. Tarumbwa Strid’s plea to help Zimbabwe build highways, railways, canal systems, doubling its food production, introducing nuclear irradiation for food preservation, and nuclear power, especially the fourth generation Pebble Bed reactor being built in South Africa for power and desalination, Amb. Mapuranga responded: “I agree entirely. But you have a situation where the Bush Administration arrogates to itself the power to say who should have access to nuclear technology, and who should not. That’s a big problem. We have a Ministry of Water Development, which is concerned with building dams and singing bore-holes for irrigation purposes.”

[For a complete transcript of the interview, see EIR magazine, Vol. 35, No. 17, April 25, 2008. Pp. 48-56.]

Release Date: April 28, 2008

Program No. 714

“Averting Doom,” Pt. 3

On March 12, Lyndon LaRouche conducted an international video webcast from Washington, DC, sponsored by the LaRouche Political Action Committee. Debra Freeman moderated. This edition of The LaRouche Connection features the concluding section of the Discussion Session following Mr. LaRouche’s opening presentation.

From a Zimbabwean living abroad: “I would appreciate your view on the current situation in Zimbabwe, and the upcoming elections, [as well as] Africa as a whole, and how the current perilous state of the world political and economic system will impact my already extremely vulnerable continent.”

John Asher: What’s going to have to be the transition here, out away from this Eurodollar/petrodollar system, in terms of bringing in the Homeowners and Bank Protection Act and New Bretton Woods?

From a Democratic staffer on a House Committee: If Hillary Clinton were elected, would this mean fascism could not be imposed?”

From a director of one of the Presidential campaigns: “You repeatedly refer to your Youth Movement, and the role they’re playing in forwarding your political agenda. Yet, those under age 22 or 23 are voting overwhelmingly for Barak Obama. Please explain.”

Alli Perebikovsky: What is the historic and cultural background of those nations [which would constitute your Four Power Agreement, i.e., China, India, Russia, and the United States]? What is it that allows these nations to be the best combination to change the current world system?”

Carlos Cano (president of the Conseno world organization): “Why do you persist in restructuring the old-neo-liberal model, when those tendencies keep us from a new world order, to be able to save the Earth from climatic changes through responsible consumption?”

From several EIR readers and others: “Vice-President Dick Cheney is going to 5-6 countries in Southwest Asia, and many people fear an Iran war, or other preventive war is being set up. This is especially the case after the resignation of Admiral Fallon. What is your assessment of this region, and how do you think the U.S. can avoid war before the Presidential elections?”

Question from audience: “What is your idea of our future educational system, based on morality and creativity?”

From a well-known Democratic consultant: “The current race for the Democratic nomination is being orchestrated in such a way as to cause bitter divisions among Democrats, and my fear is that those divisions may be too bitter and too deep to be mended. If this continues, I’m afraid we face the possibility of a GOP victory. Do you think there is some efficient way to deal with this problem now?”

Composite question from six sources in Italy: “The former finance minister of Italy, Giulio Tremonti, has recently written a book on the end of globalization, and the need for a New Bretton Woods. Unfortunately, Tremonti is part of the Berlusconi political movement, in which many are part of the old P-2 networks. They also support a platform which is racist, xenophobic, and generally deplorable, How to you think this contradiction is going to be resolved?”

From someone who was a super-delegate to the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston: “Hoe does evil manifest itself in individuals?”

Release Date: May 5, 2008

Program No. 714

“Firewall: In Defense of the Nation-State”

Early in 2008, Lyndon LaRouche tasked a small team of young associates to create a documentary which would present the true story of what has become widely, but falsely, referred to as “The Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis,” and what to do about it. On February 22, the Lyndon LaRouche Political Action Committee (L-PAC) released 10,000 copies of an 80-minute DVD called “Firewall: In Defense of the Nation-State,” and began distributing them nationally. In this edition of The LaRouche Connection, we present a 60-minute version of “Firewall,” edited for Public Access.

On July 25, 2007, before the crisis burst into the news, Lyndon LaRouche delivered an address in Washington, DC which was webcast internationally on the internet, stating the close of the post-Franklin Roosevelt global financial and monetary system:

“Firewall” begins with a clip of Mr. LaRouche from that webcast: “There is no possibility of a non-collapse of the present financial system. None. It’s finished now. The present financial system cannot continue to exist under any circumstances, under any presidency, under any leadership, or any leadership of nations. Only a fundamental and sudden change in the world monetary financial system will prevent a general immediate chain reaction type of collapse. At what speed we don’t know, but it will go on and it will be unstoppable. And the longer it goes on before coming to an end, the worse things will get.”

While Mr. LaRouche spoke about the reality of a global collapse, Presidential candidates, elected officials, and respected economists raced to reveal various “stimulus packages,” thus perpetuating the hopeless bailout of an already bankrupt system.

“Firewall” reveals the process by which we have come to such a point in history, and how we might rise to regain America’s proper role in the world, rather than shrinking into littleness, watching the great experiment of our Founding Fathers relegated to the dustbin of history, as the world descends into a new Dark Age.

In the second half of the 19^th Century, a new dynamic began to express itself in the political landscape of the world. Previously dominated by a system of empires, typified by the British Empire’s commitment to thriving off the sheer brute labor power of uneducated, enslaved populations, the post-colonial U.S. Republic offered a better vision for the future, typified in the writings of American System economist and adviser to President Lincoln, Henry C. Carey.

Lincoln triumphed over the concerted efforts of the British Empire to break the Union apart, through support of the Confederacy and other means of subversion. The American System, based upon freeing and fostering the creative capacities of mankind, thrived upon a culture of scientific advancement, and development of basic economic infrastructure. The U.S. became the first continental sovereign nation-state to establish itself on the map, in the entire span of recorded history.

The international consequences of America’s achievement precipitated rapidly. Germany, Japan, and Russia underwent rapid development. Not giving up easily, the Britain’s Lord Palmerston drew Russia into an alliance against Germany, and manipulated events which led to World War I, the ultimate aim being the ruin of Germany.

“Firewall” goes through the horrendous terms of the Versailles treaty—a death sentence for Germany. By 1923, with a disintegrated monetary system, Germany had nowhere to turn, save a political solution to the Weimar madness. Appointed as currency commissioner, and then president of the Reichsbank, Hjalmar Schacht catalyzed the further dismantling of Germany as a nation-state. He brought an end to the hyperinflation, alright, but only by means of imposing severe hyper-deflation, securing further reparations payments off the backs of an already starved population. The final remedy to enforced disintegration came when the London and Wall Street merged, in slime-mold fashion, to finance the election of Adolf Hitler. Europe was again pitched into savage austerity and World War.

Today we are witnessing, once again, the threefold process of feeding a ballooning financial bubble, using an expanding money supply, looted from a collapsed physical economy—exactly what was imposed on defeated Germany—represented as a single, collapse function. A shock front develops rapidly, until it reaches a critical point of instability, where the rate of

increase in the monetary aggregates surpasses that of the financial aggregates. This singularity marks the transition between

two entirely distinct spaces, where the governing processes on the one side no longer apply on the other.

After World War II, Britain launched a project in the U.S. of the same type of fascism as they had established throughout Europe in the prior decade. McCarthyism (better termed “Trumanism,”) turned the U.S. into a virtual police state, creating the conditions later for the rock-drugs-sex existentialist counter-culture, which has dominated the Baby Boomer generation ever since. This time, unlike Germany after WWI, there has been no need for a military to enforce the destruction of American industry. The 68ers had been imbued with a passionate hatred for the human creative capacity, a passion which had only to be steered by the manipulation of popular culture. Science-fiction replaced Science. The cultural willingness to accept the first phase of the triple curve collapse function had been established.

Throughout the course of the 1970s, a series of operations were run with the intention of replacing the U.S. physical economy with a massive parasitical debt bubble. In 1971, a group of financier interests, led by George Schultz and Felix Rohatyn, made the decision to officially decouple the dollar from gold, thus ending the Bretton Woods system of international development, established by President Franklin Roosevelt, ushering in by 1979 what the Council on Foreign Relations termed “controlled disintegration of the U.S. economy.”

Among the major firewalls established by Roosevelt to defend the American people, the Savings and Loan banks – barred from speculative activities in order to ensure the availability of low interest, long terms loans for housing and other needs—were opened to predatory speculation. Remember Mike Milken and “junk bonds?” By the end of the 1980s, the entire U.S. economy was in a state of collapse, culminating in “Black Monday,” in October of 1987.

But an increasing flow of money, looted from the collapsing physical economy, was required to feed the ballooning bubble. Under “globalization,” U.S. trade policy was restructured after the model of the British East India Company. The cost of goods, which would otherwise be skyrocketing, was lowered, in essence, to looting the caloric intake of the populations of the un-developing world. Derivatives markets spread across the globe.

After the blowout of the Y2K bubble, a critical discontinuity was reached. Banks began appraising housing prices at higher and higher levels, and new housing development took off. By this time, the electricity grid was wrecked, the steel industry shut down, and the auto industry packaged up and shipped out of the country. The average cost of housing began to exceed the average income. With families unable to afford new homes, sales slowed.

“Sub-prime” lending came to the rescue! By offering more and more risky loans to more and more people who could ill afford them, the system managed to keep itself afloat. But not for long. In June 2007, the largest sub–prime lender, Bear Stearns, found its paper no longer being accepted at face value. This triggered a chain reaction, and over 80 mortgage lenders disappeared. The U.S. Treasury and European Central Bank were buffaloed by the City of London into pumping hundreds of billions of dollar into the system by the end of the year, in order to prevent the major banks from going under. Meanwhile, we were being primed for a fascist intervention.

Today, as the world faces a crisis comparable to that of 1923, the political solution proffered by some, including would-be President, billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger, is massive cuts in social services, such as health care and pensions. Like feudal barons, financial agencies are assuming control over the nation’s infrastructure, restricting its usage to those rich enough to pay the rising tolls. This time, the apparatus which would be used is termed, misleadingly, a “Public-Private Partnership”—otherwise known as Mussolini-style corporatism.

Once again, as in Weimar Germany, we have reached a point where the solution must be a political one. But this time, the American people and the world now face an opportunity which was never given to Weimar Germany.

Lyndon LaRouche: “Under our Constitution with a President and with the backing of a Congress which supports him in this, the U.S. can act to create a firewall in which we protect mortgages and legitimate, chartered banks. No foreclosures. Keep essential banking functions open. Maintain the communities and the nation as physically functioning entities. The government controls the credit. The government is a sovereign. The government is the only one that is allowed to utter currency. The government must now assert control over its own money that it creates. No other money is allowed to be generated, except by treaty agreements with other nations.”

By treaty arrangements with the three other major powers—China, India, and Russia—it is possible to once again create a fixed-exchange rate system in the world, putting a lid on inflation, and once again issue long term credit, in two tiers, the first for productive activities, such as developing higher and higher technologies, going to a nuclear economy, maglev trains, and all sorts of new raw materials, at 1-2%; and the other for everything else, at a floating rate. We can have a really bright future if we just let this go!

[For a complete script of the program, go to www.larouchepub.com/tv. Click on Program Summaries for 2008, and scroll down to Program No. 714.]

Release Date: May 15, 2008

“FIREWALL: IN DEFENSE OF THE NATION-STATE”

RELEASED FEBRUARY 22, 2008 AS A DVD

BY THE

LYNDON LAROUCHE POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE

Following is a complete transcript of the 80-minute version of the documentary.

INTRODUCTION

Narrator: In mid-2007, the global financial system exploded.

Newspaper headlines and television sets across the country resounded with reports of what was soon widely referred to as “The Sub-prime Mortgage Crisis.” The abysmal losses of Countywide Financial and American Home Mortgage became ‘the talk of the town’ almost overnight.

The failure was not of pieces of the system, however, but of the system itself.

This was not an unforeseen “event.”

Several days before the reports of crisis burst into the news, Economist Lyndon LaRouche delivered an international address, signifying the close of the post-FDR global financial and monetary system.

[Lyndon LaRouche (Time:1:01-1:43)

“There is no possibility of a non-collapse of the present financial system. None. It’s finished now. The present financial system can not continue to exist under any circumstances, under any presidency, under any leadership or any leadership of nations. Only a fundamental and sudden change in the world monetary financial system will prevent a general immediate chain reaction type of collapse. At what speed we don’t know but they will go on and it will be unstoppable, and the longer it goes on before coming to an end, the worse things will get.”]

In the ensuing period, though the media frenzy had appeared to dissipate, the terror in the financial world did not. Rather than following LaRouche’s initiative to break from the failing system and support his Homeowners and Bank Protection Act, federal leaders, under pressure from Wall Street, clung to measures which would only prolong the death-throes of the financial system until the end of the year, at the expense of the population.

Upon the arrival of the New Year, in the aftermath of further unprecedented money-pumping measures taken by central banks around the globe at the behest of City of London financiers, political solutions began to surface left and right. Presidential candidates, elected officials, and economists raced to reveal their “stimulus packages,” further perpetuating the bail out of the already bankrupt system.

On January 17^th, six months after his assessment of the end of the world financial system, LaRouche again spoke out above the clamor, identifying the full scope and implications of the crisis.

[Lyndon LaRouche (Time: 3:00-3:38)

“Each day now since Jan. 3^rd the crisis has been expanding in magnitude at an accelerating rate. What you think is the extent of the crisis today if the measures I propose are not taken, will become much worse by an order of magnitude. On the next week and the week after that and the week after that until the whole system grinds into a collapse probably sometime during this year, and I’m talking about a global collapse not a collapse of just the trans-Atlantic English speaking community.”]

The following week ended in the last hurrah of the Federal Reserve: a drastic cut in the interest rates—a clear move of utter desperation. LaRouche identified this as the culminating event of a commitment made by the trans-Atlantic English-speaking world toward a new phase of crisis: a chain reaction of global hyperinflationary collapse, comparable to that which struck Germany in 1923, terminating in the fascist regimes of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

In this presentation, we shall unfold to the viewer the process by which we have come to such a point in history, and how we may rise to the occasion of regaining America’s proper role in the world, rather than shrinking into littleness and watching as the great experiment of our Founding Fathers is relegated to the dustbin of history, as the world enters a new Dark Age.

We urge the viewer to watch as if his future depended on it, because in a very real sense, it does.

PRE-WORLD WAR I

Narrator: In the second half of the nineteenth century, a new dynamic was beginning to express itself in the political landscape of the world. Previous to this, the world had been dominated by a system of empires, typified by the British Empire’s commitment to thriving off the sheer brute labor power of uneducated, enslaved populations.

In the name of free trade, the British East India Company enforced an economic policy devised to maintain the dependence of its colonies upon its control of maritime shipping throughout the world. By flooding foreign markets with cheap goods they would force other countries to devalue their labor to the point where their only recourse was either the employment of slave labor or the elimination of manufacturing altogether. By these means Britain’s colonies were to forever remain |vassals| with the sole purpose of supplying raw materials to the Empire.

[John Hoefle (Time: 6:08-7:06)

“The British Empire ruled by controlling trade and raw materials. So they would have colonies around the world, in which they would loot these colonies. These colonies were never allowed to develop beyond the level at which they needed to develop to make the looting of them, the looting of their raw materials, efficient. So you would build railroads from the mine to the coast, but you would never build railroads across the continent, to tie the continent together as a whole. You would build up certain local aristocracies, but that’s for the purposes of providing the political protection for your looting operation. But it’s all about looting and extraction, you don’t want these things to become nations. Because if they become nations, then they start looking at these resources as theirs, instead of yours, and that’s a problem if you are trying to steal them.”]

In the post-colonial United States Republic, however, there existed a better vision for the future. American System economist and adviser to President Abraham Lincoln, Henry C. Carey, drew a stark contrast when he wrote in 1851:

[Carey Reader: Two systems are before the world; …. One looks to underworking the Hindoo, and sinking the rest of the world to his level; the other to raising the standard of man throughout the world to our level. One looks to pauperism, ignorance, depopulation, and barbarism; the other in increasing wealth, comfort, intelligence,…and civilization. One looks towards universal war; the other towards universal peace. One is the English system; the other we may be proud to call the American System, for it is the only one ever devised the tendency of which was that of elevating while equalizing the condition of man throughout the world.

Such is the true mission of the people of these United States…. To raise the value of labor throughout the world, we need only raise the value of our own.]

In 1865, the young nation--the United States of America--under the leadership of President Abraham Lincoln, triumphed over the concerted efforts of the British Empire to break her apart through support of the confederacy and other means of subversion. The American System, based upon freeing and fostering the creative capacities of mankind, thrived upon a culture of scientific advancement and development of basic economic infrastructure. A vast railway grid, stretching from ocean to ocean, reinforced the internal sovereignty of the nation, and secured independence from any external sea-power. In this way, the United States became the first continental sovereign nation-state to establish itself on the map, in the entire span of recorded history.

[John Hoefle (Time: 9:50-10:20)

“Now a nation is an entirely different thing. A nation, if you look at our constitution and declaration of independence, where it says clearly that the purpose of what we’re doing is to protect the general welfare of your population. That we’re all in this together. That everybody gets protected. That we want to build a nation according to a concept which promotes culture, which promotes the development of the individuals and the creative potential of the human mind, because that’s your real asset.” ]

The international consequences of America’s achievement precipitated rapidly. Just as Carey had foreseen, the popularity of the American System spread throughout the globe, as other nations perceived its successful thwarting of the British Empire. Nations such as Germany, Russia, and Japan underwent rapid development.

Germany, in particular, began to develop a vast network of rail and canals. With such an immense system of infrastructure, it quickly became a leader in industry throughout not only Europe, but the entire world. The productive output of Germany’s Ruhr region was second only to the powerhouse of America, the Pittsburg region. With Germany’s exports growing, so did its maritime power; and as it laid plans to fund the construction of a continuous rail grid from Berlin to Baghdad, it emerged as a significant threat to the long-standing British world dominance.

[John Hoefle (Time: 11:38-12:15)

“But if you promote the creative potential of the human mind, then you also destroy the world in which the Empire is operating, because anybody who’s got a brain, and can see a better way, is not going to tolerate these things. And when the United States, as you saw after the civil war, when we got the American System up and running and started exporting it to other countries around the world, we were transforming the world. And we were the greatest threat to this system on the planet, and they’ve been after us to take it down ever since.”]

[Text on screen only (12:24)

“If ‘Berlin-Baghdad’ were achieved, a huge block of territory producing every kind of economic wealth, and unassailable by sea-power would be united under German authority…” British Major Laffan (excerpt taken from “The Serbs: Guardians at the Gate”).]

Though America could no longer be subverted by military means, such tactics were still fully deployable by the British against other nations. With the 1888 accession of Queen Victoria’s imprudent grandson, Wilhelm II, to the German throne, the British Empire needed only to set the trap. Under the maintenance of his uncle, England’s King Edward VII, “Willy” had no difficulty in falling for it.

Earlier in the nineteenth century, Britain’s Lord Palmerston, notorious for his foreign manipulations, had already prearranged the ploy. Were any conflict to break out between Germany and France, Palmerston well knew that the Belgian territory would be a crucial strategic position for German success. Thus, under his instigation, Belgium was set up as a neutral country, meaning that should any nation violate Belgium’s border, that nation would immediately become the target of British aggressions. Britain had but to lure them in. Germany, however, had grown to such a power that Britain and France alone would not be capable of defeating her.

[Lyndon LaRouche (Time: 13:43-13:55)

“The British method is to get other people to fight a war and kill each other, and they then come in and pick up the pieces, after the people have exhausted themselves in killing each other.” ]

Once the British drew Russia into an alliance against Germany after Kaiser Wilhelm II disintegrated the alliance with Russia, the supplemental power the British sought--to wage a two-front war against Germany--was secured. All that remained to be introduced was the spark. The convenient assassination of Austrian heir apparent Archduke Franz Ferdinand, carried out by means of Serbian nationalists, ignited the situation, pitting the Germans and Austrians against the Russians and French. The British up to the last minute maintained a public appearance of having no interest in the ‘continental conflicts’ brewing in the summer of 1914, yet their intent, was unrelentingly to crush Germany at all costs.

[Lyndon LaRouche (Time: 14:50-15:24)

“So this is the way it happened, but the purpose was to destroy, geopolitically as they call it, to destroy continental Europe, continental Eurasia, to maintain it under the control of the British Empire, and using whatever lies, whatever excuses and so forth they could use, whatever motives they could cook up, to get this thing going. The essential thing is what is called geopolitics. To maintain the maritime power of the British system as the world Empire.”]

As World War I broke out in August 1914, and all the intentions were unveiled, Kaiser Wilhelm II bewailed:

The LaRouche Connection

Program Summaries: 2008 707-Current

Program Summaries: 2008
707-Current