Under the banner—“Bombing Venezuela Will Not Save the Financial System”—representatives of The LaRouche Organization in Los Angeles have been on the streets, engaging Americans to break through the fog of lies and manipulations, in order to understand what we face in the world, and take action.
Behind the war madmen centered in Europe, in Washington, and especially in London, is their frenzy to save their unsalvageable financial system of interconnected bubbles of debt, speculation, and now crypto/bitcoin scams. Their system is at the blowout phase, despite the volume of funding going into the military-financial-industrial complex. Be clear: The new financial “rescue” measures initiated in the United States this past week will not “save” their system, any more than bombing Venezuela, or some other target, is the right thing to do.
It is glaringly true in the targeting of Venezuela for U.S. military attacks, despite the narrative of fighting drugs, that the purpose of such belligerence is to sow destruction and terror in the Western Hemisphere, to drive away economic development planned through collaboration with the Global Majority, especially with China, Russia, South Africa, and other centers through the BRICS and other formations.
The way upward is presented in the principles and updates for needed financial and economic action now posted on The LaRouche Organization website, and other sites internationally, in several languages. Hand-in-hand is the statement posted December 9 by Schiller Institute leader Helga Zepp-LaRouche, “Withdraw from NATO! New National Security Strategy Requires New Security Architecture.”
In the Caribbean, the situation remains tense. Oil tanker traffic has been held up. The country can’t afford a disruption of its oil trade, as oil exports make up 90% of the country’s export revenue.
In Europe, maneuvers are underway before the European Council leadership meeting December 18-19, to bull through making use of the Russian funds seized by the West in Belgium, to spend on continuing the Ukraine conflict. All the while, Ukrainian forces, in decline, are suffering increasing losses, and the E3—the U.K., Germany and France—and Coalition of the Willing, in order to perpetuate war, refuse to recognize reality. This weekend U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are in Berlin to meet with Ukrainian officials, toward a potential meeting Sunday or Monday (December 15 or 16) in Berlin with the leaders of the E3 (U.K., France, and Germany), and NATO and the European Union.
In dramatic contrast, meetings took place in Central Asia over December 11-12 of leaders of 17 nations explicitly committing to peace and mutual development. Russian President Vladimir Putin personally attended in Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, for the “Meeting of the International Forum Peace and Trust: Unity of Goals for a Sustainable Future.” Multiple anniversaries were observed, including the 30th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s permanent neutrality. President Putin met individually with the leaders of Turkiye, Iraq, Iran, as well as his host, Turkmenistan’s President Serdar Berdimuhamedov.
Putin, in his address to the plenary on December 12, spoke of how “large-scale multilateral economic initiatives are being implemented, including in the Caspian region and Central Asia. The construction of the North-South International Transport Corridor is underway, bilateral interregional contacts are progressing steadily, and exchanges in cultural, humanitarian, and educational spheres are growing.”
Think of this model transferred to the Western Hemisphere, to Eastern Europe. As it happens, a pop-up provocation to think along those lines came about this week, when it was reported that earlier, unpublished drafts of the November U.S. National Security Strategy had contained a proposal for a “Core 5” club—made up of the U.S., India, Russia, China and Japan—that would collaborate, post-Group of Seven, and even post-Group of 20. This draft report came out December 9 from the dubious source, Defense One, a U.S. military media platform, and the White House has denied it, but has nonetheless given rise to “what if” questions. For example, the headline of an article in the Times of India on December 12 posed the question: “Donald Trump Wants To Be Part of India-China-Russia Club? All About Core-5 Buzz; Which Countries Are on the List.”
From the vantage point of motion toward such a new “club” alignment, meaning collaboration, there are singularities, though not to be construed as adding up to the needed policy shift. In October, the U.S. government quietly reversed its reimposition of sanctions on Iran on its Port of Chabahar—the key seaport node of the International North-South Transport Corridor—lifting the sanctions for six months. India is heavily invested in this Gulf of Oman port. This week, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke by phone, after a U.S. trade delegation was in New Delhi for talks over December 10-11.
On December 13 in Belarus, a U.S. delegation finished two days of cordial talks, including by U.S. envoy John Coale with President Alexandr Lukashenko. The U.S. special envoy for Belarus announced the morning of December 13 that the U.S. will lift sanctions on Belarus potash exports, which have in past years, accounted for 20% of world potash supplies. Some seers even ask: Why shouldn’t a Core 5 or Core 7 be the replacement of Global NATO?
Not being bystanders, of course, we are called upon to intervene. Consider these developments in the framework of the “Ten Principles” for a new international security and development architecture, first presented for discussion by Helga Zepp-LaRouche in November 2022.
