Schiller Institute on YouTube Schiller Institute on Facebook RSS

Home >

Schiller Institute Conference
September 15-16, 2007
Kiedrich, Germany


Towards a New Eurasian LYM

Oyang Teng, LaRouche Youth Movement


EIRNS/Julien Lemaître

(Download MP3 audio)   (Download OGG audio)

While the agenda for a global reconstruction in the Westphalian spirit was put forward in two days of incredible presentations at the Schiller Institute conference in the German village of Kiedrich, this vision for a Dialogue of Civilizations was also represented powerfully in the microcosm of the international attendees at the conference-and specifically the very visible contingent of 130 youth from every continent on the planet. Lyndon and Helga Zepp-LaRouche's subjective challenges on the question of optimism and personal, historic responsibility in a time of profound crisis confronted both members and new contacts over the two conference days and the following cadre school.

We report here a general outline of the conference from the standpoint of the youth organizing, and perspectives for the future of the European LaRouche Youth Movement. From the Berlin office (which includes the extended arm of Copenhagen in Denmark), nearly twenty youth contacts were brought to the conference, with a handful staying for the subsequent cadre school and mass deployment into Frankfurt.

As LaRouche said on Tuesday, with the closing of the Kiedrich proceedings, our international organization-operating principally out of the United States and Western Europe--has truly come back on its feet. The profundity of the weekend was reflected during the LYM discussion with European LaRouche Movement leaders Jacques Cheminade and Zepp-LaRouche on Tuesday morning, when a number of new contacts spoke up to express the impact the preceding days had already made on their lives, and their determination to contribute to the mission of the youth movement.

There was also a newfound resolve on behalf of both the French and German-based LYM to overcome some of the still existing limitations that have kept us from having a truly integrated, European youth movement with the capability to rapidly takeover whole political strata (like the Socialist Party base in France). A more "robust surge" policy is planned for rotations between German and French locals, especially with the French Solidarite et Progres Party Congress upcoming.

A number of contacts are planning to come to organize in Berlin in the near future, including three from Denmark and a couple from southern Germany. One of the Danes, a Palestinian immigrant, is excited to help spread our newly published Arabic-language hard copy of LaRouche's "So, You Wish to Learn All About Economics" in Palestine. And two young women, one from Romania and one from Poland, are now organizing with the LYM in Berlin (which now also includes delegations from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mexico, and the U.S., in addition to the existing potent mixture of Germans, Danes, and Swedes).

One serious young conference speaker from Russia decided to skip his planned sightseeing tour of Mainz to join the LYM cadre school at a picturesque village on the Rhine. He is part of a youth movement of sorts connected with the newly created Development Party of Russia, and was fascinated by the LYM's method of outreach-and our curriculum. After LYM members Myles and Malene presented the C-minor series as a prelude to a multi-lingual workshop on Kepler's New Astronomy, he exclaimed, "The music was beautiful!" For some contacts, listening to Bach's Musical Offering, Mozart's K475, and Beethoven's 111 was the first time they had really listened to Classical music (or at least the first time they enjoyed it!).

Several hours after the end of the conference, the LYM commenced a cadre school, with an introduction to the paradoxes of sight and sound by Rhys and Daniel. They presented a hint of some of the current and future scientific challenges to be taken on in the domain of physical chemistry and the harmonic organization of the periodic table of the isotopes. The next day, after a vocal warm-up, Myles and Malene posed the question, What is development? And why can't Empire develop, but at most adapt to new conditions? With this polemical counterpoint in mind, we then listened to the development of the musical dialogue of the so-called "C-Minor Series," from Bach to Mozart to Beethoven. This served as a prelude to working through the paradox in the New Astronomy leading to the famous "8 minutes" discrepancy that Kepler said "led the way to the reformation of all of astronomy."

Afterwards, we heard from LaRouche, who challenged us to defeat Liberalism, liberally! This provoked a lively discussion, including a question from our newest member on the difference between the Universe, and universal principles, and whether changes in one imply changes in the other.

The next day the LYM had a discussion with Jacques and Helga on the global strategic situation, and the emotional and intellectual breakthroughs required to locate one's personal sense of identity in the commitment to a just, new world economic order. It is Schiller's idea of the full development of one's personality, in which one's passion is educated by Reason, which provides young people (especially) the means to rise above the petty concerns and fears of a culture dominated by sense perception.

After three-and-a-half days of presentations, discussions, and pedagogies, we then unleashed ourselves upon Frankfurt's financial district for a rally and literature distribution, before heading back home. Bringing the ideas to the street provided a powerful affirmation for newer people that we aren't merely a debating society, but a fighting political movement! Our chorus and banner, and marching songs in French, German, and English struck at the heart of the city's financial district, and was a fitting send off for our international Gideon's Army assembled in Germany.

The "battlefield" reports which had been delivered by LYM members from around the world, during the closing panel of the conference, give a glimpse of the potential for something that has never yet happened in human history: a truly worldwide cultural and economic renaissance.

From Mexico, where we are fighting to uplift the population with the spirit of its greatest heroes, including the former President Jose Lopez Portillo, who turned to LaRouche during that country's great debt crisis; to the United States, where we are leading the fight for the "firewall" legislation that would be the first step in a global reorganization in the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt. From France, where we have mobilized a vast base of patriots within the "pores of the country," from over 1000 personal meetings held with mayors over the past year-and-a-half; to Germany, where we are using, among other things, the "magic of music" to change the thinking that has left the country vulnerable to the banking collapse already erupting in places like Saxony.

Now comes the follow up on the tremendous outreach that was done leading up to the conference. The historical impact of this event, already being felt around the world, will be determined by our organizing for the "multiplier effect" in the coming weeks, with Civil Rights Heroine Amelia Boynton Robinson's trip to Berlin and Lyndon LaRouche's Oct. 10 webcast already on the near horizon. As LaRouche said at his recent 85 th birthday celebration, you can be happy in dangerous times like these-as long as you're fighting!

Related pages:

More Conference Speeches

Infrastructure Corridors Will Transform the World (from EIR)

EIR Interview with former Alaska Gov. Walter J. Hickel