Question: I am a labor leader with the electrical workers union. My question is the following: How can we fight against the crisis, in which we are tremendously indebted, and the people we owe money to, tell us what path we must follow. That is to say, they put our government representatives, or tell our leaders, what they must do, in economics, in the social sphere, in politics. What must we do, so that we, in some way, understand that our countries, are countries that are totally dependent, in a certain fashion--how can we get across, so that we change this? I don't find an answer to this question: I wonder if you can give me one?

LaRouche: Okay good. Well, it's not so simple, but it's not that complicated. What is not so simple, is the fact, that if you accept the idea that these debts have to be paid, and that you can do nothing until after they're paid; and then, you, at the same time, find you don't have the means to pay, you're in an impossible situation. And, the question is: Here's the debtor and here's the debt? What is justice between the two? According to natural law, in that case, the debt must suffer. But, since the debt has no nervous system, how can it suffer? Therefore, it's a painless suffering, that it must experience.

Now, first of all, the debt is largely artificial. It was created by fraudulent means. It's essentially artificial. I've gone through this: We know the debt of the Americas is such, that South and Central America have more than paid all the debt they've actually incurred, honestly incurred, during the past 30-odd years. So, as far as I'm concerned, there is no significant debt. It doesn't exist.

Well, who is going to say it doesn't exist--that's the question? Ah! Can Peru say, it doesn't exist? Well, that's in a certain way, it can say it. Can it say it effectively? Well, not so effectively. Why!? Because you have powerful governments, and concerts of governments, who have agreed to collect the debt, even if it's not payable, and if it's not legitimate!

So therefore, now, we come to a political question, not a financial question. Now, you've got to a point, where, not only Are the countries of South and Central America hopelessly in debt, they could never pay these debts; and, they could only be collected by murdering many of the population of these countries. So therefore, it's immoral! But, who's going to stop it? So, your question is: Who is going to stop it, and how? There is no formula. There is no literary formula: It is a question of power. All right.

Now, the power lies here: That all of the countries of the world, are hopelessly in debt. All of them. So, what you have is, you have a group of financiers, who have committed fraud; who have used consent of government to commit fraud; and now, there is no government in Europe or the Americas, which could ever pay its existing debt. What if these countries decide not to pay this unpayable debt? What if they decide to put the whole thing into bankruptcy reorganization? Who is going to collect the debt? There's no one there to collect the debt! If the governments say, it's not going to be collected, it's not going to be collected! It's over!

Now, a country like Peru has a problem. You say, "We're a small country. We can't make this decision unilaterally." Ahh! That's where the question of alliances comes in; where movements of understanding, come in; cross-border movements of understanding. And, that's the only way the thing is going to be solved--no other way.

Yes, Peru can not make a unilateral decision, and get itself free of the debt, because other countries would crush it. But, what if the other countries don't crush it? Then, it can make a unilateral decision. However, it would prefer not to make a unilateral decision. It would prefer to make a decision in concert with other countries, so you come to an agreement, under which the essential business of the economy continues without stopping, while this negotiation is going on. So therefore, the question is, we have to mobilize a concert, of international forces of national patriots, who agree that this joint action must occur: And, it will occur. Our big advantage is, there is no government in the world, today, which has, as a nation, an honest interest in enforcing the debt collection. None. So therefore, in a sense, humanity is on our side. And, we simply have to make that fact, and well organize, political reality. Which means, that you have to get some big nations in.

You see, one of the big problems, here, is: When people look at the Americas, they look at the United States, and they say, "That's the Big Yankee Power. And the Big Yankee Power can crush us any time it wants to. Look! They tossed our President out of here! Tossed him out! They said they had a pretext, but it was just an arbitrary pretext. They decided to throw him out, so they threw him out. And, they put another President in."

So, the Peruvian says, "Well, ha ha! What do you mean? We can't make a sovereign decision. These guys run the show!"

Ah, but you've come to the point, at which, some of us, in various countries, know the system is coming to an end. You're going to see in the coming weeks, the entire system is now collapsing: in Europe, and in the Americas. The whole system is coming down! When the whole system is coming down, who is going to collect the debt from all of the people who can't pay? Therefore, we have to be together. We have to, first of all, think together; discuss together; and then, bring international forces, as a fruit of our discussion--bring them together, to do what I've said: a New Bretton Woods system. A reorganization of the present international monetary and financial system.

We will do it, because hw have to do it. And Peru is not a nation, which is going to have decide this, by itself. Peru is going to decide this, together with other nations. But, each of us, in our nations, must understand the issue, and thus, be prepared to act in concert, at the appropriate moment.

-30-