Alliance Programme for
Health, Peace and Social Justice
9. Lasting Global Peace Is Possible
In an age of atomic weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, every thinking person will acknowledge that wars are anathema as a means of solving international conflicts. Even regional conflicts can degenerate into global war through the use of weapons of mass destruction. The truth is that either we human beings abolish war or it will abolish us. Maintaining peace is the supreme commandment for every government and every responsible person. For this reason safeguarding peace is the cornerstone of our programme.
Safeguarding peace means learning from history
Wars do not fall from the skies but are made by men. The chief cause of wars and the cause of both world wars was the unrestrained greed of global financial interests. Safeguarding peace means primarily learning from history. It is no longer acceptable for millions of young people to grow up in Germany with the expedient lie that the first and second world wars were a kind of ‘mishap of history’.
Those who wish to understand the cause of wars must expose the lies of the past. Those who wish to secure peace must recognise the financial and political circles which have withheld the truth from us for decades, out of fear that this might endanger their vested interests.
The First World War. The first world war was primarily a war that aimed to make Germany a colonial power and thus a world empire. The war in Europe was intended to secure economic dominion on a world scale. German company groups sought global dominion for the uninhibited exploitation of raw materials and of the people of Africa, South America, and Asia. The military adventurism of the first world uselessly sacrificed millions of people in Germany and Europe to these unscrupulous financial interests.
The Second World War. The second world war primarily served the interests of Europe’s biggest oil and pharmaceutical cartel of the time, the German IG Farben company, an amalgamation of Bayer, Höchst and BASF. IG Farben was the biggest single industrial donor to Hitler’s rise to power, and gained the greatest economic advantage from the Wehrmacht’s conquest of Europe. The chemical industries and the oil and raw materials of the conquered countries of Europe were all appropriated and handed to the IG Farben cartel. IG Auschwitz, one of the world’s biggest industrial sites at the time, and main exploiter of the Auschwitz concentration camp, was a 100-percent subsidiary of the IG Farben company group.
At the Nuremberg trials, the IG Farben Group was dismantled and divided up into its subsidiaries Bayer, BASF and Höchst. Leading managers of IG Farben were charged with crimes against humanity and sentenced. The charge laid before the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal summarised the chemical, oil and pharmaceutical multinational’s responsibility for the unspeakable suffering of the second world war by stating that without the IG Farben Group the second world war would not have been possible.
The oil and pharmaceutical interests of the Rockefeller Group “rule” the world. After the end of the Second World War and the break-up of the German chemical, oil and pharmaceutical cartel, the Rockefeller Group in the USA acquired a kind of global monopoly in this commercial sector. Today, at the beginning of the 21 st century, this financial group controls not only the global oil and pharmaceutical market, but also, via its banks, the financial markets and via its media groups (CNN, Time Warner), public opinion throughout the world.
The Rockefeller oil and pharmaceutical investment group’s political influence goes still further than this. The “Council of Foreign Relations” founded by Rockefeller counted all US presidents of recent decades among its members – long before they were ever elected. Via international associations such as the “Trilateral Commission” and the “Bilderberg Group”, the Rockefeller Group has influenced current political and economic life throughout the world. The ‘junior partner’ of the Rockefeller trust is the British Rothschild Group, with shares in oil and pharmaceutical groups worth hundreds of billions of euros.
The Iraq war and its global repercussions
It is no accident that a war of aggression on Iraq was driven by the USA and Great Britain – by those countries, in other words, whose governments follow the dictates of the billion-dollar oil and pharmaceutical cartel. As in the Second World War, economic interests of the oil and pharmaceutical industry were once again the motivating factor in the war against Iraq.
This war has clearly demonstrated that global economic interests, in their boundless greed, are nowadays willing to sacrifice thousands of human lives, break international law and conquer foreign countries. This is something not only recognised by the people of Germany but above all also by the people and governments of over 120 developing countries in the world. Since the Iraq war it has been clear that developing countries rich in raw materials are easy prey for global economic interests and the military forces acting on their behalf.
Securing lasting peace requires clear analysis and strategies
For us, peace is not a theoretical point in a programme. We name the three chief causes of wars and offer clear, practical strategies to remove these causes.
Cause of war: the commercial greed of multinationals. Driven by the desire of a handful of shareholders for continually increasing profits, these company groups know no bounds in satisfying their insatiable greed.
Our answer: The sole means to remove this cause of war in an effective and lasting way is to place these companies under public control. This is the only means of ensuring that human rights are respected and peace is secured. The first groups that must be brought under public control are the oil and pharmaceutical groups, the motivating force for and commercial beneficiaries of the great wars of the past.
We can no longer accept that branches of industry continue to expand which earn billions from disease and war. To transfer multinational groups to public control will of course require collaboration from people of many different countries. To this end we will intensify information work about the billion-dollar business with disease and war in an international context.
Cause of war: social injustice on a world scale. A further prime cause of wars is social injustice. As long as a North-South divide is perpetuated, as long as two-thirds of human beings live in poverty, malnutrition and destitution, no lasting peace is possible. This social injustice is, additionally, a breeding ground for ethnically and religiously motivated conflicts.
Our answer: Social justice on a world scale is a decisive prerequisite for a peaceful world. Both goals are indivisibly linked and are therefore cornerstones of our programme. We will work ceaselessly to promote social justice throughout the world and will not rest until the right of all the world’s people to a life of dignity has become reality.
3. Cause of war: destruction of the UN Charter and international law. The war against Iraq in contravention of a UN Security Council resolution was a violation of international law. UN tolerance of this aggressive war, and the subsequent UN Security Council resolution to accept the occupation of Iraq, destroyed the UN charter and the system of international law underpinning it.
The UN, originally founded with the main aim of preventing aggressive wars, was thus used to legitimise such a war. The UN charter, which assures over 120 developing countries the right to protection from attack, and to self-determination, has been irrevocably destroyed. This lawless state of affairs is an invitation to further campaigns of conquest serving multinational interests. These will without doubt occur if we do not succeed in halting such plans. A UN world parliament, in which the economically powerful industrialised nations exercise the decisive voting and veto rights, leaving the majority of other countries without a vote, has no future. A UN, whose legal basis has been destroyed, cannot be reformed.
Our strategy: The international community, in particular the large number of developing countries, must create a new world parliament, in which each country has equal rights and which observes the principle of ‘one country – one vote’. The world’s people need a new international legal system that prohibits aggressive wars and deals consistently with violations of international law. Section 12 contains further discussion of this.
Implementation of these strategies is a precondition for peaceful co-existence between nations and the legacy of a peaceful world to future generations.
Securing peace involves specific aims
For us, the securing of peace involves specific aims:
- Prohibiting aggressive wars. The basic laws of many countries state that it is a criminal act to wage an aggressive war, and likewise to undertake any actions that disrupt peaceful co-existence between nations. In the national and international context we will work to ensure unrestricted application of this important principle.
- Banning weapons of mass destruction. As a first step in the de-commissioning and disarmament of atomic, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction, our political efforts will focus on global measures designed to ensure the destruction of all weapons of mass destruction.
- Worldwide disarmament of conventional weapons systems. Conventional weapons systems will be gradually dismantled as part of international disarmament.
- Export prohibition on weapons and other armaments. Weapons and armaments must be subject to a strict export prohibition. They must not be used for waging wars by proxy in the world’s crisis regions, nor for the suppression of any population by undemocratic and illegitimate leaders.
- Abolition of redundant military alliances such as NATO. The East-West conflict, the basis of the ‘cold war’ has ended. Military alliances such as NATO, which are an expression of this superseded East-West conflict, must be abolished immediately. The funds released from this will be used for important social tasks.
Peace begins with education for peace
Peace is not just the responsibility of governments but also of the people. We will advance peace and the development of a just world as the precondition for lasting peace, through education measures in all domains. These include:
- Peace education in schools. Peace education and enlightenment about the causes of wars will become a compulsory subject in all schools. Young people must hear the truth about history and the role of German companies in preparing and waging two world wars. Only thus will they be able to actively help prevent future wars and develop a peaceful and just world.
- Promoting youth exchange programmes. Youth exchanges between young people from different countries and continents will be intensified at all levels. Personal exchange between young people of the same age from different countries and cultural milieus is one of the most important measures for securing peace. Those who have learned to know and value people from other countries will no longer be susceptible to war propaganda and incitement, whatever the pretext.
Promoting international cultural exchange. For adults too, exchange programmes with people from other countries will be organised in the spheres of cultural, academic and leisure activity. This of course depends on a willingness to accept increased numbers of guests from other countries. This invitation programme will also be promoted as part of comprehensive mutual understanding between nations.