leadership, that a person who aspires to political power must have skeletons in his closet to ensure that he can be controlled. She presented a vision of an alternative system, based on a dialogue of civilizations, and said that Popes Leo XIV and Francis are examples of the leadership required. Kelly recounted a tale of an encounter with a U.S. Marine in Baghdad during the U.S. invasion and “shock and awe” bombing of Iraq in 2003. The Marine astonished her by identifying the book, which she had seen him reading earlier, as a copy of Joseph Conrad’s anti-colonial novel, Heart of Darkness—which he said that he was reading for the thirteenth time. She again praised Pope Leo and said, “We don’t want to give up on that edifice of international law.” Dennis Fritz, retired U.S. Air Force Command Chief Master Sergeant, reminded the participants of earlier warnings by other military men, Gen. Smedley Butler, who famously said that “war is a racket,” and Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who warned of the Military-Industrial Complex. Today, our political leaders seek unequaled military power which they will use to get anything they want, typified by the “Wolfowitz Doctrine” of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, which set the stage for multiple wars in the Middle East. He said that Pete Hegseth presides over “the scariest Pentagon” he has ever seen, and warned of Hegseth’s plan to use artificial intelligence (AI) to create a fully automated attack capability. The Upcoming Election in Brazil Beatriz Bissio, Associate Professor in the Post-Graduate Program of Comparative History, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said that “democracy in Brazil is now facing its greatest test, since the restoration of constitutional order in the mid-1980s”—with the contest between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro. The latter represents “the rise of the far right, globally,” and is supported by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The first round of elections on Oct. 4, she said, had shocking results with Bolsonaro coming out on top with 47% of the vote while President Lula came in second, with 45%. She described Brazil as being encircled by right-wing regimes, with the exception of Uruguay. “The outcome of the [run-off] elections in Brazil [on Oct. 25] will have reverberations in Latin America and beyond… the far-right governments are subservient to U.S. interests.” Felipe Bombardelli, a Brazilian post-graduate student in robotics at the Federal University of Paraná, is active with the International Youth Movement of the Schiller Institute. He described that there was very little political participation of students at the universities in Brazil going into the first round of the elections—many people on the left, including in Lulaʼs Workersʼ Party (PT), thought Lula would win on the first vote. Waking up to realize that “it will take a miracle to make Lula President,” an unprecedented mobilization of students, professors and even labor has exploded in support of Lula’s candidacy—in the face of a difficult situation.
Staying on the topic of student activism, Schiller Institute activist Remi Lebrun reported on the ground from Paris, France, where there is a widespread mobilization from primarily high school students who are protesting the collapse of conditions in French public schools. The government has responded with severe repression, worse even than that directed against the “yellow vest” movement in France between 2018 and 2020. High school students are now being joined by middle school and college students, and their parents. Discussion
In response to questions, the participants discussed the proposal of E. Martin Schotz, MD, the coordinator for the JFK Peace Speech Committee and a leader of Massachusetts Peace Action (MAPA) who in last week’s IPC meeting suggested an “American National Congress” modeled on the “African National Congress,” which led the fight against aparth[...]
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