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SCHILLER INSTITUTE
The Inalienable Rights of Man

The Ruetli Oath


As part of its founding documents, in November 1984 the Schiller Institute adopted a Declaration of the Inalienable Rights of Man, based, as Helga Zepp LaRouche told a news conference on Nov. 26, 1984, on the U.S. Declaration of Independence, with only a few changes introduced to take into account different particular features of the struggle for human freedom and dignity today. 
  
  
``So truly,'' she said at that time, ``the inalienable rights movement is a return to the spirit of the Founding Fathers.''
    
'' The Declaration includes the following words: ``The history of the present international financial institutions is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment an absolute tyranny over these states. 

To prove this let facts be submitted to a candid world.  They have refused their assent to our plans of development, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.  They have forbidden their banks to engage in business of immediate and pressing importance for us, and in equal terms.... 

They have overthrown legitimate governments repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness their invasions on the rights of the people.... 

We, therefore, Representatives of the Peoples of the World, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world, do ... solemnly publish and declare that all countries of the world are and of right ought to be free and independent States. 

That all human beings on this planet have inalienable rights, which guarantee them life, freedom, material conditions worthy of man, and the right to develop fully all potentialities of their intellect and their souls. That, therefore, a change in the present economic and monetary order is necessary and urgent to establish justice among the peoples of the world.''

This statement remains today the basis of the Institute's work and efforts worldwide, and in particular for the immediate task of winning exoneration for Lyndon LaRouche. Mr. LaRouche, one of the world's greatest thinkers, was railroaded into prison in 1988-89 by the Bush administration. (Mr.LaRouche was released on parole in January, 1994, but his conviction and sentencing remains a blot on theUS justice system. For him, it is a badge of honor, as he stood by the truth, and did not "sell out" or "make a deal," but rather, made clear that he was innocent, and that the secret government behind his frame up, was guilty.)  

The U.S. government knew at all relevant times, from 1979 to the present day, on the basis of government evidence now on the public record, that LaRouche and his co-defendants were innocent of the false charges for which they were convicted. 

The Schiller Institute has rallied thousands of leading citizens worldwide to win exoneration for LaRouche and his associates, all of whom have been released, as of October, 2000, having been imprisoned in Virginia with decades-long sentences, up to 77 years! (See interview.) This injustice must be reversed, and as Martin Luther King said so clearly, "An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere." America, in particular,  must, and can , reestablish its former purpose, as as a "Beacon of Hope and Temple of Liberty" for all mankind.

Join the Schiller Institute today. Fight for the inalienable rights of all people to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Fight for Peace through Economic Development! Email us at: schiller@schillerinstitute.org

From Schiller's play,
Wilhelm Tell:
 

"The Ruetli Oath" 

The full English translation of Schiller's drama is available in
"Friedrich Schiller, Poet of Freedom,  Volume II: (see books page)
See also Schiller's works

No, there is a limit to the tyrant's power,
when the oppressed can find no justice,
when the burden grows unbearable-he reaches
with hopeful courage up unto the heavens
and seizes hither his eternal rights,
which hang above, inalienable
and indestructible as stars themselves.
The primal state of nature reappears,
where man stands opposite his fellow man.
As a last resort, when not another means
is of avail, the sword is given him,
The highest of all goods we may defend
from violence, Thus stand we before our country,
thus stand we before our wives, and before our children.

-We will become a single land of brothers,
nor shall we part in danger and distress.
-We shall be free, just as our fathers were,
and sooner die, than live in slavery.
-We shall rely upon the highest God
and we shall never fear the might of men.



Sections of Schiller's play, Wilhelm Tell, were performed
by members of the LaRouche Youth Movement at the
Schiller Institute 2003 Presidents Day Conference, Panel II,
(about 2 hours, 15 minutes into the panel)
Windows Media is required to view the Conference Videos

Visit these Related Pages:

More on the LaRouche Case
What is the Schiller Institute?
Join and Support the movement
Who is Lyndon LaRouche?
Speech by Helga Zepp LaRouche on The Sublime
Poetry and Drama Translations

schiller@schillerinstitute.org

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Washington, DC 20041-0244
703-297-8368

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