PRESS RELEASE
Italian Parliament, Citing LaRouche, Passes Resolution for New World Financial Architecture
Sept. 25, 2002 (EIRNS)—With a bipartisan vote, and following an open acknowledgement of Lyndon LaRouche's role in inspiring the legislation, the Italian Chamber of Deputies yesterday passed a resolution calling for a New Bretton Woods conference to establish a new international monetary and financial system. The text of the resolution follows:
"The Chamber of Deputies, finding that:
"The escalation of banking and financial crises — starting from the 1997 crises in Asia, Russia, and Latin America, up to the more recent collapse of the New Economy in the USA, to the giant, ongoing Japanese banking crisis and Argentina's bankruptcy — cannot but worry populations, ruling classes, enterprises, investors and savings-holders, as being not a series of isolated cases, but rather constituting the manifestation of a crisis of the whole financial system, characterized by speculation reaching the $400,000 billion ($140,000 billion of which, in the USA alone), related to a world gross product of about $40,000 billion (this gap has been growing in the last years);
"Between Italy and Argentina there exists, besides a relationship of strategic partnership from which particular obligations of cooperation derive, very strong cultural links because of a common history shared by generations of Italian emigrants and, lastly, of joint formative processes originated by numerous inter-college cooperation in both countries;
"The Italian government has already, readily, intervened to support the Argentine economy, including the country among the beneficiaries of the Italian Fund for Development Cooperation, enhancing the personnel of consular and diplomatic offices in Argentina, intervening in favor of small and medium Italian enterprises, promoting, together with non-governmental organizations in Argentina, initiatives aiming at mitigating the effects of the crisis on weaker social layers, and facing the health emergency by sending medicines and supplies of health services;
"[Therefore, the Chamber of Deputies] mandates the Government:
"To proceed in the already undertaken action to favor the identification of a solution to Argentina's economic, financial, and social crisis, also in consideration of the significant presence of Italian citizens, and of citizens of Italian origin, with special reference to the most impoverished population layers;
"To use, to that purpose, all available instruments, in the first place, the Development Cooperation [fund];
"To support, also with direct participation, projects to relaunch investments in the productive economy;
"To support the introduction, in the European Community system of generalized tariff preferences, a series of export products of Argentina, in such a way as to favor the recovery of small and medium firms;
"To support initiatives of cultural and scientific promotion and of spreading of the Italian language, with special regard to activities aimed at spreading the image of our Country in excellence sectors;
"To attribute adequate priority, in the agenda of the European Commission, to the realization of an interregional EU-Mercosur agreement which could help and support the Argentinian economy;
"To strengthen forms of bilateral and multilateral cooperation through international agencies to develop and defend the environment;
"To reconsider the possible request of restructuring the quota of Argentinian foreign public debt towards Italy, in the framework of multilateral agreements with the "Club of Paris";
"To strenghten measures and interventions in social-welfare and health sectors in favor of the most impoverished layers of the population, also in collaboration with non-governmental organizations;
"To undertake, in particular, the initiative of continuing, in competent international forums, the activity of studying and proposing a new financial architecture able to support the real economy, and avoiding speculative bubbles and financial crashes;
"To undertake any opportune political and economic initiative aimed at ensuring the largest attention from the Argentinian government towards Italian savings-holders involved in the crisis of the financial system;
"To consolidate, more in general, the relaunching of Italian policies towards Latin America as a whole — above all in view of the next semester of EU chairmanship — giving to them a character of priority in the nation's foreign policy, in consideration of the traditional political and cultural bonds connecting us to that region, of the broad and articulated presence of our co-nationals or citizens of Italian origin in the whole continent, of a strong and rooted entrepreneurial presence;
"To facilitate the return of Italian citizens resident in Argentina and, more in general, in Mercosur, in the framework of a more rational management, closer to national interest, of immigration flows."
[signers:] "Volonté, Brugger, Ricciotti, Boato, Landi di Chiavenna, Benvenuto, Rossi, Rocchi, Intini, Pisicchio, Moroni, Pisapia, Collé, D'Agro, Gianfranco Conte, Pistone, Spini."
The resolution was divided into three sections: The first section includes the introduction, until "mandates the government;" the second part from that point until the last sentence; the third part, including only the last sentence, each of which was voted separately with the following result:
1st part:
present 396; voting 385; abstained 11; majority 193; voted Yes 385.
2nd part:
present 400; voting 399; abstained 1; majority 200; voted Yes 399.
3rd part:
present 406; voting 228; abstained 178; majority 115; voted Yes 219; voted No 9.
During the final discussion, Rep. Giovanni Bianchi, speaking in the name of his parliamentary group, stressed the importance of the paragraph addressing the issue of debt restructuring. "Not by chance," Bianchi said, "one speaks of a new Bretton Woods. I believe that we are in such an evident disorder that the need and the demand for some order is necessary. Let us not let an isolated and (unfortunately) a bit prophetic figure, like Lyndon LaRouche, who had forecast the destiny of the bubble, be the only one to carry on this issue. Well, the Italian and Argentinian destiny is within this international story, and I believe that this resolution is a step to deal with it."
