In this issue:

Italian New Bretton Woods Resolution Shakes up Economic Debate

French Warn of Dangers of Unilateral Action Against Iraq

Interesting Consular Response to LaRouche Movement Day of Action

Church of England Bishops' Thesis Against Iraq War

Thousands of Italian Auto Workers Protest Fiat Layoffs

German Weekly Cites Schiller in Urging Youth To Read More

Terrorism Against European Targets

From the Vol.1 No.32 issue of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published October 14, 2002

WESTERN EUROPEAN NEWS DIGEST

Italian New Bretton Woods Resolution Shakes up Economic Debate

The recent passage by the Italian Chamber of Deputies of a resolution based on Lyndon LaRouche's call for a New Bretton Woods has opened a new phase in the fight to save the global economy. The motion, which mandates that the Italian government promote a "new financial architecture" to deal with the international speculative financial bubble, marks the first time that the Parliament of a G-7 nation has openly challenged the dying IMF-based international monetary system.

IMF Deputy Manager Anne Krueger flipped out Oct. 7, when she was asked about the measures called for by the Italian Parliament. She immediately denied that there is any such thing as a global financial crisis, or even a debt crisis in the United States, while adamantly attacking the idea of returning to a fixed-exchange-rate system. Upon being handed a copy of the resolution itself, she declared: "They are living in a world I don't know," she said of the 399 Italian lawmakers who voted for the resolution.

In the resolution, the New Bretton Woods proposal is coupled with the call for aid and economic cooperation with Argentina, a country with which Italy has close cultural and financial ties. The Italian banking system was hard hit by the crisis in Argentina, with the small investors taking the biggest hit; it has been reported that at least 300,000 Italian families lost money when the Argentinian financial system collapsed, mostly through participation in mutual funds with investments in Ibero-America.

This focus on the crises in South America can be used to provoke a serious international debate over changing the system. After the approval of the resolution, Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Mario Baccini expressed the government's satisfaction with the outcome, and promised that "the commitment to solve the crisis in Argentina and other South American countries will be of central importance during Italy's semester of chairmanship of the European Union," which begins in January 2003.

Interestingly, the London-based Arabic daily Al-Arab International on Oct. 4 published an article by Hussein Askary on the Italian resolution. The article focussed on the debate before the vote, and on the role of the LaRouche movement in Italy, referring to the original New Bretton Woods initiative launched by LaRouche and his collaborators.

French Warn of Dangers of Unilateral Action Against Iraq

French deputies of all parties are warning of the dangers of unilateral action against Ira. In a national debate in the National Assembly, "all the French deputies expressed more or less mistrust vis-à-vis the United States, and approved the position adopted by France to oppose 'a forced march towards war,'" reported Le Figaro. Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin, generally a congenial figure, ready to compromise, astonished many when he denounced the "simple vision" of the United States in this affair. "The spiral of violence is not inevitable," he stated. "The recourse to force must come only as the last option.... There is no clean or easy war," and the Security Council and the UN should determine "the measures to be taken in case the Iraqis do not comply, without excluding any option."

Former Prime Minister Alain Juppe stated that "unilateralism is reprehensible, both for reasons having to do with juridical questions, as well as with political efficiency.... Only the UN and its Security Council can legitimately and even legally decide on questions of war and peace." Former Prime Minister Edouard Balladur also insisted on the "need to defend international legality." Guy Tessier, the president of the Parliamentary commission on national defense, stated that it was crucial to "avoid provoking [in the Arab and Muslim world] a sentiment of humiliation which would be a factor of destabilization with incalculable effects."

Right-wing nationalist Philippe de Villiers declared that "it is in the interest of France to take into consideration the shock that such policies will provoke in the Islamic world." Francois Bayrou, the president of Giscard d'Estaing's former party, the UDF, rejected "the scenario of world dominated by an American empire."

The attacks from the left were sharper. PCF Secretary General Marie George Buffet declared "no to war" and the president of the Socialist group, Jean Marc Ayrault, demanded the government veto the project of an American and British resolution to the Security Council.

Meanwhile, at the UN itself, support for the French proposal for two Security Council resolutions, with no military threats included, remains strong, particularly among the Russians and Chinese.

Other contentious issues are still unresolved: authorizing UN security forces or Council members to enforce no-fly and no-drive zones; giving permanent five members the right to send representatives along with the inspectors; and taking Iraqi scientists out of the country for questioning.

Interesting Consular Response to LaRouche Movement Day of Action

Following the "Day of Action" held in France by the LaRouche forces, denouncing the war against Iraq, the U.S. Consul in Lyons, who had asked to receive copies of the leaflets being distributed, wrote back an interesting letter in which he said, "I thank you for having sent me a copy of your leaflet. All honest and human research in favor of peace is welcome. Even if the events follow a different course, the quality of this intevention can only influence them in a positive way. Very cordially, etc."

Church of England Bishops' Thesis Against Iraq War

Bishops of the Church of England have written a 27-page thesis, with arguments against a new Iraq war and against the American "preemptive" war doctrine.

The 50 leading Bishops argue that the justifications being presented for a war with Iraq, do not meet the criteria for "just war" as enunciated by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. They claim that a war would only be justified if it were sanctioned by the United Nations and followed serious efforts at diplomacy, so a justifiable decision to go to war, as one of the Bishops put it, is "a long way down the line."

The document further asserts that the challenge to the world, is that the U.S. is acting more like a "hyperpower" than a "superpower," and is striving to bring about "American hegemony" in the world.

The 27-page thesis was written for a House of Commons committee that is investigating the "war on terror." It was put together during a two-day meeting of the Bishops in London.

Thousands of Italian Auto Workers Protest Fiat Layoffs

Thousands of Italy's auto workers protested the layoffs announced by Fiat, by blocking railways and highways on Oct. 10, according to the Wall Street Journal and BBC. Union leaders for the autoworkers held meetings with Fiat executives to discuss the restructuring plans, which call for 7,000 job cuts—20% of Fiat's workforce. After the meeting, union leaders announced that Italy's three unions would hold a nationwide, four-hour strike on Oct. 11.

Fiat has asked the Italian government for financial aid to assist in financing its restructure plans. In the past the government has aided Fiat and other companies, but now, under the strict European Union competition laws and deficit cap, the government is caught in a bind. It doesn't want the job losses, but it can't offer state aid and remain within the limits dictated by the Maastricht Treaty.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said, "We hope to find an alternative solution, a solution that doesn't leave thousands of Italians ... without jobs." Official unemployment is at 9% nationwide, but in Sicily, where Fiat intends to close a plant, axing 1,800 jobs, unemployment stands at a staggering 20%. Faced with this dilemma, Italian Industry Minister Antonio Marzano hinted that Italy may have to revise its growth target for next year; "I don't think the 2003 forecast includes the impact of the Fiat crisis..."

German Weekly Cites Schiller in Urging Youth To Read More

The German weekly Die Zeit in its Oct. 10 issue referred to the great poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller, and his lecture on Universal History, in calling on youth to read more. Die Zeit polemicized against a trend that has banned music, literature, arts, history, and Classical languages from the school curricula, in favor of courses more closely related to making people efficient for the economic system.

The article continued: "In his famous May 26, 1789 Jena speech What is Universal History, and to what end do we study it?, Friedrich Schiller shows how all of us stand on the shoulders of our ancestors. 'Even in the basest doings of our bourgeois life, we cannot avoid becoming the debtors of past centuries' ... Only from history will you learn to set a value on the goods from which habit and unchallenged possession so easily dispense with our gratitude; priceless, precious goods, upon which the blood of the best and the most noble clings, goods which had to be won by the hard work of so many generations! And who among you, in whom a bright spirit is conjoined with a feeling heart, could bear this high obligation in mind, without a silent wish being aroused in him to pay that debt to coming generations which can no longer be discharged to those past? A noble desire must glow in us to also make a contribution out of our means to this rich bequest of truth, morality, and freedom which we received from the world past, and which we must surrender once more, richly enlarged, to the world to come, and, in this eternal chain which winds itself through all human generations, to make firm our ephemeral existence.'"

The article also emphasized the importance, for example, of reading Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, as beginning with the call on the Muse to tell the history and fate of Troy. Die Zeit lists 50 crucial German works of literature that the youth should absolutely read, among them Lessing's Nathan the Wise and Schiller's Cabal and Love.

Has Die Zeit been inspired by the ongoing campaign of the LaRouche movement for a return to a humanist education, and especially, for the younger generation?

Terrorism Against European Targets

French officials said Oct. 11 that there is now evidence that the explosion on the oil tanker Limburg, off the coast of Yemen, was an act of terrorism. They say they found fragments of a small boat that could not have come from the tanker, and traces of TNT. The photo accompanying the report printed in the New York Times Oct. 12 also shows metal bent inwards around the hole, suggesting that the explosion came from outside the hull, rather than inside. Yemen's Minister of Transport and Maritime Affairs, however, said that the boat fragments could have come from the tanker's own rescue boat and will be tested to determine if that is the case.

Meanwhile, a bomb exploded in a shopping mall in Finland Oct. 11, killing seven and injuring more than 80 people. Finnish police are indicating that one of the dead may be the bomber. Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen called the bombing "an act of terror."

The explosion, in the city of Vantaa, a few miles north of Helsinki, shocked a country where violence is rare, and terrorism almost unheard of. The government is not attributing the bombing to a foreign terrorist group, but is saying that a "deranged" individual or criminal group was responsible. Police and emergency medical officials all described the bomb as having been built to cause maximum damage and injuries. One official said, "It looks like a shrapnel bomb, an explosion that was intended to hurt as many people as possible."

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