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PRESS RELEASE

Italian Parliament Mandates
Their Government To Work Towards
LaRouche's "New Bretton Woods Agreement"
Calls For A New Financial Architecture Which
Supports Production And Discourages Speculation
September 25, 2023

For a More Printable Version of this Release Click Here.

On Sept. 25, 2023, the Italian Parliament entered history by becoming the first national legislative body to approve, in a bipartisan vote, a resolution mandating the government to promote internationally "a new financial architecture able to support the real economy and to avoid speculative bubbles and financial crashes." Such a new financial architecture must be the answer, the resolution says, to the current "crisis of the whole financial system".  During the debate,  Rep. Giovanni Bianchi motivated his colleagues to pass the resolution, saying "Let us not allow an isolated, and (unfortunately) a bit prophetic figure, like Lyndon LaRouche, who had forecast the destiny of the [financial] bubble, to be the only one to carry on this issue." For the first time, the Parliament of a G-7 nation has had the courage to identify the truth of LaRouche's warnings and his solution.

The original resolution (see below for full text in English) is the conclusion of a series of Parliamentary motions initiated by the Italian LaRouche movement.  Although it represents a compromise solution motivated by the intention of achieving unanimity among all political parties (see below),  it constitutes an excellent tool for organizing similar resolutions in other nations, to build a world coalition for a "New Bretton Woods" conference, as specifically proposed by Democratic Presidential  pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche.

The Italian resolution was begun by a motion on the Argentinean economic crisis, written by the chairman of the Italian LaRouche movement Paolo Raimondi and by economist Nino Galloni, director general of the Italian Welfare ministry. The original motion was presented first in the Senate last March, by senator Oskar Peterlini, and eventually in the lower House, the Chamber of  Deputies, by Rep. Sigfried Brugger, a member of Sen. Peterlini's same parliamentary faction.  In collecting signatures for the motion in both Parliament houses, it became soon clear that the motion had a great potential for a large bipartisan majority, and it was thus decided, with the support of Chamber of Deputies chairman Ferdinando Casini, to seek a unanimous vote of approval, such that it would have a maximum impact on the government foreign economic policy. A precedent for such a decision was the successful vote in favor of the resolution on foreign debt in the year 2000, solicited by the Pope's call for a remission of debt for poorer countries.

However, this time it was clear that the fight would not be easy because the motion called for a reform of the whole financial and economic system, and resistance was expected by forces which oppose such a reform. But, as the Parliamentary debate shows, a very healthy fight took place and the opposition did not succeed in emasculating the final resolution, which kept the fundamental elements of 1) calling the crisis a systemic one; and 2) calling for a new world financial architecture to protect the real economy from financial speculation. This success is to be attributed entirely to the influence of Lyndon LaRouche, whose unique role in forecasting the collapse of the international financial system was recognized during the Parliamentary debate.

The success is even more important since it took place in the middle of another debate, on the Iraq issue, in which the pro-war faction has polarized the political spectrum and has so far prevented a bipartisan consensus. 

The parliamentary debate 

The fact that the resolution is dedicated to Argentina indicates  the important role the South American country plays in the eyes and in the hearts of  Italians, many of whom still have relatives who emigrated to Argentina in the early 20th century. When the Argentina crisis struck, last year, a spontaneous wave of sympathy grew in Italy, prompting the government to implement early support initiatives which bypassed the IMF watchdogs.

But the Argentinean crisis, as Rep. Brugger stressed in opening the Parliament debate Sept. 23, "is not specific to this nation[Argentina], but it concerns the whole Latin-American continent, where Mexico and Brazil, for instance, have been led by the IMF to the edge of a crash like the Argentinean one -- as well as other nations, such as Turkey or even Poland. This demonstrates very forcefully that this is a  crisis of the whole system, which is emphasized in a more and more tangible and quantifiable manner also in the United States, in Japan and Europe. Therefore, a durable solution for Argentina can take place only in the context of a total reorientation towards production, and of a reorganization of the international economic and financial system."

Brugger then, as in his original motion, reminded the Assembly of the position taken by the Catholic Church in Argentina in its open letter on foreign debt, and pointed to a series of measures to be taken in order to re-establish Argentinean sovereignty over its economy. He then called on the government to support, in particular, the request of canceling the foreign debt as well as projects for re-launching investments in the productive economy. "... [A]s concerns the crisis of the whole international financial and monetary system, the government must commit to carry out, in all forums, the request of a total revision of the role and of the policy of the International Monetary Fund and to undertake, in particular, the initiative of proposing to convoke a new international conference, with heads of state and government, like the conference held in Bretton Woods in 1944, for the purpose of founding a new international monetary system, and taking those initiatives necessary to eliminate the mechanisms that brought about the creation of the speculative bubble and the systemic financial crash, and to start reconstruction programs for the world economy".

Brugger's intervention was supported by the next speaker, Carla Rocchi, a former trade unionist who is a member of the social democratic (DS) party. But the expected ambush came soon after, carried by a real blue-blooded member of the aristocracy, Marquis Gian Paolo Landi di Chiavenna, who happens to be the spokesman for immigration policies of Alleanza Nazionale, a government party. In a long, pedantic intervention, Landi di Chiavenna described the economic policy of  Economic minister Cavallo, in the nineties, in apologetic terms, calling it "economic recovery", and blamed the "corrupt political class" and not the IMF as responsible of the collapse.   

He then posed conditions for the approval of the Brugger motion, first of all eliminating the proposal of foreign debt moratoria from the text . He then betrayed himself by claiming to defend the interests of "Italian savings-holders involved in the crash". It is in fact well known that 350,000 Italians, ill-advised by their banks, bought Argentinean state bonds for a total of  14 billion Euro; however, most of them are represented by associations who correctly blame the banks for such investments, and only a few handful of them, pushed by the banks themselves, have waged a legal fight to obtain a reimbursement, threatening even to seize Argentinian properties abroad.

The irony is that Marquis Landi di Chiavenna had signed the original Brugger motion, as other representatives stressed after his intervention. For what reason, or for whom, had he changed his mind? This was clearly an outside intervention to sabotage the motion.

The next speaker, Rep. Marco Boato, from Brugger's faction, faced Landi with this contradiction: he said, "It seems to me that I have seen your signature" [on the original Brugger motion], and quoted IMF director Horst Köhler himself who admitted to the IMF responsibility in the Argentinian crisis. As for the "corrupt political class", Boato said, when three State presidents are replaced in a few days, "the credibility of the political class is indeed at a very low level" and you have an "institutional crisis". But a polemic is nonsense, because "we all know that the economic-financial bankruptcy is accompanied also by a political bankruptcy".

These aspects were stressed more forcefully by Giorgio Benvenuto, former chairman of the House Banking Committee and currently international economic spokesman for the DS party. Benvenuto started saying that "we are facing a crisis of the world financial system, characterized by a speculation which is out of control". He then described the explosion of the Argentinian foreign debt from 1991 to 2023 and said: "The responsibility lies in the fact that to cover the debt, one should have dealt with the question of increasing the competitively of the system... therein lies the problem of the IMF policy. It is not possible to cover the debt if you start a de-industrialization policy, which was pushed by the macroeconomic policies adopted, starting in 1991." Therefore, Benvenuto said, "there is responsibility on the side of the government, there is corruption, there is capital flow abroad, there is privatization, but we would make a very serious mistake if we do not pose the problem as one of a responsibility and of mistakes committed by the international institutions". Benvenuto supported the idea of an international conference ("we recall the big importance of the Bretton Woods system in 1944") to build "a new international monetary system"

The first phase of the debate was closed by the government representative, Deputy minister for Foreign Affairs Mario Baccini. Baccini, from the Christian democratic party CCD, basically supported the Brugger motion, saying that "on many issues, the government has nothing to object. There are elements for a common evaluation of a crisis that is not only a crisis of the Argentinian ruling class. I believe that it would be limitative to discuss here about the domestic aspects of a policy. " Baccini spoke of "a crisis of the entire geographic area" and, referring to the IMF and other banking institutions, said that in his meetings in Washington he "explained to those gentlemen that on many occasions, the primacy of politics must overcome the logic of numbers". Nevertheless, Baccini proposed to "reformulate" the text in order to "find all political forces united on a problem investing in particular Argentina".

The next day, the final text was drafted. An agreement was found on a text which also included part of another motion, presented by Rep. Luca Volonté, which supports and expands the bilateral actions already undertaken by the Italian government's in support of the Argentinean economy, like credits for the health system and small enterprises, commercial agreements and immigration policies. On  immigration, a highly controversial sentence was added, which facilitates visas for Argentineans of Italian origin who want to come back to Italy. Correctly, it was remarked that such an action would impoverish, instead of strengthening Argentina, and the all-party agreement threatened to collapse. It was then decided to divide the resolution into three parts, to be voted on separately, so that most of it could get a unanimous vote, and the controversial policy on immigration could receive a simple majority.

Unfortunately, it was also decided that the original formulation of the resolution to "convoke a new international conference at the level of heads of state and government, like the one which took place in Bretton Woods in 1944" should be replaced with "pursuing, in the competent international forums, the activity of studying and proposing a new financial architecture". This formulation is more generic - and therefore weaker - than the original, but it does not contradict it. One must say that, in regard to future initiatives by other national legislative bodies, however, that here there is room for improvement.

However, before the vote on the new text - which was now called a Resolution, because it is a deliberative act - several spokesmen recalled that the model wished for a new financial architecture is exactly the Bretton Woods one. In particular, Rep. Giovanni Bianchi, who spoke as representative of the center-left group La Margherita, recalled Lyndon LaRouche's role in starting this initiative. "Not by chance," Bianchi said, "one speaks of a new Bretton Woods. I believe that we are in a very evident disorder and 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 [the context of] this international story, and I believe that this resolution is a step to deal with it."

The results of the votes

As a result of all of this discussion, the original resolution was divided in three resolutions: the first section includes the introduction, until "mandates the government"; the second part from that point until the last sentence; the third part, included only the last sentence. Each of these new resolutions was voted on separately. The first two passed unanimously, and the third passed with a clear majority. Here are the results:

The first resolution (containing the first four introductory paragraphs of the original resolution) was voted on with 396 present. Of this, 385 voted in favor of the resolution and 11 abstained. The resolution passed unanimously.

The second resolution (made up of the all of the actions which the Chamber of Deputies mandated the Government to take in the original resolution, except the last which called on the Government to facilitate the return to Italy Argentineans of Italian descent) was voted on with 400 Deputies present. Of these, 399 voted in favor, and 1 abstained. Thus, this resolution was also passed unanimously.

The third resolution which was simply made up of the mandate to  facilitate the return of Italian citizens resident in Argentina was voted on with 406 present. Of these, 228 voted for, 178 abstained and 9 voted against. 

The text of the resolutions

Here is the entire text of the initial resolution, the beginning of the final three resolutions that this was divided into are indicated:

"The Chamber of Deputies, finds that:

[Beginning of first resolution that passed unanimously]

"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;

[Beginning of the second resolution that passed unanimously]

"[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;

[Beginning of the third resolution which passed with a majority]

"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."

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