LAROUCHES IN ROME
Ongoing Financial Crisis Threatens
Return of Fascism Today
by Claudio Celani
On Feb. 26-28, Lyndon LaRouche and Helga Zepp-LaRouche visited Italy, for a number of political meetings and discussions. The high point of the visit was a conference in Rome on Feb. 28, hosted in a room of the Italian Senate, under the title "The International Systemic Crisis and a Roosevelt-Like Solution." Lyndon LaRouche debated this issue in dialogue with Hon. Alfonso Gianni, Undersecretary of State for Economic Development, and Catia Polidori, national chairwoman of Giovani Imprenditori (Young Enterpreneurs), known as Confapi, an association of small and medium-size enterprises. Sen. Luigi Ramponi, who helped organize the event, was present in the first part, but had to leave because of electoral obligations (parliamentary elections have been called for April 13-14). And Giulio Tremonti, the vice president of the Chamber of Deputies (lower house) of the Parliament, who had added his name to the invitation to the event, was unable to attend, also because of electoral obligations.
Economist Nino Galloni, a LaRouche supporter, who spoke from the floor, warned against the danger that, as usually happened in the past, the program of the kind of Grand Coalition government being discussed in Italy today would be written by the financial oligarchy, and would consist of so-called "reforms" that would smash the welfare and health systems. Alfonso Gianni stated that, also thanks to LaRouche, there is a shift in favor of reversing free-market policies that go across factions in all parties. Questioned by a journalist, LaRouche said that everything depends largely on the outcome of the electoral process in the United States.
LaRouche's visit to Rome found attentive ears, even though many political leaders were caught in the frenzy of last-minute negotiations for candidates' lists, frequently, a major distraction from reality-oriented discussions. LaRouche warned, "We have a threat of a return to fascism on a scale far beyond anything that we've known in the past" (see his presentation).
LaRouche's ideas are highly respected and supported in different political circles. Some government representatives, who could not come to the EIR seminar on Feb. 28, sent greetings to LaRouche, with messages such as, "Your policies are winning." Gianni acknowledged that "LaRouche has demonstrated that free-market policies have failed," and that "government power is needed for an economic recovery." Polidori stressed LaRouche's lesson on the primacy of physical economy; both leaders, in dialogue with LaRouche, endorsed his proposal for a "New Bretton Woods," an agreement among major world powers for a system of stable currency values.
In another seminar, on Feb. 27, at the Istituto Italiano Quadri, an association of medium-size business leaders, LaRouche discussed the role of the British empire and the question of nuclear energy. In all his private and public meetings, LaRouche delivered a shock, stressing that the world is facing a collapse potentially bigger than the 14th-Century collapse of the Lombard League banking system—a touchy historical reference for his audience, as the epicenter of the crash was right in the center of Italy, with the bankruptcy of the House of Bardi in the city of Lucca. However, this danger can be averted, LaRouche said, if European nations revive their Classical culture, a culture born 3,000 years ago, through the meeting of three Mediterranean cultures, and revived in the Italian Reinassance, that brought civilization out of the Dark Age.
LaRouche was accompanied by his wife, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, chairwoman of the BüSo (Civil Rights Solidarity) party in Germany, who delivered the second shock to audiences: the exposure of the conspiracy to enforce a "constitutional" dictatorship in Europe through the EU's so-called Lisbon Treaty. She called for support for her initiative for a public debate on the Treaty in all EU nations, and a popular referendum on it (see her presentation).
Following the Rome seminar, LaRouche responded to a question about what he thinks the effect of his visit will be: "The fire will spread!" (See dialogue with LaRouche.)
