Western European News Digest

Milk Producers' Mass Strike Hits Europe

PARIS, Sept. 15 (EIRNS) At first it went nearly as unnoticed in the press as the Sept. 12 mass strike demonstration in Washington: 400 milk farmers from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, and Luxemburg (the countries producing 70% of the European Union's milk) demonstrated in Paris on Sept. 10 against collapsing milk prices. The strike, demanding action from the EU to raise prices, was then joined by milk producers in Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Switzerland. Today, Italian farmers joined the European-wide "Journée Blanche" (milky-white day of action) by dumping 200,000 liters of fresh milk onto their fields as fertilizer, as their colleagues in other countries have done.

Without a perspective of reorganizing the global monetary system into a credit system, as Lyndon LaRouche has proposed, the strike cannot succeed. In France, during the last week alone, four dairy farmers committed suicide, and now farmers are being pushed by agents provocateurs to attack non-strikers, milk-processing plants, distribution centers, and supermarkets. "Desperation is pushing more and more producers to join the movement," said European Milk Board (EMB) chief Romuald Schaber of Germany, whose organization represents about one-third of European dairy producers. Politicians "must act at once" to address the plight of 100,000 farmers, he said. Le Figaro, desperately trying to make the strike unpopular, shows 60 farmers allegedly looting a supermarket. On the offensive, in order to win over public opinion, the farmers plan to distribute free milk in Paris on Sept. 22, at the symbolic site of the Place de la Republique.

Press Coverage of BüSo Election Campaign

Sept. 16 (EIRNS)— Germany's second national television channel ZDF ran a 1-minute clip today on the Civil Rights Solidarity Movement (BüSo), the party of the LaRouche movement in Germany. It described the party as one among "four small parties of the center," showing the LaRouche Youth Movement chorus as "BüSo campaigning with beautiful voices," and also showing the party's campaign poster, and signs at a BüSo organizing site in Stuttgart. The broadcast said the BüSo "wants to let the banks go bankrupt" [sic], and interviewed party spokeswoman Elke Fimmen, who elaborated a bit on the need for productive credit and investment, such as occurred during the postwar German reconstruction period. Hubert Mohs, the BüSo district candidate in Stuttgart, was interviewed briefly.

Italian MEP: Mass Strike Is Second American Revolution

Sept. 17 (EIRNS)—Italian Lega Nord (Northern League) Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and parliamentary caucus chairman Mario Borghezio called for Europe to follow the "people's revolt against financial oligarchies, as in the United States," in a speech yesterday on the floor of the EuroParliament. The plenary session had been called to discuss the next G20 meeting.

"We the people," Borghezio said, "do not believe in bailout policies for financial institutions, which are paid for by taxpayers. Instead, European governments should give enough resources to the real economy."

The Lega Nord representative presented figures on the $23 trillion which has been already allocated globally to bail out those responsible for the financial bubble, and he attacked the failed or incomplete measures to put a cap on executive bonuses and to eliminate tax havens. "What confidence could people have in regulation of the financial markets, which is entrusted to the priests of globalist temples, such as [Bank of Italy governor Mario] Draghi?" Borghezio asked.

"The truth is that high finance commands and politics obeys, both in the United States and in Europe, where politicians are the servants of the globalist banking power."

Borghezio also referred to the "popular revolt taking place in America against financial oligarchies," and concluded: "Europe, wake up! Follow the example of the American people, who are starting a second revolution of freedom!"

Berlusconi Seeking Exit from Afghanistan

Sept. 19 (EIRNS)—Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Italy wants to discuss a "transition strategy" so that all foreign troops could be progressively withdrawn from Afghanistan. His remarks came after six Italian soldiers were killed by a suicide bomber on Sept. 17 in Kabul. He said there was "no idea" about a possible withdrawal date. "It is an international problem," he said. "It is not a problem that a country which is present there can solve on its own. Doing so could betray the accord and trust of the other countries present." While the Italian contingent of 2,800 troops might be stuck in Herat province for a while, Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa promised that the 500 extra troops sent to help secure the recent Afghan election will be home by Christmas.

There will be a state funeral for the six dead soldiers in Rome on Sept. 21, which is likely to fuel the debate in Italy about its involvement in the Afghan War. According to Voice of America, a recent poll showed that 58% of Italians want the troops out of Afghanistan, a figure which is expected to rise.

Free Heroin from Britain's NHS?

Sept. 14 (EIRNS)—Great Britain's National Health Service might need to go through a name change to the National Heroin Service. The daily Independent reports that there is now a drumbeat by the British drug legalizers to make heroin available to addicts, from the National Health Service, at a time when patients can't always find cancer drugs available.

The government-appointed National Treatment Agency for Substance Abuse is calling for setting up a network of "shooting galleries" to provide injectable heroin for drug addicts. This is part of the George Soros-financed "harm reduction" campaign, which they admit does not cure the addiction. There are already pilot programs, the first set up in 2005 and run by Maudsley Hospital; two others were opened, in Darlington in 2006 and in Brighton in 2007. There are 150 addicts in these programs, who come to the hospitals twice a day for heroin or crack cocaine, and shoot up right there.

Thanks to Tony Blair, the NHS is ever finding new ways to kill. There are 280,000 addicts in Great Britain with 2,500 deaths a year.

France: Three Swine Flu Deaths in One Week

PARIS, Sept. 19 (EIRNS)—In one week, three French citizens, with no pre-existing medical conditions, died of A/H1N1 influenza, the so-called "swine flu." In Saint-Etienne, France, a 26-year-old man in good health became comatose two hours after being admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit, and died on Sept. 13. In Athens, Greece, authorities announced the death of a 29-year-old French tourist, who had been admitted to intensive care there. And on Sept. 18, a 32-year-old man died in the hospital in Saint Denis, the capital of France's island of La Réunion in the Indian Ocean.