Amelia Robinson Takes Italy Word from the ‘True America’

Despite some attempts by Berlusconi and his Economics Minister Giulio Tremonti to challenge Maastricht and promote some national credit for infrastructural development, the general free-market policy of the government made the Italian economic crisis even worse. At the same time, LaRouche’s New Bretton Woods proposal was already discussed last April at the General Assembly of the Italian Parliament, thanks to a petition to the government presented by the Left, which even representatives of the government coalition had endorsed during the debate.

The official invitation to Amelia Robinson at this time, as the opposition gets ready for national elections next year, indicated the tremendous interest in the country on what the “true America” is doing to stop Cheney and the Iraq war, and to revive the FDR tradition in the Democratic Party around LaRouche’s economic proposals. This became clear on the first day of her official visit, when Hon. Silvana Pisa, who was leading the delegation of women parliamentarians of DS, told Biondi during the official reception: “She [Amelia] represents the true America, and the Italian left is not anti-American, as people in the government claim, it just supports this America rather than Bush’s.” Biondi, who is a member of Berlusconi’s ruling coalition, responded well to Amelia Robinson’s comments on Bush “illegal war,” and thanked her for her “beautiful words” on how she learned as a child living in Alabama to be “color-blind” when it comes to human beings, and only looking at the beauty they have inside, as God’s creatures. He gave her an official gift, as to all foreign guests at the Italian Parliament: a book on the Montecitorio Palace guesting the Chamber of Deputies and its architect Bernini, and a scarf.

		Courtesy of Ansa Amelia Robinson, center, with the women caucus of the Unione in the Italian Parliament. Right, in the front row is Mrs. Elena Montecchi.

Mrs. Robinson then moved on to Berlinguer Hall in the Parliament, where she met a group of 30 women parliamentarians of DS, soon joined by the former speaker of the House Luciano Violante. Introducing her, Hon. Elena Montecchi told the audience: “I spend one month in the U.S. each year, and in 2004, I was there during the Presidential campaign, and constantly met the LaRouche Youth Movement on various campuses, making propaganda for LaRouche’s New Bretton Woods. It’s an honor for us to have you here at the Parliament, Mrs. Robinson, since your fight for voting rights in the ’60s, and to stop the war today are for us a reference point.”

The message brought by Amelia Robinson to this meeting at the Chamber of Deputies, and also to the seat of the European Parliament in Rome, was very clear: “The war in Iraq is illegal, it is opposed by the majority of the American people, and has been imposed by a system around Vice President Dick Cheney, using lies and false evidence. Italy can help us get rid of Cheney, by pulling out its troops from Iraq, and this will send a clear message to President Bush who lives in the illusion he is being supported.”

At the European Parliament, where she met Lucia Annunziata, a famous Italian journalist and former head of RAI, national TV, and Sen. Michele Lauria, she defined Bush as “selected, not elected.” She emphasized that they chose Bush precisely because of his mental instability, since it would made it easier for the Cheney cabal to “pull his strings.” “Now, it is thanks to LaRouche and his youth movement, which is distributing millions of pieces of literature at the Congress and all over Washington, D.C., that we have a concrete possibility to change American policy. I implore you: pull out your troops, and ally with the true America, that of Dr. King, that of Franklin D. Roosevelt, that of LaRouche.”

At the conference organized by the DS youth, she spoke of her battles in Alabama, with her husband Bill Boynton, 30 years before Dr. King came to Alabama, and then with Dr. King to achieve the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but also her battles today, alongside the LYM. Many young people asked her questions and then queued to have her autograph the Italian edition of the autobiography, Un Ponte sul Giordano (Bridge Over Jordan).

Mrs. Robinson’s autobiography was officially presented the next morning, at Capitol Hill, seat of the mayor and City Council, by Maurizio Bertolucci, president of the Council Committee for Voting rights to Foreigners, Franca Eckert Coen, advisor to Mayor Veltroni on multiethnical policies, and Bernardino Gasparri, president of the permanent council committee on social policies, who read some moving pages from the autobiography, quoting also LaRouche’s speech in Talladega, Ala. during the 2004 Presidential campaign, about the “immortality” of Dr. King.

The next day, Amelia spoke to students, first at the Montale High School, at a conference commemorating Rosa Parks, attended by 500 students, where she was intoruced by Marguerite Lottin, president of the Griot Intercultural Association. Mrs. Robinson then moved on to the the University Department on Communication (Roma Tre) where she was introduced by Nella Condorelli, of Articolo 21.

She had many political meetings, at the Regional Congress of DS, to which she brought the greetings of the “true America.” At the national office of La Margherita party, the general secretary, Francesco Rutelli, introduced Amelia to a number of foreign party representatives, including a Congresswoman from California, attending a conference where he presented his plan to create an Italian Democratic Party.

The two main left dailies in Italy, l’Unità and Il Manifesto, covered her official visit, and the second national channel (RAI 2 Nettuno) will air a portrait of her at the end of the year, not only in Italy but also in Iraq, Morocco, and Syria, in the context of a series of lessons for college students on the history of the United States.