March 19, 2008 (LPAC)--Giorgio Cremaschi, national Secretary General of the Metalworkers' Union (FIOM), the most militant of Italy's unions, told the daily Il Riformista that Giulio Tremonti's criticisms of the WTO, and the necessity of a New Bretton Woods, are ideas that can be supported. Tremonti is the former, and possibly future, Finance Minister of Italy.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the satellite TV channel Rainews24 yesterday, Tremonti stressed once more that there is no local solution to a global crisis. We need a New Bretton Woods, he said. It may sound a bit abstract, he said, but it is not. As a government, we will commit ourselves to bringing all the major world governments to the table to negotiate a global agreement.

One nation cannot solve the crisis alone. It is a national duty to move internationally. He also suggested a few immediate steps that could be taken at a national level, to protect the population from the crisis, such as freezing the price of break, milk and potatoes.

Cremaschi also shares Tremonti's criticism of the European Union as a conglomerate of free-market ideologies and bureaucratic practices, mentioning the European Court's attack on Swedish trade unions as an example of its anti-labor policies. I don't want to predict catstrophe, he said, but unless we act immediately to deal with this crisis, I see a scenario of destruction ahead.