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After The Genoa Protests

Step Up The Fight Against Capitalism

AROUND THE world, workers and young people are stepping up resistance to capitalism's profit driven agenda.

In Britain, public-sector workers and communities fighting privatisation, students campaigning against tuition fees and for a living grant, Black and Asian youth fighting racism and police harassment will identify with the 300,000 anti-capitalist protesters who marched in Genoa on Saturday 21 July.

Socialists, young people, trade unionists and workers came from Italy, across Europe and beyond to make their voices heard.

Chris was on the demonstration. "I stayed with the Italian contingents. There were many young people and large groups from the left-wing party RC, Fiori (metalworkers) and CGIL, a main trade union, as well as COBAS, the 'rank and file' Italian trade union federation .

"It was very lively with plenty of chanting and local people supported us. Every time a police helicopter hovered overhead protesters stuck one finger in the air and shouted 'asassino' after the police murder the previous day of a 23-year-old protester."

Manny, another protester commented: "It was a magnificent show of strength. It showed the potential power of the working class and the overwhelming hatred of the effects of capitalist policies on economic, social and environmental issues and of establishment capitalist institutions such as the G8,World Bank, IMF and the multinational corporations and politicians representing them".

The G8 summit of the world's richest countries, the main focus of the protests, went ahead behind barricades and under the protection of 20,000 Carabinieri (armed Italian police) with water cannons, tear gas, helicopters and live ammunition. Even the pro-capitalist press said the police response was "heavy-handed".

It cost $200 million to protect these rich delegates in luxury while they wined and dined.

The killing of young protester Carlo Giuliani and the police repression which turned the city into a battle-field will only provoke the anger of young people and workers who increasingly see the need to fight back against the effects of globalisation and capitalism itself.

Mass demonstrations are only the beginning. What we need now is real organisation - mass action of the working class worldwide to bring an end to this hated capitalist system.

We are fighting for socialism - for democratic working-class control of the economy and for a society run for the needs of all, not the profits of big business and the multinational corporations who control our lives under this system. Join us.

After Genoa - what way forward?

Eye-witness reports

 

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What we think

After Genoa - what way forward?

THE BLOODY events at the G8 summit in Genoa mark a turning point in the anti-capitalist movement

Leaders of the world's eight richest nations slept in a luxury liner and junketed on five star cuisine. They were behind a 13-feet steel barricade, topped with barbed wire.

Meanwhile outside the six square mile exclusion zone, police shot dead young protester Carlo Giuliani, and brutally attacked and injured hundreds more.

After Genoa, the G8 will hold their next summit in a remote resort in Canada's Rocky Mountains. In November the World Trade Organisation (WTO), focus of previous protests, will meet in Qatar in the Middle East.

But, the representatives of global capitalism insist, they are "not running away from the anti-capitalist protests". Most people will think differently.

However far they flee, however brutal the repression meted out against peaceful protesters, anti-capitalism won't fade away.

The siege mentality of big business's spokesmen reinforces a growing sense of alienation - amongst young people in particular - from capitalism and its institutions.

When Carlo Giuliani was shot, Tony Blair rejected calls for the summit to be suspended, arguing that the politicians should carry on with their "democratic" business. But it is precisely because he and the rest preside over an undemocratic system based on inequality, injustice, environmental destruction, debt and poverty, that the anti-capitalist movement keeps growing.

In the last year, three million people have protested in 20 countries world-wide. Millions more sympathise with their aims.

In an opinion poll in Britain 67% thought big corporations have more power than governments. 76% thought they put profit before people.

Black and Asian youth in areas such as Brixton and Bradford are beginning to link the brutality and racism which they face daily at the police's hands and the vicious attacks on anti-capitalist protesters in Genoa and elsewhere.

Workers fighting privatisation in education and other public services are drawing the conclusion that they too are '"anti-capitalist".

After Genoa many will want to consider where the movement is headed.

At least 700 separate organisations were involved in the protests, voicing their anger and concerns on the streets.

From the beginning, the anti-capitalist movement embraced many varied groups and ideas. Differences over strategy and tactics were already emerging before Genoa.

The media focused on groups such as Drop the Debt and Oxfam which refused to participate in the Saturday demonstration of 300,000 because they feared it would be "hijacked" by "violent anarchists". But the main divisions aren't between those who support and those who reject violence.

Most protesters, while condemning police and state violence, understand that smashing up shops and property and individual acts of violence by demonstrators, don't take the movement forward and can give politicians an opportunity to increase state repression.

Other debates are more significant. While spokespeople for the anti-capitalist movement such as journalist Naomi Klein praise its spontaneity, many involved in the protests are deciding that they need to be better organised.

While other 'leaders' argue naively for a more 'humane' form of capitalism and for reforming institutions like the IMF and World Bank, radical young people and increasingly sections of workers, look towards a more fundamental change.

Direct action and anti-capitalist protests outside the institutions of global capitalism raised millions of people's awareness of capitalism's iniquities and placed the spotlight firmly on the system as a whole.

But by themselves, these protests cannot end capitalism. Even if its representatives are forced to the far ends of the earth, they will still meet and control our lives.

Ending capitalism requires mass movements involving radicalised young people, the urban and rural poor in 'developing' countries but with workers playing the central role.

Two general strikes in Greece this year in protest at changes to the social security system brought the country to a halt.

These showed why workers are not just one 'pressure group' amongst many but the decisive force with the potential, collective power to change society.

With a world recession looming, the anti-capitalist protests are a foretaste of much bigger struggles to come.

We will strive to link the anti-capitalist with the workers' movement. But being anti-capitalist is not enough. We have to be clear what we're fighting for.

Socialism is about taking control away from the multinational corporations and rich elite and democratically and sustainably planning production for need not profit. The struggle for socialism is the only way forward.

State organised butchery.

Eye-witness reports

 

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State organised butchery

"YOU CAN'T defend the action of the police in shooting and killing someone," said Peter Hain, minister for European Affairs. Yet Tony Blair did just that.

While Hain condemned the Italian police's "excessive reaction", Blair backed their actions.

Even Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, tried to distance himself from the raid on the media centre of the Genoa Social Forum (GSF), saying he didn't know it was going to be attacked.

One eye-witness called this raid "authorised butchery". 200 police stormed a school which was also used as a dormitory. GSF volunteers and sleeping protesters were brutally battered, splattering walls and floors with blood.

61 were injured. 93 people were arrested, including victims carried out on stretchers. The police also smashed computers and destroyed or seized all evidence of police brutality from the previous two days.

The level of repression against demonstrators has escalated with each anti-capitalist protest.

In Gothenburg, live ammunition was deployed against protesters for the first time in Sweden since 1931, wounding three. In Genoa, 20,000 Italian Carabinieri used tanks, tear gas, water cannon, clubs, and plastic, rubber and live bullets killing one person and injuring hundreds.

These protests have shaken the representatives of global capitalism. It's not a small minority of violent protesters they fear, but radicalised young people linking up with workers against the system. With the capitalist world economy on the verge of recession, protests will increase.

Excessive state violence is being used to try and deter and criminalise all anti-capitalist protesters.

There is mounting evidence of state collusion with the "black bloc" in Genoa and use of provocateurs. A Catholic priest saw 'anarchists' getting out of a police van. Others saw 'men in black' in police stations and undercover agents throwing Molotov cocktails. CWI members witnessed black-clad men standing beside the police.

A London Evening Standard journalist saw a plainclothes police officer disguised as a journalist fire a gun in the air: this police tactic could put journalists at risk. On the Friday while some protesters were smashing and looting, police sat and watched.

When Carlo Giuliani's police killer was "trapped" in a police van, other police vehicles were parked less than 30 metres away.

 

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Coventry bus drivers say...

Fight For A Living Wage For All

OVER 100 Coventry bus drivers stopped work again for two hours on 20 July for an unofficial strike against working conditions and the two-tier pay structure operated by the company.

Bill Mullins

The Socialist Party in Coventry has been helping the workers who feel that their union, the TGWU has let them down. A TGWU spokesman has been quoted saying: "The official position of the union is that there is no outstanding issues with the company in terms of pay, conditions and negotiations".

The union has completely neglected the "market rate drivers". They are workers who have been employed since privatisation on lower rates of pay and worse conditions than longer-serving drivers.

But the lowering of conditions and wages for the "market rate" drivers is affecting them all. A divided workforce is good for the bosses.

"LAST FRIDAY about 150 bus drivers held a demonstration at Pool Meadow bus station... Heavily supported by the Socialist Party in Coventry". Coventry Evening Telegraph 20 July.

Barry Ford, one of three drivers who was suspended for "inciting other drivers to take unofficial action" told The Socialist:

"The company want all drivers on the market rate, from £7.69 per hour to £6 per hour. From 34 days holiday per year to 25 days. We also get a worse sick pay scheme and we're the first to be messed about with split shifts.

"The company want to do everything on the cheap, they bought buses that are only suitable for inter-city routes not inner city ones. Drivers are fearful of any bumps and scratches because we can be disciplined, this adds to the pressure of the job".

The drivers have passed a vote of no confidence in the full-time officials who have ignored their complaints. They also voted unanimously for an official strike to be put to a ballot.

Bill Orchid, a long-term driver, told me that he drove buses in London eleven years ago and got a wage of £17,000 now he gets £11,000 in Coventry.

The TGWU organises drivers nationally but since privatisation has been in retreat from the bosses' offensive. This is beginning to change as the Coventry dispute shows.

It is not an accident that some of the drivers have turned to the Socialist Party councillors for help just as local council workers and Peugeot workers did last year.

A firm lead from the TGWU could turn this dispute into a national campaign against the big bus companies.

Already some drivers are so frustrated with the lack of a lead from the union that there is talk of transferring en masse to the RMT who also organise some bus workers, or even forming a separate bus workers' union.

These are early days but if the union adopts the approach of the official quoted at the beginning of the article they will find they will have no members left.

Coventry Socialist Party is organising a series of public meetings to build support amongst passengers for the drivers' campaign. Already over 1,000 have signed a petition for a better bus service.

 

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Stop police killings

IN THE past week or so, two people have been shot dead by British policemen. Derek Bennett was killed in Brixton on 16 July. Andrew Kernan was shot in Liverpool a few days earlier. Below we report on the protests following DEREK BENNETT and ANDREW KERNAN'S deaths

Derek Bennett:

DEREK BENNETT was carrying a small cigarette lighter in the shape of a toy gun when he was allegedly shot four times - there were three bullets in his back.

Steve Bush

150 people gathered outside Brixton police station on Friday 20 July for a loud and angry demonstration, followed by a march to Angell Town estate where Derek died.

Protesters had already lobbied the Police Consultative Committee on the previous Tuesday with a list of demands including the suspension of the police officers involved.

Protesters repeated these demands on Friday's demonstration. When they returned to the police station, the police had blocked off streets and proceeded to push against the demonstrators, who pushed back. Police began pouncing on demonstrators six to one, but were forced to free them by community solidarity.

The police then called up van loads of reinforcements in riot gear, which further inflamed the situation, leading to running battles with groups of local youths. As the police lost any control of the situation, it further degenerated with cars being turned over, dustbins up-ended to form barricades, and eventually shops being attacked and broken into.

The police had warned shopkeepers and businesses in advance to shut early and be prepared for trouble. This proves that they were ready for a fight. Tension remains high in Brixton, with police vans patrolling the streets, maintaining a high level of intimidation.

The Socialist Party will be at the forefront of the campaign to ensure justice for Derek Bennett, and to fight against further killings and intimidation by police in Lambeth.

We call for a community investigation into this shooting. We demand the disbandment of armed units such as the Firearms Squads, seen locally as today's Special Patrol Group. Above all we need accountability of the police through democratic control by local people.

 

 

Andrew Kernan:

ANDREW KERNAN, suffering from a relapse of schizophrenia, was shot dead in the street this month by Merseyside police.

By a mental health nurse

Andrew was acutely psychotic, his mother and a Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN) had managed to contain him in the family flat in Wavertree, Liverpool.

Six police officers arrived after he became increasingly disturbed, but somehow let him pick up a samurai sword and leave the flat.

Marie Kernan, Andrew's mother said: "I demand justice for Andrew. They shot to kill - twice in the chest when they should not have shot at all. You don't kill somebody with a mental illness. What sort of society is that?"

The police are enshrined with powers to 'section' people in a public place if they believe they're suffering from a mental illness - a Section 136.

Although given this power, a policeman will have half a day's training in dealing with the mental health issues.

This, combined with police racism and unsafe restraint methods, often results in appalling police treatment of the mentally ill.

Section 136 is disproportionately used against ethnic minorities. In some parts of London, a 136 is the most common way for a young black man to be brought into a psychiatric hospital.

I dealt with a 136 one night where the police had written "picking her nose, and eating her food in a disgusting manner in McDonalds" as the reason for sectioning a young black girl. She was in no way mentally ill.

There have been several inquiries into the use of CS gas on the mentally ill. People with mental illness are more likely to die in custody following being gassed and restrained.

There are some theories that CS gas combines adversely with psychiatric medication.

As a psychiatric nurse in inner London I am involved in the restraint of disturbed patients on an almost daily basis.

We are specifically banned from using "bear hugs" and "neck holds" used by the police as they are known to have possible lethal consequences.

I once gave a statement to a police officer about an incident, he was amazed at the restraint techniques that we use.

He looked even more baffled when I talked about the principle of non-injurious restraint.

Blunkett has called for tranquilliser guns to be used as a 'non-lethal' alternative to firearms.

This summons a nightmare vision of police hunting down the mentally ill on the streets.

Forcible injections of tranquillisers are only done in an hospital environment because of the risk of adverse reactions and the need for very careful dosage.

An overdose of injectable tranquillisers can cause respiratory failure or cardiac problems, an inadequate dose can make a disturbed person more disinhibited.

Partly, people get to the stage where they need to be removed from the street because of the lack of community mental health resources.

The Socialist Party campaigns both for police accountability and the full funding of NHS.

 

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We need a decent minimum wage

THE GOVERNMENT has accepted the Low Pay Commission's (LPC) recommendation to increase the national minimum wage (NMW) for adults from £3.70 per hour to £4.10 from this October.

Bill Mullins

But, they again rejected the LPC's recommendation that the adult rate should be paid to 21-year-olds. The minimum rate for young people between 18 and their 22nd birthday will increase by 30p per hour from £3.20 to £3.50 by October and a further 10p per hour by October 2002.

The Low Pay Commission, mainly employers and academics, thought that giving the adult rate to 21-year-olds was the least the government could do to increase the very low numbers of young people voting in the election.

Some of the establishment picked up on this warning and advised at least introducing the adult rate of the minimum wage for young people. But even this miserable concession was too much for pro-business New Labour.

Industry secretary Patricia Hewitt said that paying 21-year-olds "would increase employers' costs by 28%". The LPC calculated that the total cost to the economy of applying the minimum wage to young people was only 0.01%.

The minimum wage rate is set so low, it has little effect on either the working poor's living standards or the profits of big business.

New Labour hopes this pitiful rise gives it some approval from its supporters. At all this year's union conferences government ministers and union leaders trumpeted about this "advance for working people."

In fact, since its inception in April 1999 the minimum wage has had far less effect than Labour claims. In 1998, the government said that the minimum wage would raise the wages of 2.2 million workers. But a report from public sector union UNISON says the real figure was only one million.

"Setting the rate at £3.70 in April 98 but only applying it 12 months later was the equivalent of setting it at £3.40 in April 1999... The normal rise in wages had already seen a decline in the real value of the NMW by then".

The union's report also shows that "non-compliance is now rife" from eliminating tea breaks without reducing the hours spent at the workplace to cancelling allowances and other fiddles by the employers.

The number of enforcement orders doubled to 171 in the nine months up to January 2001. The report estimates that at least 300,000 people are at present being unlawfully paid below the minimum wage. It calls for a dedicated government agency to enforce the minimum wage rather than the Inland Revenue department.

Poverty trap

TWO YEARS of the NMW has changed little on the shop floor. In non-unionised workplaces the boss can still get away with paying slave wages. Even in unionised workplaces, the UNISON report shows there's still a long way to go. Tens of thousands of term-time workers and student nurses are exempt from any minimum wage laws.

In any case the low minimum wage hardly has any effect even if very rigorous enforcement takes place. The family budget unit estimates that workers need at least £5.50 to £6.96 per hour to bring up their families.

21% of private sector workers are on less than £5.10 per hour, UNISON claimed last year, as part of its campaign for a minimum wage of half male median earnings. 12% of public-sector workers are in the same poverty trap but 42% of part-timers are below this level.

This varies from region to region. In London "only" 12% earn less than £5.10 per hour (37% of part timers) but in North-east England 23% of full timers and 53% of part timers are on less than this.

UNISON estimates that if the minimum age went up to £5 per hour this would benefit four million workers immediately compared to the one million that the present level affects.

Some of the biggest companies have the greatest differentials in earnings between their top and lowest-paid employers.

Compass Granada (with many office cleaning contracts) pays its directors £1 million or more whilst the lowest paid worker gets less than £11,000 a year.

UNISON led the campaign for a "living wage" with a massive demonstration in Newcastle in 1999 (though the leadership opposed this at first - the Campaign for a Fighting Democratic UNISON, led by the Socialist Party, forced it through UNISON conference).

Since then little has been achieved. The government still gets away with its miserably low minimum wage. The unions pass resolutions calling for the minimum to be raised to at least half male median earnings ie about £5 to £5.50 at present.

The European Union estimates workers need a national minimum wage of £7.50 an hour. This decency threshold is the minimum level needed for living decently.

But given the regional differences and therefore different levels of expectations, we should put pressure on the union leaders to seriously campaign for their own targets of £5 to £5.50 an hour.

We should not let them off the hook by just having a figure of £7.50 per hour and leave it at that, but demand that to achieve this the unions should organise a mass campaign to get the £5 level as a step towards the £7.50.

 

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On the march against capitalism

ONCE AGAIN, as at the time of the anti-EU protests in Gothenburg, the media of the world has concentrated almost exclusively on the violent confrontations in Genoa, instead of showing why the majority of the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators were there and what they are saying.

The Committee for a Workers International (CWI) had members from 12 countries present in Genoa, including from the Socialist Party in England and Wales.

We are campaigning for the truth to be told about what happened in Genoa through an independent inquiry.

We will strive in every way possible to counter the lies of the big business owners of the press, TV and radio companies who are continuing their scurrilous campaign to demonise and criminalise the anti-capitalist movement.

Few words from them about the 50,000-strong March of the Immigrants - bigger than even the organisers expected - that made its way colourfully and good-naturedly through the city on the evening of Thursday 19 July.

No detailed reports on why 70,000 people were on the streets at various points around the city the following day to greet Bush and Co. in their own particular ways. No extensive coverage of the 300,000 people who thronged onto the sea-front to protest about the G8 and about the killing of one of their fellow protesters and wounding and arresting of hundreds more.

We have raised the need for mass action, including that of a 24-hour general strike in Italy, to protest about the brutality of Berlusconi's state and his totally anti-working class policies.

We will continue, along with other organisations, to expose the real criminals in capitalist society but also to fight for a socialist alternative.

 

Local people backed the demo

IN BRIGHT sunshine, an angry though good-natured crowd protested in Genoa. The anger wasn't only about the obscene inequality this system is based on but about the death of a protester, shot in the face by the police.

Manny Thain

Distributing leaflets in Italian, French, Spanish and English, with other material in German and Dutch, we discuss with working-class people from all over Europe. The 300,000 crowd is, however, predominantly Italian who see this gigantic demonstration as a show of strength against the election of far-rightwing Silvio Berlusconi, as much as against the G8.

Political groups, many from left parties or independent trade unions, meet community-based and environmental movements. The Worldwide Fund for Nature's giant panda embraces the Greek Communist Party's hammer and sickle.

There are tens of thousands of workers and many contingents of organised trade unionists even though this wasn't a trade union organised demo like last year's 100,000-strong mobilisation in Nice.

Progress was slow on the march. Reaching the brow of a slope, you could see protesters as far as the eye could see. Tear gas canisters were letting off choking clouds.

Despite all the propaganda and the extent of some of the damage done over the past few days, you could see overwhelming support from local people and an absolute hatred of the Italian police.

From there it was cat-and-mouse with the police. We met up with the Greek CWI section and walked through a designated "safe" area in negotiations between the organisers and the police. It wasn't safe. With confrontations with the police increasing, we had to move out.

We wanted to try to get back to the Convergence Point. But every route was blocked. Driven back by tear gas and police action we were forced across the river. We expected a full-frontal assault at any time.

Incredibly, at around five in the afternoon, we found our coach. The drivers agreed to transport some extra passengers across town twice. We saw thousands of police sectioning off areas. Hundreds of riot police and vans guarded the police station.

All states are clamping down on these demonstrations. We need to protect ourselves by having well-organised, mass stewarding to maintain the cohesion needed to repel police attacks.

This can be achieved through democratically elected coordinating committees, drawing on the wealth of experience in the workers' movement internationally. It would mean different groups co-operating in the interests of defending the demonstrations.

Live ammunition was used in Gothenburg and led to a death in Genoa. To try to prevent this happening again, the movement has to put organised self-defence up the agenda.

 

 

Tear gas and beatings - the photographer's story

SOCIALIST PARTY photographer PAUL MATTSSON came under attack from both police and "anarchists/ agents provocateurs". He explains:

On Thursday the first demo of about 70,000 was provocatively policed. I had G8 accreditation which gave me access to the media centre in the red zone. But every time I went there I was searched, including being asked to drop my trousers in public.

On Friday's demo some protesters were very hostile to photographers. It's fair enough if they don't want to be photographed doing some things but they were trashing off-licences, looting and getting drunk. They went into this working-class area and chucked kids' bicycles into the fires, trashing and burning people's scruffy old cars etc.

We found all hell breaking loose in a narrow street. One copper sprayed us in the face with pepper spray. Later a tear-gas canister hit my helmet. Myself and another photographer were shot at with plastic bullets. I was shot through the pocket of my trousers and lost six rolls of film.

The Saturday demo was again provocatively policed. After the protester had been shot dead people were angry with the police. When a crowd of trade unionists, priests, nuns etc. started putting the v-sign up, the coppers sent over two tear gas canisters which gassed all those peaceful protesters.

Further on, stewards tried to get the march to go right but one bloke ignored this and went up to the police, who sent about 20 tear gas canisters flying through the air.

When I tried to catch up with the peaceful demo someone grabbed my camera strap. About seven black-clad anarchists or coppers or whatever they were trashed my camera gear. They tried to yank my helmet and gas mask off, grabbed my head and smashed it though a window.

Two British SWP members pulled me out. When I went to the media centre to make a report for the insurance for my camera gear, I was sent to the main police station. I wasn't happy about this but some film-makers came with me.

The police kept asking me who the people who attacked me were. I said they all had masks on and I just wanted to make a statement for insurance purposes. They looked at my press credentials which clearly said The Socialist. Nonetheless they accused me of being an anarchist and asked if I knew any protesters and said they'd like to see my film.

They said I'd have to see someone in 'the office' but I could hear someone getting a kicking. "The office is not ready yet," they said. "When the office is ready we'll see you."

The Italian press was sympathetic to the protests, apart from Berlusconi's papers. They'd printed pictures showing police brutality and I thought: "This is pay-back time for them". I thought I'll get detained on some trumped up charge or get beaten.

A young French guy came out with a bruised and bloody face. They pushed him out the front of the building and kicked him up the arse, shouting: "Go back to France."

I managed to escape and got the train back.

 

 

"Red flags were everywhere you looked"

I WAS on the CWI contingent with comrades from all over Europe. It was impressive marching along with local people lining the route and joining with us singing the Internationale.

Kieran Roberts

As we went through a working-class area, people leaned out of their windows cheering us on. It was really hot so they played hosepipes on us to cool us down and passed out bottles of water.

We were careful to defend our contingent behind the banner. We had people linking arms so we could defend it if necessary. As we were walking back a teargas attack started people running. The police were driving people back. We got everyone together and went back towards the rallying point.

I never saw any violence from any people around us. But we got driven back towards this stadium. The organisers wanted us to go in but we were a bit dubious so we stayed on the road outside. Even then the police were firing teargas in the area.

The whole situation was tense because of the tear gas and the killing. When people saw the police they shouted "Assassins!"

It was overwhelmingly youthful. Everywhere you looked you saw red flags and Che Guevara T-shirts. We were singing the Internationale and Bandiera Rossa and everyone was joining in. We had a very lively contingent, when the police were trying to drive people back we were organised to protect people.

We kept everyone together and made sure everyone was OK. That had a big impact and people wanted to demonstrate with us.

We found out later that some people had been trapped on the beach by the police, who made them walk through their ranks with their hands in the air. There were police dressed up as anarchists holding riot shields completely blatantly.

On the coach back, loads of people wanted to join International Socialist Resistance, mainly because it's socialist.

A few days before the G8 summit, Italian leader Berlusconi gave Genoa people money to paint their houses to impress the G8 leaders. He told people not to hang their washing out to dry, particularly women's underwear. In protest, people did completely the opposite, just as they did when Mussolini invited Hitler to Genoa.

 

Press conference exposes police violence

A PRESS conference on the Sunday, organised by the Genova Social Forum (GSF) attracted around 1,500 demonstrators and press. Here we learned the true extent of police violence. The medical organiser said that the 150 medics had been called on at least 500 times, way beyond expectations.

Simon Donovan

Typical injuries were head wounds exposed to the bone, broken bones, shock caused by baton attacks and by marching demonstrators into walls and throwing them down stairs.

Medics were attacked for helping wounded demonstrators and ambulances had tear gas thrown into them. Three back-up ambulances were destroyed. Police had in particular targeted female protesters.

On Saturday night the police attacked the media centre and a school opposite where demonstrators were sleeping. Everyone there was either hospitalised or arrested, one British man was left in a coma. All computer equipment was either seized or destroyed.

The Italian media showed the carnage left, with pools of blood everywhere. All legal assistance was denied to the victims. In all over a tonne of tear gas was used, many canisters aimed directly at demonstrators to cause maximum injury.

 

 

The aftermath of Genoa

TWO BRITISH care workers and UNISON members, Richard Moth and Nicola Docherty, were badly beaten in the raid on the GSF building, arrested and imprisoned for four days without contact with the British consul.

There were fears that they had been further beaten in custody and were therefore deemed 'unpresentable' by the Genoa authorities.

Socialist councillor Dave Nellist was involved in protesting on their behalf.

Italian demonstrations

More than 200,000 people demonstrated in cities across Italy to protest at police violence in Genoa. 50,000 marched in Rome. 15,000 in Bologna and Genoa, 15,000 to 20,000 in Milan.

Demonstrators wearing target symbols on their heads waved red flags and chanted "assassinos" at the police.

 

 

AFTER THE news came through of the death of Carlo Giuliani, CWI members met and drew up demands and slogans which were immediately displayed in English and Italian on posters and placards in the main assembly area. The demands included: Expose police provocations, killings and attacks. For an independent inquiry. Mass action to defend the right to demonstrate. For a 24-hour general strike. A Socialist Party member from Cork in Ireland raised these demands at a mass assembly of demonstrators and was greeted with stormy applause. They were then taken up by sections of the mass demo the next day. When Simon Donovan, a Socialist Party member in England and Wales raised the demand for a 24-hour general strike at a press conference on the Sunday (see article above) it was enthusiastically received by the 1,500 people present.

 

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