GENOA SPECIAL

Genoa frontpage

In Italy that other world became closer 1

In Italy that other world became closer 2

In Italy that other world became closer 3

Meanwhile in the rest of the world

Reaction after witnessing the attack on the Diaz school

A broad statement from People Not Profit

After Genoa: why we need to stay in the streets

Piece by John Pilger

The long road to Genoa

A group of people, from the Merseyside Genoa Collective, left Liverpool on Wednesday 18th July 2001 to join protestors from London travelling to Genoa for the G8 summit protests. We made our way to an established convergence centre on the Blackfriar’s Road, on arrival we found many people in quite an excited mood getting ready for one of the most important demonstrations of their lives. There was limited sleeping with many discussion taking place regarding capitalism and a variety of ideologies to destroy the beast. Most never slept, perhaps this was an indication of things to come, but the limited sleep didn’t deter peoples’ enthusiasm. I was woken by a member of the group at 5.30 am to be told that many people were leaving, however this was easily explained by the train which had been cancelled by the French and Italian authorities was back on due to over whelming pressure from French and Italian trade unions who were supporting the demonstration in Genoa. A few people went to a local supermarket to stock up with supplies for the journey. We met the coaches by Waterloo Station and we set off at about 9am.

It took around two hours to get to Dover where we would cross the channel by ferry, however the unprecedented stopping at customs delayed us for over one hour. This was a true indication of what was to come as we were stopped at almost every European border we came to. We were asked to remove all our belongings from the coach and we endured a metal detector test, some people had their passports taken for checking by Customs and Police officers. All was in order and we set off once more. The ferry journey was fine, however when we arrived in France we received the same treatment, ordered off the coach and our bags searched by French authorities. One person was deported for having a gas mask despite others having gas mask too. We set of once more, delayed now for well over three and a half hours. The journey was an incredible one, the coach was full and very hot, but despite this conversation was constant discussing politics with people from Liverpool, Ireland, Yorkshire, Nottingham and other places. This passed the incredible 27-hour coach journey not including stops. We arrived in at the Italian border at 7am on Friday 20th July 2001, only to be held for a further 2 hours while five people had their bags search, unfortunately I was one of those who had to have their bag search on the border. I felt like a criminal despite doing nothing wrong at all, demonstrating is a right not a privilege. After this we then faced several roadblocks heading to Genoa, this was a tactic to delay protestors. We arrived on the outskirts of Genoa at 12noon and immediately set off to dump our bags and find out where we were staying the journey could only be taken by two buses. The first bus took us to the ferry port where the G8 conference was taking place, there were approximately 150 riot police guarding the port, when we arrived the police quickly established a protective line to stop us from entering, despite us not intend to do this as we numbered only 100. The police refused us access to the bus, however when more people arrived a chief police officer ordered us to get on the bus. We slowly chugged up the long and winding roads, passing people along the way. This was the last bus to run in the whole of Genoa while the summit was on.

After 15 minutes on the bus we arrived at a square where about 2000 people were sitting down, dancing and listening to a samba band, a group of anarchists had been chased up into the square by the police. The pleasant atmosphere altered when a riot squad of about 1000 officers entered this square, almost immediately tear gas was being fired into the square and police were beating people if they were too slow to run or happened to be caught up in bottle necks in the small narrow roads. It appeared that a trap had been set. I ran to find others from Liverpool, the square was filled with chaos, I could not see anybody due to the plumes of smoke from tear gas canisters, I was awash with panic fearing a beating from the police riot squad or being arrested like so many others in the square, their crimes, nothing! Many bins had been placed in the roads to set up barricades, I ran to my right to find a group of people running up a flight of stairs, we were quickly told that the police had sealed off that area and were preparing to come down the stairs to arrest people. I set off again, I stopped to see how far the police were, only 50-60 feet away, I became alarmed when three tears gas canisters popped over my head, my eyes were engulfed with heat by the toxic gases, I began to choke I had to get out of there. I bumped into three people from my coach and we stuck together. We took a road on the left, the police still steadily moving down the street. The road was quite steep with no apparent exits we carried on walking, suddenly at the bottom of an adjacent road a police riot van unloaded a group of cops who instantly set up a blockade, we were forced to walk through a persons garden and up a set of steps which led back to the square which we had just fled, we hurriedly made our way to a park to regroup. Our first impression of Genoa was distorted by police violence the brutality and teargas didn’t help either.

We stayed in the park for about 15 minutes before finding somewhere safe to be, we still did not have a place to stay. We could see a mass-action taking place from the top of the hill, we had heard that Ya Basta were attacking the red zone, a group of about 100 people went to join this action. We marched in unison down the road towards the action, cars were burnt out and bank windows smashed, people stood on street corners looking jaded, tear gas was spreading from the battle zone. We continued down a main street we knew we were heading the right way as the tear gas was becoming stronger. A battle was ensuing on a bridge, I could see heavy fighting. I walked calmly up the stairs, I immediately questioned my actions of being in Genoa, we regrouped and soon realised that Ya Basta were not there. A group of around 200 anarchists were trying to break police lines, our group join forces with them, however the police saw this unity and began firing tear gas, this did not deter people, so they decided to baton charge people forcing everybody to run down the joining stairs. People fell down the stairs and police threw C.S gas canisters down at people. A young Italian man, standing 20 feet away from myself had been struck in the face by a tear gas canister, I helped the person towards an ambulance, he was reluctant to go to hospital for fear of arrest, and he was treated on the streets with tear gas rolling by.

We made our way back to the people who didn’t want to join this action, a small shop opened and gave us food and water, the hospitality of the local people of Genoa was all important to the weekends protests. There was talk of a death, many confused and disparate stories, we later found out that a 23-year-old Italian man named Carlo Guiliani, was shot in the head by the police and the police vehicle then reversed over his limp body. There was extreme anger regarding this brutal murder, which would have later repercussions. We were told that the police were going to impose Marshall law on the streets of Genoa and if we wanted to find a place to stay we would have to join up with a demonstration heading towards the convergence centre. We joined the end of the march, however the police wanted everybody off the streets and began to separate the march by driving their armoured vehicles through the crowds, this was totally unprovoked and indiscriminate. The sanctuary of a public car park would be our base, were we would, eat, drink and sleep. The situation inside was extremely tense people talking of the beatings, gassings, arrests and other horror stories that would best describe a dictatorship but this is capitalism at its best, showing its true colours, brutality, murder and violence against the people. It was an amazing sight to see so many citizens of the world congregating in one place. We were woken continuously by the police helicopters and blazing sirens, people refused to sleep anyway for fear of police attack, as we had heard rumours of the police attacking convergence centres using tear gas and water cannons early in the mornings, we were lucky this did not happen to us.

On Saturday the sun rose, it was beating down already burning my skin I chose to use no sun screen as I knew that tear gas reacts with the oil based solution, I made my way along the coast to the beginning of the demonstration. I had been separated from my friends due to the sheer numbers of people who had taken to the streets. I stayed with some people from London who I had met in the convergence centre. The demonstration set off, we walked back along the coast, the demonstration was in a sombre mood, as we passed the police station cries of ‘assassini’ were shouted at the police, the anger at police brutality was immense. Along the route the police attacked the front and rear of the demonstration, however the 300,000 people were disciplined and remained united, the march continued, people sang revolutionary songs and chanted in several different languages. There was a constant stopping and starting, at one junction the police had tried to block the roads, but the sheer weight of numbers forced the police to retreat, this after they had fired rounds of tear gas into the demonstration. The local people along the way clapped and threw water to us to cool us down. The sun was now burning my skin, we had now stopped for about 10 minutes, many people sat down, preserving their energy. People miles back began shouting, I quickly jumped to my feet fearing a police attack on our section, I stood up and turned around. There was a Chinese whisper over 5 miles long saying that we had stopped the summit, I began jumping and shouting, songs were sang in about 10 different languages, the atmosphere was electric. I felt like sleeping but it was too hot and the thousands of people were singing and shouting, in the distance the police were forcing the straggling demonstrators up towards the main square, arresting and beating people who tried to pass them. The international demonstration had massive effects remaining peaceful and being incredibly strong.

The time was now approaching 6pm, I was feeling very tired and hungry, and our group decided that we would head back to the coach early as to get some food and rest. We set off, almost immediately, due to the vast amounts of people we had lost a few people, I and another person went to find them, we were unsuccessful, the police had now approached further towards the demonstrators, but remained at a good distance away. We head back to meet up with the group, and headed off to the coaches, police sirens and cars were a common feature of this journey back. I went to buy some food from a supermarket for the coach journey home, I rested on the floor waiting for the coaches to arrive. We boarded the coaches only to find that the police had stopped the other coach and demanded that we left, some police dressed in full riot uniform many were dressed in their own clothes, holding pistols and batons with no true identification. The situation became tense with the police saying that they would arrest us for being near the red zone. We departed and arranged to meet up with the other coach further down the road, there coach came about 20 minutes later, we were in a state of panic.

The journey home resembled the journey to Genoa, there were several people missing as they were going to stay on for a few more days. The debate was even more diverse on the return journey, talking about the ‘black block’, police and demonstrators tactics. We were stopped again and again at border controls just to ware us down, but as far as we saw this, we were victorious, but the battle is just beginning and there is a whole world to win.