A
broad statement from People Not Profit
25 protestors from Merseyside attended the anti-capitalist demonstrations
in Genoa on 19th, 20th and 21st July 2001. The group from Merseyside
witnessed protestors brutally beaten by police officers on several occasions.
Some of the delegation were placed in immediate danger shortly after
arriving in Genoa. The delegation were forced into a police bottleneck
in the centre of the city while still carrying luggage towards the safe
refuge where they were staying. The group were forced to lay on the
ground during sustained tear gas attacks and police baton charges. During
the remainder of their stay in Genoa, the group also witnessed:
- police vehicles driven at organised demonstrations without warning.
- Protestors attacked while people were holding hands in the air and
appealing for calm.
- Protesters in fancy dress costumes easily identified as demonstrators
attacked by police officers.
- Intimidation of local residents who were drawn into the conflict against
their will.
- Tear gas deliberately and indiscriminately aimed at peaceful demonstrations
at head height
- Plain clothes police officers dressed as rioters, seen on police lines
with makeshift weapons and sticks.
- Armed plain clothes officers with police riot helmets and no identification.
- Something in the region of a dozan people being carried out in stretchers,
after the attack on the school facing the GSF (Genoa Social Forum) media
centre
- Pools of blood on the wooden floors and blood splattered all over
the walls and radiators of the Diaz school.
There is considerable evidence from Italian and international television
news coverage and press photographers which supports the Merseyside
Delegation's eye witness evidence. Since the conflict in Genoa, lawyers
and Members of Parliament in Italy have publicly condemned the police.
Many have pointed out that the police appear to have suspended the rule
of law for the duration of the summit. Protesters were baton charged
indiscriminately in non-restricted areas, on peaceful demonstrations
and when attempting to move away from the police lines. Many were arrested
for no reason and held illegally. At the time of writing, around 17
people are still held Andover 100 have been released without charge,
and there are people still missing.
During the protest and during the attacks on the Genoa Social Forum
(GSF) HQ and the Indymedia Centre, the level of mindless violence used
by police officers indicated that not only were they out of control,
but that they did not expect any recriminations for their actions. According
to journalist present at the GSF raid, a police officer, worried that
the bodies being carried from the building were dead, was told by his
superior "don't worry, we're covered." Those arrested and held were
tortured, subjected to verbal and physical abuse, forced to sing fascist
songs and to salute portraits of Mussolini, and women were shown pornographic
photographs and told they would be raped, all arrested were strip searched.
Prisoners were also denied legal assistance, phone calls and consular
visits. The stories of those who were detained have been supported by
the small number of journalists that got anywhere near the detention
centres. Those journalists have compared the treatment of those held
to the 1970s fascist regimes of Argentina and Chile. There is also much
evidence to suggest that the police were active in escalating the violence
on the streets. Film footage of large numbers of police officers dressed
as 'black block' anarchists, and evidence of connections between the
police and organised fascist groups have created a political storm in
Italy.
With all of this evidence before us, it seems that Carlo Giuliani's
death was not simply an isolated police error, but occurred as a consequence
of systematic and brutal police tactics used against demonstrators throughout
the protest. In fact very little is mentioned of the young French women
who was killed on the border trying to attend the protests, nor of the
many others who were shot by the police. And a few days before going
to press, the body of a Italian women, who was reported missing after
the demo, was found in the Pavoa River, she had been strangled so severely
that the bones in her neck were broken.
ILLEGAL POLICING, OUTLAWING PROTEST
Despite the shocking police brutality used at Genoa, few members of
the UK government felt it appropriate to condemn the Italian police.
Inside the heavily guarded perimeter fence surrounding the summit, the
leaders of the G8 had a choice of 170 different types of cheese, 54
varieties of bread and 7,000 bottles of wine. Little wonder then that
Blair was so quick to condemn the demonstrators and defend the police.
Clare Short and Jack Straw followed suit. But as Foreign Secretary,
Jack Straw must answer why the Foreign Office refused to put pressure
on the Italian Government to allow British Consular access to the British
citizens that were being held illegally by the Italian police.
This lack of action on the part of the British state amounts to tacit
support for the brutal and illegal actions of the carabinieri and other
sections of the Italian police. In one sense, this reflects a new level
of co-operation that police forces in Europe have established for the
big anti-capitalist protests. The same intelligence systems and police
networks used against terrorism and football hooligans are used to prevent
protestors crossing borders, and to place some under surveillance. Cross-border
police co-operation became apparent to the Merseyside delegation to
Genoa when at the Swiss-Italian border, Italian border police guarded
the front of the bus and Swiss riot police stood at the rear.
The tactics used by the police in Genoa bear some resemblance to the
policing of previous protests in Prague and Gothenburg. Some were shocked
that in the case of the Swedish protests, a social democratic state
could resort to the use of live rounds of ammunition against the demonstration.
In Prague, similar revenge tactics were used against protestors after
the summit had ended, those arrested were tortured in custody and there
were stories of sexual abuse in police cells. Throughout history, popular
protest has always been met with brutal policing, the use of agent provocateurs
and even the suspension of the normal rule of law by the police, whether
the protest is peaceful or not. It is time to ask questions about why
the police response to the anti-capitalist protests is now intensifying.
This appears to be something, which is also developing in the UK. The
British police have used illegal tactics in order to disrupt the May
Day anti-capitalist protests. Section 60 of the 1994 Criminal Justice
and Public Order Act was used to disrupt the protest outside the Italian
Embassy on the Monday following the Genoa protests, a use of the legislation
that, legally, is highly questionable. The inability of the police to
cope with the growing numbers of protestors involved in may Day and
in the large international protests, is something that is deeply embarrassing
to the leaders of the worlds governments. It also reveals the fragility
of the western democratic states, which give momentum to the global
reach of capitalism. Although is not yet illegal to use the right to
protest in a peaceful manner, as long as the protests continue to grow,
it seems that we are in for a tough time from police forces across the
world.
As we go to press there is growing evidence that Carlo Giulianii death
was a set up. This is not to suggest that the police went out to kill
him in particular - but latest footage would suggest that the fire extinguisher
that he was holding, was thrown from the police carrier, with the aim,
it has been suggested, of shooting the demonstrator who picked it up.
That tragedy fell on young Carlo Giuliani.
AN UNSTOPPABLE MOVEMENT
On the largest demonstration, on Saturday 21st, the mood was incredible.
Norena Hertz was to write the next day in the Observer that Carlo Guiliani's
death had been forgotten by the Saturday. She could not have been at
the same demonstration, since the loudest and most sustained message
from the crowd was 'Assasini' - 'Murderers', chanted almost constantly
at police lines and at the circling helicopters. The mood of defiance
from the crown was astonishing. The brutal violence used by the police
had prompted Jubilee 2000 and Drop the Debt to cancel their protests,
but it seemed to have the opposite effect on the broader movement. The
police had sought to quell the protest with tear gas, guns and baton
charges, but if anything, the vast range of organisations and groups
of people gathered in Genoa seemed more determined to come out and confront
the police and the military.
Estimates of the size of the crowd on Saturday afternoon has varied
from 100,000 reported by the UK press to 200,000 reported by the Italian
press, and even 300,000 claimed by Italian police. It was certainly
much larger than the 30,000-50,000 envisaged by the organisers or the
authorities prior to the weekend. George Monbiot has pointed out that
"ours in now the biggest protest movement in history." This is a movement
that will not be stopped by police violence, whether that violence is
in Columbia, East Timor, Washington or Western Europe.
LOCAL PEOPLE SHAKE THEIR PANTS
One point which is consistent from the reports of those people who were
in Genoa at the protests is the degree of support shown by local people
to those who assembled in their city to oppose the G8. Many local people
were involved in the protests and some of the older people demonstrated
their support in other ways - by clapping the demonstrations and hanging
flags and banners from their windows. The support is all the more remarkable
since by the second day of the protests, substantial sections of the city
had been turned into no-go areas by the conflict and numerous cars and
commercial buildings left burnt out and smashed. Despite the devastating
impact upon their neighbourhood local people went out of their way to
assist the Merseyside delegation find their way around the city safely.
On the day of the largest demonstration, people came out from surrounding
houses and flats to give demonstrators water and food, and many even gave
out lemons and lemon juice - an effective antidote to tear gas. Berlusconi
the Prime Minister of Italy had requested that the residents of Genoa
refrain from hanging out underwear to dry on clothes lines during the
summit as a mark of respect to the world's leaders. In a sign of defiance,
people hung their washing out in the cities squares and old women waved
their knickers to the demonstrators from balconies. It seemed as though
the hostility from local residents was almost entirely directed at the
18,000 police and army personnel that occupied the city for the duration
of the summit.
