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Eyewitness report from Genoa by Martin, from Workers Powers German section
on Wednesday August 8, 7pm, RMIT, Meeting ROOM C&D, Building 8, level 3
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The Road From Genoa
Where now for the Anti-capitalist Movement?
Statement of Workers Power Global 22 July 2001
www.workerspower.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
1. The anti-G8 protest in Genoa was the biggest summit protest yet. Between
150,000-200,000 participated on the final day (J21). This included large
numbers of trade unionists from all the major Italian union confederations
and masses of supporters of Rifondazione Comunista. It was also the most
violent yet - with the police, carabinieri and anti-terrorist squads
conducting a campaign of terror not seen since the days of Mussolini.
Unarmed protester Carlo Giuliani was shot dead. Mass, peaceful marches were
deliberately attacked with batons and teargas. During the
post-demonstration "sweep" by police, systematic use of extreme violence
and even torture have occurred.
2. Against this premeditated brutalisation, protesters have every right to
fight back. Those in the movement who have focused condemnation on the
"black bloc" are wrong: the police raid on the GSF, the deliberate police
tactic of pushing of the black bloc into the non-violent demo, the
appearance of police agents dressed as block blockers...all these show that
terror on a mass scale is targeted at the non-violent protesters too. It is
aimed at breaking up the movement precisely at the point where it threatens
to sink roots into the population.
3. 50,000 marched to defend immigrant rights on J19, 70,000 marched to
besiege the "red zone" on J20 and 200,000 people marched in Genoa on J21 -
all in defiance of incredible harassment and violation of their democratic
rights. These huge numbers are what Blair, Chirac and Berlusconi are really
frightened of. They are terrified that the slum dwellers of the cities and
the bullied and regimented workers will unite with our "travelling circus"
of anti-capitalists. That is why they pressed the Start button for a
repression that, reportedly, has even shocked hardened murderers like Bush
and Putin.
4. For all these reasons Genoa represents a crossroads for the movement. It
can become - as the radical movements of the late 1960s did - a detonator
for mass working class resistance. Or it can suffer the fate of the US
Black Panthers, who were systematically hunted down and imprisoned in order
to strangle a potential mass revolutionary movement. The chorus of the
media blaming all the violence on "handfulls of anarchists" or "the black
block" indicates that the forces of order are pursuing this latter strategy
for all it is worth.
5. The capitalists' aim is to split the movement:
* to drive the mild-mannered NGO leaders back into futile negotiations
behind closed doors;
* to demoralise the NVDA "fluffy" protestors with the argument that, sadly,
violence is inevitable if you dare to "disobey" the state;
* and to isolate and crush the anarchist and socialist left.
Genoa saw significant mobilisations of the rank and file of the main
Italian trade unions plus the radical syndicalist federations like Cobas.
In this sense it is a great step forward from Prague and Gothenburg. It
also saw delegations of trade unionists from other European countries.
However the main workers' leaders seem to have succeeded in keeping the
demonstration as an isolated event and heading off more extensive national
strike action. The world's rulers hope that - by ensuring that violence was
inevitable - the union bureaucrats will take the excuse to stand aside.
6. This would be a terrible mistake, especially for Italian workers today.
Berlusconi and the state forces were clearly giving the entire working
class a serious warning. The brutality of the repression was meant to say:
we are not your "normal" post-war Italian government. We are coming for
your social gains and we have the force to impose our will. Of course this
is a piece of incredible arrogance. If the Italian working class were to
rise up in a militant and well protected general strike, the carabinieri
and their gas grenades and water cannon would be smashed.
7. But that's a big "if". Berlusconi's only hope is that he can, with the
aid of the cowardice of the union leaders, "salami" the workers, taking
them on and defeating them section by section. But the size and support of
Genoa, on the streets of the city too, indicates that ordinary working
class people are waking up to the danger that the crooked billionaire and
his coalition of criminals, racists, crypto-fascists and open fascists
represents. Can the radical forces in the unions, in Rifondazione, in the
socialist and anarchist youth give a lead without losing touch with the
masses? There is good hope that they can - if they learn the lessons of
Genoa. If they do then another hot autumn may be approaching in Italy.
8. For the worldwide anti-capitalist movement the task of putting down
roots has become more possible...but also far more urgent. The rulers of
the world have upped the stakes. Now matter how brave and determined,
better fighting tactics will not solve the problem. At Genoa we implemented
a mass direct action/organised self defence strategy. That is, we organised
for non-violent civil disobedience on a huge scale but prepared organised
self-defence groups: these were intended to defend the demo from the police
and to minimise disruption to the agreed non-violent actions from futile
black bloc actions or deliberate police provocations. In the end this
strategy was overwhelmed because too few people adopted it-because it
lacked sufficient co-ordination or because it was only improvised it on the
spot.
9. The Genoa Social Forum leaders adopted a pure non-violent strategy,
which did not work. The black bloc, a small minority however vigorous, were
once again diverted into the futile activity of smashing up property, which
is guaranteed to alienate not only the working class inhabitants and
bystanders but also to drive pacifist and reformist workers away from the
movement.
10. This mass direct action/organised self-defence strategy remains the
only way to deal with police violence. Since the police will resort to
brutal violence-even against the most self-controlled pacifists there
should always be enough street fighting to occupy the most combative
members of the black block. What is needed is the conscious co-ordination
of these forces so that the police cannot use us against one another, so
they cannot infiltrate agents provocateurs, so that we do not alienate
those we wish to win over. Indeed we want them to join us in the streets so
that we overwhelm the forces of order. But on its own even this strategy of
direct action and self-defence is not enough.
11. When faced with repression on this scale - the effective suspension of
civil liberties across Italy; the suspension of free movement under the
Schengen treaty; suspension of the right to consult a lawyer; and a
fascist-style "night and fog" round up - a militant minority cannot defend
itself. Better fighting tactics, intelligence and appeals to the world for
solidarity are not enough. That is why we say: after Genoa...to the
factories, to the offices, to the working class and immigrant communities,
to the schools. The only way to sustain the movement's momentum now is
through the tens of thousands who demonstrated, the tens of thousands more
who are in active solidarity, to turn to the working class and take
anti-capitalist politics and methods into the workers' organisations.
12. The NGOs, the "fluffy" leaders and the ageing pop stars have an
opposite solution. When Naomi Klein called for the movement to "put down
roots" after May Day 2001 she had in mind a complete break from militant
confrontation and an appeal to the enlightened middle classes. Read also a
break from socialist and anarchist anti-capitalism, towards a liberal
reformist critique of the system. [Against this is must be said that José
Bové, the radical farmers leader and vice president of ATTAC put the blame
for the violence fairly and squarely on the state.]
13. In their own way, the leaders of the "radical reformist" wing are going
through the same trauma as every middle-class leadership of a revolutionary
movement in the last two centuries. They summoned us onto the streets to
aid their reform project, as a threat to the powers-that-be to negotiate
seriously. To keep control of a broad alliance they have to suppress the
working class, revolutionary wing. When it is not suppressed - or when the
momentum of the struggle puts them outside bourgeois legality - they walk
away from the movement. Since Gothenburg and Mayday 2001 we have seen the
beginnings of this response - and it will gain momentum in the days after
Genoa.
14. But the NGO and reformist leaders are one thing, the activists who
follow their lead are another. Today, that layer of activists - which forms
the bulk of the protest movement - is faced with some searching questions.
o After Genoa, do you really think the capitalist state could be reformed?
Do you really believe it is a neutral instrument that can be won to
defending our rights and social gains? Or will we need a revolution to save
the world from eco-meltdown, starvation and war?
o After Genoa, has "disorganisation" proved effective? Should it be
celebrated as an antidote to bureaucracy? Or were the decisive forces the
organised forces - the police, the black bloc, the socialists, the unions?
o After Genoa, can you carry on going alone into the hell of teargas,
batons and bullets? Or will you go next time as part of an organised
political force - a revolutionary party? The police have helicopters - our
only force-multiplier is solidarity.
15. The first two years of our movement have been - as Susan George put it
- "the most beautiful hope for thirty years". The coming months will not be
beautiful. Because, to use a term from post-modernism, the capitalists can
"otherise" us, they can isolate us: make us look strange and alien to
ordinary workers. They can treat us as "extremists", "terrorists". Their
police can treat us a sub-humans. Not even prisoners of war; not even "war
criminals" at the Hague get treated this way. Despite the exhilaration and
freedom that being part of this movement brings, to the mass of working
class people we may be heroes - but distant ones. "They did well," millions
of workers across the world will say on Monday. But until "they" becomes
"we" the movement will not break through the mounting repression.
16. The media lies, the union leaders sabotage all attempts at solidarity,
the social-democratic politicians queue up to demand ever tougher police
responses. But after Genoa, denouncing them is not enough. Individual
terrorism and revenge would be the worst of all dead ends. The Italian and
German radical left was tempted into this by the state in the 1970s. We
should reject that path decisively. We need new tactics - based on the
working class.
17. After Genoa the nearest workplace is more important than the next
summit. "Yourtown" is more important than Quatar or Washington. The
multi-millioned working class movement has the power to stop society. If it
had chosen to use that power, Genoa would be a police free zone today and
the G8 summit venue a smoking ruin. But to mobilise that power takes more
than gestures: it takes relentless, work to build and energise resistance
in workplaces and communities. And as well as bold offensives like Genoa,
Seattle and Prague it needs hard defensive struggles - against the growth
of fascism in depressed communities; against the death-penalty genocide on
US blacks; against the austerity packages that the IMF/World Bank is
imposing on countries like Argentina today.
18. With the workers who don't accept the need for self defence, or who
call for state repression of the black bloc, or who think civil
disobedience threatens hard won democratic rights, we need a hard but
patient argument. We need to show them in action they are wrong. We need
unity in action - the united front tactic that has always guided
revolutionaries in their fight to convince the majority of a socialist
alternative. Individuals cannot operate tactics - only organisations can.
Individuals cannot assess the mood of millions - only organisations with
tens of thousands can.
19. That is why we say, with the gas of Genoa still in our lungs and our
blood still on the pavements: unite with us to build a new kind of party.
It will not be a bureaucratic monster if its members are clear as to their
goals and methods, if they can control and replace their leaders, if they
operate the fullest democracy when it comes to policy and the maximum unity
when it comes to action. A revolutionary working class party born out of
the Seattle generation can be free of all the filth of Stalinism.
20. The storm clouds are gathering: debt crisis looms in the big emerging
nations; banks are in "white knuckle" fear that the telecoms giants will
collapse, dragging the finance system with them; deeper recession is on the
way. The struggle will get harder and nastier. The Nazi posters on the
walls of Genoa's police cells point in one direction. So do the Star Wars
rockets and the death camps of Chechnya. In the other direction lies human
freedom, and the end of poverty, ignorance and war. In the global South the
struggle against corporate capitalism is on the march - from New Guinea to
Argentina. We have to link up with these struggles directly. The "Endless
Summer" phase of the movement is over. It's now a struggle for survival: we
face either marginalisation and repression or a mass breakout that can
transform the political situation in Europe.
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Eyewitness report from Genoa by Martin, from Workers Powers German section
on Wednesday August 8, 7pm, RMIT, Meeting ROOM C&D, Building 8, level 3
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for more see www.destroyimf.org
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