------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 9, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- RESPONSE TO GENOA: MASS ANGER OVER COPS' BRUTALITY By Greg Butterfield "For me Carlo is not a martyr," said Kuno Zahlreich. "He is just another guy like me. The cops could have shot me." It was a feeling shared by many people in Italy and around the world on July 24, the day before Carlo Giuliani's funeral. Hundreds of thousands of youths, workers and progressives took to the streets in big cities and small towns to protest the young activist's assassination by a paramilitary cop. Giuliani was killed during the massive anti-globalization demonstrations at the Group of 8 summit in Genoa. "Carlo-your blood is our blood," read a banner carried in Rome. In Rome, Milan, Venice, Bari, Turin, Siena, Bologna, Palermo, Florence, Trieste and Potenza marchers called for the resignation of Italy's top cop, Interior Minister Claudio Scajola. Many pasted bulls-eyes on their foreheads in defiance of the police. Giuliani was shot in the head twice and an armored police vehicle backed over his body. He and other activists had been trying to stop the van from ramming a group of protesters. Other marchers carried signs supporting Tomas Aleinikovas from Lithuania. During the cops' brutal revenge attack on the Genoa Social Forum, Aleinikovas allegedly tried to defend himself with a knife. He has been charged with attempted murder. Also on July 24 in Genoa, 200 people held a sit-in at the Ducal Palace, where George W. Bush and other G-8 leaders met from July 19-22. The G-8 includes the seven most powerful imperialist countries-the United States, Britain, Japan, Germany, France, Canada and Italy-plus capitalist Russia. Protests weren't confined to Italy. After Giuliani's death on July 20, actions targeting Italian embassies were held in most major European and North American cities, as well as in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey; Seoul, South Korea, and many other places. One of the biggest was in Athens, where 5,000 Greek activists clashed with police. On July 26, some 1,500 people marched through central Paris chanting, "Police everywhere, justice nowhere." Some carried posters with pictures of the G-8 leaders and the slogan "Wanted: These dangerous people make up the G-8 band." A general strike by Italy's labor unions, which some activists had proposed, never materialized. TRUTH COMES OUT Italy's right-wing prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, acting on behalf of the other G-8 bandits, had transformed Genoa into a war zone during the summit. Twenty thousand riot police and paramilitary cops were mobilized. A 13-foot steel-mesh fence was erected around the summit site. Rail stations, highways and the airport were shut down for days. Clearly, the leaders of these imperialist "democracies" did not want to hear the demands for equality, justice and an end to the debt trap for poor nations. The mass media broadcast alarming reports about violent protesters and terrorist threats to justify the repression. The CIA, Scotland Yard, Interpol and other political police agencies were heavily involved in the planning. U.S. and European corporate media spoke with one voice during the summit. They blamed protesters for the violence and hailed the police. They cooperated with the police strategy of trying to turn the movement against itself by talking about "good protesters" and "bad protesters." But afterward, as tens of thousands of activists made their way home-many bearing wounds and broken bones from police attacks-it became impossible for all of the European media to continue this charade. The July 21 late-night attack on a school housing the Genoa Social Forum, the umbrella group that organized many of the protests, and the Independent Media Center across the street was especially glaring. The raid's aftermath was caught on film by some media, including Berlusconi's own Canale 5 TV network. Occupants of the school described police beating people who had been asleep. When the cops left, the school's walls were covered with blood. Those arrested told of physical and psychological torture in jail. There were more beatings. They were not allowed to go to the bathroom. They were told they would die and were forced to chant fascist slogans. Women were threatened with rape. German journalist Kirsten Wagenschein told the TAZ news agency: "There was an unbelievable mix of psycho-terror, violence and arbitrary treatment. We had to stand for hours with our legs spread apart and our faces to the wall. Women and men with broken arms and legs too. "The police hit us with batons and kicked us with their boots. On my way to the toilet I saw a man being beaten up in another cell. He was lying on the ground while the policeman hit him again and again with his baton, in the stomach." Most of those arrested at the school were eventually released for lack of evidence. But Eddie, a correspondent for the Independent Media Center in Genoa, wrote July 27: "The remainder ... are in very bad shape at the hospital and it is thought that the government does not want to draw any more attention to the brutality. Reports are that at least three underwent surgery, one has a severely broken jaw and another is still said to be in critical condition." Italy's police forces are rife with pro-fascist elements. Berlusconi's coalition government includes the National Alliance, the group descended from Mussolini's fascist party. POLICE CHIEF SAYS SCAJOLA KNEW On July 23 Italy's parliamentary opposition parties, including the Democratic Left, the Greens and the Refoundation Communists, called for a vote of confidence to try and oust Scajola. Scajola survived the no-confidence vote Aug. 1. The parliament, dominated by Berlusconi's allies, voted 180-106 in his favor. According to a report in the Guardian of London, "Scajola and the prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, tried to distance themselves from the raid on the headquarters of the Genoa Social Forum. "To guffaws of disbelief, they insisted that they did not know in advance that 200 police officers would attack the forum. More than a dozen of the 93 people arrested were carried out on stretchers. "'A pack of lies,' responded Vittorio Agnoletto, a spokesman for the forum. 'It was authorized butchery.'" At a special session of parliament July 27, Berlusconi rejected the opposition's call for an official inquest into police brutality against the protesters, while claiming that "we will not cover up any truth." He later agreed to a "limited"investigation. But Chief of Police Gianni De Gennaro, who was in charge of the operation, contradicted his bosses. In a televised interview July 25 he said Scajola had "always been informed" of what was happening. (French Press Agency, July 26) And on July 25 the Italian newspaper Repubblica published an interview with an unnamed cop involved in the raid, who admitted that the reports of brutality at the school were "all true." Orders came from the very top in Rome, the cop said. As of Aug. 1, the Italian Independent Media Center reports, 80 people are still missing; 49 remain in jail; and five are hospitalized. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
