[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Javad Eskandarpour <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: marxist-leninist-list <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2001 7:55 AM Subject: [MLL] Fw: The first martyr of anti-globalisation is made ----- Original Message ----- From: "Les Schaffer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "marxmail" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, July 20, 2001 5:01 PM Subject: The first martyr of anti-globalisation is made > [from ["Jay Moore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>]] > > The first martyr of anti-globalisation is made > By Frances Kennedy > 21 July 2001 > The Independent (UK) > > Through the deafening wail of police sirens a mobile phone rang. > > "Someone's dead," said Cristina, from Venice. > > We all froze. "It's near here, let's go!" she said. We ran, tripping > over plastic bottles. > > Rounding the corner into the tree-lined piazza we could see more than > 100 policemen and carabinieri in full riot gear forming a > circle. Photographers were being shoved back by a baton-wielding > policeman. Beyond this human cordon a lifeless form lay sprawled on > the ground, draped with a white blood-stained sheet: the first martyr > of the growing anti-globalisation movement. > > Earlier, as I dashed across the immense green square towards Brignole > railway station, a phalanx of police vans roared past heading at speed > in the same direction. > > After a morning of light skirmishes, peaceful sit-ins and noisy > stand-offs, the first word of serious trouble had come at around 2pm > from Brignole, one of Genoa's two main stations. Passing under the > railway tunnel, I got the first glimpse of the destruction. > > A petrol pump smashed to bits, a Coca-Cola machine standing on its > head. Burnt car carcasses and smouldering skip-bins. The air was > rancid with black smoke and tear gas. "It's the Black Block," one > heavily tatooed Milanese youth said, as he helped himself to a yoghurt > from a smashed-up food store. Looters had left a trail of soft-drink > bottles and biscuits behind them. > > The helicopters buzzing overhead and clouds of gas led me to a long > narrow road, flanking the railway lines. > > Minutes earlier, the police had charged a mob of > demonstrators. Members of the Tute Bianche (White Overalls), who had > been forced back several hundred yards, were spluttering and wiping > their streaming eyes. The huge plexi-glass shields being held by the > front line lay in tatters on the road. Several thousand of protesters > were backed up the hill. The carabinieri, Italy's paramilitary police, > who were defending this little patch of Battlefield Genoa, became > jittery. They manoeuvred their big armoured vehicles clumsily. > > As we moved closer, the police vans came under a hail of stones and > petrol bombs. The force of the attack pushed the police vans into a > corner. It was the Black Block again. The shadowy, balaclava-clad > figures had appeared suddenly and caught the police off guard. > > We scrambled backwards as it became impossible to see for the tear > gas. We sought refuge in the atrium of a modest apartment building, > crouching in the dark on the marble stairs. > > "I'm no hero. I just came to help provide first-aid care and they shot > tear gas at my little trolley. They broke it up," a local woman > said. She said her name was Cinzia as she bathed eyes and washed > faces. > > For the next two hours we saw running battles and baton charges, water > cannon and tear gas. Huge, blue armoured personnel carriers thundered > at high speed past the glass door. It shook loudly. > > At times, the protesters seemed to be getting the better of things and > pelted police with every object they could find. > > An old man huddled in our group was following events on a tiny radio, > but then the mobile rang and we knew a young man, still unidentified > at that stage, had died. > > According to a Reuters photographer who witnessed the incident, the > youth had picked up a red fire extinguisher from the ground. He raised > the fire extinguisher with two hands above his head, facing the back > of the jeep, its rear window shattered. > > Then two shots rang out from inside the jeep, and the youth fell to the > ground. The jeep drove backwards over the sprawled torso, then changed gears > and sped away. > > By the time we got there, police doctors were examining the body. They > were pulling back the sheet to reveal long, spindly legs in blue > trousers and Doc Martens boots, a vest top and a black > balaclava. Protesters began chanting: "Murderers,'' and "Shame''. Then > they began to clap loudly and shout slowly: "Bravo!'' Some began to > hurl objects at the riot police. Others overturned rubbish containers, > which they set alight. > > The tension rose further after a young volunteer doctor called > Claudia, who had given the protester cardiac massage, said she thought > he had probably died instantly. Another medic who had examined him > looked shattered. > > Tension rose still further as the body was taken away. Bins were burnt > and activists hurled stones. Police retreated back down to another > piazza where a bank had been destroyed. Part of the automatic teller > machine dangled limply out of its recess. Green glass made a crunchy > carpet. > > Then 20 cars, vans and unmarked cars began moving in my > direction. Darting away I saw why. About a dozen black-clad figures > were laying waste to a tobacconist. This was Genoa on the first day of > the G8 summit. > > Earlier, as helicopters hovered overhead, the city's main squares were > black with hundreds of police vans, blue armoured personnel carriers > and tanks with bulldozer attachments. Ranks of helmeted carabinieri, > equipped with riot shields, batons, tear gas and their own masks, > loitered ready for action. About 15,000 men and women were brought in > to defend 2.5 square kilometres. > > In Piazzo Carignano the anti-globalisation group Attac demonstrated > just a few minutes' walk from the red zone. They were close enough for > a group of shirtless men to sprint down the hill and taunt the police > gathered behind a high wire fence. > > Just round the corner at another entrance to the red zone a second > confrontation was taking place. Off Via Malta a group of several > hundred protesters gathered, waving banners and chanting. Missiles > began to fly. > > Carabinieri massed four deep began an advance. Stamping and banging > their batons rhythmically on their riot shields they moved slowly in a > phalanx, pushing the protesters up one street then the next. > > While the forces were deployed to defend the Red Zone full-scale > battles broke out some distance away. In Corso Torino the carabinieri > resorted to throwing back the stones and glass bottles hurled at > them. Several police were hit and at least three had to be dragged > from the front line. As the tear gas swirled through the air at least > two police were seen throwing up after inhaling the chemicals. Often > the rioters seemed impervious to the police attacks. One stripped off > all his clothes and stood naked beside the burning wreckage of the > police van, taunting the carabinieri. > > By 5pm, police reinforcements had begun to push the anarchists further > east and away from the red zone. Police pulled one protester from the > mob and beat him with their batons as on-lookers screamed: "basta" > [enough]. The policemen were forced to retreat into a cul-de-sac > protected by their riot shields. > > As we fled for the safety of the press centre the battle of Genoa had > left one protester dead, one carabinieri and one young woman protester > seriously injured, another 50 activists and police in hospital, and at > least 70 under arrest. > > > _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
