WW News Service Digest #309
1) Genoa struggles reverberate throughtout Europe
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) Fidel on Genoa & Bolivar
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) 'Let Cuba Live' to challenge blockade
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
4) Colorado communities hit racist, anti-trans murder
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: lauantai 18. elokuu 2001 16:20
Subject: [WW] Genoa struggles reverberate throughtout Europe
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 23, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
Left parties condemn state violence
GENOA STRUGGLES REVERBERATE THROUGHOUT EUROPE
By John Catalinotto
The Genoa demonstrations opened a new period of struggle in
Europe, especially in Italy. Communists and anti-imperialist
fighters across the continent are rejoicing at a new
generation's readiness to act for social justice.
They and the rest of the anti-globalization movement are
also discussing the greatest display of police violence seen
in Italy in decades.
These events will surely influence the development of the
anti-globalization movement here in the United States,
including the protests foreseen for Sept. 29-30 in
Washington, D.C.
During their willful and well-planned attacks on the over
200,000 protesters of the G-8 summit, police killed one
demonstrator, Carlo Giuliani, arrested 301, and injured
hundreds. Injury estimates vary between the official 231 and
the movement's report of 800.
European anti-globalization leaders have called for
demonstrations Aug. 20 to mark one month since the killing
of Giuliani, who was shot at close range by one of the
carabinieri--the Italian national police.
Future summits--and protests--are set for October in Geneva,
Switzerland, and December in Brussels, Belgium. On Sept. 26-
27 in Naples, Italy, NATO leaders are scheduled to meet to
discuss implementing Bush's missile defense scheme. Strategy
and tactics for these actions are all up for discussion.
Luca Casarini, a spokesperson for the "White Overalls" group
and for the Genoa Social Forum--the umbrella organization
that had attempted to coordinate 700 participating groups--
gave his evaluation of Genoa in an interview with the
newspaper La Repubblica. The "White Overalls" had intended
to use civil disobedience to express its protest of the G8
summit. According to Casarini, the vicious police attack
drove his group to building barricades and fighting back.
Casarini was concerned that the police violence would leave
future demonstrators with only two choices--"Either give up
demonstrating, or go to demonstrations armed." He hoped for
a third choice, where those practicing civil disobedience
might know they faced an orderly trial but not a bullet.
In Berlin on Aug. 6, under the auspices of the Junge Welt
daily newspaper, some 500 people from virtually all the
different tendencies on the anti-globalization left met to
discuss the aftermath of Genoa and also of Gothenburg,
Sweden--where police had shot anti-globalization
demonstrators in June.
The title of the meeting--"Who is Afraid of Whom?," meaning
the rulers or the demonstrators--said a lot about what is on
the mind of the German left. Speakers were for not splitting
the movement. For example, they supported defending Black
Bloc activists along with everyone else jailed in Italy or
Sweden.
There was divided opinion over whether the kind of police
assault that occurred in Italy--under the right-wing regime
led by Silvio Berlusconi--should be expected in European
states having social-democratic or center-left regimes.
WORKERS' PARTIES SUPPORT
THE STRUGGLE
The Genoa action had the strongest participation yet, since
this movement was launched in Seattle, from organizations
openly identified with the workers' struggle for socialism.
Tens of thousands of young workers came from the
Refoundation Communist Party of Italy. A thousand came with
the delegation of the Communist Party of Greece, and smaller
delegations came from the Portuguese Communist Party, the
German Communist Party, the Belgian Workers' Party and other
groups from around the continent.
Despite the heavy casualties, these parties were optimistic
about the strong turnout of young workers. They saw the
action as evidence of a coming upsurge in struggle.
Articles in these parties' newspapers alternated between
hailing the demonstration as "a turning point in the
worldwide struggle against social injustice" and describing
the cops' brutal, unprovoked attacks, arrests and beatings
of the participants.
While there was criticism of the anarchist Black Bloc
tactics, or reports that police provocateurs had infiltrated
parts of the demonstration, they all condemned the G-8
themselves and the Italian police as the source of the
violence. They resisted the attempt by the authorities and
the media to divide the protest into "good"--meaning
pacifist--and "bad" demonstrators.
Meanwhile, much of the European capitalist media--along with
Socialist Party leader Lionel Jospin in France, Social
Democrats and Greens in Germany like Joschka Fisher, and
members of the center-right Austrian government--have
deplored the violence of both police and demonstrators. They
chide the Berlusconi regime for using "excessive police
force" in Genoa, by which they mean illegal arrests, beating
and torturing of prisoners, and so on.
BERLUSCONI LIKE HEARST BUT BIGGER
Berlusconi's government is under pressure from both foreign
and domestic critics. He's had to move three responsible
police officials to new jobs. But basically he is defying
the opposition and supporting the police.
The Italian premier is a multi-billionaire media magnate,
one of the richest people in Europe. He owns the lion's
share of Italian private television channels and now
controls the government stations. Even foreign journalists
had to remark that at a recent news conference he got no
tough questions about police brutality--too many people in
the room worked for him.
Following the G-8 summit, Berlusconi accompanied President
George W. Bush to Rome, where he gave Italy's support to
Bush's national missile defense scheme and expansion of
NATO.
His junior partners in the government coalition are Umberto
Bossi of the anti-foreign Northern League--which is racist
even against southern Italians--and Gianfranco Fini of the
National Alliance, a neo-fascist party with roots in the
party of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Both fully
support aggressive police actions.
Fini and four senators from his party spent a day in the
headquarters of the Genoa police during the repression
against demonstrators. He later claimed it was his
"institutional duty." (Il Manifesto, Aug. 7)
According to witnesses, the Genoa police urinated on youth
arrested at the Genoa Social Forum building and beat them if
they refused to chant a fascist slogan from a song about the
colonial war against Ethiopia. Fini and his party must have
felt at home in the precinct.
More recently, when a bomb exploded early Aug. 9 in a Venice
courtroom, Berlusconi jumped on the event to bait the left
and batter his social-democratic opposition back into line.
They had criticized the police excesses, but he neutralized
them by demanding they show bi-partisan "unity against
terrorism."
He moved so quickly that some sectors of the left suspected
government agents of planting the bomb--which, under the
circumstances, is not at all far-fetched.
In the 1970s, the right wing of the Italian ruling class, in
collusion with Washington, used what was called the
"strategy of tension" to keep the reformist Communist Party
of Italy out of the government. Rightist forces set bombs in
public places, often resulting in many deaths. They
destabilized society and strengthened the police and
military.
Secret groups of ruling-class and governmental figures,
including military officers like the infamous Propaganda 2,
or P-2, collaborated with the CIA to stop any move to the
left. Berlusconi's name was on a list of P-2 members found
by police in a raid in 1981. He still knows how to take
advantage of incidents like the bombing to gain his
political ends.
Berlusconi plans to attack the living standards of the
Italian workers this fall, cutting pensions and putting
pressure on to keep salaries low as contracts come up. Even
before Genoa, everyone expected a "hot autumn." Now comes
news of a downturn in the Italian economy, with week-long
furloughs expected in September for a third of FIAT's 50,000
workers.
The same European social-democratic leaders who criticize
Berlusconi's cops had no problem waging a very violent war
against Yugoslavia. The Italian media magnate is indicating
by his Genoa tactics that he intends to bring the war home.
He is signaling a threat to use the police, carabinieri and
soldiers against the workers' movement.
The Italian workers and the anti-globalizers face difficult
conditions--a big rightist majority in parliament and a
conservative mood in much of the population. Yet their
leaders must develop a strategy both to nurture the new,
youthful movement and to defend it from attack from a
dangerous state apparatus. The anti-NATO demonstration in
Naples may provide the first test.
THE PUBLIX THEATER
Only the machinations of a secret-police apparatus can
explain the arrest and charges against 25 members of the
Austria-based Publix Theater group as they were leaving
Genoa. They were charged with conspiracy to commit violence,
with a possible 15-year prison term.
This case has received much more than usual attention in the
U.S. media because one of those arrested was a young woman
from New Jersey, Susanna Thomas. Other U.S. citizens were
arrested with her. According to all who know her, Thomas is
a Quaker and pacifist. This hasn't stopped the Italian cops
from making her and the others in the theater company
victims of their revenge against all demonstrators.
They were finally released from prison and deported on Aug.
14, but the charges against them have not been dropped.
- END -
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: lauantai 18. elokuu 2001 16:21
Subject: [WW] Fidel on Genoa & Bolivar
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 23, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
FIDEL ON GENOA & BOLIVAR
Fidel Castro at 75 is in synch with the revolutionary youth
movement developing around the world. In a short but
militant speech on Aug. 5 to 600 young Cubans who were
leaving for an international youth and student gathering in
Algeria, Castro urged them to fan the flames of world
rebellion against imperialism, which he said threatened
humanity's survival.
He also praised the large protests at Genoa and at other
meetings of imperialist leaders in recent years and joked
that the heads of rich nations may soon have to meet on the
International Space Station to avoid demonstrators.
The Cuban leader then left for Venezuela, where he spent his
75th birthday in Ciudad Bol�var. "I wanted to celebrate my
75 years in the land of the Liberator,'' said Castro,
referring to Simon Bol�var, who led the struggle for South
American independence from Spain. He was cheered by
thousands of Venezuelans who crowded into the town's central
plaza for the event.
A report in the Aug. 12 Miami Herald quoted Carleth Gomez, a
young medical analyst in the crowd, as saying, "He's the
only one who has stood up to the United States, and his
country has been able to move forward despite the blockade
and all the obstacles that have been put before him."
The former guerrilla leader who toppled the U.S.-supported
Batista dictatorship in Cuba was introduced by Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez: "We welcome our brother, we welcome
our friend, we welcome our revolutionary soldier who has
been an example of dignity for all the continent."
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: lauantai 18. elokuu 2001 16:23
Subject: [WW] 'Let Cuba Live' to challenge blockade
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 23, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
At Maine border town
'LET CUBA LIVE' TO CHALLENGE BLOCKADE
Special to Workers World
On Aug. 18 the Maine-based solidarity group Let Cuba Live
and its supporters will for the second time take a shipment
of medical aid destined for Cuba to the U.S.-Canada border
in Maine. They will attempt to cross the border at Coburn
Gore without applying for a license.
"We won't apply for a license and we would in fact refuse to
accept one if it were offered," said Judy Robbins, a member
of the group from Sedgwick, Me. "We do not want to be
complicit with a law that seeks to withhold food and
medicine from our neighbors."
The caravan of aid-bearing trucks and cars carrying
supporters from New York and the New England states will
assemble at a hospitality house in the Farmington area for
the drive to the border.
On Aug. 10 attorneys Philip Worden from Northeast Harbor and
Nancy Chang with the Center for Constitutional Rights filed
a 53-page petition with U.S. Customs on behalf of 13 members
of Let Cuba Live who, on July 2, had attempted to carry
humanitarian aid from the U.S. to Canada for trans-shipment
to Cuba.
During an hours-long struggle with U.S. Customs and
Immigration officials at the Coburn Gore checkpoint,
activists managed to walk about one third of their shipment
across the border and place it in the care of Canadian
friends. U.S. Customs seized the balance, which included
hospital bed sheets, blankets, adult diapers and patient
gowns, as well as a newborn warming and monitoring station
and two anesthesia machines, each one capable of fulfilling
the anesthesia needs of a small hospital.
The petition seeks the release of these medical supplies for
delivery to Cuba, and states: "The commissioner should
return the seized goods because the U.S. embargo against
Cuba violates both the U.S. Constitution and international
law."
- END -
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: lauantai 18. elokuu 2001 16:24
Subject: [WW] Colorado communities hit racist, anti-trans murder
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 23, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
'Justice for FC Martinez'
COLORADO COMMUNITIES HIT RACIST, ANTI-TRANS MURDER
By Elijah Crane
Denver
Over 200 community activists gathered at the Troy Chavez
Memorial Peace Garden in Denver on Aug. 10 in a memorial
vigil for Fred "FC" Martinez, Jr.
Martinez, a 16-year-old Navajo who identified as transgender
and gay, was murdered in Cortez, Colo., on June 16. The body
was discovered in a trash-filled canyon several days later
on June 21.
Shaun Murphy, 18, from Farmington, New Mex., was arrested
and charged with the murder soon after the body was found.
Murphy had reportedly bragged to friends that he had killed
the trans youth.
"I reported that Fred was missing on June 18 ... on June 23
I read about a body being found near our home," explained
Martinez's mother, Pauline Mitchell, in a statement on July
8. "I phoned the police again, but they told me the body had
not been identified."
Mitchell was not informed of the murder until June 25,
nearly 10 days after the deadly assault had occurred.
When Murphy had his first court appearance, Mitchell was not
alerted or given the chance to be present. She was left to
learn about it from the media.
According to the Denver Post Four Corners Bureau, Mitchell
also had to seek out on her own the location where Martinez
was assaulted. The area was still laden with garbage and
evidence when she arrived.
Furthermore, Mitchell's only notification of Martinez's
autopsy results came from the local newspaper. Martinez's
skull was fractured and abdomen slashed.
Reports to the Colorado Anti-Violence Program of bias-
related violence targeting lesbian, gay, bi and trans people
have risen every year for the past five years. Seventy such
incidents have already been reported in 2001.
A class one felony charge of first-degree murder pursuant to
a robbery has been added to the initial second-degree murder
charge against Murphy. A preliminary hearing originally set
for Aug. 13 was rescheduled to allow for the addition of the
new charge against Murphy.
DENVER SOLIDARITY
The multinational, multigenerational and largely trans
memorial gathering in Denver was part of a full weekend of
solidarity events around Colorado and the U.S. in honor of
Martinez.
Pauline Mitchell was unable to attend the Denver memorial,
but sent a message:
"Fred has brought us all together in many places tonight
that we may now walk together on a path of truth and justice
and never again allow our children and loved ones to suffer
in silence or walk alone. I now ask people everywhere to
join together to unite with Fred's spirit and let us soar
with our message on the wings of the eagle."
Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man
murdered in Wyoming in 1998, joined Mitchell in Cortez on
Aug. 11. She also sent a message to the Denver gathering.
"I see Fred's death, combined with a recent escalation of
hate-violence across the country, as a clear sign that there
is much more to be done before we can live free from fear
and hate," said Shepard.
Trans/lesbian/gay/bi youth and youth of color read
statements of solidarity sent from other young people around
Colorado.
"Our goal is simple and non-negotiable," stated Dede
dePercin of the CAVP. "Every single person deserves to be
free from violence and to be safe to move in the world,
regardless of what they look like, what they wear, or who
they choose to be on a given day."
Members of the Colorado Two Spirit Society spread sage
throughout the crowd as an eclectic ceremony of Native
traditions was performed. An altar of offerings for
Martinez's mother and family, displayed in Denver, was to be
brought to the memorial in Cortez the next day.
"The most important thing I can say is that I loved Fred,"
Mitchell declared in an earlier statement. "I loved my son
exactly for who he was, for his courage in being honest and
gentle and friendly. It is sad that he had to face pain in
his daily life and in school."
Other organizers of the Denver memorial vigil included the
Gender Identity Center, Colorado Legal Initiatives Project,
Equal Rights Colorado, La Gente Unida and PFLAG Denver.
- END -
