From: Steve Wagner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- At least 20,000 march in Naples anti-war demo http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010927/1/1iv1l.html NAPLES, Italy, Sept 27 (AFP) - At least 20,000 anti-war demonstrators marched peacefully through Naples Thursday to protest a military build-up and the threat of a global conflict in the wake of anti-US terror attacks. Hundreds of Italian police and paramilitary carabinieri, who put the crowd at 20,000, kept a close watch on the march, but the gathering bore none of the tension which preceded the rioting that marred a G8 summit in Genoa in July. One of the organizers, Francesco Caruso of the anti-globalization group No Global, put the turn-out at around 40,000. "Everything went very peacefully," he told AFP. "The police were very discreet. We reached our objective of saying a big 'No' to war, and 'No' to terrorism," he added. The absence of NATO leaders from Naples -- the city is home to the alliance's Southern Command, and was originally to have hosted a NATO meeting this week -- took much of the heat out of what had threatened to be a tense sequel to the violence-marred Genoa summit, which involved many of the same anti-globalisation groups at Thursday's march. Neither police nor any demonstrators wore protective riot gear, in marked contrast to the Genoa meeting. However some demonstrators took the precaution of wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the phone number of a lawyer in case of arrest. Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested after the Genoa riots, in which one protester was shot dead, and many were later beaten amid widespread claims of police brutality. Police and carabinieri deployed in the city kept a discreet distance from the mostly festive protesters who linked hands as the march snaked toward the municipal building at Plebiscito square in the historic center. NATO leaders were originally scheduled to meet Wednesday and Thurdsday at the alliance's southern command headquarters outside this Mediterranean city but moved the meeting to Brussels in the wake of the September 11 attacks, which caused US President George W. Bush to launch what he called a crusade against terrorism. In a throwback to the anti-war movement of the 1960s, the march had headed off from the main train station led by a group carrying hippy-style peace banners and chanting in English: "one, two, three, four ... we don't want another war. Five, six, seven, eight ... stop the violence, stop the hate." Many were from left-wing organizations and carried portraits of Karl Marx and Che Guevara. One banner, referring to Bush and to fears that a military strike could spark a retaliatory attack using biological weapons, read: "Sure, W, we'll suck anthrax, so you can feel tough in your bunker." Dozens of protesters carried Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in support of the intifada, the Palestinian uprising. Also prominent was a group of activists from the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who called for the release of their jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan. Classics student Tonia Capuano, 17, who handed out Communist party pamphlets, claimed many demonstrators had arrived from the northern cities of Turin and Venice, as well as Rome, and the Sicilian city of Palermo. Capuano said she would demonstrate anyway against anti-globalisation, "because that's where the war and the violence comes from". Another marcher, Giuliano Malet, 25, said: "I feel that war in Afghanistan, or Pakistan, would only hit poor people." The United States blamed Islamic extremists based in Afghanistan as prime suspects in the September 11 attacks on its territory. Other marchers were angered by comments by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in which he said that Christianity was superior to Islam. "It is absolutely senseless. It's like Hitler in 1933," one said. __________________ Copyright 2001 AFP. All rights reserved. Copyright ? 2001 Yahoo! Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.yahoo.com _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
