Giuliani To: Leftlink <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] X-Loop: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Precedence: bulk From: Paul O'Brien <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 11:23:14 +0200 For more information on the Genoa protests read: http://www.destroyimf.rog http://www.indymedia.org Protests Sweep Italy Against the Murder of Carlo Giuliani 100,000 in Milan, 40,000 in Rome, 30,000 and more in Naples, 10,000 in the red zone of shame in the centre of Genoa, 6,000 in Trieste, 5,000 in Palermo, 7,000 in Brescia. Yesterday, Tuesday 24 July 2001, thousands of youth, parents and trade unionists returned to the streets and squares of Italy to protest against the police brutality which led to the death of Carlo Giuliani in the Genoa protests against the G8 meeting. The main slogan was made up of one-word�assassini, murderers. One protester's placard ironically recalled the title of one of Berlusconi's neo-liberal books: "The Italy I have in mind". The blood from Carlo Giuliani's head flowed into the shape of the Italian peninsula. But there was more than the death of Carlo at stake. In what has become known as the "Chilean situation", namely, the air of police terror that swept through Genoa on the night of 21 July during the fascist-style raid on the Armando Diaz school, the democratic rights of hundreds of militants were quite literally trodden on by the leather boots of state thugs. As we write, lawyers from the Genoa Social Forum are still being denied news of a significant number of demonstrators who were first arbitrarily beaten and then arrested during the raid. Many of the people who demonstrated yesterday were not at Genoa for the G8 protests. This is particularly the case with the parents concerned that Carlo could have been their son. The police lie machine is failing to cover up what is becoming ever more clear: government and police strategy during the G8 was to attack the movement as a whole. Not everybody, however, is realising the full truth. The pacifist and humanist demonstrators both during the G8 and in last nights protests continue to reaffirm that they are "non-violent", as if to distance themselves from the "violence" to which the police reacted. This is playing into the hands of state propaganda and fails to isolate the real source of violence. Even if there had been no Black Bloc, the police would have invented one in order to attack the main demonstration. Evidence in fact exists to prove that many "Black Blockers" were in fact Carabinieri agent provocateurs. These demonstrations add a badly needed lease of life to a movement deeply shaken by the police brutality. The slogan in Genoa las night hit the nail on the head: "Pensavate di averlo ucciso - Carletto vive attraverso di noi" (You thought you'd killed him, but Carlo lives on through us). But Carlo's death can only ever really be avenged when the system that killed him is itself put to death. In this sense it is important to note that last night's demonstrations saw the banners of trade unionists flying. These included not only the Base Committees (CoBas) and the metal workers of the FIOM, but even those of the main union, the CGIL. The demonstrations of last night should revivify and encourage all of us after the experience of Genoa. But there is still a long way to go. As yet, the main trade union federation has not issued any statement of condemnation of the police terror. This shows that to get the workers' movement to lead the way and bring the anti-capitalist movement to victory requires a battle not just against the repressive apparatus of the capitalist state, but against the union bureaucracy which in wanting to keep its nose clean in order to be called to the table for the next round of sell-outs fails to take a clear position against the bosses' killing machine. The Berlusconi government is getting ready for the next round of the attack. And it will be against workers and pensioners. Of that there can be no doubt. The anti-globalisation movement must seek the support to the Italian working class in the recognition that the movement's own future depends on the workers' victory over Berlusconi and Fini and over the union bureaucrat and reformist politician cowards who are queuing up to attack the movement and defend the police. Claiming the streets for total war. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
