Massive police operation at G8
summit in Genoa
By Stefan Steinberg
20 July 2001
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Those protesting at the G8 conference in Genoa
confront a massive police and army presence.
The conference, which opens today and concludes July
22, brings together the heads of the seven leading
industrial countries plus Russia. It is expected that
US
President George W. Bush will use the meeting in an
attempt to secure support for the proposed American
missile defence system.
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the Italian
authorities have approved an enormous security
operation with up to 16,000 police and 3,000 soldiers
being mobilised to clamp down on all protests.
At the June European Union (EU) summit in
Gothenburg, Sweden, two demonstrators were shot and
wounded by police. Pitched battles took place in the
city between the police and a small number of the
estimated 30,000 protestors. British premier Tony
Blair and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer
warned against the possibility of violent
demonstrations in Genoa, with Blair criticising "small
groups of anarchists and hooligans" for "using
legitimate protest as a vehicle for causing chaos and
mayhem."
On the pretext of clamping down on "hooligans", the
Italian and European police have made a frontal assault
on the democratic right to protest and the right to
free
speech. The mobilisation of state forces is aimed at
preventing the free movement of those deemed by the
authorities to be undesirable or dangerous, setting yet
another precedent in the erosion of fundamental
democratic rights.
Last weekend, in order to vet those entering the
country,
the Italian government suspended the Schengen Treaty,
which allows free passage between those EU countries
that have signed the pact. Police and customs officials
worked with a list of 3,000 names of potentially
"violent anti-capitalist protestors", who are to be
prevented at all costs from entering Italy. The police
are paying particular attention to protestors from
France and Germany. At the start of the week, delays
and harassment by police at the French-Italian crossing
point of Ventimiglia lead to protests in favour of the
right of free passage by those affected.
The French national railway, SNCF, cancelled a train
chartered by British anti-capitalist activists
organised
within Globalise Resistance to transport them to the G8
summit. Flights to the city have also been cancelled.
Genoa's motorway junctions and the port itself will be
sealed this evening. The airport and the city's two
main
railway stations (Principe and Brignoli) have been
closed.
Inside Italy, police and intelligence forces have been
conducting raids and house searches since the start of
the month. Raids have been carried out as far afield as
Milan, Florence and Naples. In the course of the
searches, police have confiscated such mundane
household objects as hammers, screwdrivers and
bricks. A journalist employed by the il manifesto
newspaper and Luca Casarini, spokesman of the Centri
Sociali Autogestiti in North-eastern Italy, were both
victims of such house searches.
Despite these measures, thousands of anti-G8 protesters
poured into Genoa yesterday in order to beat the
closure of the city. Around 800 organisations have
constituted the so-called "Genoa Social Forum" and
are planning to conduct a series of alternative
meetings,
conferences and protests in the city against the
consequences of capitalist globalisation. Estimates of
the number of protesters planning to attend meetings
and take part in demonstrations in Genoa vary between
50,000 and 150,000. The Italian rank-and-file
organisation Comitati Unita di Base has called for a
national general strike on Friday, but it is unlikely
that
many of Italy's main trade unions will actually take
part
in anti-G8 demonstrations.
Those who have made it to Genoa will find a city that
resembles a fortress. The summit is planned to open
Friday in Genoa's splendid Palazzo Ducale. For
security reasons, however, some G8 delegates will stay
on the luxury liner "European Vision" berthed in the
harbour and which will provide the venue for many of
the conference meetings. It is anticipated that
American
delegates will be accommodated on their own ship.
According to Italian Defence Minister Antonio Martini,
2,700 soldiers will be employed to protect and secure
the docks and airport. Minesweepers will patrol the
adjacent waters and two Spada-type rocket launchers
have been stationed to deter any possible air attack on
the conference. Experts in bio-chemical weapons will
also be in attendance to assist in security operations.
A three metre high wall has been erected in the
historic
centre of the city. Police patrolling the city are
determined that no demonstrations take place within
this walled area, the so-called "red zone". Inside the
city as a whole there is a ban on the distribution of
printed material and leaflets. Some newspapers have
reported that the authorities are planning to
deactivate
the telecommunications network in and around the city
to prevent cell phone calls between the demonstrators.
Police and plain-clothes intelligence officers have the
power to stop and search every inhabitant and visitor
to
the city.
Parts of the city have been sealed off during the past
week, following two bomb explosions and a much
higher number of "false alarms". Organisers of the
Social Forum expressed their concern that state
intelligence forces could be involved in such
provocations, intent on a "strategy of tension" to
justify
using severely repressive measures against
demonstrators. After two bombs went off in Genoa,
Social Forum spokesman Vittorio Agnoletto declared
on Tuesday: "It is unbelievable that two bombs could
go off in one day in a city where one cannot proceed
more than five paces without being controlled by the
combined secret police of seven states." The human
rights organisation Amnesty International felt it
necessary to warn the Italian authorities to respect
international standards of law.
See Also:
Three demonstrators shot, hundreds arrested at
Gothenburg EU summit
European leaders demand harsher police action
[18 June 2001]
Rubber bullets, tear gas and mass arrests at the Summit
of the Americas in Quebec City
[2 May 2001]
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