------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the July 12, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- ANTI-GLOBALIZATION MOVEMENT: STANDOFF IN SALZBURG AS G-8 MEET LOOMS By Greg Butterfield George W. Bush, Tony Blair & Co. must be wondering what they've gotten into. Bush and Blair will join other heads of state of the Group of 8-the seven most powerful imperialist countries, plus capitalist Russia-for a summit in Genoa, Italy, July 18-22. Up to 100,000 uninvited guests are also expected: anti- capitalist youths and other opponents of globalization from across Europe are coming in defiance of border restrictions. At the end of June and beginning of July, the European protest movement continued to gather momentum. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's vow to seal off Genoa has only fueled protesters' determination to get there. The government is mobilizing 20,000 police and plans military exercises during the summit. Representatives of 54 communist parties meeting in Athens June 26-27 decided to make the G-8 protests a top priority. Fifteen communist youth organizations called for the creation of an international "Red Bloc" at the demonstrations. And a militant protest confronted the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Salzburg, Austria. SALZBURG STANDOFF Salzburg--Austria's fourth largest city and the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart--was the site of a July 1 standoff between cops and anti-globalization forces. Austria's right-wing government that includes Joerg Haider's ultra-right "Freedom Party" mobilized 5,000 riot police to guard the WEF's annual European Economic Summit. The closed- door conference brought together business owners, economists and 15 European heads of state. European Union expansion, anti-immigrant legislation and military intrigue in the former Yugoslavia were high on the agenda. Just two weeks earlier, police in Gothenburg, Sweden, had shot three unarmed protesters during the EU summit. "We don't want a repeat of Gothenburg, but we will use guns if we have to," threatened Maj. Rudolf Gollia, a senior advisor to the Austrian Interior Ministry. (London Telegraph, June 29) Among the groups organizing a people's response were the Anti-WEF Coordination, the Austrian Communist Party, the Communist Youth and Socialist Youth. These groups and others staged a "March Against Capitalism" July 1 to coincide with the opening of the conference. Hundreds marched from Communist Party headquarters to join a 2,000-strong rally at the main train depot. Associated Press correspondent Marsha Hill reported: "They then advanced on the conference center, but were turned back at a police barricade under a rail bridge. Carrying communist hammer-and-sickle flags, they chanted, 'Our world is not for sale, put the bankers into jail!'" The standoff near the city center wore on. At least four people were arrested as small groups tried to break through police barricades. Then riot police attacked the demonstrators. Reuters correspondent David Chance said: "Police with dogs waded into the crowd, striking demonstrators with batons ... the response from the demonstrators was to use flagpoles to start beating on police shields." Other protesters grabbed rocks and bricks and used them in self-defense against the police. Riot cops surrounded about 500 protesters, continued to beat them with batons and fired tear gas into the captive crowd. According to reports compiled by the Austrian Independent Media Center, one cop drew his gun and told a protester, "I will shoot you." Activists who escaped the police encirclement regrouped to demand their comrades' release. Local residents tossed food from their apartment windows to hungry protesters. Finally, around midnight, police escorted their 500 captives to the train station. Under threat of arrest, most of the protesters were put on a special train and "deported" to Vienna, Austria's capital. GENOA UNDER 'MILITARY OCCUPATION' Italy's government plans to close off access to Genoa, a northern industrial port city, for the duration of the G-8 Summit. Highways into the city are to be closed. So are the airport, rail stations and ports. It has been widely reported that officials ordered 200 body bags despite promises that police will only use "non-lethal force" against demonstrators. Some 50 percent of Italians are sympathetic to the anti- globalization movement, according to a recent survey. (The Independent, June 21) Genoa has historically been a stronghold of the labor movement. Most of Genoa has been divided into two security areas: the Red Zone and the Yellow Zone. The Red Zone around the conference center will be off limits. In the Yellow Zone, people will be allowed to move but cannot demonstrate. "The division into areas is the symbol of the military occupation of the city," said Marco Beltrami, a coordinator of the White Overalls, a radical direct-action group. "We will break the line of police and enter the Red Zone using just our bodies, carrying no weapons," he said. The No-Global Network in Naples has hired a 1,000-seat passenger ferry to shuttle protesters. The British group Globalize Resistance has rented a train and will attempt to take 500 activists across the France/Italy border. Communist activists from throughout Europe will buttress protests at the G-8 summit, according to a report from the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). COMMUNIST YOUTHS CALL FOR RED BLOC At a June 26-27 meeting on labor organizing hosted by the KKE in Athens, representatives of 54 communist and workers' parties said their organizations would turn out in force at the protests in Genoa. "We unanimously decided to give particular importance to the Genoa meeting and to work to ensure the largest possible turnout from communist parties," KKE leader Orestis Kolozov told the French Press Agency. Representatives of 15 communist youth organizations from Europe and the Middle East called for a "Red Bloc" at the G- 8 protests and other anti-globalization convergences. Their declaration, "Learn to Fight Together," was signed by groups from Austria, Turkey, Yugoslavia, Greece, Spain, Finland, Catalonia, Portugal, Cyprus, Russia, Germany, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway and Britain. Their statement says that "the operation of organizations dominated by the large imperialist powers, such as the G-8, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, NATO and the EU ... and [the] reactionary policies implemented by our governments in the name of 'globalization' make the rich richer and the poor poorer and intensify the degree of exploitation of the working class. ... "We do not ask for a 'different' world of exploitation; we are struggling for a socialist world. ... We are going to paint together a Red Bloc, the color of workers' dignity, which will make visible the collective identity of the 21st century working class facing the worldwide power of capital." Calling for the many forces in the youth movement to "weave experiences of collective struggle," the statement concludes: "Revolutionary change of society is not only still possible, it is necessary. "If we strike together, we will win." - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
