Our Brother's Blood

Moira Peters — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 05:56:05 +0000

Briefly, the G8 summit in Genoa, 2001

Large summits are nothing new. The 36th G8 summit will set up shop in Huntsville June 25-26. Toronto, a past host, will this time welcome the 4th G20 summit June 26-27. The following is the third in a six-part series of briefs looking back on past G7/G8 summits and protest. Check back each Sunday for a blast from the past when we recap a different summit's official agenda and civilian and activist responses.

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The Genoa summit has become infamous for the shooting death of protester Carlo Guliani. His was not the only blood shed at the hands of Genoa police during the 2001 G8 meetings. The summit's focus was global poverty reduction, but its content was overshadowed by waves of repression and resistance between police and protesters.

Over three days, more than 300,000 people protested the G8 in Genoa. At times, protesters seemed to have the upper hand; forcing police to retreat, even chasing them down the street. At other moments, brutality and violence by the carabinieri, Italy's police force, set the tone of the summit, as shown in video footage of groups of police beating a protester caught alone on the street.

In a show of force rarely seen in North America, Italian industrial labour unions put their skills to work building protest infrastructure to shield them from police attack. With large sturdy shields, they marched in old military formations through the streets of Genoa. And in response to requests by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to not dry their laundry outdoors, people hung clotheslines full of their underwear out their windows as protesters marched through the streets.

On Friday, July 20, Carlo Guliani, a 23-year-old Italian protester, had dropped a fire extinguisher and was holding his hands up in the air when he was shot twice by police and then run over by a police vehicle. The crowds in the streets swelled as news of his brutal killing spread, with marchers chanting, "Assasino!" An anarchist flag was draped over his coffin at his funeral.

The next night, 340 police officers raided the School of Diaz, thought to be a safe place for protesters, mostly students, to sleep. Scores of police forced their way into the building and began beating those inside. Video footage from after the attacks shows blood smeared across the floor and splattered against the walls. It was reported that protesters were urinated on and forced to sing fascist hymns. One protester described it as "complete carnage. There was blood everywhere...we were tortured, and I don't use that term lightly." In all, 61 people were badly injured and 93 were arrested, using what the Genoa Justice Campaign, an organization seeking investigations into police brutality at the Genoa Summit, labels “counterfeited evidence.” Charges against all 93 were dropped, and in later testimony the Deputy Police Chief of Genoa admitted to having planted Molotov cocktails and staging the stabbing of a police officer.

Approximately 300 protesters were arrested and over 230 were injured in Genoa. In the weeks following the summit, dozens of police officers and state officials were charged with physically and mentally abusing protesters, planting evidence and wrongful arrest. Since then, 26 police officers, prison staff and state officials have been found guilty of abuse and negligence, but no senior level police officials have been held accountable.

Genoa will be remembered as a monstrous display of state repression of dissent. It will also be remembered for the incredible defiance and strength shown by protesters in their perseverance in challenging the police and the state. After Genoa, it seemed something was shifting: resistance to the G8 and the international structures it supported was gaining strength. And then September 11th happened, and suddenly, everything was different.

Amanda Wilson is a researcher and writer based in Ottawa.

This story was published in The Dominion's special issue on the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario. We will continue to publish independent, investigative news about the G8 and G20 throughout the month of June.

For up-to-the-minute G8/G20 news from the streets of Toronto, visit the Toronto Media Co-op.

Briefly, the G7 summit in Toronto, 1988

Briefly, the G7 summit in Halifax, 1995

G8 showdown in Genoa

New Italian Foreign Minister, Former Neo-Fascist

Mon, 22 Nov 2004 21:51:34 +0000

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi named former neo-fascist Gianfranco Fini as Italy's new foreign minister on Nov. 18, 2004. Fini, 52, is the leader of the National Alliance, a party that was not invited to participate in the writing of Italy's post-war constitution. The National Alliance was created in the early 1990s to replace the Italian Social Movement, which was formed post-war in an effort to continue the ideals of Benito Mussolini.

Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943, attempted to create an Italian empire, ultimately in alliance with Hitler's Germany, but the defeat of Italian arms in World War II brought an end to his imperial dream and led to his downfall.

Fini has softened his position on many issues in past years. He has since condemned Mussolini for the racial laws that led to the deportation and death of about 6,000 Italian Jews in Nazi camps, condemned fascism as an "absolute evil," and has visited Auschwitz. Fini has also made efforts to moderate National Alliance policies. Still, he remains highly conservative and, as the Guardian reports, is expected to become quick friends with George Bush's new administration.

However, many of the questions surrounding his appointment in Italy do not concern his neo-fascist past, but what many see as an overly pro-Israeli stance. In recent years Fini has been a leading sympathizer of Ariel Sharon's Israel. Last year, in a visit to Israel, Sharon described Fini as a "good and friendly leader."

One of the few politicians to raise the issue of Fini's record was Edouard Ballaman, MP for the populist Northern League, who said it was worrying Italy would be represented overseas by Fini and other members of his party.

"It will be extremely difficult to hold talks with a significant part of the world where, wittingly or unwittingly, [people] will see them as the heirs of fascism," he said.

It is unclear what effect Fini's appointment will have on his often-mutinous followers.

» The Guardian: Former neo-fascist to be Italian foreign minister

» International Herald Tribune: Italian official denounces country's Fascist past

» BBC: Gianfranco Fini Profile

» BBC: Silvio Berlusconi Profile

The Dominion - Italy

Our Brother's Blood

New Italian Foreign Minister, Former Neo-Fascist