The Independent Media Center in Genoa City and a nearby\r\nschoolhouse \"safe area\" was attacked at midnight last night by\r\npolice, aided, it appears, by mysterious elements disguised as\r\nanarchists who committed savage and bloody attacks on activists\r\nand independent journalists. This is the culmination of a systematic\r\ncampaign of state violence against enormous and overwhelmingly peaceful\r\nprotests against the G8 summit here.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nWe were in the Carlini stadium which was where Ya Basta!\r\nwas camped out when the attack occured - most of the major\r\ntutti bianci and other contingents were already gone, there were\r\nonly about three or four hundred people left there at 1 AM when we\r\ngot news of the IMC attack. We were told to get our things\r\nand walk up to a different camp about twenty minutes walk\r\naway while Ya Basta! assembled journalists and parlaimentarians\r\nwhose presence would protect us, as our camp was definitely\r\nnext. Apparently the cops did show up an hour after we took\r\noff, and completely trashed the place; after searching everything,\r\nthey opened the camp to a bunch of junkies who then went through\r\nall the remaining bags and tents and made off with or destroyed\r\neverything of value.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nThe cops have been working with a lot of low-life elements:\r\nthe big story today is of a group of about fifty \"Black Bloc\"\r\ntypes who none of the other anarchists knew who always showed up\r\nand started acting extremely violently right before the cops\r\narrived to gas and attack peaceful protestors. In some cases this\r\nreportedly caused actual fistfights with other Black Blockers who\r\nwere trying to stop them from attacking small shops or other\r\nillegitimate targets. The main question people are asking is whether\r\nthey were cops or fascists working with the cops - the question may be\r\nmoot if reports are to be believed that the top story of the local\r\ncarabinieri HQ here is covered with swastikas and fascist symbols.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nThe story with the IMC: a couple minutes before midnight according to\r\nan eyewitness account from someone from RTS New York, a band of 50\r\n\"anarchists\" in suspiciously uniform black clothes, bandanas and halmets\r\nappeared on a corner near the IMC, coming from the direction of a police\r\nposition, started overturning dumpsters, and vanished again. At exactly\r\nmidnight a major police convoy appeared and bashed down the gate of the\r\nIMC with a van; people on the street who tried to form a line were\r\nbeaten bloody with truncheons; at the IMC itself they had to produce a\r\nwarrant and behave in a fairly civilized fashion, simply ripping tapes\r\nout of cameras, appropriating files and smashing computers - largely\r\nbecause the IMC was given the space by the city government and at least\r\none minister of parlaiment was present - but across the street, in a\r\n\"safe space\" in which many activists were sleeping or eating in a\r\nschoolhouse, they simply came in swinging and attacked everyone they\r\ncould get their hands on. Most of the most savage beatings were again\r\nnot done by uniformed police but by characters dressed in jeans and\r\nbandanas and helmets with 'police' written on their T-shirts, which had\r\npresumably been under the black sweatshirts all along. There was blood\r\nand broken glass everywhere inside; dozens were arrested, many carried\r\noff to the station in stretchers with broken limbs; today every third\r\nperson you see in the IMC is wounded in some way - black eyes, arms in\r\ncasts, gashes and cuts all over. Most are afraid to go to the hospital\r\nbecause the police have been removing people with unexplained wounds\r\nfrom hospital beds and throwing them in jail.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nThere were unconfirmed reports in the corporate media that three\r\npeople were killed in the assault; most people today think this was\r\nmistaken (corporate media is hobbled in covering stories like this\r\nbecause most of them have a policy not to use independent media as a\r\nsource. Apparently the BBC refused to run live footage of the police\r\nassault the IMC offered to supply them while it was happening because\r\nthey claimed the event was \"unconfirmed\"!) A French journalist is\r\nlooking into the matter of the \"warrant\" and believes that it was a\r\nfraud - no such warrant was actually issued. There are rumors that\r\nAmnesty International is going to take up the matter at the World Court\r\nat the Hague and specifically accuse the Italian government of fascism.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nConsidering the fact that the Berlusconi regime is already working in\r\ncoalition with overtly fascist parties (ie,led by Mussolini's\r\ngrand-daughter) the press is already beginning to talk of a fascist\r\ngovernment. Many of the techniques employed here: the use of fake bomb\r\nthreats, rightists posing as leftist terrorists to justify brutal\r\noppression, were those employed in the '70s to repress Autonomia.\r\nHowever, what is happening here is obviously not just an Italian\r\nphenomena: techniques of repression are clearly being developed\r\nsystematically, with new elements being added with every major action.\r\nFor instance, the Italian police here used what were for them entirely\r\nnew techniques here, such as the wall around the \"red zone\" and the\r\nsystematic use of extremely powerful tear-gas, which were spearheaded in\r\nQuebec City in April; the use of agents provacateurs disguised as\r\nanarchists right before police attacks on peaceful protestors was used\r\nat least since Barcelona in June, where it was fully documented on film\r\nand acknowledged even by the corporate media; the use of live ammunition\r\nof course goes back to Gothenburg. It is important to note that after\r\nGothenburg, Ya Basta! appealed to the government, saying that they were\r\ngoing to promise that no one associated with them engaged in any\r\naggressive acts against either persons or property, and they were asking\r\nthe police in return to agree not to bring live ammunition but rubber\r\nbullets and other relatively non-lethal arms. The police refused, and\r\neven publically announced a week before the summit that they were\r\nordering body bags for dead protestors. The shootings and killings were\r\nnot accidental: this was an intentional policy which goes back at least\r\nto the top of the Italian government but most likely to agencies like\r\nthe US secret service which were ultimately coordinating the defense of\r\nthe summit.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nIt is important to stress that the initiative for personal violence in\r\njust about every case we have looked into came from the police and not\r\nthe protestors. On the 19th, there was a completely peaceful march of\r\n50-60,000 people calling for international freedom of movement; since\r\nthe police did not attack, there was no violence or property destruction\r\nof any kind. The next day there were to be four or five separate columns\r\ndescending on the walled \"red zone\" ranging from the Tuti Bianci in\r\nwhimsical foam rubber armor and giant plexiglass shields, reformist\r\ngroups like ATTAC who had no intention of doing direct action of any\r\nkind, radical syndicalists, a theatrical \"pink bloc\" with wigs and\r\nfeather dusters, and a pagan bloc teamed with Gandhian pacifists who\r\nperformed a spiral dance ceremony. Every single one was attacked by the\r\npolice, and always following the same pattern: first massive gassing\r\nsimilar to Quebec City, then baton charges meant to break bones and\r\nheads. The only group which was not attacked was the small \"splinter\r\ngroup\" within the Black Bloc which somehow mysteriously appeared in the\r\nmiddle of whatever group the police were about to attack next,\r\ndestroying property randomly, and in some cases physically attacking\r\npeople (including other anarchists) who tried to stop them, then somehow\r\nvanishing right before the cops began gassing. This group was never\r\nitself assaulted by the police, it seems, but every other one was at one\r\npoint or another. If the police were intending to provoke mayhem, they\r\nsucceeded: enraged protestors and many local citizens banded together to\r\nsmash store windows and set fire to banks; in some places they even\r\nturned police violence back on the police, throwing rocks and bottles:\r\nthere were several street battles, and in one of them, nearby where the\r\nYa Basta! march was blocked by a police assault, local people, (real)\r\nanarchists and others combined forces to drive the police back and at\r\ncertain points the police were definitely getting the worst of it; this\r\nis where a police officer shot one protestor through the eye and drove\r\nhis van over him, killing him. Whatever the circumstances of the actual\r\nshooting (and it was not the only occasion in which police used live\r\nammunition, others were, apparently, wounded by live bullets), the\r\ndecision to incite violence and then arm police with live ammunition was\r\nmade beforehand with full knowledge of the likely results, and in open\r\ndefiance of desperate pleas from the protestors not to take that course.\r\nIt is the Berlusconi regime and the international police networks who\r\nhave been coordinating the repression of the movement who are\r\nresponsible for the violence and death in Genoa, not any particular\r\npoliceman, carabinieri, or even fascist. These men knew exactly what\r\nthey were doing.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nWe have to coordinate an immediate response. We always knew that the\r\nhammer of the state would come down eventually. The movement has been\r\ngrowing too fast, and has been far too effective, to be allowed to\r\nadvance further. Now it is happening. At this point it appears we have\r\nno choice: we must appeal, in every way possible, to civil society; to\r\nspread the word about what is happening, and to hold those responsible\r\nto account. It is already starting to happen in Europe and it is much\r\nharder in the United States where the press is so much more\r\nsystematically biased against us, but this is a time to start playing\r\nevery card we have - every connection or access to the power structure,\r\ntime to start making phone calls, to start daily protests and even, if\r\nnecessary, scrupulously non-violent direct actions against the media\r\nitself if it refuses to reveal what is actually happening here. We have\r\nto jam their email and phone banks, not to let them get away with lying\r\nabout us any more. These things can be done. We can turn it around. We\r\ncan stop the engine of repression in its tracks if our pressure is\r\nmassive and overwhelming. Every time we read a story saying \"police raid\r\nheadquarters of violent protestors\" we need to have a hundred letters\r\nsent demanding that they print the truth. We need to start calling the\r\njournalists responsible and demanding to know why they use the language\r\nthey did and will not publish key information. To ask them: if you admit\r\n(as they often do in private) that police attacked overwhelmingly\r\npeaceful protestors, why is it they never say so? Be creative. Be\r\ndisruptive. Absolutely refuse to go away.\r\n<\/p>
\r\n\r\nDid you see any of this?
\r\nStay safe,
\r\nA
\r\n<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"COMMUNIQUE FROM NYC-YA BASTA! and THE NYC-DIRECT ACTION NETWORK IN GENOA, JULY 22, 2001 CONCERNING THE ATTACK ON THE INDEPENDENT MEDIA CENTER AND FASCIST\/POLICE COORDINATION DURING THE G8 SUMMIT","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/07\/communique.html","filesize":"10.7 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/07\/8872.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}