History is Us! Genoa is Not Forgotten!

February 1, 2008. If somebody says there’s a demonstration “in front of the embassy” in Mexico City, it usually means the United States embassy because it’s symbolic of the most powerful terrorist state in the world. Banners and signs demanding an end to repression aren’t seen so much at the embassies in the luxurious Lomas de Chapultepec area—foreign territory for the demonstrators that showed up at the Italian Embassy today.

The demands? An end to the criminalization of the social movements in Italy and freedom for 24 prisoners recently sentenced to 11 years for having protested against the G8 meeting in Genoa in 2001, when more than 300,000 people filled the streets to demonstrate against the war and hunger imposed and promoted by the 8 world powers assembled there.

Backed by 28 collectives and groups in Mexico*, a document read at today’s demonstration states:

“While G8 leaders were safely ensconced in a security zone, Italian military and police forces brutally attacked the demonstrators with clubs, teargas, and bullets, making it clear that this repression was premeditated. The streets of Genoa turned into a war zone, with thousands of demonstrators obliged to defend themselves by setting up barricades against the violent police offensive.

During the confrontation, comrade 23-year-old Carlo Giuliani was killed by a military police with one shot to the face, while hundreds of participants in the marches were beaten, hospitalized, arrested, and tortured. At police headquarters, the demonstrators received death and rape threats. Earrings and body piercing jewelry was ripped off with pliers, and people were forced to stand still for hours singing fascist songs.

On the night of July 21, the independent media center where the radio was set up and where activists were was violently evacuated. Of the 93 people arrested in this operation, more than 60 were hospitalized due to the beatings they received.”

This kind of repression is no different from the offensive unleashed against Mexican activists demanding a better world at Cancun and Guadalajara, activists who were labeled as “globalaphobes” by that great salesman of his country, Ernesto Zedillo. And the scenes of the robocops attacking demonstrators at Genoa are all too much like the brutal military attacks in the streets of San Salvador Atenco and Oaxaca.

In Italy, as in Mexico, the repressive acts aren’t limited to a single confrontation. As paramilitary groups attack Zapatista communities in Chiapas to take away their lands recovered in the 1994 insurgency, the police and fascist groups in Italy attack activists in Turin, Florence, and Rome. And what a surprise! The very people who are beaten, wounded, and tortured are accused of crimes, found guilty, and sentenced to prison.



With respect to the demonstrators arrested in Genoa in 2001, the document read today at the Italian Embassy continues:

“The State’s vengeance was carried on in the courtrooms. 25 demonstrators were chosen as scapegoats and charged with ‘devastation and looting,’ ignoring the fact that people had to defend themselves against brutal police violence. During the long years that these trials went on, the authorities clearly wanted to rewrite the history, the chronicle, and the reasons for the marches and confrontations in Genoa. In the courtrooms, the truth of Carlo Giuliani’s murder was erased, and it was decided that a bullet glanced off a stone thrown by a demonstrator, ‘unfortunately’ killing Carlo.

Finally, the court went along with the State’s scenario, and on December 14, 2007, 24 demonstrators were sentenced to up to 11 years in prison, yet the uniformed killers and torturers of Genoa enjoy impunity and the top officials are promoted.

The undersigned collectives and groups call for an end to the criminalization of the social movements in Italy and the immediate nullification of the sentenced passed by the judges of Genoa so that the history of the anti-neoliberal social struggles won’t be written in the courtrooms. We hold the State responsible for the violence that occurred in Genoa and the harsh sentences that the courts continue to hand down to social activists in Italy based on the fascist charge of ‘subversive association.’ “

History is us! Genoa is not forgotten!
Freedom for the political prisoners of Genoa, Italy, and the world!

*Undersigned organizations Colectivo Autonomo Magonista (Df, Mexico) Nodo Solidale (Italia) ALMA - Alianza Libertaria Magonista (Df, Mexico) Colectivo Radio Proletaria 107.5fm (Tuxtla, Mexico) OPEZ, MLN, COAECH (Tuxtla, Mexico) Coordinadora Autonoma Tecnologias Apropriadas y Salud (Chiapas, Mexico) Comité por la Defensa de los Derechos Indigenas Xanica (Oaxaca, Mexico) Amig@s de Mumia (Df, Mexico) Colectivo un granito de Café (Df, Mexico) Frente de Trabajadores del IMSS (Df, Mexico) Asociación de Iniciativas Populares Ditsö (Costa Rica) VOCAL - Voces Oaxaqueñas Construyendo Autonomía y Libertad (Oaxaca, Mexico) RAI - Recursos d'Animació Interculturals (Catalunya, Espanya) Ké Huelga Radio 102.9 fm (DF, Mexico) Cooperativa Libertas Anti Corp (DF, Mexico) Regeneración Radio (DF, Mexico) OIDHO - Organizaciones Indias por los Derechos Humanos en Oaxaca (Oaxaca, Mexico) Colectivo Votan Zapata (DF, Mexico) Círculos de estudio de género y feminismo (DF, Mexico) Asamblea universitaria de la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad (DF, Mexico) Grupo de Acción Revolucionaria (DF, Mexico) C.L. José Marti (DF, Mexico) La Otra UAM- A (Azcapotzalco, Mexico) Movimiento de Bases Magisteriales de Tlaxcala (Tlaxcala, Mexico) Indymedia México (Mexico) Movimiento de Lucha Popular (DF, Mexico) Estudiantes de la FES Iztacala (Stato de Mexico, Mexico) Frente Nacional de Lucha por el Socialismo (Puebla, Mexico)