Berlusconi's Mousetrap: Genoa one year on

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday July 17, 2002 12:33 by Blisset

Berlusconi's Mousetrap: Genoa one year on A look back at Genoa and details of Dublin film screenings to mark a Year since the Genoa protests which saw an unprecedented amount of Irish people participating in an international protest. 300 + is my estimate.

Berlusconi's Mousetrap: Genoa one year on

July 19th, 20th and 21st mark the first anniversary of the Genoa Protests against the G8. The protests were the biggest 'anti-globalisation' protests ever and the 1/4 million that gathered in Genoa on the final day of the protests partially in response to the killing of Carlo Guiliani dwarfed the mobilisations in Seattle (1) against the WTO in 1999. The response of the authorities was however was systematic and brutal and had every appearance on being a calculated and premeditated attempt to use repressive measures to stifle this new form of networked and worldwide dissent. They too had learned the lessons (2) of Prague and Quebec and their tactics were honed to a very sharp edge.

The tactics included the creation of a huge no entry red zone in the centre of the city surrounded by a no-protest yellow zone as well as a massive deployment of the police and military. There has been constant controversy within the movement since then over the use of Agents Provocateurs by the authorities and the supposed infiltration by large amounts of provocateurs (3) of those adopting the 'Black Bloc' tactic. The brutality of the 'Forces of Order' reached it's apogee in the killing of Carlo Guiliani (9) and in the military style attack on the Diaz School (4) and the raids on the offices of the Genoa Social Forum and Indymedia. Many accounts of torture and mistreatment in Bolzaneto Detention Centre (5) have meant that in Italy the Genoa Protests are still very much a live and contentious issue. (8)

In global terms Genoa seemed to be the plateau of this kind of summit hopping protest and the events of September 11th (10) led to a sense of
disorientation in the 'movement' in its immediate aftermath. However in Italy the events of Genoa acted as a catalyst for a massive resurgence of the left which culminated in a General Strike aimed against the policies of the Berlusconi Government. This resurgence spread to Spain with massive peaceful protests in Barcelona. In many ways the movement has widened and deepened since and has campaigned in an effective and decentralised way everywhere from Agentina to Mexico, from Palestine to the recent G8 summit in Canada (6) where the leaders of the industrialised World (11) met in an isolated mountain resort.

To the outside world - dependent for the most part on corporate television coverage for a perspective on the events in Genoa - it may have seemed a senseless and violent event with the violence coming exclusively from protesters. Berlusconi in Italy used the massive power of his media machine to promulgate this version of events. (12) The Italian people however refused to see events the way they were supposed to and public questioning of the authoritarian nature of Forza Italia and Berlusconi have reached new heights since the event. (11) The Italy Independent Media Centre helped this questioning process along by releasing and distributing thousands of copies of a video 'Release #1' (7)documenting the savage police brutality which took place. Since then UK Indymedia, Indymedia Italy and Indymedia Ireland have collaborated loosely to produce longer more comprehensive films in the English language on the events of Genoa which it is hoped will receive widespread distribution in the coming months.

Friday 19th and Saturday 20th July (1st anniversary) will see some of the first public screenings of the friuts of the collaborative work in the form of two films in the English language. IMC UK is releasing 'Zona Rossa', a one hour film on the events and the aftermath in Italy and IMC Ireland is releasing 'Berlusconi's Mousetrap', a feature length film which concentrates very specifically on the three days of Genoa and the tactics of the protesters and the 'Forces of Order'. 'Zona Rossa' will be screened in London and elsewhere in the UK. 'Berlusconi's Mousetrap' (13) will be screened in Dublin.

1. http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0716-03.htm
2. http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/eng/miscdocs/200008_e.html
3. http://www.wumingfoundation.com/english/giap/mysterytour.html
4. http://www.geocities.com/ericsquire/articles/ap052202.htm
5. http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/g8interview.htm
6. http://slash.autonomedia.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/08/1357223
7. http://www.indymedia.org/features.cgi?screen=edit&ID=2924
8. http://www.uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=36106&group=webcast
9. http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0802-01.htm
10. http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=01/10/14/6040100
11. http://www.indymedia.org/archive/features/2002/07/2002-07.html#4298
12. http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/wsm/news/2001/genoatv_july.html
13. http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=7963&start=30