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By Nicola Bullard*
As long as the police and military have guns, people will get shot and sadly Carlo Guiliani 's death was the almost inevitable consequence of the shameful and shameless violence perpetrated by the Italian state with the complicity of the other G8 members.
What happened inside the "red zone" and the measures taken to "protect" the walls of the red zone is the antithesis of democracy. (The wall, of course, was never under threat. It was built to justify 20,000 troops, and as a provocation and a symbol.)
Carlo Guiliani's death and the deliberate and brutal police attack on demonstrators sleeping in a school used by the Genoa Social Forum, which left more than 60 hospitalised, are inexcusable.
And Prime Minister Berlusconi's unflinching defence of the state's handling of the summit, and the sacking of the GSF spokesperson Vittorio Agnoletto from his job in the ministry of labour because he "spoke against the Italian state," are beyond belief.
But what happened outside the red zone was something else.
In spite of the militarisation of Genoa, 40,000 people rallied for the migrants, tens of thousands took part in direct actions against the G8 summit, and 300,000 united in a final marvelous and defiant march against corporate globalisation.
Maybe the Genoa Social Forum wasn't Tony Blair's idea of "democracy" but it was an extraordinary week of political clarity, commitment, bravery and solidarity.
THE QUESTION OF VIOLENCE
We reject the violence for many moral, political and pragmatic reasons. Because
non-violence can be one of our strengths and strategies, because violence perpetuates
repression and coercion, because it often works against our political interests
of building a strong and broad-based movement opposing neo-liberal globalisation,
because it polarises debates, because it overshadows serious discussion about
why we are opposed to the G8 and their policies, and much more.
It is hard to deal with the violence but it's not monolithic: most of the violence is on their side and it is systemic. We should not lose sight of this and get dragged into someone else's logic.
And the rest of the violence has many elements: it's a product of the societies we have constructed, it is the work of provocateurs, it is the considered political action of anarchists who destroy symbols of capitalism, or it is the unconsidered action of borderline hooligans who destroy anything.
We have to find ways of dealing with these elements separately, making distinctions and being prepared to confront the violence ourselves (acknowledging, even if we don't agree, that there is diversity of "tactics") rather than leaving it to the state as this will guarantee even more violence.
In Genoa, the distinction between the GSF actions and the various "black blocs" was clear to everyone -- to the activists, to the organisers and to the media and probably even to the G8. The GSF consensus, built up over many months of long discussion, was strong and all groups, from Ya Basta! to the Tavola della Pace, maintained that consensus even when the situation was very difficult, as it was the night of the shooting of Carlo Guiliani.
SOME LESSONS OF GENOA
We must reaffirm our commitment to non-violent direct action.
We must maintain a clear political and physical distance from violent groups.
We must continue to mobilise and bring people out on the streets to be counted
We must prepare ourselves for the violence and we must witness and document
it
We must concentrate on public education and working with the media so that our
messages are not so easily obscured.
WHAT SHOULD WE DEMAND?
First, police and military must not carry weapons. Second, cities must be free
and open. I am convinced that the black bloc and the other less organised hooligans/provocateurs
would have been much more constrained if the atmosphere in Genoa had been closer
to normal -- if people had been going about their business in a festive atmosphere
with street theatre, public debates and meetings, cultural displays, celebrations
of international solidarity, teach-ins, and so on.
But it will not be easy because war has been declared. We saw that in Genoa and we heard it from the G8 (Chirac being the exception, but probably for reasons which have more to do with his presidential campaign that principle). We are the enemy, they say, of the poor, of democracy, of the ordinary people.
In retrospect, maybe we feel into the trap of interpreting the declaration of war too literally. Maybe there could have been a less predictable, a more imaginative and a more unsettling response to the logic that the Italian government applied. But that's in retrospect and, as I said earlier, throughout the long week of the G8, the GSF did not rise to the provocation of the state, they acted with impressive solidarity and commitment, sticking to their work agreement and never losing sight of their main purpose of denouncing injustice.
GENOA TIPS THE SCALES
Genoa marks a whole new phase in the struggle against global capitalism and
global injustice.
The G8 is in crisis. On Monday 23 July, the page one headline of the French conservative daily Le Figaro read "G8 loses the battle of Genoa" and most of the major editorials questioned the usefulness of G8 summits, saying they are too big, they attract too many demonstrators, and they don't do anything useful anyway. Now they are seeking refuge (from what? the people? democracy perhaps) and their meetings will be more exclusive, more remote and - if this is possible - even less democratic.
In Genoa, they clung to platitudes because there is no consensus. They know that the system is in crisis but that the kinds of economic and political decisions needed to deal with the crisis (such as debt cancellation or challenging the ascendancy of financial markets) will threaten the whole edifice of global capitalism that they have so arrogantly defended for the past decade.
The 300,000 people on the streets were from the 700 groups which make up the Genoa Social Forum - workers, women, greens, pacifists, students, unemployed, church organisations, members of political parties, cultural associations, trade unions, autonomous groups, social centres, debt campaigners. Most were Italian but there were thousands from all over Europe. Maybe half were under 30.
The withdrawal of a British NGOs from the Saturday march because of "security" concerns was disappointing, and appeared to be an attempt to distance themselves from the "mindless" demonstrators which their political ally Tony Blair holds in such contempt. Their absence made no difference on the day, but it hints at divisions - either real or imagined - that are being used to discredit the anti-globalisation movement.
Others, however, will regret not having being in Genoa to express their solidarity and to be part of this great thing that is happening.
We cannot go backwards and we should not be intimidated by the violence -- on either side of the wall. The demonstrators may have come out of Genoa bruised and shaken, but the G8 came out a lot worse: their credibility is in tatters and the blood is on their hands.
* Nicola Bullard works with Focus
on the Global South.