July 19-22, Genoa Italy

A ring of steel enclosed 4.5 square kilometres around Ducale Palace. This was the “red zone.” Plastic bullets, truncheons, gloved fists, water canons, tear gas canisters and live ammunition met the 300,000 protesters. It was the police and Italy’s Carabinieri (paramilitary) in Genoa who instigated the violence during the demonstrations against the Group of Eight (G8).

The most frightening and sinister tactic employed by Italian security forces was the creation of their very own Brown-Shirt Bloc. Italian security forces recruited Nazis to bolster the police numbers and to infiltrate the Black Bloc anarchist groups.

The Italian establishment newspaper La Repubblica interviewed Liam “Doggy” Stevens from Birmingham, one of the so-called Black Bloc anarchists. He told the paper “I’m a Nazi, not an anarchist, I don’t care about the G8 or anti-globalization bullshit. The Italian brothers invited me. They told me we wouldn’t have troubles with the police – they would allow us to do all we wanted.”

An anonymous Italian police officer told the same newspaper that security forces had employed right-wing fascist thugs. Superiors told officers that they could act with impunity during the demonstrations. When he expressed concerns that their actions were violating the constitution he was told by fellow police, “We don’t have anything to be worried about, we’re covered.”

The actions of the supposed Black Bloc in Genoa make this scenario entirely plausible.

In previous demonstrations such as Seattle and Quebec City, the Black Bloc targeted politically strategic hits – Shell gas stations, national banks and corporate media vehicles.

In Genoa there was precious little logic to the destruction.

There, the so-called Black Bloc went through the streets unscathed. They crashed the Genoa Social Forum (GSF) convergence centre, the Peace Carnival, the White Overalls direct-action contingent and Saturday’s massive march. Italian police and Carabinieri followed closely behind. The authorities used the presence of their Brown-Shirt Bloc as an excuse to attack remaining demonstrators. These agitators, dressed like Black Bloc members, “escaped” each time.

The police’s fascist thugs infiltrated and impersonated the Black Bloc with ease because the group’s members are masked. This gave security forces and G8 leaders the media visuals they needed to do two things: attack the credibility of the movement, and the excuse to physically attack any demonstrator, pacifist or otherwise.

The police brutality did not end after the attack on Saturday’s 300,000-strong march. Out for revenge, the Italian security forces went after the school where the GSF headquarters and Indy Media Centre were located.

The stories of brutality on the evening of Saturday July 21 and the morning of Sunday, July 22 are horrific. Police stole or destroyed film, videotapes, statements and computers. They smashed the evidence of their brutal conduct throughout the weekend. The GSF legal centre was destroyed and the head lawyer taken into custody. The most chilling stories are of the beatings that took place in the building next door, where 200 demonstrators were sleeping. Victims reported smashed teeth, broken bones, cracked skulls, splintered ribs and punctured lungs.

Norman Blair and his friend Dan McQuillan were beaten ruthlessly by Italian police that night. Blair was quoted in the Observer: “You could feel the hatred and the venom in them. The blood was coming out of Dan in big dollops, like jelly. It was just horrible.”

Mark Covell, a British journalist covering the demonstrations, was also attacked by police that evening. “I heard my ribs break, like snapping match sticks. I thought, my God, this is it; I’m going to die. The last thing I heard was a lot of screaming. Then I lost consciousness,” Covell told the Observer. His shattered ribs punctured his left lung> He lost ten teeth.

Ninety-two people were arrested and charged with the same offences that night. Most of them had been sleeping in what was thought to be a GSF safe space when the attack occurred. Dozens of people were carried out of the school on stretchers, many unconscious. Later, they too told stories similar to Covell’s and Blair’s.

The walls, floors and stairwells of the school were covered in blood.

The attack was carried out in full view of politicians, journalists and lawyers. Coupled with the level of the brutality, this fact makes a strong case that the plan was executed with the knowledge and blessing of Italian higher-ups.

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s new Prime Minister, campaigned on a right-wing platform of law and order. His coalition government includes open Nazis and the post-fascist National Alliance party. The actions of the police, Carabinieri and their Brown-Shirt Bloc make it apparent that security forces were operating with a sense of impunity.

But the police brutality against the G8 demonstrations has not gone unanswered.

GSF organizers originally expected 120 000 participants in Saturday’s march. In response to the brutal murder of Carlo Giuliani, over 300,000 arrived. Two days later, a quarter of a million people marched in demonstrations across Italy denouncing the police brutality.

In the wake of these massive demonstrations and international outrage denouncing the police brutality against G8 demonstrators, three Italian police chiefs have been removed from their current positions.

On Thursday, August 2, it was announced that anti-terrorism chief Arnoldo La Barbera, deputy chief of G8 security Ansoino Andreassi and Genoa police superintendent Francocesco Colucci would be disciplined and reassigned. Italian Interior Minister Claudio Scajola, responsible for Italy’s police forces, made the announcement after surviving a vote of non-confidence in parliament the day before.

Eight separate investigations into police conduct during the G8 summit are now underway.

A version of this article originally appeared in the Socialist Worker on August 1. Sources include: first-hand observation, eyewitness accounts in Genoa, indymedia and the globalise resistance listserv. Erin George is a recent graduate of the Ryerson School of Journalism, and former Ontario Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students. She is a member of Toronto Mobilization for Global Justice. At CFS and Mob4Glob, she was involved in educating and organizing for the Quebec City demonstrations against the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

The photos used for this article come from indymedia.org, an anti-copyright site.

George’s previous rabble newsarticles about Genoa include:
“300,000 March Against the G8;”
“Genoa Train Back on Track;”
“French Authorities Try to Stamp Out Dissent.”