Starhawk

I was there when
the carabinieri raided the IndyMedia Center and the Diaz school, in Genoa, at
the end of the protest against the G8 meeting. We heard the shouts and
screams, couldn’t get out the door, ran upstairs and hid, fearing for our
lives. Eventually the cops found us, but we were the lucky ones. A Member of
Parliament was in our building; lawyers and media arrived. There was some
obscure Italian legal reason why the police could be deterred. They withdrew.

But nothing
could save our friends across the street at the school where people were
sleeping and where another section of Independent Media was located. The
police entered, the media and the politicians were kept out, and they beat
people. They beat people who had been sleeping, who held up their hands in a
gesture of innocence and cried out, “pacifisti, pacifisti.” They broke bones,
smashed teeth, shattered skulls. They left blood on the walls, on the windows,
a pool of it in every spot where people had been sleeping. When they finished
their work, they brought in the ambulances. We watched as the stretchers were
carried out, as people were taken to the jail ward of the hospital or to jail.
In the jail, many of them were tortured again, in rooms with pictures of
Mussolini on the wall.

This really
happened. Not in the 1930s, but on the night of July 21 and the morning of
July 22, 2001. Not in a third world country, but in Italy: prosperous,
civilized, sunny Italy. As terrifying as that night was, what is more
frightening are its implications:

• That the police could carry
  out such a brutal act openly, in the face of lawyers, politicians, and the
  media means that they do not expect to be held accountable for their actions.
  Which means that they had support from higher up, from more powerful
  politicians. According to a report published in La Repubblica from a
  cop who took part in the raid, when the more democratic factions within the
  police complained that the Constitution was being violated, they were told,
  “We don’t have anything to be worried about, we’re covered.”
• That those politicians also
  do not expect to be condemned or driven from office means that they too have
  support from higher up, ultimately, from Berlusconi, Italy’s Prime Minister.
• That they could beat,
  torture, and falsely arrest Italians means that they do not expect to be held
  accountable by their own people.
  




• That they could beat,
  torture, and imprison internationals shows that they do not expect to be held
  accountable by the international community.
• That Berlusconi could
  support such acts means that he must be certain of support from other
  international powers and that these overtly fascist actions are linked to the
  growing international escalation of repression against protestors.
• That the Italian government
  used tactics learned from Quebec: the wall, the massive use of tear gas, and
  that the RCMP had observers in Genoa in preparation for next year’s meeting in
  Calgary, means that police repression is also a global network. As we learn
  from each action, so do they.
• That the Italian government
  is now targeting the organizers of the Genoa Social Forum shows where their
  agenda was heading all along: the discrediting of the antiglobalization
  network and the discouraging of peaceful and legal protest as well as direct
  action. The leader of the Forum has lost his job. Others are fearing for their
  freedom and safety.

  It’s hard to
  make sense of all that happened in Genoa. The Black Bloc suddenly appeared in
  the midst of a square that was supposed to be a safe space for peaceful
  gatherings: the police gas and beat the pacifists and let the Bloc escape. We
  were having a quiet lunch in the convergence center by the sea, when suddenly
  tear gas cannisters were flying into the eating area and a pitched battle
  began directly outside, just 100 yards away from the main march. Prisoners
  report being tortured until they agreed to shout “Viva Il Duce!” The police
  rationale for the attack on the school was the supposed presence of members of
  the Black Bloc—but they never attacked the actual Black Bloc encampment. By
  the night of the attack most of the Black Bloc had left the city.

  I’m not an
  investigative reporter, I’m an activist and once upon a time was a novelist. I
  don’t like conspiracy theories but I make sense of the world through stories.
  Genoa makes sense to me if this is the plot:

  Memo:
  Italian Security to Italian Government/U.S. and International Advisors:
  Subject: Covert Security Plan for Genova.

  Phase One:
  Lead up to the action: This phase is characterized by two major aspects: the
  creation of a climate of fear and anticipated violence by the stockpiling of
  body bags, deployment of missiles, etc. Second, a concerted effort to
  undermine the popularity of the stronger, radical groups, such as the Tute
  Bianca or White Overalls, through smear campaigns, accusations that they
  cooperate with the police, etc. If necessary, we will plant actual bombs to
  increase the climate of fear.

  Phase Two:
  Recruitment and infiltration: We will concentrate on infiltrating the Black
  Bloc and strategically placing provocateurs who will be in positions to
  instigate attacks, violence, and destruction of private property which will
  turn the population against the protestors. In addition, we will encourage
  Fascist groups to run as segments of the Bloc that will then give us an excuse
  to attack the main body of protestors.

  Phase Three:
  Friday, 20 July. We arm the police and carabinieri with live ammunition rather
  than rubber or plastic bullets. With luck, deaths will result. Our Bloc can
  appear strategically near any group we wish to attack, giving us the excuse to
  gas and beat the “nonviolent” demonstrators. Protestors should be severely
  beaten and arrested protestors tortured to deter them from further
  demonstrations. In addition, our Bloc will instigate the destruction of
  property, particularly small shops, private cars, and will attack and beat
  other demonstrators, perhaps even a nun or two, further discrediting the
  anarchists. A high level of violence and destruction should lessen the numbers
  expected for Saturday’s march.

  Phase Four:
  Saturday, 21 July. Our strategy here is directed to undermine, divide, and
  disperse the march. We instigate more property damage and police battles in
  the morning near the assembly point of the march. One of our factions will
  attack the Tute Bianca during the march. Shortly after noon, we begin a battle
  just outside the convergence center, near the corner where the march turns
  north, giving us the excuse to gas the convergence center. We attempt to drive
  the battle into the march, splitting or disrupting it, and providing the
  rationale to attack the march with tear gas and other dispersal agents.

  Phase Five:
  Post-march. We continue the climate of fear with a midnight raid on the main
  communications center and sleeping quarters of the protestors. Severe force is
  justified by rumors of Black Bloc presence. We uncover “evidence” of
  connections between the Genova Social Forum and the bloc, thereby discrediting
  them. Beatings, arrests, and torture will discourage future involvement with
  protests.

  Phase Six: Sunday, 22
  July and beyond: We continue harassment and random arrests of foreigners and
  suspected protestors. We begin a campaign of accusations against the Genoa
  Social Forum, connecting them with the Black Bloc, moving against their
  employment, their credibility, and possibly taking legal action against them.
  This will also force them to disavow the Black Bloc, further splitting the
  movement.

  
  

  This memo is
  fiction, but I believe it’s essentially true. Like a mathematical proof, it
  has a simple internal consistency that makes sense of the known facts. There
  is more and more mounting evidence that the Black Bloc in Genoa was
  significantly composed of organized fascist groups working in collaboration
  with the police.

  If it is true,
  even partly true, what does it mean to us? It means that the response to the
  events in Genoa will determine what level of force can be used against future
  demonstrations, whether we will see smashed skulls and more deaths in Calgary,
  and blowtorches in the armpits in the third world.

  There are
  signs, however, that their strategy may backfire. On Monday, July 23 all over
  Italy 250,000 people took to the streets. The pressure was on for the Minister
  of the Interior to resign; Berlusconi’s government is threatened. There were
  demonstrations at Italian embassies all over the world.

  We need to keep
  the pressure on, to make sure the issue doesn’t fade away. For if this level
  of repression goes unchallenged, no one is safe, not the most legal NGO, not
  the most reformist organization with the mildest demands. If we don’t act now,
  when a political space remains open to us, we may lose the space to act at
  all. Continue to organize and mobilize for the next one. Fear is their most
  powerful weapon. The fact that they must resort to fascist violence shows that
  we are a serious threat.

  If we want to
  continue to be a threat, we also need to look critically at our own movement,
  to identify what we do that leaves us wide open to infiltration and
  manipulation. We need both better preparation and better networks of support
  for these actions.          Z