Campbell McGregor travelled to Genoa as part of a Globalise Resistance contingent from Scotland Below he shares some of his impressions of the time he spent there.
I arrived in Italy through Milan Malpensa airport, successfully trying to look like an ordinary tourist. Later I heard that a number of Scottish people who had been involved in protests at Faslane nuclear submarine base were turned back, so my concerns had obviously been justified.
When I got to Genoa I visited the Red Zone on the last day that it was open to the general public. The level of security had to be seen to be believed.
The whole boundary of the zone was a ring of steel, with a reinforced fence several feet high. The only place I have seen anything like this was Belfast, and this made even Belfast look tame.
During the three days before the G8 summit started I attended a number of meetings organised by the Genoa Social Forum, discussing the struggle against globalisation, poverty, and world debt.
On Thursday July 19 the first demonstration n the programme took place, in support of asylum seekers. Even then it was evident that a huge mobilisation was building . I heard that the official police estimate was 30 000, twice what the organisers had expected, so we can only guess what the actual figure was. Later that day Rifondazione Communista held a rally with speakers from several leftist parties in Europe.
Friday was the direct action day, with various different protests across the city. I was with a contingent including people from Globalise Resistance in Glasgow who made it to the Piazza Dante at the edge of the Red Zone.
Many protesters simply banged plastic bottles against the fence and let off balloons. Eventually the police decided to turn water cannon on the protesters, but the force was largely lost by firing through the fence.
Then some protesters did bring down a piece of fence (not the main fence protecting the Red Zone, but an outer fence protecting a gate). After this an organiser announced that it had been a good protest and we should all go to Piazzale Kennedy, one of the bases of the Social Forum.
After most protesters had already left the Piazza Dante, the police threw a few tear gas canisters at those still leaving, which was pretty vindictive, there were shouts of "No panic!" at other protesters and "Bastardi!" at the police.
On Saturday the main march took place. The streets near the start of the route in Piazza Sturla became packed, filled with a sea of red flags, any hope of a coherent start point or time became lost in the sheer numbers, which have been estimated at 300 000.
We marched along the sea front, with police helicopters overhead and police and naval vessels patrolling off the coast.
I could see that there was trouble taking place ahead, with clouds of tear gas and smoke at the point where the march was supposed to turn away from the sea front up the Corso Torino. The organisers were diverting the march away from this up the street before, the Via Casaregis, but the police charged forward up 2 streets and threw a large number of tear gas canisters at people who were marching past peacefully.
The street seemed to fill with tear gas in a short space of time and some people were quite badly gassed. It was quite nerve wracking because was very crowded and it could have been nasty if any panic had developed, but it did not.
The march was broken up into small groups, some never got any further, but others straggled towards the end point in Piazza Galileo Ferraris by various routes. Eventually we rejoined the official route on the Corso Sardegna.
At the end point the organisers had called off their plans for a rally and were advising people to leave, as the situation had become too dangerous with the police attacking from several directions.
On Sunday I went to a press conference called by the GSF, around 1000 people turned up through word of mouth, their interpreters volunteered to carry on working unpaid. On the Saturday, I had heard rumours that somebody had been killed, but I now got the story of how Carlo Giuliani had been shot by a carabiniere.
I spoke to a woman I knew from Dundee who had been nearby when he was shot, she had seen his body on the ground and still seemed shaken. The press conference began with a minute’s silence for Carlo.
People were also appalled to hear about the attack on the Social Forum press office, located in a school for the deaf, which had taken place the late on the Saturday night.
The police had arrived on foot and trucks, there had been screams and cries from people in the school, most people were taken away on stretchers, and either hospitalized or arrested.
People arriving at the school in the aftermath of the attack had slipped on fresh blood on the floor. 3 computers were totally destroyed and documents disappeared.
There is evidence that there were some police agents among the protesters. One plainclothes policewoman who took part in the raid on the school was wearing a "No G8" t-shirt. A video was shown, in which "protesters" went up to police lines and had a friendly chat with them.
The police claimed that some incriminating objects were found in the school, such as penknives, but these objects could have been found on any building site, and anyway the school was open to anyone, the Social Forum could not examine all people staying there.
On Tuesday I took part in a protest with several thousand people in the Piazza de Ferrari in the centre of the Red Zone, very near the Ducal Palace where the G8 summit took place, against Carlo’s killing and police violence more generally.
Similar protests took place at the same time across Italy, including 100 000 in Milan. Later I visited the spot where Carlo was killed, it had been turned into a shrine with flowers and memorabilia.
I thought the protests in Prague against the IMF/World Bank conference were dramatic, but Genoa made Prague look like a picnic. Although Prague was a serious mobilisation, there was an element of "revolutionary tourism" about it.
Genoa on the other hand was a serious test of strength between the Italian labour movement, with support from the anti-globalisation movement internationally, and the new Berlusconi government. Both sides knew what the stakes were.
There were large contingents from Rifondazione Communista and some Italian trade unions.
It was also a serious international mobilisation (although this may have been overshadowed by the sheer size of the Italian mobilisation) there were sizeable contingents from Britain, Greece, and France, I met a Dane and a Swiss, and even spotted a placard from the Philippines.
Contrary to what some British people might assume, clashes on this scale are not normal in Italy, the last time anyone was killed on a demonstration in Italy was 1977.
One Italian said to me that the tear gas attack on Saturday was the worst he had ever known.
The international labour movement should continue to mobilise against such international bodies wherever they meet, and should also give solidarity to the Italian labour movement in its struggle against the repression of the Berlusconi government.