As part of a loud and vigorous delegation of fifty young militants from the Fourth International Youth Camp in Central Italy I joined the over-30,000 strong demonstration in Rome on July 24 against the police violence in Genoa and in solidarity with the Genoa Social Forum (GSF).
We held a minute’s silence in honour of Carlo Giuliani, called for the resignation of Interior Minster Claudio Scajola, and demanded the release of the scores of protestors still being held in police cells.
Similar demonstrations were taking place virtually everywhere in towns and cities throughout Italy. In total 150,000 people took to the streets in a spontaneous outburst of protest against the killing of Carlo Giuliani and the beating, arrest and torture of dozens of people during and after the midnight raid on the Roberto Diaz school and the GSF headquarters.
The protests put huge pressure on the government to explain how the police brutality and violation of basic legal protections and rights could have been allowed to occur in a supposedly democratic country.
There is widespread fear that the repression in Genoa signals a return to the "strategy of tension" last used by the state in the 1970s to criminalise and disorientate the mass left-wing workers, student and women’s movement of the time.
At first the government tried to face down demands for Scajola’s resignation and for a parliamentary inquiry, with Berlusconi trying to distance himself and his ministers from the actions of the police.
But this position was impossible to sustain as evidence emerged of the role of "post-fascist" Deputy PM Gianfranco Fini in finalising the security plans for Genoa and his presence in the police "war room" along with four Alleanza Nazionale MPs on the Saturday of the protests. Clearly the government was involved in the repression at the highest level.
Berlusconi conceded the demand for a parliamentary inquiry and the opposition, including the previously outspoken Left Democrats, conveniently dropped its demand for Scajola’s resignation and its threats to mobilise thousands more in protest.
The demonstrations signalled a new mood on the Italian left: of shock, as the new government, with several (so-called post-) fascists in key posts, threatens to uproot democratic rights and extend state control over the media; and of determination not to be terrorised off the streets by state violence and to redouble the effort to build a mass movement both against the government and against neo-liberal globalisation.
Social Forums are springing up across Italy as the movement gathers force. The Partito Rifondazione Comunista is set to play a key role in this movement. The Left Democrats however must decide which side they stand on.