Genoa under siege

One of the side effects of globalization, at least according to its critics, is the loss of national identity and the specificity of certain cultures. Nevertheless, according to the effects that the upcoming meeting of the "big eight" (Genoa, July 20-22) has already created in Italy, the impression is that "folklore" will retain its weight here for a long time. The gathering of the world's most powerful people in a country where many things are "dangerous but not serious", awakened anti-capitalism and anti-Americanism, which, until the fall of the Berlin Wall, were the main pillars of the ideological convictions of a large, but not the majority, number of Italians. In other words, in no Western European country will the movement of "fighters from Seattle" find as much sympathy as it found in Italy.

The G-8 meeting itself and its work program, which aims to give globalization a human dimension, were completely overshadowed by the expected street conflicts. The presidents and prime ministers of the eight most developed countries (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, USA) "succeeded" in bringing together a motley but problematic society of anarchists, pacifists, communists, Catholic priests from Africa, Mexican Zapatistas, animalists , eco-warriors and various pro-lifers.

A few days before the meeting in Genoa, the atmosphere does not smell good at all: the media have positioned themselves in such a way that the Italian citizens do not even know what the politicians will discuss, but they know that it will be a "casino". Namely, more than two hundred thousand demonstrators, at least a third of whom are extremely oriented and who declared war on Italy in their declaration, are preparing to prevent the holding of the G-8 meeting. According to the announcements of the protest participants, members of more than 700 different organizations and associations from all over the world, it will be the largest and most violent demonstration after the one in Seattle.

On the other hand, the preparations of the hosts of the meeting lasted for months: many buildings were renovated, the facades were washed, but the most difficult thing will be persuading the local population not to dry laundry on the windows as specifically requested by Prime Minister Berlusconi. The whitewash was also in vain, because many walls in Genoa appeared with inscriptions like "Produce - Consume - Destroy".

Gorko MEMORY: The new Italian Prime Minister, probably afraid of incidents, sought a compromise with the protesters until the last, hinting at the possibility of writing off national debts to poor countries (which is one of the main demands). However, only war cries came from the other side, and the organizer's open letter states: "We remind you that our goal is to block this undemocratic and harmful gathering." We want to stop you and make your evil intentions public."

By the way, Berlusconi got sick of the same gathering, seven years ago in Naples, because during the dinner with Clinton, he was served with an arrest warrant, after which he resigned.

The very center of Genoa will be in a state of siege, and the configuration of the old city makes it difficult to defend Palace Dukal, a beautiful palace where meetings will be held. That's why the law enforcement agencies have drawn a "red" forbidden zone, which consists of a labyrinth of narrow streets and where apartments have been searched and citizens have been identified for months. At the same time, the sale of American football equipment has increased dramatically, and large quantities of knives, hoes, helmets, gas masks and Plexiglas shields have already been confiscated.

Numerous policemen and carabinieri, 15.000 of them will secure the "eight" summit

big ones," they urgently took out insurance policies covering everything from the injuries they might suffer to those they might cause. Prisons were also prepared, by freeing up several hundred places for future "guests". In the central "red zone", due to the fear of frogmen, all shafts are welded; steel barricades five meters high are being prepared, which will be nailed to the wall and which resemble medieval defense tools.

Still, Genoa is worse than Sherwood Forest, and protesters know that narrow streets can be to their advantage. After a long analysis of the siege technique, from movies like "Joan of Orleans" and "Braveheart", they still decided on partisan tactics from the Second World War: enter a building outside the red zone, climb to the fifth floor, throw a wooden beam, i.e. bridge to the window of the neighboring building and thus "air" way to get behind the enemy.

As much as they are afraid of demonstrators in Genoa, they are also afraid of terrorists; The Russians further raised panic through the media, because their sources claim that Osama Bin Laden intends to assassinate Bush. Because of this, Italy will temporarily suspend the Schengen Agreement, i.e. passport and customs control will be reintroduced at the borders with European Union countries.

Scotland Yard inspectors and Russian FSB agents who have been roaming around old Genoa for months are very concerned about the safety of their wards. They occupy all the cafes in the city center, ignore each other and are only too happy to go in jeans and t-shirts (in fact, it was recommended to them), because otherwise they would be immediately recognized. By the way, a good part of the "security guards" have been heavily infiltrated among their countrymen, the demonstrators.

During the three-day summit in Genoa, the mobile phone network will be down, and the CIA has taken care of that. Americans are afraid of bombs that are activated by a phone call, and thus criminals cannot coordinate in conflicts with the police.

After several months of tension, it was decided that it would be safest for the participants of the G-8 meeting, 1500 of them (without George Bush), to be accommodated on the ship European Vision, which will be anchored in the harbor and protected by NATO warships and submarines. However, even this will not discourage the "Green Pirates", as they called themselves, from attacking the officials: the price of this alternative "cruise" with boats and makeshift scaffolding is 30 DM (and it is already largely sold out).

KO SU PARTICIPANTS: The support (and participation) of the protestors by the Roman Catholic Church, which is concerned about widespread poverty while condemning globalization and the laws of the market, is a little surprising. At the same time, the duo of Pope John Paul II and Bono Vox, the leader of the U2 group, demand "a new morality of the rich who do not listen to the cries of the poor."

Nevertheless, the core of the demonstrators is made up of communist veterans for whom the meeting in Genoa is an opportunity to pull out a T-shirt with the image of Che Guevara from under a pile of coal in the basement. They have been silent for more than ten years, and the anti-globalist movement is a good opportunity for them to finally unite with other proletarians.

The opinion of the majority of sociologists is that it will be difficult through anti-globalism, in the West itself, to establish an anti-Western mood. This may have been possible during the Soviet Union, but there is no longer such a political center with the function of support and hiding place. The phenomenon does not threaten to be dangerous because it is not as widespread as that of 1968. Simply, the majority of the population considers the "team from Seattle" to be ordinary pro-saints or, at best, bourgeois who are very bored.