Editorial from Kommunistisk Politik
No. 15, July 21, 2001
Despite all that has been done to frighten the demonstrators, more than 100,000 people have flocked to Genoa, Italy, where the club of the rich countries, headed by the US and George W. Bush, is holding the G8 Summit in the midst of the aggravating world economic crisis.
Before the summit, the English Prime Minister Tony Blair has denounced the anti-globalisation movement and the demonstrators as "undemocratic", and the US president has stated, "they are not friends of the world's poor".
But the G8, which fundamentally is an undemocratic club making decisions that have consequences for the rest of the world without any notice to this world and its populations, fears the demonstrators, who are just the local physical expression of the world-wide opposition to the imperialist globalisation, which the G8 is pushing forward, to such an extent that the city of Genoa has been proclaimed under martial law.
Never ever have there been carried out so extensive "security measures" as at this summit: Rocket defence, robots and special-trained soldiers are just some of the elements that are part of the protection of these "democrats" and "friends of the world's poor". In addition to approximately 20,000 policemen, nearly 3,000 soldiers, special-trained in using nuclear weapon, chemical weapon and in rocket defence, have been called out in Genoa. Rocket launchers have been set up in order to "hinder terrorist attacks from the air"!
Close to the summit, a letter bomb exploded, wounding an Italian policeman. Of course, the international media dealt with this as an expression of the "terrorist" character of the protesters. But the letter bomb is, of course, a provocation placed at the right time and place for the heads of state and the Italian government.
Italy has a long tradition of bomb provocations carried out by fascist groups and meant to discredit progressive people. And in Italy, there are not only secret fascist groups. The fascist Fini and his party, which carries on the black legacy of Mussolini, is the coalition partner of Berlusconi's black government. Fascism has its own pillars in the ruling elite, in the police and in the army. The letter bomb in Genoa only had one single purpose: to discredit the 150,000 demonstrators who were on their way to the city.
The international media has developed a wild hysteria against the anti-globalisation demonstrators, of whom the vast majority belongs to groups which are against any use of violence, even in self-defence. But the new and more rigorous control measures of the EU as well as the very special "Berlusconi measures" have resulted in a thorough surveillance of everything and everybody, and at the same time the media's smear campaign against the demonstrators has reached new levels.
In this way, it is being ensured that the messages of the demonstrators are ignored: For example the former G8 summits, which promised to cancel the debt of the poorest countries, have shown to be nothing but pure rhetoric, just as the promises from the summit in 1999 in Cologne, Germany, were. The 41 most indebted and poorest countries have only got a $34 billion reduction of their debt, which in total amounts to $213 billion. The international trade conditions, with low prices on raw materials and high prices on oil, have been very hard for the developing countries – and the debt alleviation will be completely gone in 2010.
But the summit takes place as the political situation is becoming still more sharpened and explosive in the world. Firstly, the negative social consequences of the neo-liberal policy, which has been pushed forward by the G8 countries and their instruments like the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, have made their appearance with full force. Almost all countries in the so-called third world, as well as Russia and many East European countries, have been subjugated to the harsh economic dictates of these organisms in order to get loans from them. The poverty and misery is exploding, but also the struggle against imperialism and its mechanisms is exploding in form of mass protests and popular uprisings in a number of countries.
Secondly, the world economic crisis is deepening. The US is in recession. The EU countries are on their way, too. Japan is again in recession, and Argentina is going through an acute crisis, which is affecting all Latin America. The crisis of 1997-98 has not been passed, but has become still more deepened. The "answer" of the G8 Summit to this is to strengthen globalisation, that is, to increase the exploitation and misery.
This is why there are protests in Genoa, but the protests there are only the tip of the iceberg. Therefore, the heads of state must protect themselves by using the police and army, as if they were trying to win a civil war!
July 17, 2001
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