Popularity: 0
Vote:   | A large amount of the police holding us were openly Fascist, displaying an almost malevolent hatred of the protesters and forcing many of us to goose step and shout 'Viva Duce'. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | A sombre and fearful mood seemed to take hold of the city as we heard of the assassination of Carlos Giuliani. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | I much preferred the approach at the anarchist camp, with its shared tasks and collective responsibilities. Everyone played their part. There was no division between workers and consumers. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | I was actually arrested at 11.30am on the Saturday morning as our affinity group left the campsite to join the workers demonstration. I was picked out by under cover cops, who, no doubt provoked by my red and black flag with a circled A on it, cracked me round the head and bundled me into an undercover cop car. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | I was really impressed with how the catering was organised. A donation was left to cover the cost of the food and everyone mucked in. You could either cook something for yourself and others or share in food that other comrades had prepared. Everyone did their own dishes. They also had very cheap wine at 500 lr, about 18p, a glass. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I went to show that there is not only anger at the policies of the G8 and other international tentacles of Capital but also against the whole exploitative system which spawns them. I wanted to help shut down the G8 summit as a symbol of Capitalism, not just a symbol of globalisation. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | I woke up find a rather noisy multi-lingual meeting going on. This was great as everyone could participate and even though everything had to be translated into about four different languages it never became boring. After a while the meeting broke up and everyone went for food. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | Initially charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest I was held for 36 hours, was beaten by cops and made to stand spread eagled against the cell wall for 12 hours with no food or water, until I collapsed. Everyone was strip searched on the way in. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | It is important that people support prisoners of the Italian state like Joe in whatever way they can. I was not allowed contact with a lawyer for the first 24 hours, and no phone calls were permitted, but apparently telegrams have been getting through to Joe. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | It was very professional and had a massive stage and floodlights, but it reminded me of a corporate music festival. Only here, instead of corporate images and advertising there were hammers and sickles, Che Guevara's face was everywhere along with 'Drop the Debt' banners and other Bolshevik and liberal bollocks. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Many later commented on the fact that large numbers of those engaged in the most senseless acts of destruction were left well alone by cops, indeed people dressed as Black Block members were seen freely making their way across police lines and talking to cops. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | My real gripe, and the real contrast, was in the catering. It seems, to me, rather hypocritical for people opposed to Capitalism, however loosely defined, to invite in capitalist catering firms, using wage labour, to feed and clean up after them. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | Others had drugs and petrol planted on them, many, like Joe Moffat from Dublin, are still being held on bogus charges. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | Our Black Block started out with about 2000 people. The first thing I noticed was a lack of organisation and co-ordination in the group. Only the comrades from the FAU-IWA and the Autonomist sections of the Block appeared to be really organised and to have a sense of direction. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | The Black Block in Genoa recognised violence as only one tactic among many. Certainly violence was not seen as something to be engaged in just for the sake of it. It also showed respect for the anti-deportation group who had invited us onto the march. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | The events in Genoa have made me all the more aware of the need to build a strong working class labour movement. While confrontations at such events are useful in keeping issues in the public consciousness, and for keeping our 'world leaders' on their toes, they are mainly of symbolic importance. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | The first thing that has to be said is that on the Friday, which was the march committed to shutting down the G8 conference, there were two Black Blocks. By this stage I was staying in the Irish campsite at Albora and had met up with an Irish affinity group, many of whom had travelled to Genoa with Globalise Resistance and Gluaiseacht. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | The psychology of brutality was worse than the beatings. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | The whole organisation of the protest showed the great international solidarity in this struggle. To maintain this I think its important that the movement as a whole speaks out against xenophobic and nationalistic elements jumping on the anti-global band wagon. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | This marched was planned to be non violent and non confrontational, and gladly it stayed that way. What really impressed me was the self discipline of the Black Block. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | We arrived in time to see a scene of desolation. A burning bank, a torched Caribineri van and hundreds of spent tear-gas canisters. |
Popularity: 4
Vote: | We can't afford to go down the dead end roads of Parliamentary Socialism or Fascistic Bolshevism. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | We can't fool ourselves that they will ever be enough to overthrow Capitalism. If we're serious about that we need to organise ourselves in our workplaces and communities, making the links with other workers internationally. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | We have to realise that the power of Capitalism doesn't flow from international summits, or the parliaments and palaces of the world. It flows from the robbery of workers which takes place on the shop floor, in all the places were we work to produce the wealth of society, and were we have the power to make a real difference. |
Popularity: 3
Vote: | We were tear-gassed, the first of four times, and our Black Block got split up. Somehow our affinity group got separated from the FAU and a lot of the Autonomists. |