From Gothenburg to Genoa: Anti-repression day and remembrance of Carlo Giuliani
01 May 2003
On 20 July, the second anniversary of the Genoa summit protests, a national demonstration took place in Berlin. In Genoa, workshops and discussions were held during the week before 20 July. In Berlin, around 500 people marched from the Italian embassy to the Swedish embassy and the demonstration closed with a rally at the Brandenburg Gate. Speeches were made by different groups and victims of the Gothenburg and Genoa policing, making demands for the decriminalisation of protest and an immediate halt to the proceedings against protesters whose trials have been marked by fabricated police evidence and unusually harsh sentences (see Amnesty International's report on Gothenburg, summarised in Statewatch vol 12 no 5).
The rally heard about the court cases which are about to start in the Genoa and the Gothenburg trials which have more or less concluded. The trials in Gothenburg saw unprecedented police cooperation and the exchange of information between Germany and Sweden. Some people were sentenced on video evidence alone. Germans who were present at the Diaz school in Genoa, against which Italian police launched a particularly brutal attack, have initiated legal proceedings against Italian police. Carlo Giuliani's mother spoke of her son's death (see Statewatch vol 11 no 5 and vol 12 no 1, 2).
The prosecutions and the police shots fired in Gothenburg and Genoa, have led to a new focus within left movements in Germany and elsewhere on developments at the European Union level with regards to internal security and moves to try and curtail EU-wide protests. Campaigns have started to focus on issues such as solidarity with prisoners, the demand for the deletion of all personal data from police data banks and the Schengen Information System (SIS).
1. Information on Genoa prisoners: Germany: Rote Hilfe e.V., Kontonr.: 19 11 00 462, Postbank Dortmund, BLZ: 440 100 46 (Subject: "Genova-Gefangene"). Austria: Kontonr.: 000 786 538 43 BLZ: 60.000 (psk) (Subject: "noborder"). Switzerland: PC-Konto: G8 Solikonto Zürich 87-630087-0
2. German updates on court cases and developments in relation to Gothenburg and Genoa is available through the Gipfel-Soli Infogruppe from Berlin, which was formed by victims of the Genoa police attacks. They publish a newsletter and can be contacted via gipfelsoli@gmx.de
3. See http://www.nadir.org/nadir/aktuell/2003/07/21/17104.html for the speeches given at Berlin demonstration
4. www.nadir.org, http://de.indymedia.org