An eyewitness report by Seth Harman, a representative of the trade union MSF London Region and London Housing branch

On Saturday 21st July I took part in a demonstration of 300,000 people at the G8 summit in Genoa.

The atmosphere on the demo was amazing, almost carnival like. There was a myriad of colours designating different political affiliations - the green of the greens, the yellow of the Italian student activists, the white of the World Wildlife Fund, the white and black of the Sardinian nationalists, the orange of Globalise Resistance, the red of the Communists and Socialists, the black of the Italian Ya Basta group, the light blue of the Christians.

People sung and chanted in each other languages (badly). Local people threw water from their balconies to cool the demonstrators down in the shimmering heat. Although there were delegations from all over the world the overwhelming bulk of the demonstration was from Italy.

It was unbelievable when at 4pm it was announced the George Bush had left Genoa. Complete strangers hugged each other and danced in celebration.

People had gone to Genoa to protest about the level of third world debt that literally kills tens of thousands of children every day, the destruction of the environment and the refusal of the US to ratify the Kyoto accord, the threat of a new cold war with the son of star wars program, the privatisation of public services across Europe, the drug companies denial of affordable drugs in the third world, the refusal of GAP to sign up to the no sweats campaign.

But above all at the way in which key decisions that affect millions of people are now made by unaccountable institutions in the name of globalisation. All had come to take part in peaceful protest, hoping to reach world leaders who seem increasingly out of touch with the concerns of ordinary people.

Yet this is not the image given in the press.

To explain why here is a brief report of the run up to Saturday’s demonstration….

I was in a restaurant on Wednesday evening with my girlfriend commiserating the fact that we weren’t going to be in Genoa as the train we had booked had been cancelled the day before by the French government. Then I received a mobile phone call to say that the train had been reinstated. Although we were able to get ready and get to Dover in time for the train a number of other people simply couldn’t be contacted to let them know what was going on and didn’t make it.

At the English French border it took 2 hours to clear passport control and customs, something which normally takes seconds. The train itself was a collection of all kinds of people, trade unionists, socialist, greens, church goers.

We arrived in Genoa around midday on Friday. The original plan was to get to the convergence centre where we would meet up and find out what was planned for the next few days - It never happened.

The police attacked the convergence centre during the day and closed down the routes to it.

So instead we spent the whole day running away from the police, simply trying to find space to settle down. We went to a church organised pray-in protest (something I have never done before!) simply because we wanted to be involved in something and thought it might give us a chance to relax for some time. At the small square where it was based were Italians with their children and a priest praying for peace. Then suddenly a couple of people dressed in black arrived, shortly followed by police firing tear gas into the square. There was a general panic as everyone tried to get away.

Lots has been made of the attitude of the local population to the demonstration. My overwhelming impression was that they supported us and went out of their way to be helpful. On a number of occasions locals walked with us to show us how to use the side streets to avoid trouble. On one occasion a group of paramedics who were playing football outside their depot gave us water and let us use their toilets.

Finally around 9pm on Friday we got to the convergence centre, which had reopened. After around 9 hours of running and avoiding the clouds of tear gas we simply went to sleep on the concrete.

Violence

My initial thought when I heard that someone had been killed was simple - The Italian police are scum. They launched tear gas at every thing that moved, they didn’t discriminate between pacifist priest and so-called anarchists dressed in black. They did every thing possible to stop demoralise and dehumanise. Fortunately no one I was with was badly hurt or arrested but lots of other people were.

However on reflection the murder was a culmination of a series of events. If you shut down an entire city, close the airports, docks and railways, deploy surface to air missiles in public show of strength, seal off the city centre, place 20,000 paramilitary police to protect the summit and announce you have hundreds of body bags ready. If you say it’s OK to beat up demonstrators and then put loaded guns in the hands of badly trained 20 year old conscripts then it is surprising more people weren’t killed.

The responsibility for the deaths and violence lies with the G8 itself. While proclaiming themselves to be in favour of democratic rights in practise seek to intimidate and repress one of the most fundamental rights - the right to demonstration and protest at the actions of world governments.

Anarchists

The press focused on the Anarchists yet they where only a tiny part of the demonstration. The press dubbed the train organised by Globalise Resistance ‘The Anarchy Express’ but I didn’t meet one person on it who would have described themselves as an anarchist. The biggest Italian organisation labelled as anarchist by the media are Ya Basta who profess non violence as a core belief and base themselves on the Zapitista movement.

Yes, there were people dressed in black in Genoa on the day whose tactics, ideology, and politics I don’t agree with, but it is hardly surprising that people go around burning down banks when the world’s media don’t report or take seriously a mass movement that has mobilised millions of people in the last two years and only seems to even consider the issues when trouble flares up.

Would I go again?

The Friday was one of the most frightening situations I have ever been in. I was trying to lead 15 people including two 16 year olds and a disabled person in an unknown city surrounded by rioting. There was tear gas in the air, we were carrying bags and only poor maps, knowing that live firearms had been used by the police. That is not something I would want to do again.

However, to be on a demonstration of 300,000 people on Saturday is an experience that made it all worth while. The issues that made me go to Genoa are more important now then ever, to live in a world in which every person can drink clean water and have a decent meal, that drugs that can cure terrible diseases are made available to all, that children are not forced into work or slavery, that the planet is not destroyed either by environmental destruction or by nuclear war and that in the words of our chants on Saturday’s demo ‘without struggle there is no progress’ and that a ‘better world is possible’ finally, to get that we have to ‘overthrow capitalism and replace it with something nicer’.

I am more than happy to speak at any trade union or other meetings on the events in Genoa and the wider issues around the protests you can contact me on 020 7822 8721 or [email protected].

Seth Harman
Tuesday, 24 July 2001