All riot now

“I found out Globalise Resistance were running a few buses over fairly cheaply, and thought I’d take the opportunity to see what was happening and voice my protest about the way the world is being run,” hetells hotpress.

“We got off the bus in Genoa at 11 o’clock Friday morning, walked around the corner and basically landed in the middle of a huge riot. We looked up to see a police officer aiming a rifle at us and firing what I initially thought was live ammunition, but turned out to be tear gas grenades.

“Our group got split up and met in a nearby square, where a large number of protesters were amassing. They were obviously from a militant group, ’cause they were all tooled up for rioting, with home-made body armour, gas masks and so on. We then encountered a parade by about 200 members of Black Block, an anarchist group who aren’t opposed to destroying corporate property and fighting with police, dressed in black with helmets with spikes on them. About 300 riot police were firing tear gas canisters, and the protesters were running forward to confront them. A friend of mine realised later that the police had drawn a big chalk X on the back of his black T-shirt, marking him to be picked up and arrested, just ‘cause he was wearing black.

“Around the red zone where the summit was being held, about seven different groups would meet, some completely peaceful, some more ‘direct action’. Globalise Resistance, a completely non-violent group were attacked unprovoked and battle-charged by police and a number were quite badly-beaten. I hear some of them are going to bring legal action against the Italian police.

“On Saturday there was a massive peaceful protest, and over a quarter of a million people marched through the city. At the same time 2000 people were fighting with police, and that’s all that got covered by the media. Unfortunately, while it attracts a lot of attention, the violence completely sensationalises and dilutes any message imparted by peaceful protest. There’s a growing awareness, but I’d urge people to get involved with protests Globalise Resistance will be holding in Ireland in the future. The issue of corporate globalisation is one that affects us all.”