Subject: I: mass protest against G8, Genoa, Italy
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 15:30:33 +0200


Background Information on the protest in Genoa
by xcv 4:44am Thu Jul 19 '01 (Modified on 6:10am Thu Jul 19 '01)


Hundreds of thousands of global citizens will protests against the
neoliberal re-organization and capitalism on the streets of Genua during the
next days.
Hundreds of thousands global citizens will protest in Genua for a better
world

A big counter summit is taking place since monday. all this is happening
because of the G8-meeting, whose character is representative.Friday and
Saturday will be global action days> all over the planet, people will be
protesting on the streets.
Various networks and groups have prepared this protests. The biggest one is
the Genoa Social Forum, a network of 700 Groups, collectives and
organization. The broad spectre encompasses groups like Ya Basta, trade
unions, church oranizations etc. Outside the GSF, there are other groups,
anarchists, that are also planning actions. Action- and training camps,
caravans and actions have been taking place for several weeks now. They aim
on showing alternatives to the existing order.
The europeen governments response to this with lies and violence. They have
been trying to escalate the situation for weeks. For the public, they are
making a hypocritic dialogue, but the fact is that they are undermining
basic civil rights and intesifying razzias and repression. This is quite
evident by the use of barricades, made of steel and concrete, tanks, masses
of cops and soldiers. The media are making an information war. They use are
means that are available. Critical journalists had to leave the country or
had been arrested and beaten - all this happens before any action had taken
place.
Press cards do not count much in these days.
In this text you will find links, background information and more.
We recommend you the following web-sites >
Indymedia/Switzerland
Indymedia-Austria
Indymedia-Italy
Radio Webstream and IMC Videochannel


Why are thay protesting in Genoa
There many reasons and more texts. After the following article you will find
many links to websites which give you background information about G8,
neoliberalism and global economy.


What are we fighting?

We are not only fighting against the G8 meeting in Genoa. We are fighting
this meeting because it represents a policy that has been destroying the
planet, the people and the moral for decades.We are against the capitalstic
system, that means explotation of humans, animals and nature, just to make
money.
But capitalism means also the division of " real work" and unpaid work, the
consumer society and the social structures that are based on or connected
with the capitalist system ( hierarcies between empoyers and emloyees and
within them, between higher and lower positions, between working people and
unemployed, between men and women, hetero- and homosexuals, between people
from the north ( or west) and people from the south ( or east and so on).
We do not want to concentrate only on the " bad "global institutions,
transnational enterprises, and goverments but on the whole capitalist
society, that also includes us, because it is this society that reproduces
the capitalistic system, that knows only power, money, hedonism.

Some facts about global economy , based on altvater and Chomsky.

debts and poverty : The richest nations pay even less " development aid"
than they have announced. The debt of the south is so high that they need
money from the world bank to finance their debt. For they must pay back more
money than they got, the debt is increasing. This money from world bank &
IMFis connected on certain conditions( Structural Adjustment Programmes)
that serve to impose the neoliberal capitalitic model on the societies in
the south and in in the east. The main object of this programmes is not to
serve the needs of the population but to make sure, that the countries pay
their debts back, buy export production, cuts in the social system...The so
called programmes against the poverty have only soup kitchen character, they
do not question the distribution of wealth.


The capital markets:
The gigantic virtual capital markets have nothing to do with the real
production sphere. If capital markets break down, the governments support
their banks and enterprises. Short: If everything is fine, the profit goes
to private banks, enterprises etc. If the markets breakdown, the debt is
socialized, that means that the society has to pay. Therefore some networks
propose the tobin-tax, a tax on finance-businesses, in order to stabilize
the finance market and to support the state households. Then this money can
be used for social projects . Another proposal is the abolition of tax-free
zones. This proposals, that are pushed by organizations like attac, aim at
reforming capitalism. They consider the nation state, to be the main subject
of transformation through taxes. The focus on the "bad finance capital" has
parellels to anti-semitism.


Democracy???
The international policy has no legitimation. International regimes , like
the climate charta of Kyota or the UN/Charta have more or less symbolic
value, bacause they cannot force nation states to obey the agreements.
Institutiuons like Worldbank and IMF are controlled by the richest country,
the higher the economic power, the more votes the states have, that means
the G10 have the absolute majority in this institutions. It is often said,
that the nation states are weakened by the "globalization" and cannot
control the economy anymore. That is not true, it is the nation state, that
reduces social programmes, that installs tax free zones, that fight worker
movements , that re-settles the indigenious people, that de-regulates and so
on.


Media:


The mass media supports this re-structuring in several ways. They serve as a
medium for the neoliberal propaganda but not for peoples movement. If they
talk about poverty , they do not talk about the context.
They are criminalizing indigenious movements, anti/capitalist movements and
stigmatize those who lost, refugees, the unemployed.... as parasits