Reports of a bomb in Genoa

Letter bomb explodes in Genoa!!

16.07.2001 11:49

Bomb blast ahead of Genoa summit

Italy has launched a massive security operation

A letter bomb has exploded at a police station in the Italian city of Genoa, which is due to host the G8 summit later this week.

One police officer, 20-year-old Stefano Storri, suffered first- and second-degree burns to his face and hands when he opened the package at a station in the San Fruttuoso area in the city.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Italian news agencies said police were questioning a young man who was inside the station and was unhurt by the explosion.

Protesters have been preparing for a heavy police presence

Police are also reported to have sealed off the area around the provincial police headquarters after a suspect van was seen there.

Explosives experts were preparing to detonate small charges to gain access to the vehicle, which had French licence plates and blacked out windows.

"It's not a very good sign. Let's hope these remain isolated incidents," the city's police chief said.

Genoa has imposed strict security measures ahead of the summit, which is expected to be the scene of violent demonstrations by anti-globalisation protesters.

The city has been divided into security zones with varying levels of restricted access.

'Free the city'

Italy has suspended the Schengen agreement, imposing strict controls on its borders with other EU countries. Usually people can pass from France and Austria into Italy without checks.

About 18,000 police and soldiers will be deployed and more than 150,000 Italian and foreign demonstrators are expected to converge on the city.

Their leaders say they want to break through the red zone - the highest security area - stop the summit and "free the city" by non-violent means

The summit - which lasts from 20 to 22 July - will be attended by George W Bush, Vladimir Putin and other world leaders.

@
mail e-mail: .
Homepage: .

Who cares?

16.07.2001 13:43

A small device that burns a policeman's hands makes world news - probably a cheap Turkish cigarette lighter. Shock, horror! Where was the BBC when the police started butchering people in the name of free markets in Bolivia, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Nigeria ... ?

Agnostic

On Terrorism and the State

16.07.2001 13:46

I would not be suprised at all if this was something to do with the Italian Secret Services

May I recall for a moment a book called "On Terrorism and the State" by Gianfranco Sanguinetti where we hear that "it is the State's own secret services that organize and pull the strings of terrorism" (preface 1980)

anon

I agree

16.07.2001 13:50

Italian politics since Mussolini consists of intrigues piled on top of intrigues, mixed together with Freemasonry, the Vatican, the Italian secret services plotting coups with right-wing generals, the Mafia, arms caches planted by NATO's Operation Gladio, and bribery and corruption so massive that occasionally it threatens the collapse of their banking system. And this is only what you read in the papers.

the Pope

genoa cont down has started die u pig scum

16.07.2001 15:38

to who ever planted the bomb what a way to start the meetings keep em cooming blow all them mother fuckers up lets raise hell the battle has begun WE ARE WINNING TO ALL THE FUCKING POLICE SCUM THAT READ THIS HOPE YOUR NEXT SLEEP TIGHT DONT HAVE NIGHTMARES IT COULD BE YOU SEE U ON THE STREETS NAZI SHITE

no way
mail e-mail: think im that daft

Fucking stupid

16.07.2001 15:42

You really think that blowing people up is the best way to get an anti-capitalist message across? Grow up. In any case, taking on the state in violence is entirely self-defeating; they have tanks and nuclear weapons, we have rocks. We need to make a favourable impression and get our message across, not convince everyone that we are total psychopaths.

Matt

Matt S

Grow up

16.07.2001 15:44

You really think that blowing people up is the best way to get an anti-capitalist message across? Grow up. In any case, taking on the state in violence is entirely self-defeating; they have tanks and nuclear weapons, we have rocks. We need to make a favourable impression and get our message across, not convince everyone that we are total psychopaths.

Matt

Matt S

secret services

16.07.2001 17:21

I think it is highly likely that this was, in fact, the work of the Italian Secret Services, specifically the "Gladio" network. This network was founded in the Cold War to form a nucleus of a militia to fight the communists, were they to invade Europe. However, this network (directed by the secretive "P2" or "Propaganda Due" masonic lodge [which, incidently, has a certain Silvio Berlusconi as a member!]) has been used to infiltrate anti-capitalist groups since it's founding in the late 1950's. The group was originally comprised of fascists (the most vehimently anti-communist, may of whom had obvious Nazi ties) and other people from anti-communist groups. They were trained in bases across Europe, mainly US Army bases in Germany and Britain. I am not going to go into it here, but much information exists which clarifies the existence of this group and what type of actions has undertaken.

The point is that since the end of the Cold War these groups have turned their attentions to domestic targets. The anti-capitalist movement is the latest threat to the the ruling elite meaning that it has now become a target. The resurgence of the "Red Brigade" (a MArxist terror group) in Italy in recent years has also been linked Gladio. It is largely belived that a new generation of Gladio are using the Red Brigade in an attempt to destabalise the left.

Genoa is a watershed for the ruling elites. They cannot be shown the be weak in the face of an anti-capitalist movement that has repeatedly shown itself to have popular support amongst large numbers of the world's population. This bombing is going to be used as an excuse for the police to use harsh measures on the protesters gathering in Genoa.

Matt

Cops sent the bomb.

16.07.2001 18:13

The letter bomb was obviously sent to discredit the protesters. I suspect supporters of the G8 summit or cops sent it. Notice that the bomb only cause minor injuries whereas most letter bombs that are sent to individuals have more deadly capabilities, ie shrapnel. Could it be that cops set up their own, but didn't want to cause death?

This is the way the powers that be have attempted over and over again, from Seattle to Quebec, to claim that the protesters are:

*violent

*marginal

*stupid

And of course the media, owned by those very same people, complies with this bullshit propaganda. I think the Italians will have a lot of work to do to counteract that and to distance themselves from this attempt to tarnish their credibility. Don't ya just love how the cops work?

Montgomery

Berlusconi

16.07.2001 19:19

The last points hit the nail on the head for me. If this was a terror group, then why just cause minor injuries to a police officer? The Italian Secret Services have a reputation for trying to discredit the left with terrorist acts which they blame on radicals.

Also, who controls a large proportion of the media outlets in Italy? Mr Burlusconi, the bloke who probably had a hand in this and who will, no doubt, now make a fuss about it in the media.

It just shows how willing capitalists are shoot their own foot soldiers when they want to get a message across!

munkle
mail e-mail: munkle@cheesecube.com

Hype and hyperbole

16.07.2001 20:00

I think the letter 'bomb' was sent by someone who is really pissed off with the fact that the police tried to murder three comrades in Gothenburg. Of course, it may be the work of security services, but the low-tech nature of the 'attack' probably means it was done by an amateur, ie someone involved with the moment.

Whatever one speculates about what Agnostic rightly commented had as much effect as a dodgy lighter, what is far more interesting is how they've turned a minor event into a big media circus. People sustain worse injuries making an omlette or tripping over their shoe-laces.

Moreover, why are politicians so keen on destroying the anti-capitalist movement on the basis of a bit of rock-throwing and one pathetic incendry device? Look at the BNP/NF terrorist attacks - their aggressive marches, public beatings and even a BNP follower who killed and maimed members of minority groups in his nail-bomb attacks in London recently.

There's no talk of crushing the fascists on the basis of their record - perhaps because they are in power in Austria and Italy. All the more reason to ignore the bullshit published by the media about us being terrorists - and get down to Genoa and liberate the world from the violence of capitalism.

Daniel Brett
mail e-mail: danbrett2000@hotmail.com

re; Matt

16.07.2001 20:32

This isn't a popularity contest. Do you really think peaceful demonstrations work? Do you think they ever worked? The Vietnam War wasn't stopped by peaceful demonstrators- it was stopped by the Vietnamese people fighting back. Civil Rights in the U.S. were not won (despite popular opinion)by non-violent marchers but by a series of riots, the Black Panthers, etc. etc. who made the authorities realize the price they would have to pay to keep the old order. Those who espouse non-violence seem to believe, naively, in the inate goodness of those in power, as if they will realize the error of their ways when confronted with your moral and intellectual superiority! I wish it were thus... but it is not...

m.

fascists

16.07.2001 20:36

Why! Capitalist governments have never had a problem with fascists! WWII wasn't even about fighting fascists (although many British troops were fighting for the anti-fascist cause) WWII was about the threat to the interests of British and American elites posed by German expansion. If it was about fighting fascists, they'd have done something about Franco in Spain 1936-39.

If capitalist governments believed in fighting fascists why were 8000 of the notorious Waffen SS "Galician Division" smuggled into England and given "free settler" status. These groups went on to form the anti-communist "staying behind" gueruilla groups of the Cold War era.

GUY

my comment was meant in reply to Daniel Brett

16.07.2001 20:39

see above

GUY

re: Matt

16.07.2001 23:35

Matt: We have more than stones, we operate the means of production.

will
mail e-mail: will_poulsen@hotmail.com

Keep ya head up and keep fighting

17.07.2001 01:22

Just cool it people, and don't jump to conclusions. The possibilities of state involvement are well worth exploring, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. But until we have hard evidence this could just as easily be the work of our comrades. Either way it should only make us more determined to smash the G8 - either out of anger that the Italian authorities would do this or out of joy that the pigs are getting what's coming to them. Peace.

Lemming
mail e-mail: avlemming@hushmail.com

Non-violence

17.07.2001 08:30

The one thing that we need more than anything else is popular support. Our issues are morally correct; the way to get them on the agenda is to highlight their existence until enough people realise what is going on. The way to get them on the agenda whilst simultaenously alienating almost everyone who might be influenced by our message is to try to blow people up. Independence in India was won by non-violent means. The vote in the Deep South was, I believe, won by non-violent means. With enough people and popular support non-violent DIRECT ACTION is an incredibly powerful tool...but trying to kill people destroys the entire point of what we are fighting for.

Matt

Matt S
mail e-mail: mattsellwood@cs.com

Non-violence is the ONLY way 'we' can prevail

17.07.2001 09:11

To whoever said:-
'Those who espouse non-violence seem to believe, naively, in the inate goodness of those in power, as if they will realize the error of their ways when confronted with your moral and intellectual superiority'

You miss the point entirely with this approach, IMO.

Matt has it absolutely right - there is no way we can 'win' by using state tactics - no way at all - the message just gets lost (and often perverted) in the noise that way. Look at today's corp media - it's happening already. Look at all the articles dealing with this so-called letter bomb - not ONE article even MENTIONS the real issues that have sparked the global revolt!

'What is gained by violence must be lost before superior violence.' - Mahatma Gandhi

http://mkgandhi.org/epigrams/v.htm#Violence

mango
Homepage: http://www.environment.org.uk/activist/

Non-violence

17.07.2001 10:41

The use of non-violent methods is something to be strived for in Genoa. However, the media tend to confuse violence against property with violence against people. When a mob of NF supporters go on a rampage in "Anytown", Britain, their actual physical violence is largely ignored by the bourgeois media. Yet whan a few windows are smashed on an anti-capitalist demo, we are all labelled terrorists. The fact is that our rulers have never really has a problem with fascists, afterall, they dont want to take away their profits!

The authorities in Genoa will use agent provocateurs to try and influnce people to act violently. This violence will be used as justification for police over-reaction, as it always is. To be frank, the revolution is not going to happen in Genoa. It will not happen until there are MILLIONS on the streets rather than a few hundred thousand. Therefore it is stupid for demonstrators to use violent methods that only serve to limit the arguments of the movement as a whole. These methods alienate the majority that can be won round to revolutionary thinking by coming on the demos themselves. This is not to say that we will never have to use violence to get what humanity requires, it just means that now is not the time. Violence for propaganda purposes DOESN'T WORK. Most people want to create a non-violent society and are put off by needless violence on demos. The movement of the sixties was killed by the infiltration of the left by agent provocateurs.
The emergence of the "terror groups" of the 70's was largley manufactured by the ruling class to kill off the movement and to justify the suppression of left groups.
Many who were drawn to revolutionary politics during '68 were put off by this violence.

These tactics will be used by the ruling class again and again. By using violence in Genoa, perputrators will be doing the ruling class' work for them.

This weekend, be wary of people who try to push you into behaving violently. They wont have the interests of the movement at heart.

But most of all HAVE FUN and see what real democracy looks like!

munkle
mail e-mail: munkle@cheesecube.com

You're just like the capitalist press

17.07.2001 13:38

Stop dissing other activists. You don't even have any evidence that anti-capitalists were behind the bombing!

Lemming
mail e-mail: avlemming@hushmail.com

lemming

17.07.2001 14:46

If that was directed at me then you obviously didn't read what I wrote. I was commenting on the issue of violence/non-violence and was not blaming anyone for the bombing.

If it wasn't directed at me then fair enough.

PS I don't think anti-capitalists had anything to do with it anyway.

munkle
mail e-mail: munkle@cheesecube

agent provocateurs

17.07.2001 14:54

maybe you don't know what I mean by "agent provocateurs"??

munkle
mail e-mail: munkle@cheesecube.com

?

20.07.2001 14:04

Who ever planted the bomb doesn't matter, as it's unlikely it will ever be solved. The fact is that it will be used to turn the anti-capitalist movement as a whole from freedom fighters to terrorists. Our popularity with the public comes from the fact that we're bad, but not evil, and also because we confront our enemies on the streets rather than hiding away blowing people up with out having the courage to face them. If these bombing continue no matter who's responsible the movement will start to lose support.

$@
mail e-mail: hghd

UK Indymedia

Reports of a bomb in Genoa

Comments

Letter bomb explodes in Genoa!!

Who cares?

On Terrorism and the State

I agree

genoa cont down has started die u pig scum

Fucking stupid

Grow up

secret services

Cops sent the bomb.

Berlusconi

Hype and hyperbole

re; Matt

fascists

my comment was meant in reply to Daniel Brett

re: Matt

Keep ya head up and keep fighting

Non-violence

Non-violence is the ONLY way 'we' can prevail

Non-violence

You're just like the capitalist press

lemming

agent provocateurs

?

Global IMC Network