Some very interesting developements in The inquiry / Cover up into what happened at the G8 summit / protests.

An Italian Cop has admitted planting the two Molotovs that were used as an excuse for the Diaz raid, thew cop who wasdriver for a top cop, claims that his boss ordered him to plant the two petrol bombs in the school.
At least six cops are ubder investigation, including the cop who claimed he was stabbed as he entered the School.
A cop car that was supposedly stoned before the raid has never been found, don't see much about this on IMC Italy and nearly zero on IMC UK .. Wots UP !

Totally agree with you comrade. I often wonder is there a hidden agenda behind the inactivity of the left in this country? I have posted 26 leaflets around the New Deal
community where I live, gone around the city centre with a megaphone strapped to my car, been escorted out of a hotel where a massive regeneration conference was going on, been in the Liverpool Echo on several occasions and much more. I have done this with absolutely no help from the left who where aware of what I was doing.

It’s about time that people like us spoke up and shamed the left wing of this country, especially the middle class left wing dreamers who bury their heads in international issues. I am an anti-capitalist and a member of the SLP and I am shocked at the inactivity of the left wing in my party and amongst the anti-capitalists in this country. But what is the use of trying to talk with them? You can’t reason with these people because they take offence at the least thing. Most of the anti-capitalist movements are slowly being taken over by the middle class left in this country anyway.

All the best

Working class are you? Hah! I live in a ditch on dirt and beetles, and I get sick of middle-class house-dwelling types like you trying to take me over. I'm so poor I don't even have internet access.. oops..

Re: Taking to the streets.

We do have ONE event, on 9- 12th Sept 2003 next year, which is going to be massive, and ought to be the centre for UK people taking to the streets, with invited people from all over the world - like Genoa, Seattle, Prague, etc..

Its the biggest ARMS FAIR ever to take place on UK soil.

Defence Systems Equipment International, in London Docklands.

see. www.dsei.co.uk

A collective of people are hoping to turn this arms fair into the UK's own 'Genoa', or whatever.

If you're interested, watch this space.

Italian Police Planted Petrol Bombs On G8 Summit Protesters
J. Grimond - (Independent, UK, 30.7.2002)

Italian police planted two Molotov cocktails in a school
where anti-globalisation pro-testers were sleeping to justify
a brutal crackdown during last year’s G8 summit in Genoa.
A policeman has confessed that he planted the explosives
following a year of acrimony over the handling of security
at the summit where a protester was shot dead by the
police.

"I brought the Molotov cocktail to the Diaz school. I obeyed
the order of one of my superiors," the 25-year-old
unnamed officer told prosecutors investigating the summit.
The Molotov cocktails were planted in the school to justify
the police raids on the school, he said.

His superior, Pietro Troiani, from a mobile police unit in
Rome, is already being investigated after another colleague
accused him of providing false information to justify the
raids.

At the time, the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi,
insisted that the raids proved that the school held violent
anarchists who had wrecked the city. The presence of
Molotov cocktails has been held up by the police as
justification for their raids on the school. They were shown
off to journalists along with a nail bomb, two
sledge-hammers and a pickaxe, also said to have been
gathered at the scene.

The anti-globalisation pro-testers who stayed at the school
insisted that they were not involved in the violence which
marred the summit.

Ninety-three demonstrators were arrested during the raids
on the Armando Diaz school on 21 July last year.
Sixty-three of them reported serious injuries. Protesters
have claimed that they were beaten unconscious by police,
deprived of sleep, sexually harassed and denied prompt
medical treatment.

There is some confusion about the planting of the petrol
bombs. Last week another policeman said that he had seen
Mr Troiani bringing the explosives into the school wrapped
in plastic. But video footage shot by protesters appears to
contradict this, apparently showing a group of police
officers holding the Molotov cocktails before the raid without
the plastic.

The government has defended the police action in the face
of widespread criticism and an admission by the Genoa
police chief that his officers used "excessive force". It has
accused prosecutors investigating the police of bias towards
the protesters.

The Italian opposition has accused Mr Berlusconi’s
conservative government of "zero tolerance" towards the
anti-globalisation movement.

Police were drafted in from around the country for the
summit for which 250,000 protesters flocked to the city.
Seventy seven officers are under investigation, including
the policeman who shot dead a protester, but no one has
lost their job.

Amnesty International has condemned the lack of action by
the government to bring the police to justice, pointing out
that many incidents were caught on camera and were
"undeniable". The organisation has accused the police of
"arbitrary arrest and the use of torture and ill-treatment".

There have been allegations that the police were well
warned about the presence of specific violent elements
among protesters but that these warnings were repeatedly
ignored, leading to speculation that this was to allow
officers free rein for violence.

There are now at least 10 criminal investigations into what
happened in Genoa.

Magistrates have notified about 80 officers that they are
being investigated for alleged crimes committed during the
school raid, the street protests and at the Bolzaneto
detention centre where, Amnesty International claims,
about 200 protesters were tortured.

Protesters have alleged that the police action was
sanctioned by politicians and they have called upon the
Deputy Prime Minister, Gianfranco Fini, of the National
Alliance Party, to resign.

 http://www.newbrainframes.org/rassegna/art.php3?id=2565&tid=19

While IMC UK sleeps tings agwaan !!!

Why should someone living on a scheme in glasgow give a fuck about an arms fair?

Are you saying that large numbers of people taking to the streets is automatically 'direct action'?

Did the country side aliance take 'direct action'?

Why are you waiting for 'direct action'
or moaning about other peoples apparent lack of it?

Why don't you go and get on with it?

Perhaps you do, but you message suggests otherwise.

I personally have been pretty busy this year. I'd didn't notice the May Day didn't seem to happen - perhaps I missed the news because I was with a bunch of people taking direct action.

In my opinion - direct action isn't a mob of people with placards fronting up the police in a set piece for the media.

We don't need crowds around us to go and break something or go and build something.

Mike: If you continue to disparage causes you don't personally support as irrelevant and dismiss those with a different background or profession to you as 'middle-class', then many will probably start thinking that you're only grinding your own axe and pointing to the large chip on your shoulder. Consequently, anything you say will be ignored by a large proportion of people who might otherwise support your campaign in Merseyside.

BEN - Let me clarify what i mean cos i dont think you understand.

What i am saying is that people should take to the streets more often. I prefer a protest with Direct Action rather than i protest with just a rally with people clapping at Tony Benn's speeches.

But basically the left in Britain is extremely inactive compared with Spain, Italy, Greece, Belguim and France. Spain has a general strike, Italy has a million on the streets in Rome and Greece is has all that and more.

WOMBLES - i will go to the dsei protest (i went last year on Sep 11) but i feel we should also protest against economic and political issues.

Pretty impressive, by any standards, to succeed in ignoring 1 million public sector workers on strike!

"don't see much about this on IMC Italy and nearly zero on IMC UK"

If you look you'll see pretty full coverage with a feature on the frontpage of the site of the status of the enquiries and general situation in Genoa, one year on.

Apparently the italian prosecutors will be visiting the UK this month to question people here, so I imagine you'll see a bit more news over the next few weeks.

Though it's fair to say that the problems of getting up to date info on things like this betrays the old problem of communication and co-operation breaking down after large events. There is certainly a need for more sustained campaigns and networks rather than the event specific mobilisations we've seen for the last few years - indeed before Genoa this was a hot topic and many commentators said Genoa should be the last mass mobilisation done in this summit hopping style.

As to large mobilisations in the uk, if someone can figure out how to get the Trade Unions out, along with the NGO Trade Justice lobby folks, together with more radical anti-capitalists and environmentalists, then please please tell us all!

Maybe the opportunity will be the Paris G8 next year in 2003, early june? Maybe Mayday this year could be linked heavily with this as a pre paris mobilisation. Maybe there could be space for all groups to work together?