[lbo-talk] Berlusconi's Mousetrap

Nicholas Roberts nicholas at themediasociety.org
Fri Nov 4 20:40:31 PDT 2011


this is the real deal

http://vimeo.com/8672001

The Protests against the G8 in July 2001 in Genoa Italy were the biggest and most significant protests in Western Europe since the Poll Tax riots in the UK. Italian Prime Minister Sylvio Berlusconi, wanting to impress his new best mate George W. Bush, orchestrated a brutal Media/Police preemptive strike on the Anti-Capitalist Movements' biggest First World mobilisation to date. When the weekend of protests ended Carlo Guiliani was dead and a school full of sleeping activists had been attacked in what is popularly referred to as the 'Chilean Night'.

The film traces the events of the three days of protests in detail and poses the question - Was it all a setup? If Seattle was 'Star Wars' then this was 'The Empire Strikes Back'. It was made from a combination of footage of the Genoa protests against the G8 shot by 10 members of IMC Ireland, material from the Italy IMC Archives and material from various other sources.

This footage combined with on the spot interviews and reenacted voiceover commentary and analysis from various websites which were active during the protests provides a in-depth blow by blow retelling of the story of the three days of the Genoa protests against the G8.

On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 8:53 PM, Nicholas Roberts < nicholas at themediasociety.org> wrote:


> *http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/11/03/18697018.php*
> *
> *
> *Statement on the Occupation of the former Traveler's Aid Society at 520
> 16th Street*
> by some friends of OO
> *Thursday Nov 3rd, 2011 11:01 AM *
>
> ---
>
> Last night, after one of the most remarkable days of resistance in recent
> history, some of us within Occupy Oakland took an important next step: we
> extended the occupation to an unused building near Oscar Grant Plaza. We
> did this, first off, in order to secure the shelter and space from which to
> continue organizing during the coming winter months. But we also hoped to
> use the national spotlight on Oakland to encourage other occupations in
> colder, more northern climates to consider claiming spaces and moving
> indoors in order to resist the repressive force of the weather, after so
> bravely resisting the police and the political establishment. We want this
> movement to be here next Spring, and claiming unused space is, in our view,
> the most plausible way forward for us at this point. We had plans to start
> using this space today as a library, a place for classes and workshops, as
> well as a dormitory for those with health conditions. We had already begun
> to move in books from the library.
> ...
>
> Statement on the Occupation of the former Traveler's Aid Society at 520
> 16th Street<http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/11/03/18697018.php?show_comments=1#18697132>
> by Jon Jackson
> *Thursday Nov 3rd, 2011 4:37 PM *
> Jon Jackson is my real name. You can find me on Twitter @jonmosesjackson.
> You defame Angela's name by hiding behind it. Yesterday *was* a
> thunderous victory: tens of thousands of people from Oakland and elsewhere
> coming together in an inclusive, united front, energizing uncounted
> thousands, perhaps millions of people around the world. All ages were
> there. Unions were there. Homeless, homeowners, working class, students,
> dot-com workers and others were there. Do you think that organizing
> happened overnight? That morning? On the fly during the first action. No.
> It took a lot of hard work by a lot of people. Work that a few ill-educated
> people harmed because they couldn't be bothered to struggle *with* the
> rest of us and decided to jerk off by the light of a burning dumpster.
>
> Ripped Off By Riot Porn or Consent to Revolution ?<http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/11/03/18697018.php?show_comments=1#18697093>
> by riotporn
> ( riotporn [at] riotporn.com <riotporn at riotporn.com> ) *Thursday Nov 3rd,
> 2011 3:11 PM *
> Last nights Traveller action was a betrayal of trust. It was Riot Porn.
> Not Revolution. A masturbational fantasy, it was a gift to power.
>
> Like many people I feel like I have been used as some kind of cover or
> shield for this action. I went to the Plaza to participate in a day of
> actions with the main goal of a general strike, but mostly to demonstrated
> solidarity and to share.
>
> The strike was achieved, a monumental milestone which gave the Occupy
> Oakland an enormous amount of kudos and capital within the community at
> large and the world. To cash-in the success so quick, indeed, to get very
> quickly in-debted and over-drawn with an action, that in itself is really
> worthy, but uses the shield of every marginalized and needy person in
> Oakland is pretty naive at best and basically really very selfish.
>
> When the 40 000 people came to Occupy Oakland at the Plaza, and then later
> the port, they took ownership of Occupy Oakland. They bought in. They took
> it away and felt like it was theirs. Once they get home, they find its a
> bait and switch, as normal, they have been had. This time by mostly white
> radicals - I wont give them credit for being even anarchist - who are
> prepared to risk everything the good people of Oakland have put into the
> Occupy campaign.
>
> So, maybe yesterdays attendees should of been more warey, more skeptical,
> they should of read the fine print of the contract, read between the lines.
>
>
>
> http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/11/03/18697018.php?show_comments=1#18697194
>
> Last night's action was activist gentrification, it was flipping
> real-estate for "anarchists". They increased the value of the Plaza and got
> a big loan from the grass roots, the unions, the community sector, the
> citizens... and they used that to take out a risky loan, that they could
> not every pay back, and get a new club house. Much better than tents, for
> sure.
>
>
> The action was ineffective And hurt the movement<http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/11/03/18697018.php?show_comments=1#18697083>
> by A participant
> *Thursday Nov 3rd, 2011 2:18 PM *
> This very I'll-conceived action turned a thunderous victory into a mess.
> It also put the camp very much in danger of eviction last night. The action
> did not build unity towards more continued direct action such as taking
> over buildings or housing. It felt like a setup for a pointless street
> fight that a large large majority of participants don't want to have. This
> debacle is going to be very divisive.
>
> The protagonists in this action should admit to their mistakes (and they
> were quite big in this situation) in order to help the movement move
> forward.
>
> Also why was I texted by Occupy Oakland for this action?
> Sad thing is, after the strike, and the success of the day, you could of
> probably just asked for it. You'd won, we'd won. But then a bunch of kids
> and provocateurs pissed it up the wall.
>
>
>



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