8 years have gone by since 2001 Genoa G8 summit. Some of us were there, some of us were little more than kids. But no-one has forgotten those three hundred thousand people come from all over the world to demonstrate for a better possible world, for freedom from the slavery of profit, for justice and peace. No one has forgotten the murder of Carlo, the massacre of thousands of protesters, the tortures in Bolzaneto, the high school Diaz turned into a slaughterhouse, nor the sadism of the guards. The abuse of power being absolved, the comrades unfairly persecuted and condemned.
8 years have been long and many things have changed. The political world wide agenda, that we almost succeeded in snatching from Capital’s secretaries, has started again to sign the same appointments of war, exploitation, slavery, hunger, destruction of the planet, “war on terrorism. Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, the open veins of Latin America, of Asia, Africa, banlieue and our suburbs, of the many south surrounding us: the blood of billions of people spilling for no reason, day by day, for the richness of few, for the ignorance and indifference of too many.
We have changed too, a little more weaker, a little more uncertain, a little more scared perhaps. But also more mature, aware that our struggle it’s going to be long, always more persuaded that if this other world is not possible- the socialism- it’s gonna be the barbarism. Adults by now, we don’t deny our childhood, we watch the faces of our enemies and we know they are the same as in Genoa. We know they’ve become more violent , more aggressive. That they are dangerous because now, worse than ever, they don’t know what they’re doing.
2009 G8 is back to Italy, back in times of crisis, when GDP in the west has a showy minus sign. The unemployment is increasing and there seems to be no way out. It’s back in a country socially and culturally devastated with the lowest salaries in Europe, a political system that is stuck, the information controlled, a country made mean by a war between poor , racism ,sexism, homophobia, hatred for anyone different from us. G8 comes to Abruzzo, a territory which has paid with blood those very same logics of profit, speculation, corruption, that rules capitalism all over the world; a territory that in the last few months has been experimenting new forms of control and militarization.
The government has tried everything to discourage us from being there. It has subdivided the summit in many, too many, meetings . Hard to follow for those who have to study, work, think of everyday survival. Impossible to contest for those who have already to defend their own jobs. Yet the movement has been strong. We have demonstrated in Rome against the demolition of welfare; in Siracusa against the devastation of the environment, in Turin for a university not submitted to private interests; in Rome again, against a “security” that means expulsions of migrant people, strategy of fear and repression of struggles. At last in Lecce, when the ministers of economy have met to decide to give more money to the banks and pass off their failures as a saving recipe.
It’s time to put together what’s been torn apart. It’s time we meet, we all have to be there. We can’t let the ones who are speculating above a tragedy such as the earthquake, have the last word, turning people into votes, making their dirty affairs while the reconstruction delays to 2033. The “bigs” are going to parade before an abandoned and destroyed population. In front of the cameras telling us that everything is fine. We know that’s not true and we have to scream it out loud.
They said we wouldn’t have the heart to be there. But we always have the heart to be on the side of those who are struggling and suffering. In those days we are going to be shaking the streets. We are going to be part of the national march on the 10th of July, to bring out our reasons, those of the oppressed and fighting populations. To show that we have not bended, to ruin their parade.
We do have grown up but the future is still ours! See you in Aquila.
Self Organized University Collective - Naples (Italy)
Collettivo Autorganizzato Universitario – Napoli
http://cau.noblogs.org/