TENS OF thousands of Italian activists are heading to Naples in the south of Italy two days before the Washington events to protest against a NATO summit. The authorities’ fear of the protests means that the summit has been moved to an air force base six miles outside the city. Despite the police repression in Genoa, activists are determined to keep up the pressure on Italy’s right wing government.
Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is attempting to ban all demonstrations in Italy, including one in Rome on 10 November against the opening of the WTO’s summit in Qatar. This has led to protest even from Italy’s centre parties. Hearings of the parliamentary committee investigating events in Genoa continued last week, further exposing the police and government.
Vittorio Agnoletto of the Genoa Social Forum repeated what most Italians already know-the police were out of control and acted illegally. One MP admitted, ‘He gave a very precise and detailed account. Sadly, he was the first person to give us a police report.’
AROUND 5,000 people protested in Salonika in Greece last Saturday against an international fair addressed by Greece’s Blairite prime minister, Costas Simitis.
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