Cointelpro Italian style
Cops framed anti-globalization movement in Genoa
By John Catalinotto
The Italian cops are proving that when it comes to
repression, they can act just like the FBI did with its
Cointelpro program.
In the 1960s and 1970s the FBI's Counter Intelligence
Program targeted progressive movements in the United States and
led to the deaths and unjust imprisonment of many Black, Latino
and Native liberation organizers, while disrupting the work of
anti-war and pro-socialist organizations.
At the time the notorious rightist J. Edgar Hoover led the
FBI. Local police and the FBI used wiretaps with little
restraint, even on acknowledged civil-rights leaders like
Martin Luther King Jr. They planted informers and provocateurs.
They planted "evidence" of crimes and conspiracies.
The U.S. government is not the only capitalist state that
uses these tactics.
Indeed, some cops in Italy have just admitted that
Cointelpro-type tactics were exactly what they used in July
2001 to try to justify the brutal, murderous police riot
against 250,000 anti-globalization demonstrators at the G8
summit.
Besides the outright murder of anti-capitalist youth Carlo
Giuliani, the most vicious assault of the cops in Genoa last
year was a raid on the Diaz school. There, hundreds of
activists--most of them militant and anti-capitalist but
ideologically pacifist--were staying.
In an attempt to break the growing movement, police raided
the school. They beat the mostly young demonstrators, severely
injuring over 60 and arresting 93. Cops held the protesters for
days, depriving them of sleep, sexually harassing them, even
beating some unconscious.
Many of the cops involved were pro-fascist, even forcing the
youth to sing phrases from songs that celebrated Mussolini's
fascist rule that led Italy to ruin in World War II.
The police claimed they found two Molotov
cocktails--homemade bombs--at the school. They showed these at
a news conference as proof their victims were "violent."
Italy's rightist Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi charged then
that the raids proved that the school harbored violent
anarchists.
But now, on July 30, an Italian cop has admitted that police
planted the Molotov cocktails.
"I brought the Molotov cocktail to the Diaz school. I obeyed
the order of one of my superiors," the 25-year-old officer told
prosecutors carrying out an investigation. He said the petrol
bombs were planted in the school to justify the police
raid.
It is not clear exactly which cops gave the orders. About 80
are under investigation for crimes, including torturing of
demonstrators.
There is also a question as to how high up in government the
crime is rooted. Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini is head
of the neo-fascist National Alliance Party. Demonstrators and
progressive organizations say they have evidence he played a
role in the police riot. They demand that he resign.
Reprinted from the Aug. 22, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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