Quake victims, activists unite to protest G-8 summit

Residents of L’Aquila in Italy united with labor unions and anti-capitalist activists from around Italy and Europe for a 10,000-strong march through the earthquake-stricken town on July 10, the final day of the Group of 8 summit meeting. Through the march and other actions, they overcame Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s attempts to turn the groups against each other with violence-baiting.

“We are all residents of L’Aquila,” chanted demonstrators, many of whom took buses from Rome, Milan, and the regions of Tuscany, Puglia and Campania. They marched from another quake-affected town, Paganica, to a park in the center of L’Aquila.

An earthquake struck the area on April 6, killing 300 people and leaving 70,000 homeless. Some 23,000 are still living in tent cities, while up to 30,000 more have been shifted to temporary housing in other parts of the country. The disaster, and the lack of action by media mogul Berlusconi’s right-wing government, have been compared to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the U.S.

“The reconstruction hasn’t really started yet and for the last three months the government has been getting ready for the G-8, not helping victims of the quake,” said union activist Enrico Bernocchi. (Agence France-Presse, July 10)

Throughout the G-8 summit, L’Aquila residents displayed signs and banners reading “Yes we camp.” A play on U.S. President Barack Obama’s campaign slogan “Yes we can,” it aimed to draw global attention to the plight of the region and Berlusconi’s hypocrisy in shifting the summit to L’Aquila in order to defuse militant protests against the global capitalist crisis.

The G-8—composed of the seven major imperialist powers plus Russia—held their usual back-slapping photo-ops and promised to take tepid measures against global warming and poverty. President Obama used the platform to insist that no further “economic stimulus” was forthcoming and that people suffering hunger, unemployment and foreclosures should be content to wait.

“When the G-8 talk about a crisis, it’s about supporting the same banks who provoked the crisis, and it never does anything to help workers who bear the full brunt,” said protester Paolo Leonardi.

Actions across Italy

Protests were held in towns and cities throughout Italy in the days leading up to the G-8 meeting.

On July 4, riot police fired tear gas and clubbed marchers to prevent thousands from approaching the U.S. military base in Vicenza, a city in northeastern Italy. The Italian government has agreed to a Pentagon plan to double the size of the base, despite local opposition. Residents of Vicenza rejected the base expansion in a referendum. (Reuters, July 4)

On July 7-8, Greenpeace activists scaled coal-burning energy plants across Italy, unveiling banners demanding that the G-8 stop blowing hot air and take action to stop global warming.

In Rome on July 7, nearly 30 protesters were arrested as students clashed with police. The demonstrators set up symbolic roadblocks on the main highway from Rome to L’Aquila.

Also July 7, residents of the port city of Abruzzo demonstrated against Berlusconi’s racist anti-immigrant measures and the harsh prison facilities for detained immigrants.

Actions were also held in Turin, Sardinia, Naples and Sulmona. (Indymedia Italy)

The next global protest mobilization will take place late September in Pittsburgh, during the G-20 Summit on the economic crisis. For more information, visit www.bailoutpeople.org.