James DeFilippis posted a conspiracy story about the Black
Bloc and the violence at Genoa. These claims have been
circulating since the afternoon of the violence.
I can not undertsand that anyone takes these stories
seriously. According to the people who circulate them, the
work of peaceful civil society organisations is being
discredited by the violent demonstrators at summits.
Threfore, they say, the violence must be orchestrated by
police or secret services.
It is an absurd claim about violence: the truth is exactly
the opposite.
The peaceful mainstream organisations are dependent on the
violent demonstrators for their status, and their political
influence. They know that. For years, they came to summits,
and were ignored - until Seattle. Violence made
anti-globalisation a global issue. If summits were still
peaceful, you would not even have noticed that there was a
summit in Genoa. Can you remember the last meeting of the
International Postal Union?
Listen, people. Violence helps. Violence works. History
shows that violence works, history does that every day. Ask
Gerry Adams, ask Yasir Arafat, ask the State of Israel. Ask
George Bush why the State of Texas is not still part of New
Spain. Ask Tony Blair how Scotland and Wales got into the
United Kingdom.
So this story about the evil Black Bloc besmirching the name
of the good NGO's, and destroying the hopes of
anti-globalists, is pure mythology. Italian police tactics
may be conspiratorial, but that's no excuse for wallowing in myth.
--
Paul Treanor
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