[A-List] Italy: massive Florence protest

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

I wonder if there were any A-listers attending this event. The BBC reported
it in its usual, subtly derogatory way, making sure to point out banners
featuring Osama bin Laden whilst veteran hack Brian Barron voiced over that
some protesters were "definitely anti-American", although they were
peaceful. Apparently "lessons had been learned" by both the police and
protesters, who had supposedly worked to exclude participation by the Black
Bloc who were prominent in last year's Genoa outrage. It's a measure of the
importance of this sort of event that an old-timer like Barron (who has been
filing BBC news reports for as long as I can remember) gets sent to report
on it, rather than one of the many telegenic, manically hand-waving and
utterly hopeless novices that have been so brainwashed into Birt's "mission
to explain" ethos that they patronise viewers with the deepest heartfelt
sincerity.


Florence engulfed by world's biggest protest against Iraq war
By Peter Popham in Florence
The Independent on Sunday, 10 November 2002

The biggest demonstration in the world so far against war in Iraq engulfed
Florence yesterday, at least doubling the city's population of 350,000 and
turning the city's inner ring-road into a mighty river of protest. The
organisers claimed that more than 400,000 people took part.

Rumours of violence planted by Italy's right-wing parties over recent months
persuaded most city businesses to close for the day and many Florentines to
leave the city. But the enormous march was resoundingly good humoured. Some
participants carried signs reading "We love you Florence"; citizens
responded by hanging white banners of peace out of their windows and
throwing confetti on to the marchers.

"This is the first all-Europe demonstration against the war on Iraq,"
Vittorio Agnoletto, the Italian organiser, told The Independent on Sunday.
"But it won't be the last: tomorrow we are meeting to plan future protests.
We are Italy's real opposition - more than 300 different Italian
organisations are taking part. And I am sure there will be no violence.
Look, we are laughing. We cannot change the world with our anger, only by
building consensus."

The protest was more like acarnival than a confrontation. The police were
invisible. Huge contingents from Italy, Britain, France, Germany and Greece
marched alongside striking Fiat workers, brass bands and giant puppets.

The demonstration brought to a resounding conclusion Florence's four-day
European Social Forum.

"The war on Iraq is the beginning of a new grand strategy for the United
States," said Susan George, the American vice-chair of the French group
Attac, "the first war not justified by the containment of aggression.

A member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War said: "We, soldiers in previous
wars, are telling the soldiers of today, don't fight."