ITALY: The spectre of the violent riots that marred last year's G8 summit in Genoa will hang over Florence this morning as the renaissance city braces itself for a four-day- long European Social Forum. The gathering will bring together a broad spectrum of Italian and international anti-globalisation and anti-war movements.
More than 8,000 delegates representing 426 different movements will meet in Florence this week for a forum which has conjured up unhappy memories of the violence that cost one life, injured hundreds and resulted in an estimated €50 million worth of damage during three days of bitter street riots in Genoa in July last year.
This week's social forum is an off-shoot of the "New Global" or "Movement of the Movements" meetings, which have taken place in Porto Alegre, Brazil for the last two years. At a news conference on Monday, organisers said their broad platform meeting is pacifist by nature and that they have come together to discuss a wide range of issues such as relations between Islam and Christianity, worldwide disarmament, racism, ethnic minorities, women's rights, child labour, workers' rights, environmental issues and much else besides. "You must not label the social forum as violent because we are in fact non-violent. Do not keep on calling us an anti-globalisation movement because we believe in pro-active thinking and in change for the better. The right term for us is new global," said Mr Flavio Lotti, a member of Lilliput, one of the Italian movements prominent in the social forum organisation.
Despite those assurances, however, the centre-right government of Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi is concerned about the possibility of violence, especially when the forum concludes with an "anti-war" march next Saturday, due to be attended by 150,000 demonstrators who are certain to protest strongly against any forthcoming US-led military intervention in Iraq. Speaking in parliament last week, Interior Minister Mr Giuseppe Pisanu warned: "We are able to guarantee the right to demonstrate peacefully but, as of now, we cannot tell at what price."
In Florence yesterday, Mr Pisanu repeated his warnings, said he was pleased with the city's preparations but called for a "high level of vigilance" to be maintained. More than 3,500 security forces will be on duty over the next four days, while over the last week border controls have been stepped up to keep out violent groups such as the infamous "Black Blok" anarchist movement, involved in much of the violence in Genoa last year.
Fears of possible violence in Florence appeared to be confirmed on Sunday night when police on the Italian-French border found an axe, knives, crowbars and 200 kilos of nuts and bolts in a van driven by four young Frenchmen who refused to say where they were going and for what purpose their "cargo" was intended. The Frenchmen were refused entry into Italy.
Attention will also be focused on the US military base of Camp Darby, near Pisa, where a breakaway social forum group is scheduled to hold a protest march prior to attending the opening of the social forum this evening.