G8 Genoa 20 years later, Agnoletto: “We were right”

“Today, as regards the Diaz and Bolzaneto schools, we have procedural truths that have reconstructed the events in a very precise way. So on Diaz and Bolzaneto, not everyone can say what they want. There are certain and precise truths. The ‘Mexican butchery’ was organized and managed by the top of the police “. Thus at the AdnKronos Vittorio Agnoletto, at the time of the G8 in Genoa in 2001, spokesman for the ‘Genoa Social Forum’.” There should have been no assault -she stresses- . In that school there were 92 people sleeping peacefully. But the perpetrators did not even spend a day in jail. This is unacceptable. Just as it is unacceptable that the people recognized as responsible for those violence and torture still remained within the state apparatus in total disregard of what is established by European rules, which provide that if a guardian of law and order is placed under charge, he must be suspended, and if convicted he must be dismissed. Furthermore, there has never been a trial for the death of Carlo Giuliani, and this is a huge vulnus ”. “Just as – continues Agnoletto-, and the prosecutor Zucca acknowledged it a few days ago in a public debate, there were dozens and I would say hundreds of trials to identify the responsibilities of the police for street events. And they did not celebrate because there were not enough magistrates and the prosecutor did not have the strength to make them. That said, twenty years later there was Santa Maria Capua Vetere. And it is not a fact that can be solved by talking about bad apples, because dozens and dozens of operators are under accusation and because it refers to events that occurred a year ago, and I do not know that those facts were reported by someone in the chain of command. This means that those who knew were conspiratorial “. Yet, Agnoletto points out,” the trial for the Bolzaneto facts was possible because two prison nurses serving in Bolzaneto but living in Bologna, Marco Poggi and Ivano Pratissoli, after returning at home and not having slept for two nights due to nightmares, they returned to Genoa and talked to the magistrates. From there the investigation began because the magistrates saw that their testimonies coincided with those of the boys. Initially the magistrates had doubts, they could not imagine that those things could happen in a country like Italy. But did Marco and Ivano, by chance, receive a medal from the Dap? Were they given as an example? Have they made a career? Have they been promoted? No, they had to abandon the Dap because an internal commission, instead of paying the honors they deserved, accused them for having tarnished the name of the administration. And at that point Marco and Ivano had to leave, they lost their jobs, while those who tortured remained inside. Evidently, and Santa Maria Capua Vetere proves it, there was no reflection, no self-criticism, no one had the courage to go all the way to see what had happened and take responsibility for changing situations ”. Violence at Diaz and violence in Bolzaneto, therefore, but if he had the opportunity to meet those he believes to be responsible for those abuses, Agnoletto would say nothing to him: “I would have nothing to say to him – he underlines -, I believe they are their consciences at all the levels that pose problems for him, and everyone can try to escape or make themselves unrecognizable to human justice, but then everyone has his own conscience which is more difficult to silence ”. For Agnoletto, however, there is a certainty obtainable today. “Twenty years after the G8 it is now very clear to any bona fide person that we were right then. We had gone to Genoa within the Movement of World Social Forums to say that if this world had gone ahead with this model of development, it would have risked the precipice. And we said that a world where 20% of the world population owns 80% of the wealth is not good. Twenty years have passed and today just over 8% of the world population owns more than 80% of the wealth, and 79% of the world population owns just over 3% of the world’s wealth. We were right. We reported an injustice that has increased ”. But, adds Agnoletto, “we also said that if this development model had gone ahead, it would have brought about climate changes such as to make land disappear, forcing entire populations to emigrate. This is what we are experiencing in this historical period. And they said that if the domination of finance over the real economy had continued, over the years we would have faced an unprecedented socio-economic crisis. And that’s what we experienced. Not to mention what the pandemic tells us today, which did not fall from the sky. The pandemic is the result of an energy-intensive development model that exploits every square centimeter of the planet and which, through mechanisms such as deforestation and intensive farming, has broken down the barriers between species and favored the species jump of the infectious agent, from animal to human. The pandemic is the result of this development model, so the issues we posed at the time are all fundamental. If then we said that another world is possible, today we say that another world is urgently needed ”. And it is for this reason, Agnoletto notes, “that twenty years later we return to Genoa looking forward, not backward, and looking forward we have chosen an important slogan: you the disease, we cure it. Caring for the planet, species, human beings and each of us. You, the few powerful people who dominate, are the disease, we, representing 7 billion and 800 million people, are and offer the cure ”.