Free Speech, G8-Style

19 July 2001 -- The Maoist Internationalist Movement 
strongly condemns the brutal murder of Carlo Giuliani, an 
anti-G8 protester by Italian police today. The 23-year old 
was shot twice in the head and then run over by a police 
jeep, according to witnesses.

This follows the shooting of a 
19-year old in June at the European Summit in Sweden, where 
thousands marched against Amerikan militarism and Amerika's 
refusal to uphold the Kyoto environmental agreement. Also in 
June, police shot seventeen students in Papua New Guinea, 
who were peacefully protesting the World Bank and 
International Monetary Fund. Three died. 

During the April 
World Trade Organization meeting in Quebec City, police 
rampantly tear-gassed crowds, often aiming to hit protesters 
with tear gas canisters. In vilifying, disrupting, and 
attacking these various demonstrators, the Italian police --
and their counterparts in Sweden, Canada, the united $tates, 
etc. -- are doing the bidding of their masters, the big 
monopoly bourgeoisie, which would rather ride roughshod over 
the world's majority unimpeded and call it "progress." 

"The world in which we are preparing the G8 summit in Genoa is 
one full of deep injustices," writes the Genoa Social Forum, 
which organized "non-violent" protests during the G8 summit. 
"One-fifth of the world's population -- in countries with 
advanced capitalism -- wastes 83% of the resources of our 
planet. Eleven million children die every year of 
malnutrition, and 1.3 billion people live on less than one 
dollar per day." These simple sentences illustrate the 
violence inherent in the status quo and amply justify -- in 
fact, demand -- the loudest, most militant protests. Coupled 
with the recognition that those who benefit from the status 
quo will defend it with all the means of modern militarism, 
they make a compelling argument for revolution. After we 
have disarmed and defeated the exploiters, we can set about 
the important tasks of organizing reparations to the four-
fifths of the worlds' population which currently labors for 
the benefit of others and eradicating hunger, poverty and 
disease worldwide. --mim4@mim.org

Maoist Internationalist Movement - PO Box 29670 - Los 
Angeles CA 90029-0670 www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext