CARLO'S WAY

pstrongMumia Abu-Jamal comments on the shooting of the Italian protestor/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/429/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Mumia Abu-Jamal /p pThe recent police shooting of 23-year-old Carlo Giulianibr / in the riotous streets of Genoa has sent shock waves aroundbr / the globe./p pGiuliani, son of a Rome labor leader, was one of tens ofbr / thousands of anti-globalist demonstrators who fell on thebr / latest place where politicians and corporate representativesbr / gathered to insure their continued dominance of the world'sbr / economy. Carlo was part of a growing movement, unitingbr / the youth of many so-called first world countries with thebr / aspirations of many in the so-called third world. It was thisbr / movement that shook Seattle, and made the anagram, WTO,br / known throughout the earth./p pFor opposing the rule of capital, for opposing the Empirebr / of Wealth, Carlo Giuliani was shot by the hit-men of capital,br / and, as if this were not enough, a police vehicle rolled overbr / his prone, wounded body./p pWith the brutal state slaughter of Carlo Giuliani, thebr / message goes forth that anti-globalism is a capital crime.br / This is but the latest escalation by the armed forces ofbr / capital, which has utilized increasing levels of state violencebr / to intimidate the swelling hordes of anti-globalists./p pThe blood on the asphalt of Genoa did not begin whenbr / a cop pointed his semi-automatic into the face of a maskedbr / Roman anarchist. The blood of Genoa flows from thebr / streets of Goteborg, in Sweden, when the European Unionbr / was holding its summit meeting. There, police fired livebr / rounds at protestors, wounding three, one seriously./p pNow, an anarchist, anti-globalist lies dead./p pAs soon as the news hit the wire, came the wordsbr / of the Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, who oncebr / quipped, "Anarchism is a game at which the police canbr / beat you." Shaw, an ardent socialist, would perhapsbr / amend his comments in light of recent events (if hebr / could)./p pWhat is most telling is how the representatives ofbr / the state and their propaganda arm, the media, hasbr / reacted to this vicious tragedy./p pWhile politicians uniformly spoke with forked tonguesbr / about the "tragedy," not a single syllable was utteredbr / in criticism of the police, was it?/p pFor the media, however, a different game wasbr / played. In virtually every report, the coverage told ofbr / violent protestors -- and suggested that they werebr / uninformed, or simply stupid for daring to care aboutbr / the poor in Africa, Asia or Latin America. Examinebr / their biased, corporate-centered coverage, andbr / ask yourself one, simple question:/p pWhat would they have written if a Genoan copbr / had been shot, and run over with a Land Roverbr / driven by anarchists? Every corporate outletbr / would've blared about how "vicious" and "violent"br / the anti-globalist "terrorists" were. Of this therebr / is no question!/p pInstead, a muted silence./p pSilence, when the terrorists are the cops./p pSilence, when the killers are the cops./p pSilence, when the hitmen for the corporationsbr / act out./p pYou hear the fractured lectures of politiciansbr / talking about "assaults on the democraticbr / process," and the like./p pYet, how democratic is the G-8 (Group of 8)?/p pThis group, which is self-selected, is sevenbr / of the wealthiest nations on earth (plus Russia)./p pIf there are about 193 nations in the world,br / what's "democratic" about 4% of that numberbr / making all of the rules governing the rest ofbr / the world's economy?/p pLook at it another way: The G-8 consists ofbr / representatives for Canada, Japan, Germany,br / France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Unitedbr / States -- and Russia. If you were to count allbr / of the people in each nation, and add them up,br / you'd come up with around 824 million people.br / That's a lot of folks./p p But there are 6,000,000,000+ people onbr / earth! /p pHow can 14% of the world's population setbr / down the rules for 86% of the rest of the peoplebr / of the world?/p pCarlo Giuliani wasn't "assaulting thebr / democratic process." He was protesting abr / profoundly anti-democratic process. /p pHe was fighting on behalf of most of thebr / people in the world./p pCopyright 2001 Mumia Abu-Jamalbr / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p