Florence: 500,000 march today against the war
Martin Thomas, in Florence | 09.11.2002 23:52
The protest was called as part of the European Social Forum, held here from 7 to 10 November, but the great majority of the demonstrators were Italian. Contingents started to assemble at 11am, four hours before the scheduled start of the march. The crowd was far too big to fit into the scheduled finishing area. Marchers filled the streets for miles around. As I write, it is 8pm, and the streets of the city are still full of demonstrators making their way home.
It is hard to get an overview of a demonstration of such size. There were large contingents from the most militant of Italy's big trade union federations, CGIL, and hundreds of thousands of young people. I never got anywhere near the head of the demonstration to check on this, but it was due to be led by a contingent of Fiat car workers, who are currently organisingst rikes against 8000 planned job cuts.
On the march as at the European Social Forum itself, there seemed to be as many young women as young men.
The message of the demonstration was simple and clear: No war. Politically it was dominated by the red flags and
banners of Rifondazione, the Party of Communist Refoundation. There were many other groups, of course. Some demonstrators came from the youth wing of the Democratic Left - what was the majority of the old Communist Party - but none from the DL itself that I could see. I saw a contingent with a big banner, "With Iraq, against imperialism", but only a dozen or so people behind it.
Songs - Bandiera Rossa, the Internationale, and others - dominated the demonstration, rather than chants.
Banners and placards denounced the Berlusconi government and its attacks on workers' rights. Many demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and wore keffiyehs to show solidarity with the Palestinians, but I saw none of the sour, calculating "hate Israel" agitation common on the British left.
I came across a joint Palestinian-Jewish contingent. The "Two Nations, Two States" pamphlets I was carrying were welcomed. I talked to a young Italian Jewish woman, a lapsed member of Rifondazione, now studying in London, who had returned to Florence for the Social Forum and to see her family. Yes, she had been on the anti-war demonstration in London. Yes, she had seen the "Keep Palestine Tidy" stickers, showing a Star of David being binned, and been sickened by them. In Italy it is different.
"Third-Worldism" and populism of various sorts are common enough on the Italian left. Flags carrying the image of Che Guevara were common on the demonstration. But this is a generous populism, an enthusiastic identification with struggle, not a curdled chauvinism.
The Italian left does not have the same culture of paper-selling as the British or even the French. Although Rifondazione flags dominated the march, I saw not a single person selling their daily paper Liberazione. At the point where we set up our Workers' Liberty stall - though not elsewhere on the demonstration - there was a concentration of paper-sellers from Socialismo Rivoluzionario, ex-Trotskyists who are, I believe, the largest revolutionary group in Italy outside Rifondazione. Aside from that, hardly anything.
Florence, 9 November
On the march as at the European Social Forum itself, there seemed to be as many young women as young men.
The message of the demonstration was simple and clear: No war. Politically it was dominated by the red flags and
banners of Rifondazione, the Party of Communist Refoundation. There were many other groups, of course. Some demonstrators came from the youth wing of the Democratic Left - what was the majority of the old Communist Party - but none from the DL itself that I could see. I saw a contingent with a big banner, "With Iraq, against imperialism", but only a dozen or so people behind it.
Songs - Bandiera Rossa, the Internationale, and others - dominated the demonstration, rather than chants.
Banners and placards denounced the Berlusconi government and its attacks on workers' rights. Many demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and wore keffiyehs to show solidarity with the Palestinians, but I saw none of the sour, calculating "hate Israel" agitation common on the British left.
I came across a joint Palestinian-Jewish contingent. The "Two Nations, Two States" pamphlets I was carrying were welcomed. I talked to a young Italian Jewish woman, a lapsed member of Rifondazione, now studying in London, who had returned to Florence for the Social Forum and to see her family. Yes, she had been on the anti-war demonstration in London. Yes, she had seen the "Keep Palestine Tidy" stickers, showing a Star of David being binned, and been sickened by them. In Italy it is different.
"Third-Worldism" and populism of various sorts are common enough on the Italian left. Flags carrying the image of Che Guevara were common on the demonstration. But this is a generous populism, an enthusiastic identification with struggle, not a curdled chauvinism.
The Italian left does not have the same culture of paper-selling as the British or even the French. Although Rifondazione flags dominated the march, I saw not a single person selling their daily paper Liberazione. At the point where we set up our Workers' Liberty stall - though not elsewhere on the demonstration - there was a concentration of paper-sellers from Socialismo Rivoluzionario, ex-Trotskyists who are, I believe, the largest revolutionary group in Italy outside Rifondazione. Aside from that, hardly anything.
Florence, 9 November
Martin Thomas, in Florence
e-mail:
martin@workersliberty.org
Homepage:
http://www.workersliberty.org.uk
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
more than this
10.11.2002 19:34
Martins account is too limited and shrouded in Leftist
language, the demonstration was incredible, truly inspiring, as well as the dominant Italian left who were massively present, other strands of activists were there:
the Disobiediente(formerly Ya Basta) altho much reduced in numbers and IMO too hostile to outsiders and too keen on photo opps.) A substantive Anarcist bloc, the militant COBAS trade union and literally tens of ecology, peace and antiwar groups, sound systems and musicians/performers.Although,the demonstration was diverse and european and inclusive ,i have to say it was primarily an italian event.
There were literally hundreds of thousands of young people, believe me, they just kept on coming, draped in radical chic such as Marcos T-shirts, no global etc waving Pace flags, (silly me thought it was a political grouping). The police Carabineiri were nowhere to be seen, altho availability was around six thousand, and the protest was stewarded by T.U-Cobas activists, altho they has to give up once the numbers became too much.
Highlights for me, Sixth form Students and their sound system, one of many,and lighting bright red flares which drifted into the evening light.
sharing food and drink with total strangers at the concertin the stadium afterwards and going crazy with many others dancing to Bella Ciao.
The incredible kindness shown to us from the people of Florence who had been subjected to massive propaghanda
and still put out white sheets(anti-war and a sign of solidarity with us).
irish man abroad
Who else from Europe
11.11.2002 16:20
Euro fan
Firenze and London, contrasts & similarities
13.11.2002 17:03
Yes, I saw the offending stickers on the London demo, and the equation of the star of david with the swastika. And I was troubled by this.
While it was the case that solidarity with the Palestinians was evident on the streets of Florence, with lots of Palestinian flags and chants of 'Palestina Libera, -Palestina Rossa", there was no evidence of such insensitive symbols that were seen in parts of the London demo.
However, the London demo was much more multi-racial, with a powerfull mobilisation from Britains Muslim comminities. The Italian grand manifistazione lacked this quality, as did the ESF, being about 95% white.
So perhaps we can tentatively reach a conclusion:
In the Italian movement, progresive communist and trade union ideas are more hegemonic, but over a more homogenous bloc.
While in Britain, the left has successfully worked with Muslims and ethnic minorities targetted by the terror war and achieved joint mobilisation. However, they will find it much harder for socialist ideas to win immediate hegemony within the protest bloc.
Now begins the question: How may we achieve this hegemony, without falling into the trap of replicating imperialist modes of conquest. ( I.E. the language of 'converting' Muslims to 'secular modern' socialism).
Do we celebrate this diversity? Or is it a weakness? Are the slogans of some Islamicist organisations (which do have a base inside a section of Britains oppressed Asian workers and youth)anti-semitic?
I think the very fact of a joint mobilisation is progress, because it is based on an active, oppositional pluralism, which by its nature undermines closed world views and obscurantist sects.
The possibility of new radical democratic and socialist ideas emerging from this solidarity, from all sections of society, black and white, is real.
Re-Sista