As you may know, twenty Italian activists have been arrested and charged in the last weeks. They have been charged with vague but serious offences including holding opinions against the state! Several charges were made under laws enacted during the fascist rule in the 1920's which were never repealed. Some of the prisoners are still being held in solitary confinement.

The arrests follow the extraordinary success of the European Social Forum in Florence in early November which brought together 60, 000 anticapitalists, trade unionists and NGO campaigners to discuss opposition to the neo-liberal disaster. All those arrested were centrally involved in the forum.

The Italian movement has mounted a massive defense campaign. 100,000 people demonstrated in the small southern city of Cosenza to free the prisoners, 20,000 marched in Florence - more mass protests are planned.

Globalise Resistance alongside Italian movement organisations in England has launched an open letter and is calling a third, mass protest at the Italian Embassy in London to demand the prisoners are released and all charges dropped. We must not allow the criminalisation of the Italian movement,

WE CALL ON ALL THE MOVEMENTS, UNI ONS AND PARTIES WHO WERE IN FLORENCE AND THOSE WHO OPPOSE NEOLIBERAL POLICIES AND WAR TO STAND UP AGAINST THIS BLATANT INJUSTICE.