Heavy repression against anti- EU summit protestors in Rome

Over 70.000 protestors took to the streets of Rome on Saturday against the EU-summit of 25 heads of state. At this EU-summit they will mainly discuss the European Constitution. The largest demo was to head for the congress centre but was stopped by the police. At about 18.30 the police were “cleaning up” the demo through continuous charges and teargas-assaults. In the morning there were roadblocks that intended to block, or at least disrupt the summit. At 11.42 the “disobbedienti”, an Italian activist group, blocked one of the main roads in the city. There was also an action against the temping office “Adecco”. The European Trade Unions also marched through Rome. From September 29th till November 2nd the squat “L38Squat/laurentinokkupato” is organizing DIY weeks, workshops and a self managed hostel facility.

Even if the police denied there were so called “red zones”, the area was swarmed with some 9.000 cops, that weren’t only there to guard the European Summit, but also set up along the trajectories of the main demo. Groups of 20, 50 or 200 policemen were positioned throughout the whole zone, to protect sensitive objects and buildings, but also to get into action in case of “irregularities”. At about 11.30 they charged for a first time to disperse a group of activists that were throwing rolls of toilet paper at the Palazzo Chigi and the riot police standing in front of it. The police do seem to behaving as bad as they did in Genoa in 2001.