Complexity and Social Movements: Multitudes at the Edge of Chaos ...

States fight back 85
being followed immediately by images of his dead body lying in the Piazza.
Broadcast media coverage omitted, however, images of the vehicle reversing
and then driving forwards over the prone body. Activist footage and at least
one agency source captured such images. Following these events there was
an immediate attempt to confiscate cameras in the Piazza by police. After
this tragic death, chants of ‘Assassini’ dominated the day and the word was
painted or hung as a banner on police stations.
Non-violence, like military operations, involves the careful weighing of
options and the removal or containment of factors likely to harm humans –
unlike military operations. Given the summary execution of Carlo and the
authorities’ demonstrable will to use armed force and terror tactics, the
ensuing absence of mass crowd violence and comparatively limited property
damage testifies to the commitment to non-violence within this movement.
Three hundred thousand people subsequently demonstrated in Genoa as
Italian Embassies, Consulates, Multi-national offices and the docking of
Italian flagged shipping became subject to citizen sanctions around the
world. No political leader condemned the police action though the death
was regretted, with violence being attributed to an anarchist bloc. Speaking
through the mainstream media the public were invited to choose between a
global public sphere run by legitimate elected representatives or permitting
an anarchist mob to disrupt ‘progress’. The tacit implication being
that, whilst deaths were regrettable, this was a small price to pay for the
greater good.
Speculation about the alignments between political authority and police
actions assume a greater degree of significance in relation to events in the
immediate aftermath of the main protests. Following the mass march on
Saturday activist accounts (e.g. Neale 2002) reveal experienced individuals
debating where it would be safest to spend the night. Such speculation was
based on the experience of increased levels of aggressive police activity in
the immediate aftermath of previous AGM sieges such as Prague (Chesters
and Welsh 2004, Welsh 2004). In light of this, a number of individuals
eschewed the Convergence Centre as a safe haven opting for the school
established as an official information and Indymedia space for the event.
This calculative decision proved ill-founded as the Diaz school was raided
by a mixed force of around 150 police.
At the time of the raid, the majority of people in the building were asleep
or settling into their sleeping bags. Accounts detail brutal and repeated
beatings, resulting in multiple fractures, extensive bleeding and concussion
(Notes from Nowhere 2003: 361–367). One UK activist centrally involved
in Indymedia work sustained eight broken teeth and several broken ribs.
Initial assaults were followed by cursory paramedic triage and treatment
with the more seriously injured being moved to a variety of medical facilities.
Here, Carabinieri and prison guards continued to intimidate protestors
who remained unclear about their custodial status. Accounts include interactions
in which officers praised Mussolini and Pinochet, the cropping of