Rome Anti-Global Protesters Smash Cars, Burn Office

Reuters ^ | October 04 2003 | James Crawford

[knighthawk]

ROME (Reuters) - Anti-globalization demonstrators set fire to an employment agency, smashed cars and windows and hurled insults at government headquarters in Rome on Saturday as they gathered to protest against a European Union summit.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators were due to march through a district south of Rome later to protest against the one-day summit, called to discuss an EU constitution. Organizers said 400,000 could attend.

The demonstrators say the proposed constitution is designed to promote the free market and capitalism and is not focused enough on the need to build peace and understanding.

Witnesses said a group of around 50 masked demonstrators smashed store windows in a southern district of Rome near the Basilica of San Paolo, before throwing a petrol bomb into a temporary employment agency office.

"They blocked off the street with dustbins and old tyres and then attacked the agency with sticks and iron bars before throwing some sort of firebomb into it," Gianni Sugaroni, 36, a resident in the street, told Reuters.

Police said they detained 24 people fleeing the scene and firefighters later put out the fire in the gutted office. A car belonging to Adecco, one of Italy's largest temporary employment agencies, was also destroyed.

Earlier, a crowd of around 500 anti-globalization protesters gathered outside the main government offices in central Rome and threw toilet rolls at the building while shouting insults.

Police used batons to control the crowds, but made no arrests, officials said.

On Friday, a small group of demonstrators dumped several buckets of manure in front of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's private residence in central Rome.

In unison with the anti-globalization march later on Saturday, thousands of trade unionists are scheduled to parade through the center of Rome to protest against not only the summit, but also the government's labor and pension reforms.

Over the past year, the government has tried to overhaul both the labor and pensions systems, leading to protests by trade unions, which have called a general strike later this month to oppose the pension reforms.

Earlier this week, a letter bomb exploded in the mail room of the Labour Ministry in Rome, causing some damage but no injuries, an attack which police said was probably carried out by an anarchist-linked group.

[knighthawk]

Ping

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[July 4th]

Anti-globalization demonstrators set fire to an employment agency and then marched against unemployment later in the day.

[MayDay72]

"Tens of thousands of demonstrators were due to march through a district south of Rome later to protest against the one-day summit, called to discuss an EU constitution."

...Socialism versus socialism...

[americanbychoice]

Europe will be destroyed from within. Expect a revolution within 10 to 15 years.
We need to get out of NATo and let the russians take them over.

[Cicero]

Socialists against Socialists.

It's very reminiscent of Europe in the 1930s, when unemployment was high, political discontent was rampant, and bands of Communists fought bands of Fascists and Nazis in the streets.

It's a left-wing myth that the Fascists and the Nazis (National Socialists) were conservatives. Both groups were mutations of Marxist Socialism. Mussolini began his career as a Communist. Both groups were socialist gangs competing for power. Nobody hates a totalitarian like another totalitarian, eager to seize the levers of power.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Unbelievable! I bet those are the usual "peace" protesters.

[VOA]

Rome Anti-Global Protesters Smash Cars, Burn Office

Now that's the way to win friends and influence people.

If they don't want people to like them or to take them seriously.

[CasearianDaoist]

As a wise man once said:

The difference between Capitalism and Socialism is a simple one: In Capitalism man exploits his fellow man; in Socialism it is the other way around.

[CasearianDaoist]

Nah, you've got it all wrong: It is really all the fault of the USA. We are the cause of all the problems in the EU. Yep, every little one of them.

[MayDay72]

I am not sure if I agree with you on this issue. I guess it depends on how you define the word "exploits". Although Churchill did say something similar:

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent vice of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. -Winston Churchill

[Jacob Kell]

"and is not focused enough on the need to build peace and understanding."

Well, smashing cars and vadalizing building is sure a good way "to build peace and understanding"-NOT! Those are probably just a bunch of bored rich and middle class young punks who feel "rich-guy guilt" or who are just bored. Probably both.

[yankeedame]

It's a left-wing myth that the Fascists and the Nazis (National Socialists) were conservatives....socialist gangs competing for power. Nobody hates a totalitarian like another totalitarian, eager to seize the levers of power.

O! shades of Lenin. O!shades of Robespierre.

[TopQuark]

It's a left-wing myth that the Fascists and the Nazis (National Socialists) were conservatives.

You are absolutely correct, of course. There are several spectra along which one can be on the right or on the left: ecoomic, political, cultural. The Nazis differed from the aocialist of the Marxist vatiety in that they were culturally conservative --- and it is this position that allows the Left to portray them as being on the right; it is this aspect that allows them to hide the fact that in all other respects the Nazis were on the left.

[livius]

This is because private employment agencies are a relatively new thing in Europe. Most of them work outside of the Socialist system, where you get an "employment contract" for life, and work with employers who offer short term contracts. Clearly, since this means you don't have a lifetime guarantee of employment in a do-nothing job in a non-productive industry, it's BAAAD. Well, from a European socialist point of view.

The left is always setting fire to employment agencies - particularly temp agencies - throughout Europe.