One of the modules I use to develop both my own and my students’ abilities to engage in critical thinking through argumentation focuses on the ‘anti-globalisation’ or, and more accurately, the ’alter’-globalisation movment. One of the many areas we are challenged to critically address is that of the role of state-authority and the use of violence. One of the fundamental questions we ask is: “Who Polices the Police?” Undoubtedly a question that those who found themselves at the wrong end of a Carabinieri trunchon in Genoa 2001 have still not found a satisfactory answer to.
The bloody battle of Genoa
When 200,000 anti-globalisation protesters converged on the Italian city hosting the G8 summit in 2001, all but a handful came to demonstrate peacefully. Instead, many were beaten to a pulp by seemingly out-of-control riot police. But was there something more sinister at play? And will the victims ever see proper justice? Nick Davies reports
