Tensions and stunts in city ahead of G8
by Caroline Prosser (staff) | Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
G8 leaders lying on a triclinium, eating grapes and reciting ancient poems accompanied by a cetra, whilst huge flames destroy Rome. Courtesy of Oxfam, Credit: Nicola Sacco
Demonstrations, protest marches, stunts and road blocks have already begun in Rome ahead of this month’s 8-9 July G8 meeting in L’Aquila.
Oxfam, a group of non-governmental organizations from three continents working worldwide to fight poverty and injustice staged a stunt photo in the Circus Maximus in which the eight world leaders ‘fiddle while Rome burns’, ignoring the world crisis around them.
Polar bear protests, photo courtesy of Greenpeace
The city’s most picturesque tourist areas were also invaded by costumed Polar bears organised by Environmental campaigners Greenpeace, carrying notices with slogans such as “I’ve lost my home because of global warming”.
At Rome’s La Sapienza University, students occupied the chancellor’s office to protest against student arrests for involvement in last May’s G8 riots at Turin University.
At 9.30 this morning the Italian Coalition against Poverty protested in Piazza del Popolo, lamenting the “critical situation caused by a lack of respect from Italy’s political and financial bodies under the gaze of the international community”.
This afternoon NoG8, a group composed of social centres, immigrant and temporary workers’ rights associations, will protest at Piazza Barberini with a possible march towards the Ministry of Employment. Organisers have also warned of further demonstrations and blocks of traffic flow throughout the city.
Tomorrow sees the distribution of a ‘Crisis Map’, inspired by the model used by London protesters during the G20, which will also involve other Italian cities of Palermo, Salerno and Turin, while Thursday will see a protest in front of the Centre of Identification and Deportation at Ponte Galera at 16.30.
U2’s Bono wrote a ‘love letter’ to Italy published in La Stampa asking leaders to fulfil their obligations to the world’s poor.
