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Da: Hilary Keever <hilarykeever@yahoo.com>
Categoria: Biologico
Date: 8/10/00
Time: 5:25:52 PM
Remote Name: 212.216.134.79
On May 25, five thousand protestors flooded the city center of Genoa, Italy to halt the proceedings of TEBIO, the First International Exhibition and Congress on Biotechnology. Traffic was paralyzed and shops closed as representatives from over 400 Italian environmental and political organizations, as well as town and provincial governments that have declared themselves anti-genetically-modified organism (GMO) regions, marched towards the exhibition center.
The protest organizers, centri sociali, a national network of leftist groups, donned the most elaborate costumes, modeled after the Seattle WTO riot cops. Wearing florescent life jackets, scooter helmets, full-body foam armor, and holding plastic shields, an army of 300 self-proclaimed “rubber people” clashed with Italian police to gain entry into the Exhibition. After the worst clash, with a few glass bottles being thrown at police by anarchists, Professor Leonardo Santi, the Promoter for TEBIO, announced to the protestors that the convention had been suspended.
The Italian government quickly followed suit. The Health Department announced the creation of an institution to monitor biotechnology, hoping to protect the health of people and the environment, and pushing for greater transparency in the biotech sector. In addition, Italy and 65 other countries signed a protocol that imposes a series of precautionary actions to regulate the movement of GMO-inclusive products across national borders.
Demonstrators celebrated the triplet of victories as an “Italian Seattle,” and ended the day by constructing a cardboard “castle of Frankenstein” in front of the police who remained blocking the entrance to the convention center. Lucca Casarini of the Centri Sociali del Nordest proposed this to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, “Today the notice is this. TEBIO has put itself in a fortress, and the president has exited it to negotiate with us. We are incurable dreamers, and for this we are invincible.” Hilary
Da:
Categoria: Biologico
Date: 10/9/01
Time: 1:10:25 AM
Remote Name: 80.116.82.95