Black Block

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Genoa 2001 Repression is part and parcel of democracy - a power system that, along with legitimacy and consensus, needs to be controlled when a population or political group tests the limits of their freedom. Genoa's G8 Summit in 2001 demonstrated this in the fiercest of ways. As the G8 Summit drew to a close and the press and politicians had departed, 300 riot police stormed the Diaz School looking for members of the infamous Black Block. Instead, they found young activists, mostly students, teenagers, and journalists from around Europe preparing to bunk down in the school gym. Undeterred, they unleashed a calculated frenzy of violence, beating both young and old, male and female indiscriminately. Those seriously injured were rushed to the hospital in ambulances, though soon after, they were forced to join those who had been arrested and driven to the Bolzaneto detention center where they were subjected to further abuse and degradation. Through the testimonies of Lena and Niels (Hamburg), Chabi (Zaragoza), Mina (Paris), Dan (London), Michael (Nice), and Muli (Berlin), Black Block renders a firsthand account of those who experienced the violence in the raid on the Diaz school and their subsequent torture. Several of them chose to return to Genoa for the trials of the police officers involved. Amnesty International called the trial results "The most serious suspension of human rights in a Western country since the Second World War."