Carlo Giuliani

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Carlo Giuliani (born March 14, 1978 in Rome - died July 20, 2001 in Genoa) was an Italian activist and anarchist who was killed during the demonstrations against the Group of Eight summit that was held in Genoa from July 19 to July 21, 2001.

Carlo Giuliani, son of Giuliano Giuliani, a CGIL trade union activist, and Haidi Giuliani, today a Senator for the Communist Refoundation Party, was killed on July 20, during a violent clash between protestors and Italian Carabinieri in Piazza Alimonda, in the Genoa downtown. A Carabinieri vehicle became stuck and some protesters (wielding metal poles and wooden boards) attempted either to break the windows, to force their way inside, or to injure the occupants. In the midst of this clash, Carlo Giuliani, who was wearing a black ski mask, picked up a fire extinguisher and, apparently intending to throw it at the officers inside the police jeep, was shot in the face by one of the officers. Giuliani fell to the ground as the driver reversed the vehicle, driving over Giuliani's body.

The Carabinieri's vehicle surrounded by protesters. Carlo Giuliani appears at center, in white undershirt and ski mask.

All charges against the police officer who allegedly shot him, Mario Placanica, were dropped, the commission of inquiry concluding that the fatal bullet that struck Giuliani was deflected by a stone in mid-air. This conclusion was the subject of strong criticism, as was the decision not to charge the driver of the jeep on the basis that Giuliani was already dead when run over; medics tending to Giuliani after he was run over testified that his heart was still beating^[1]. Had it been concluded that Placanica shot Giuliani in self-defense, a trial would have been necessary, but the conclusion that the bullet was not fired directly at Giuliani removed the need for any trial.

Carlo Giuliani seconds before being killed.

A number of questions about Giuliani's death remain unanswered, particularly after Placanica told the media in 2003 that "I've been used to cover up the responsibility of others." After making this statement, Placanica was involved in a "suspicious" car accident, days after allegedly observing someone tampering with his car^[2]. Placanica was also allegedly kept in seclusion following the incident, and his parents were not allowed to visit him in the hospital^[3]. Recently, Placanica declared not to have shot Giuliani, and claimed the deadly blow to have come not from the vehicle, but somewhere from the piazza outside.^[4]

Carlo Giuliani is often held up as a martyr for what is commonly called the Anti-Globalization Movement. The anarcho-punk band Conflict released a song in his memory, aptly titled "Carlo Giuliani". [4] Spanish ska band Ska-P remembers Carlo through their song titled "Solamente por pensar" (Only for thinking) [5] and then adapted its lyrics to Italian for a concert in Italy entitling it "Solamente per pensare" (same title translated to Italian) [6]. The North-American "Outspoken Word Troupe" of political poets published a piece entitled "A Tale of Two Giulianis" contrasting Carlo to former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The English anarchist pop group Chumbawamba wrote English lyrics to the traditional World War II anti-fascist Italian partisans song Bella Ciao after visiting Genoa during the G8 summit meeting. The song[7] was dedicated to Carlo Giuliani.

Another song titled "Carlo Giuliani" [8] by the Irish folk-punk band, Lynched, sets lyrics to a some-what haunting tune about the incident. A closing statement by a band member goes, "Carlo Giuliani was not a hero. He was not a martyr. He was one of us.". Even Italian singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini wrote a song about Carlo Giuliani and the G8 summit incidents, named Piazza Alimonda (the place where Giuliani was shot).

Piazza Alimonda, the plaza where Giuliani was killed, was unofficially renamed "Piazza Carlo Giuliani" by activists, who erected a memorial there for mementos, photographs, writings and flowers. This memorial has since been burned twice by unknown vandals. Another memorial, put by the city council, features simply the words "Carlo Giuliani, boy.". Another plaza, in Bern, Switzerland, has also been named "Carlo-Giuliani Platz" in memoriam; the renaming took place during a memorial art exhibition called The Geometries of Memory.

Recently, the Communist Refoundation Party renamed its Presidency Office in the Italian Parliament after Carlo Giuliani. Giuliani's mother, Haidi, was elected Senator for the party in the 2006 election with the main goal to find out the truth behind Giuliani's killing by proposing to start a parliamentary inquiry commission on the G8 facts.