ITALY: AROUND 2 MILLION WORKERS DECEND ON ROME IN MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION AGAINST MURDER OF A GOVERNMENT ADVISER AND LABOUR MARKET REFORMS
Record ID:
647314
ITALY: AROUND 2 MILLION WORKERS DECEND ON ROME IN MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION AGAINST MURDER OF A GOVERNMENT ADVISER AND LABOUR MARKET REFORMS
- Title: ITALY: AROUND 2 MILLION WORKERS DECEND ON ROME IN MASSIVE DEMONSTRATION AGAINST MURDER OF A GOVERNMENT ADVISER AND LABOUR MARKET REFORMS
- Date: 23rd March 2002
- Summary: (W5) ROME, ITALY (MARCH 22, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. PROTESTERS WALKING IN CENTRAL ROME / PAN DOWN STREET 0.08 2. VARIOUS PROTESTERS WALKING, MANY HOLDING BANNERS (3 SHOTS) 0.26 3. SV: CHILDREN STANDING ON PAVEMENT 0.30 4. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WITH BANNERS GATHERED IN THE HUGE CIRCO MASSIMO - SITE OF THE ANCIENT CHARIOT RACES (6 SHOTS) 1.11 5. LONG VIEW OF PROTESTERS ON INCLINE, HOLDING FLAGS 1.16 6. VARIOUS PROTESTERS MOVING LARGE FLAG THROUGH CROWD (4 SHOTS) 1.36 7. PAN/LV: MORE OF PROTESTERS IN CIRCO MASSIMO (2 SHOTS) 1.48 8. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) TWO UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS, SAYING: "It's great, we are so many. It's a party. It's a party for everyone." 1.59 9. VARIOUS CROWD OF PROTESTERS (2 SHOTS) 2.15 10. CU: (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) PROTESTER ENZO MARCHESE, SAYING: "These people here are protesting because they want to defend their rights not because they want to stop reforms. Trade unions have always been in favour of reforms but with a healthy tendency to preserve rights." 2.29 11. WIDE VIEW OF THE SCENE / MORE OF PROTESTERS (2 SHOTS) 2.41 12. AERIAL VIEW OF CROWD; COLISEUM 2.52 13. AERIAL VIEW OF CROWD IN CIRCO MASSIMO 3.05 (U3) ROME, ITALY (MARCH 22, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 14. SLV/MV: SECURITY (2 SHOTS) 3.12 15. VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATORS EARLIER IN THE DAY, WALKING TOWARDS MEETING PLACES BEFORE THE MARCH OFFICIALLY BEGAN (2 SHOTS) 3.20 16. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) LUCA CASARINI, ONE OF THE MAIN LEADERS OF THE ITALIAN ANTI-GLOBALISATION MOVEMENT, SAYING: "We are millions marching to change this world and this country. We are fed up. We want a real democracy." 3.35 17. VARIOUS: MORE OF DEMONSTRATORS BEFORE THE MARCH OFFICIALLY BEGAN (2 SHOTS) 3.46 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 7th April 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ROME, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Reuters ID: LVAADPZ4Z1APO9147GXR18YJBIU
- Story Text: Up to two million workers have descended on Rome in a
massive show of force against the killing of a government
adviser and against labour reforms he had helped write.
More than 9,000 buses and 60 special trains brought
members of Italy's largest union, the CGIL, from all corners
of Italy to attend the rally in Rome on Saturday (March 23).
The capital was blocked off to all traffic due to the march
through the city.
There was a heavy police presence on watch for any
disturbances. Hundreds of anti-globalisation protesters
mingled with the crowds of unionist and non-unionist marchers.
Television broadcasts and union leaders estimated the
turnout was "up to two million" people. Police said there were
at least a million protesters and thousands were still
arriving hours after the march got underway.
The CGIL union said the giant turnout made the protest
Italy's biggest since 1994, when more than one million people
took to the streets to demonstrate against proposed pension
reforms.
Rivers of red CGIL flags flowed through Rome from six
locations as the march got under way, with the different
streams converging on the Circo Massimo, site of ancient Roman
chariot races.
Two protesters soaking in the atmosphere of the event
marvelled at the number of people and said, "It's great, we
are so many. It's a party. It's a party for everyone".
Another protester, Enzo Marchese, explained why he had
come to support the rally.
"These people here are protesting because they want to
defend their rights not because they want to stop reforms.
Trade unions have always been in favour of reforms but with a
healthy tendency to preserve rights," he said.
Originally designed as a protest against the government's
plans for radical labour market reform, the protest was recast
this week as a demonstration against "terrorism" following the
assassination of government adviser Marco Biagi.
Biagi, a highly respected economist who had worked with
both the previous centre-left administration and the current
conservative government on labour issues, was gunned down in
front of his home on Tuesday (March 19) as he bicycled back
from work.
Before the march officially began, some 60,000 people had
already gathered at the final meeting point in bright spring
sunshine to wait for the main rally.
Waving banners reading "They did truce through killing"
and "Don't touch Article 18" -- a reference to the labour
reform the government wants to push through -- the protesters
appeared determined but peaceful.
They were also keen to separate Biagi's murder from the
labour movement, a link some politicians on the right had
tried to make this week.
Luca Casarini, one of the leaders of the Italian
anti-golbalisation movement taking part in the rally, said,
"We are millions marching to change this world and this
country. We are fed up. We want a real democracy".
The shooting of Biagi raised fears of a return to the
politically motivated violence that scarred Italy in the 1970s
and 1980s.
An offshoot of the Red Brigades, a militant group which
carried out political killings in Italy in that period,
claimed responsibility for the Biagi murder saying it had
"executed" him because of his proposals for reforming labour
markets.
The killing came at time of heightened social and
political tension in Italy, with unions threatening a
paralysing general strike to show their anger at reforms which
would make it easier to hire and fire workers.
While unionists were among the first to condemn Biagi's
killing, the death and its timing has left the labour movement
in a delicate position.
On Friday (March 22), the day Biagi was buried,
conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called on the
unions to rejoin negotiations over the reforms, which a week
ago broke down completely after the government said it would
make no more
concessions.
A series of protests in late 1994 eventually led to the
collapse of the government which then, as now, was led by
Berlusconi. However, Berlusconi's current government is much
stronger than in 1994.
Saturday's march is one of several planned in the days
and weeks ahead which pit the power of the unions --
representing some 12 million workers -- against the
government.
On Wednesday (March 20) the three major union federations
are co-sponsoring a mass demonstration against terrorism and
for workers' rights, the day after they, the government and
employers' representatives are due to resume talks.
Next week the unions will set a date for a general strike,
which leaders have said will take place in April.
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