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UNITED NATIONS — The recent G-8 Genoa Economic Summit produced the most recent reminder on the state of Eurorabble — those professional demonstrators who descend upon diplomatic meetings offering ever so easy solutions to agonizing global problems. Nearly 100,000 demonstrators of every stripe and shade essentially laid Siege to Genoa, the Summit's mediaeval Italian port venue.
The same sordid crowd that smashed up Seattle, Quebec City, and Gothenburg brought chaos to Genoa. World leaders were knocked off track on their message, the media had a feeding frenzy of chaos, and the poor predictably got the short end of the stick. The crazies ruled the stage.
Much as the storied British football hooligans descend upon soccer matches wherever they may be from hapless Belgian towns to Greek stadiums to wreck havoc, these demonstrations too have a mindless mantra — the catch all phrase of anti-globalism and Kyoto cult environmentalism. Much like the vandals of old, but with cell phone coordination, and boundless desire to bully, the groupies descended upon Genoa and laid siege to the city with a mix of street theater and militancy.
For many of the loony left and the hard core communists, environmentalism has become the new creed. Move over Marx!
With names like the Revolutionary Communist International, these are not all well meaning liberals or leftists but hard core activists from French communist youth groups, Socialist Workers Party, to the Kurdish PKK Marxists, etc.
London's left-leaning Guardian newspaper wrote "An international network of hard-line anarchist groups, including activists from Germany and the UK, spent months planning attacks on property and violent clashes with police...most of the black bloc came from Germany, Italy, France, and the Basque region of Spain."
There are three basic trends among the groups; genuine pacifists and trade unionists, civil disobedience groups, and hard-line anarchists the "men in black" who seek violence and confrontation. The series of running street battles produced a fatality.
Though there are many genuine concerns raised by globalization, be in G-8 Summits, the World Trade Organization, the IMF/World Bank, or any of the other alphabet soup of globalization we are being spoon fed, what transpired in Genoa evokes a mindless cult of violence, couched in concern for the environment and the poor.
I hesitate to quote Tony Blair, but even he was visibly peeved that the anarchists hijacked the Summit's important work. Yet Blair would not concede abandoning the Summits- "So these guys can come and riot and we the democratic leaders should conclude from that, that we should never meet again... Not as far as I'm concerned."
While the annual meetings G-8 Meetings have in themselves become a parody of "We're here, because We're here, because We're here" of global diplomacy, the annual G-8 in while producing its own share of political hot air was not an gilded invitation to smash and burn.
The Genoa violence was preceded by disorders in Quebec City and Gothenburg Sweden, just months ago. Summits have become targets.
Next year's venue promises to bring the Summit to the beautiful and remote Canadian Rockies--rather than more accessible Ottawa. But such a lovely Western Canadian setting may attract enlarged legions of government camp followers and junketeers as well as some unique protest hijinks to assault Jasper or Lake Louise.
Of all the world leaders, Britain's Tony Blair made an impassioned defense of Summity and Genoa. The Times of London argues that while Summits remain useful, "They have become fat and overblown." The Daily Telegraph adds, that "It would be perverse to hold summits simply to show that you have not been cowed by the protesters. For the truth is that these regular get together of world leaders are perhaps the most useless, expensive, and time-wasting feature of modern diplomacy." The Financial Times has called for "Slimmer and more Sporadic Summits."
Some are suggesting that next year's Canadian G-8 Summit be moved to a remote military base or island; both of which are easily found in the land of the North. May I personally recommend Baffin Island, remote, not particularly inviting to anyone--neither the bureaucrats nor the bullies. As for solving the problems the Summits set out to do in the first place — well, perhaps they can hold a Summit.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.
