Independent Media Centre Ireland     http://www.indymedia.ie

Berlusconi's Mousetrap

category international | summit mobilisations | opinion/analysis author Wednesday April 12, 2006 08:40author by aaronrip/indymedia ireland vidheads

Available in four parts as a pretty high quality download here (for the first time I think):
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

The film had a complicated gestation but heavily involved the majority of the original Indymedia Ireland gang. We came back from working with Indymedia Italy in Genoa all fired up and determined to start an Indymedia in Ireland. Almost five years ago that was now.

The Protests against the G8 in July 2001 in Genoa Italy were the biggest and most significant protests in Western Europe since the Poll Tax riots in the UK. Italian Prime Minister Sylvio Berlusconi, wanting to impress his new best mate George W. Bush, orchestrated a brutal Media/Police preemptive strike on the Anti-Capitalist Movements' biggest First World mobilisation to date. When the weekend of protests ended Carlo Guiliani was dead and a school full of sleeping activists had been attacked in what is popularly referred to as the 'Chilean Night'.

The film traces the events of the three days of protests in detail and poses the question - Was it all a setup? If Seattle was 'Star Wars' then this is 'The Empire Strikes Back'. It is made from a combination of footage of the Genoa protests against the G8 shot by 10 members of IMC Ireland, material from the Italy IMC Archives and material from various other sources. This compelling footage combined with on the spot interviews and reenacted voiceover commentary and analysis from various websites which were active during the protests provides a in-depth blow by blow retelling of the story of the three days of the Genoa protests against the G8.

The film will be available on DVD in the run-up to the fifth anniversary of the Genoa protests. Watch this space for details.

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Here is a review of the film from the antichrists: http://struggle.ws/wsm/ws/2002/73/moustrap.html
Here is a reply to that review: http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=20153 (scroll down past listing of articles)
Here is an interview with the editor: http://www.threemonkeysonline.com/threemon_printable.ph...id=94

Related Link: http://mobfilms.allotherplaces.org/

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Comments (15 of 15)

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author by xvidpublication date Wed Apr 12, 2006 10:32author address author phone

eamonn, you should try and use xvid instead of divx. Divx went commercial a while ago, whereas the xvid source code is open source, and still free.

but well done on entering the digital world. vhs is dead... thank fuck!

author by hydrapublication date Wed Apr 12, 2006 22:32author address author phone

xvid is great, but if you want something really free, then use ogg theora
http://www.theora.org/

there's a nice little app for ffmeg to theora

You could also get hosting on v2v.cc or ngvision.org

best

hydra

author by redjadepublication date Wed Apr 12, 2006 23:01author address author phone

go get it
http://www.chomskytorrents.org/TorrentDetails.php?Torre...D=121

i'm sharing some bandwidth for this important video

if others join in - would be good.

author by barrapublication date Fri Apr 14, 2006 15:46author address author phone

The best irish activist video made so far, "Crowd bits wolf" also highly recommended.

author by aaronrippublication date Thu Apr 20, 2006 23:41author address author phone

And a few more stills to whet the appetite

mouseweb1.jpg

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Related Link: http://mobfilms.allotherplaces.org/
author by stenographerpublication date Sat Mar 29, 2008 12:50author address author phone


OK we haven't forgotton Genoa. perhaps younger and older people never really got what happened there. so that's why i'm leaving this update on this thread. There are loads of threads of Genoa. There are books. There are psychological scars. There have been long court cases. But now chief cop is going on trial & up above you can find links to a documentary on the whole thing by Eamon. So if you don't know why we're carrying the chip on the shoulder & bearing that grudge by now at least you can watch telly.

here's the update news link from the Italian leftwing bolshie daily "unita". They remember. It's their front page splash.
http://www.unita.it/view.asp?IDcontent=74162

(best way to annoy cops is to charge them & before you do it quote Juvenal - Quis custodiet ipses custodies? who will guard the guards.., then sing "bang bang I shot my baby down". )
In Ireland they used to carry little cards in their breast pockets with translations to Irish to arrest provos. Back in the days before deaf polish protestants of course.

author by Nonpublication date Sat Sep 13, 2008 03:36author address author phone

I have to say this is the worst movie I've seen about Genoa and I don't recommend anyone see it. The filmmakers might as well have asked CNN to write the part of the script talking about the anarchists and black bloc, because it sounds exactly the same, portraying it as frivolous violence and destruction that cast a bad light on the liberal protestors. The film goes as far to say that the black bloc was essentially the police force and that the police burned their own banks, attacked their own squad cars, and attacked their own prison, as well as injured their own officers. Yeah, right, FUCKING BULLSHIT. I know numerous people that were there and this was NOT the case and it trivializes the sacrifices of those who struggled to allege with no evidence that it was "agent provocateurs." I've heard liberals say this EVERY SINGLE TIME something amazing happens that we all know was NOT the work of "agent provocateurs." Frankly, I think it's largely governments that spread these rumors to discredit any valuable resistance that occurs. And you can't have your cake and eat it too. Carlo Guliani was NOT a cop, but an anarchist who was killed while participating in black bloc activities and while attacking the police. I guess you only take people serious and recognize their resistance as real when they DIE. Pretty sick. Just wait until it's 30 years away from Genoa and these same liberals passively embrace the actions of the black bloc because they happened that long ago. Just like the "non-violent" pacifists that embrace Spanish Civil War imagery and black liberation movements of the 60's. Just as long as you're a few decades removed from the violence that occurred, it's okay in these people's eyes, but not if it happened yesterday.

In short, shitty movie made by liberals who whine about the radical meanies that ruined their silly symbolic protest with violence.

author by Ciaron - Catholic Worker/Ploughsharespublication date Sat Sep 13, 2008 06:50author address author phone

You seem to confuse "being violent" with "being radical", every mainstrem poltical party in Ireland embraces the creation myth of redemptive revolutionary violence that founded this state, likewise in the U.S.

It's pretty much a proven fact that cops disguised themselves as blac bloc at Genoa...what group could be easier to infiltrate than one that masks up and dresses identically? Not only Carlos, but the movement was killed off at Genoa, their was a paradigm created at the time (like prison) where the state could kill unarmed people at events like these and get away with it. A lot of people decided that they weren't going to risk being killed (it was sheer luck that more weren't killed at the police raid on the indymedia centre), went home and stayed home. The creative, courageous militant white overall movement issued a statement and disbanded.

The paradigm shifted a month later with the 911 attack on NYC when "the war came home" to the U.S. (Dan Berrigan SJ). The Bush admin, with whatever level of complicity in the 911 attack (kickstareted the group the movement that attacked NYC definitely, let it happen probably, did it well I don't think so). However it was it was,the "Pear Harbour moment" that the neocons were waiting for and they went on the offensive politically, militarily, in everyway.

The movement that the mainstream media christened at Seattle'99, but was born at the extremeities of the empire, evident in pre-Seattle London J18 and was growing, broadening and networking..that had the urgency of youth and the wisdom of veterans, began to be rolled back. The movement lasted from '99-'02, we are now left with a remnant who don't know how to give up, who have not internally migrated into smack, apolitical existence, politcal/relious subcultutral cultism, whatever. In the meantime the phenmomenon (it was so shortlived you couldn't really call it a "movement" and it is dealt with by the same radical filmmaker in "Route Irish"...google it on this site...free on the web) that reponded immediately to the neocon invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan has come and gone. The first 2/3 of the pop film "The Anarchist Cookbook" has some insights into the movement that began to die at Genoa. The corpse hijacked by Bob, Bono and the NGO's marching for what the G8 could do rather than against its very existence. As Monbiot, a good liberal, observed at the time Bob and Bono thought they could drag Bush and Blair kicking and screaming to their agenda, Bush and Blair brought Bob abd Bono singing and dancing to there's. Like all docs made on a shoestring budget this one has its limitations but is worth the watch and a discussion to follow. Also recommende is the Schnews anarchist pamphlet "Monopolise Resistance"....google that!

Related Link: http://www.peaceontrial.com
author by ecpublication date Sat Oct 25, 2008 14:18author address author phone

http://www.beppegrillo.it/eng/2008/10/kick_cossiga_out_....html

Cossiga, A former President and Minister in Italy advises police on how to deal with student protests. Grillo responds:

"Maroni should do exactly what I did when I was minister for Internal Affairs. In the first place, he should just leave the high school students alone, because, just think what would happen if a youngster were to be killed or seriously injured... Leave them be (the university students - Ed). Pull the Police forces off the streets and out of the University, then send in some “agents provocateurs” to infiltrate the movement, people that are up for anything and leave the demonstrators for about ten days or so to ravage the shops, set fire to vehicles and lay waste to the cities. Then, having gained the support of the public, the sound of the ambulance sirens must drown out the sirens of the Police and Carabinieri vehicles. This is because the forces of law and order should not show any pity whatsoever and should send the lot of them to hospital. Don’t arrest them, after all, the judges would immediately allow them back onto the streets. Rather, you must beat them and also beat up those lecturers that are spurring the students on. The lecturers above all. I’m not saying the elderly ones, certainly, but the little girl teachers yes... this is the recipe for democracy: put out the flames before the fire takes over ".

Interview with Francesco Cossiga. Honorary President of the Italian Republic and senator for life.

Cossiga has finally confessed. This must be noted. At the end of the day, you have to admire his sincerity, because not even Totň Riina ever risked this much. All he did was say what the majority of Italians already knew: Italy is not a true democracy. Perhaps it never was. How many lies have they told us ever since the days of Piazza Fontana? Regarding the events surrounding the G8 meeting in Genoa? Who was it then that set the timer running for the Government sponsored massacres?
Cossiga has given us a masterful lesson in applying the strategy of tension. Now however, after those statements, he should be kicked out of the Senate and his nomination as honorary president of the Italian Republic should be withdrawn. I am keen to see whether or not any member of Parliament or Senator will bother to propose such action to Parliament.
If Cossiga retains his position, it will be shameful for the country and an insult to the professors and their students. He should not be beaten because he too is an elderly lecturer. He should simply be taken off to a private retirement home. I would suggest villa Wanda in Arezzo so that he doesn’t feel too much alone. There, together with Licio Gelli, he will be able to re-live the old days and talk about Gladio, Moro and the secret services...

Just a word of advice for the youngsters: take video cameras with you to the demonstrations and always film anyone you see committing any acts of violence. Then we will all be able to see precisely who they are, where they come from and whether they are "ruffians" as the psychodwarf likes to call them, or rather "agents provocateurs up for anything" as Cossiga suggests.

Related Link: http://www.beppegrillo.it/eng/2008/10/kick_cossiga_out_of_parliament.html
author by mousepublication date Sat Oct 25, 2008 16:59author address author phone

Got this error message when I tried to click on the links at the top of the article:

"There is a problem with this website's security certificate.

The security certificate presented by this website was not issued by a trusted certificate authority.
The security certificate presented by this website was issued for a different website's address.

Security certificate problems may indicate an attempt to fool you or intercept any data you send to the server.
We recommend that you close this webpage and do not continue to this website "

author by redjadepublication date Sat Oct 25, 2008 21:09author address author phone

this should work for ya....
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/04/346.shtml
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/04/347.shtml
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/04/349.shtml
http://video.indymedia.org/en/2006/04/350.shtml

Related Link: http://LMV.hu/redjade
author by anticopyright.tk - Radical Video Librarypublication date Mon Mar 23, 2009 14:11author email anticopyright at moose-mail dot comauthor address author phone

the first part is offline - please, get it back online,
thanx:)

author by anticopyright.tkpublication date Mon Mar 23, 2009 14:13author address author phone

sorry I didn´t get this first, that the links are mirrors. It´s ok now.
Thanx !

author by Roger Cottrell - Counter Intelligence Filmspublication date Wed Mar 16, 2011 10:41author email cifilms2011 at hotmail dot comauthor address author phone 0044 7592316148

Hi,

My name's Dr. Roger Cottrell and I was a good friend of Eamonn Crudden's when he was editing Berlusconi's Moiusetrap at Queens University Belfast (we were PhD student contemporaries, there). Since then, I've set up my own film company (mainly developing feature film ideas) and have become Senior Lecturer in Media and Culture at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancs.

My company website is www.counterintelligencefilms.org


I'm currently working on a series of documentaries that I want to run by my contacts at Channel 4, al-Jazeera and another Middle Eastern based company and was wondering if Indymedia would like to help me for a share of the production credits (plu
s revenue if we make any!!!)

We need comments (and footage links) on the following

1) The "outsourcing" of censorship (as news management) as a factor in the preparation for the "war on terror," i.e. invasions of Afghastan and Iraq.

2) Something on the rise of internet and mob journalism (as Eamon used to call it), that kind of began with Berlusconi's Mousetrap and how it has proliferated since since the Iraq War as a response to embedded journalism and news management.

3) The role of internet and mob journalism in exposing privatised warfare and human rights abuses in Iraq (Eamonn was doing something on Blackwater when we lost touch)

4) Anything you have on privatised warfare, wiki-leaks, etc., that I havn't already gleaned from mainstream media and TECHDIRT

5) The role of the Internet and of mob journalism in the Arab Spring

6) The role of outsourced censorship, news management and privatised military units in the crackdown AGAINST the Arab Spring from Libya to Bahrain and beyond. What's happening to INternet journalism since the Saudi tanks rolled in and what's the role of private security contractors in all this.

If you can help us in ANY of this you'll be credited as sources in the documentary and accompanying magazine articles and books

Related Link: http://www.counterintelligencefilms.org
author by dzsédí magyarországipublication date Sat Oct 06, 2012 09:50author address author phone

https://vimeo.com/8672001


http://www.indymedia.ie/article/75401

Indymedia Ireland is a media collective. We are independent volunteer citizen journalists producing and distributing the authentic voices of the people. Indymedia Ireland is an open news project where anyone can post their own news, comment, videos or photos about Ireland or related matters.