Thursday 1 March 2012

Protesters battle with Italian police - videos


  


PROTESTERS in Italy have blocked a motorway with burning barricades in protests against a high-speed rail line being imposed on the area.

As riot cops were sent in to try and crush their resistance to the plutofascist project, which is intended mainly for freight, full-scale battles broke out.



Many people were injured including, claim the authorities, ten policemen.

Opposition to the TAV scheme on the Italian-French border near Turin goes back 20 years and has been subjected to repeated police repression.

Explains an in-depth report on Indymedia: "TAV is the italian acronym for Treno ad Alta Velocità i.e. HSR, High-Speed Rail.

"This is a railway that allows a sustained speed higher than 200 km/h (124 mph) and its peak speed is around 300 km/h. Even though for the most recent project of the Turin-Lyon it would be more appropriate to call it TAC (Treno ad Alta Capacità, High-Capacity Train), since it’s intended mainly for transport of goods, the misleading name of TAV remains.

"Works were supposed to start during the second half of the Nineties, but as of 2011 just a few side structures located in France have been finished. Today’s expectation is that it can’t be completed within 2030.

"The project consists of two twin tunnels, each of them 56-km (35-mile) long and 6-m (20-foot) wide, reaching 2,000 meters of depth underground, plus many other satellite tunnels – each longer than 10 kilometers – one of which is planned to run under Turin."

A shocking video (below) has emerged showing brutal Italian cops smashing their way into a bar in search of No Tav protesters.

The police decided not to use the normal door to the establishment, but a locked side entrance not normally in use, and when the proprietor couldn't find the key in time they simply shattered the glass in a show of fascistic force.

People inside the bar, including youngsters, are clearly scared stiff by the brutal raid.



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