[Texgreen] Meanwhile in Rome...

[Roger Baker]

[This is from a list of friends who report interesting stuff from  
elsewhere. -- Roger, Austin]




Sally and I made some planning mistakes preparing for this trip to  
Europe.  One was coming to Rome in October, which it turns out is  
high season here.  The streets of Rome may be filled with rubble, but  
you can hardly see it for all the tourists standing on it.  We failed  
in two tries to see the Vatican Museum, detered by estimated 3 hour  
lines to get in and decided we'd seen a lifetimes' worth of Madonnas  
with child already.

     Several days ago, while battling our way out of the Coloseum  
crowds, we passed by a wallposter announcing a Communist Party  
demonstration on Saturday, October 20th.  We always like to take in a  
demonstration while here and that seemed to be a good way to avoid  
the tourists.  But we didn't notice the time and didn't encounter  
another mention of the event, so we dropped in on a neighborhood  
Communist Party office to ask.  The little old men inside didn't  
speak English - or Spanish or French - but got the idea - 2 p.m. at  
the Piazza della Republica.  They didn't raise our expectations.  We  
actually predicted it would be 40 such little old men on a street  
corner waving a tattered red flag.

      As we approached at the appointed hour, there was indeed a red  
flag.  In fact, there were thousands and thousands of them as far as  
you could see, a breathtaking sight.  We found a guy carrying several  
of them and he led us through the dense throng to a truck where they  
were handing them out - free - along with pvc pipes to raise them on.

     This wasn't 40 people or even 40,000.  This was  FUCKING  
HUGE!!!  The Piazza is vast and it was covered with people, all kinds  
of people.  There was a virtual sea of red flags as far as you could  
see in every direction.  Estimates of the number of people ran into  
the hundreds of thousands, but without a helicopter, it would be hard  
to say because you could only rarely see the edges of the crowd.  The  
spirit was amazing - joy, strength and comraderie oozed from the  
throng.  Large trucks laden with sound systems boomed out music to  
energize the crowd - the Red Hot Chili Peppers rockin out "give it  
away, give it away, now", raggae drum circles with massive dreadlocks  
flying, techno rock with throbbing masses, the great Cuban ballad  
"Guantanamera" and more.  There was every kind of people, all ages,  
races and cultures, except those that wore suits.  There were not  
just a few dozen wide banners emblazoned with slogans, there were  
hundreds, from countless leftist groups from all over Italy.  Rows of  
literature tables and radical t-shirts for sale and another  
leafletter every few yards.  But more than anything, there were red  
flags - tens of thousands of them proudly emblazoned with hammer and  
sicle or the image of Che, some with marijuana leaves or PACE rainbow  
flags or Cuban flags.  They stood out in a steady breeze as far as  
you could see.  We wept.

      Finally we started moving down broad boulevards to some unknown  
to us destination.  We walked slowly along for over two hours before  
arriving at another vast piazza where a large stage had been erected  
a huge throng assembled and speeches were already taking place.  We  
listened to a few of them and crowd watched for awhile, but we were  
by this point exhausted by burned up adrenaline and walking, so we  
started back in the direction we had come.  It was hard.  The march,  
curb to curb, was still coming, people chanting, sound trucks  
blaring, flags flying as far up the street as you could see.  We  
fought our way up this human river for at least 10 more blocks before  
we saw the end, marked by a single line of Italian police, followed  
by an array of street sweeping machines.

      We have never seen a demonstration in all our lives like this  
one and never expect to see another one to compare.  The culture of  
the Left here is so broad and deep and strong, we are humbled and  
astounded.  We'll post photos when we get home and can download them  
into our computer.