Press reports initially described Carlo as “homeless and unemployed, with a criminal background.” Carlo’s father is an official of the CGIL, the large, Communist affiliated trade union federation.
“Carlo was the exact opposite of what people have written about him. He was a boy of great generosity who was opposed to injustice. He read, he studied, he discussed, and he protested for his ideas. He always cared about others. And he always worked, if irregularly. He worked in the jobs that all young people are forced to take – in the black economy, without any security, without any rights.
“The press said he had a criminal record. When he was 17 the police misidentified him as a criminal. He was accused of ‘aggression against a public official.’ But the judge laughed the case out of court and cleared him of the charges. Carlo didn’t accept the notion that eight leaders of the world should decide the life and death of hundreds of thousands of people. Here in Genoa you do not need to go far to see the victims of their policies. Come back after the G8 have gone and you will see the desperation of those who are left in hunger, those who are forced to flee their own countries and settle here, forced to survive without any dignity in the alleyways that surround the harbor.
On Friday’s demonstration Carlo wore a balaclava, yes. But you cannot equate the throwing of a fire extinguisher with a gunshot to the head. In some ways we didn’t understand each other. I am a member of the Democratic Left (former Communist Party) — well, I was, our branch has been closed for months.
There won’t be his liveliness in our house anymore. We won’t have his jokes about football. And we won’t have our political discussions anymore. But maybe now is the time for new people to open up new branches so we can carry on discussing.”