Like Son, Like Father

To many, Carlo Giuliani remains the ambiguous, faceless figure in the famous photograph — a wiry young man in a black ski mask and white tank top ready to hurl a fire extinguisher through the broken window of a police jeep. Of course, the photo — taken at the G-8 protests in Genoa last July — also show the police officer’s gun pointed at the 23-year-old. That shot made Carlo the first fatality suffered by the antiglobalization movement.

Since his death last July, Italy has learned about Carlo Giuliani’s brief life through the interviews with his friends and family that have been turned into documentary movies and national television specials. They know the Rome native grew up in Genoa, coming to despise the poverty and greed he saw around him. But they also know that he may have got caught in the swirl of violence that sunny day largely by chance. Several friends say that Carlo only decided at the last minute to skip a trip to the beach to check out the demonstrations. Italy has also learned about Carlo’s father. Giuliano Giuliani, a 64-year-old retired union organizer, has became a poignant voice for his silenced son and the movement he came to symbolize. Though he was often perplexed by Carlo’s spartan lifestyle, he has come to appreciate the power of renouncing global capitalism — and its products. “Critical consumption is an enormous force,” he said during a recent interview with Time in Piazza Alimonda, the small square where his son was killed.

Giuliani, who has become a vocal critic of the way police handled the Genoa protest, will lead the Carlo Giuliani Truth and Justice Committee, a group demanding full disclosure of the facts about Genoa, to the European Social Forum this week in Florence. As for government warnings that violence may return: “It’s another deliberate attempt to destroy the movement,” he says. His activism, he admits, is a way to cope with loss. “My wife said it best: it’s like we’re holding our breath. When we stop talking with other people, we’ll begin to breathe again. And then it will hurt even more.”