The Criminalization of Dissent: Protest Violence, Activist Performance, and the Curious Case of the VolxTheaterKarawane in Genoa

The arrest of the activist performance collective the VolxTheaterKarawane concretely reveals the discourse of criminalization state authorities used to brutally suppress dissent at the 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa, Italy. It is one example of the increasingly common strategy of political elites who promote the perception of political protest as a criminal act, a misapprehension that has profound consequences for the future of democracy and dissent in late capitalism.