soon, as every year in january, the World Economic Forum [WEF] will be held in davos, switzerland.
and as each year this will provoke huge protests and demonstrations among the anti-globalists and radical leftists here in switzerland.
after last years disasters in landquart, where hundreds of protesters were prevented to even attend the demonstrations, and everywhere else protests were planned, this year a big anti-WEF demonstration is planned to be held in bern switzerland on the 22. of january.
here the according information on indymedia.ch [in german/french/italian/turkish not in english tho]
for a few weeks now the city government of bern [gemeinderat] has been engaging in an incredibley lame armwrestle about permits and which events to allow with the organisers. an event that was planned to take place prior to the big demo, Tanz gegen das WEF – a mobile dance street party in the reclaim the streets manner, was not given the propper permits. the main demonstrations was also not given permits and only a manifestation in an inclosed area was given the go-ahead. protesters going to this this fenced-off manifestation area were to be ID-checked upon entering.
needless to say that this absolutely unacceptable from the point of view of the organisers. so things are not looking very resolved at the moment.
i am shocked to see how very repressive our so-called red/green city government is handeling this. don’t they understand that these protesters are the kind of crowd that will hold demonstrations without or without permits. but instead of finding an acceptable solution with the permits bern preferes to pull in 100’s of police force to counter the protesters. so i guess for now only some people, those who are into this kind of thing, can look forward to a weekend of violent riots and street fighting with the cops… sad.
on a more positive note: this upcoming weekend the stop WEF tour de lorraine party [Heisse Party für taffe Zeiten ] will be held in bern with a great number of parties and concerts. programm here.