1. impressions: the anti-WEF non-demo/demo1 min read

decentralised demonstrating is kinda cool. i guess the city governement and the cops shot an own goal by not allowing a more classic anti-wef demonstration to take place. now the protest is spreading out all around town. the police is standing around with puzzled expressions; “where is the demonstration?” they seem to be asking. almost randomly they build roadblocks surrounding groups of protesters who are standing next to smiling shoppers with their shopping bags and children or other people just waiting for the bus. there are small groups of protesters all over the place, some had very creative ideas. a group is dressed in military gear, funky style, and marches all around town in mock parade, at times throwing themselves on the floor to perform a sneak approach. another group is dressed as cops with small mustaches, chanting “more cops, more cops”. groups of capitalists, a woman’s block, kids aganinst WEF, bands, even a group playing swiss folk music. its almost a bit surreal at times as it seems everywhere you turn there is more creative protesting going on, but so far its all quite peaceful and in good spirit.
so far.
the riots might be reserved for tonight.
with 900 cops in town some people won’t want to miss that opportunity.
to some extent this is understandable, because the cops have been doing their best to provoke the activists all day long. but today it would also be kind of sad, if things should escalate. without that the enormous cop presence would look frankly out of place and just plain ridiculous…

2 Replies to “1. impressions: the anti-WEF non-demo/demo1 min read

  1. Nun, zu den Ausschreitungen ist es ja nun doch nicht gekommen, was vielleicht auch gut ist so. Zumindest kann die Bullerei und der Staat nun nicht vom Nutzen dieses enormen Aufgebots sprechen, obwohl, das werden sie ja sowieso. Die können zich tausende Franken in diese “Sicherheit” stecken, und die Sache dann meistens auf ihre Seite drehen. In Basel werden am nächsten Wochenende auch alle Wannen aus der Garage genommen, bestimmt sogar.

    Hmmm…zum wiederholten Mal… Wipe out WEF!!!

  2. hi RHO. i hope u dont mind if i respond in english. it is of course happening inexactly that way. the media is saying that the relative quiet at the wipe out WEF demo in bern is due to them. the other thing that really pisses me off, is the importance that is given to the demo. if there would have been riots you can be sure it would have made front page news for days. now that it was (finally) peaceful only a few newspapers gave it frontpage. most banned it to the backpages, some not even giving the story a real article but just a small right up in the side columns.

    and then you wonder why some people say rioting is more effective…

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