25th January: Protests in Davos and Brazil25 January 2003
Today's public protests over the WEF were just extraordinary.
About 2,500 people gathered in Davos. The issue of protest has been a major issue in the Swiss media for months partly because two years ago the heavy-handed refusal to allow any protest in Davos village itself contributed to a riot taking place in far-away Zurich. Even speakers at the Public Eye had been stopped from travelling!
This time the authorities permitted a protest at Davos. But they insisted on an airport-style individual security check for every protester attempting to arrive at Davos by train a stop or two short of the village. The protest organisers refused to accept the security checks and blocked them which in turn prevented other trains travelling along the small branch line up to the mountains.
The police consented to checking protesters on the train instead, but then said it was too full and it was turned back. Things turned nasty and riot police and water cannons have been used on thousands of protesters in a town an hour from here - Landquart.
Here in Davos, however, the protest organisers decided to hold the march in reverse - with everyone walking backwards. The march went to the local town hall where the organisers returned the permit they had been given. Seeing such a protest in this picturesque village under a deep covering of snow and with picture-postcard mountains all around was just amazing.
The march was using the slogan 'No War, No WEF' and from what I saw there was little trouble and there were no police on the route of the march. We felt comfortable participating and holding up our own banner made by GroundWork (Friends of the Earth South Africa) and brought by our colleague Bobby Peek - far right in picture below.
But the security operation to protect the CEOs and politicians in the WEF is awesome with massive mesh fences and barbed wire cutting off large parts of the village and hundreds of fierce looking riot police trooping around the interior.
Ricardo [centre] via
video link
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Does this kind of operation make the business leaders feel safe? Or does it make them wonder at how this came to be.
Meanwhile at the World Social Forum...
It doesn't have to be like this. Yesterday evening we had a videolink with our friends and colleagues at the World Social Forum in Brazil - including Ricardo Navarro - Chair of Friends of the Earth International.
They explained that an entirely peaceful march of 100,000 people had taken place with hardly any police present. That march demonstrated that sensitive policing with the consent of marchers and local people can be an invigorating experience. I wonder if that message will get through to the authorities and hotheads in Switzerland.
Sorry for the delayed posting of this story due to technical gremlins.
Don't let big business rule the world,
Matt
Matt Phillips , our Senior Corporates Campaigner is sending daily updates direct from the World Economic Forum.
© Public Eye on Davos
