"Put an end to the game of the powerful" Several hundred WEF opponents demonstrate in Bern
Opponents of the World Economic Forum (WEF) gathered in Bern on Saturday for an unauthorized demonstration. The slogan was "Smash WEF - Stop the game of the powerful, a good life for all".
18.01.2025, 16:18
18.01.2025, 17:32
SDA
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- Several hundred demonstrators gathered in Bern for an unauthorized rally against the World Economic Forum (WEF).
- They criticized the WEF as a symbol of capitalism and global crises such as climate change, wars and social injustice.
- The WEF, which takes place in Davos from Monday, brings together over 3,000 decision-makers to discuss global challenges.
Several hundred people responded to the call of the far-left groups Bern's Revolutionary Youth and Nowef Winterquartier. The demonstrators gathered on Bahnhofplatz in the afternoon and set off on a march through the city center at around 3.15 pm. The police initially let them go.
The WEF in Davos symbolizes capitalism with its climate crisis, wars, economic crises, discrimination and oppression, according to the call for the demonstration. The WEF participants discussed crises that they themselves had caused.
After just over an hour, the police called on the protesters at the entrance to the Lorraine district to break up the demonstration. They complied with the call.
Walk to Davos
Previously, around 350 WEF and capitalism critics had set off from Küblis GR on a two-day protest hike to Davos, 25 kilometers away. The mostly young critics of capitalism had mainly traveled to the canton of Graubünden from Switzerland and Germany, as a reporter from Keystone-SDA reported. However, demonstrators from Belgium, Portugal, England and even Peru also found their way to the Prättigau region in the depths of winter.
"We are criticizing the elite who presume to speak for the people while millions of people are already dying from climate change," a media spokeswoman for the Strike WEF collective told the Keystone-SDA news agency. The basic aim of "Strike WEF" is to criticize capitalism. In recent years, the demand for climate justice has also been a central theme.
The WEF begins on Monday in Davos. Over 3,000 people, including top politicians, business leaders and representatives of social organizations and the media, will spend five days discussing global challenges.