We expected more people, but the mood was great as this video of the “Afterparty” shows:

As at so many other places, also Occupy Zurich re-occupies, March 17 (2 days later than most).

 

Meeting at the SIX Stock Market Saturday March 17th, and demonstrate there. Afterwards we decide in the GA where we will move to establish the next camp(s).

What started first as a joke and comedy by Reverend Billy, turned quickly more serious when he started to listed all the deaths at a mining facility, where UBS was investing. Further seriousness was introduced when the spectators started to join him and put their hands on the secured entry of the UBS – praying the devil to release UBS.

In the light of the US is threatening swiss banks to help US citizens to aid in tax evasion, the oldest bank of Switzerland “Wegelin & Co” didn’t survive this indictment. Other swiss banks are now targetted as well. It is alike ghostly and unreal, US government and an US comedian address the same: the unethical and illegal activities of swiss banks.

Photos

Cleaning of Credit Suisse and UBS (3/2/2012)

Cleaning up the ethical mess within the Credit Suisse and UBS at the Paradeplatz, main banking place in Zurich.

WTF!? Living Mobs Clean UBS and Credit Suisse by Christopher Kriese (Neue Dringlichkeit)

Saturday 1/28/2012: Pepperspray Meme

At the last OccupyWEF action pepper spray was used by the security forces . . reminding me of the incident last year at UC Davis:

Occupy Meme

OccupyWEF: Press Release ”Occupy greets WEF participants” 1/24/2012

To accompany the kickoff of the World Economic Forum (WEF), OccupyWEF hung a banner 8 meters high in the center of Davos, with the message “Welcome to the WEF – Where the 0.00001% destroy our future.” With this message the movement wishes to emphasize that social, economic, political, and environmental issues and the rights of the individual have taken the back seat to the profit motive in recent years.

Open Letter from Occupy Zurich to the WEF 1/20/2012

Greetings WEF-Members, Greetings Mr. Schwab
We are activists from Occupy Zurich; we followed the press conference on January 18, 2012, via Internet Livestream.  Mr. Klaus Schwab was asked, “Why isn’t Occupy taking part in the WEF?”  He replied he does not know who exactly represents the Occupy movement.

Pepper spray used against Occupy WEF activists
Police reacted with unreasonable measures against peaceful protestors

Pepper spray was used against Occupy WEF activist at a peaceful and authorized rally in Davos. A Video clearly shows, that at no point or time there were any provocations from the Occupy WEF movement.  The police used unreasonable measures: http://www.youtube.com/watch?fv=uYv7ErDIKVI After years of violent protest at the WEF, this year was the year of creative and peaceful protest. No violence or damage to property took place; expect the violence from the police, who sprayed peaceful activist from Occupy WEF at an authorized rally.

At least five people were attacked by the police with pepper spray or tear gas spray. OccupyWEF released a video where the direct attack on the person behind the camera can be clearly seen. The riot police attacked the activists after he spoke the words “this is about protecting the people” With those words the activist with the camera tried to calm down the situation. The second activist stuck Post-It notes with the message love and peace against the steel fence, which was put between riot police and the protestors. Previously, the police had cordoned off the towns hall square, where the approved rally took place. In response to this first provocation by the police, the activists started to build small snow OccupyWEF demonstrators. The snow men and women wore little slips of paper with messages like: “Melt down the WEF”, or “Where are the other 6.999 billion leaders.”

Unreasonable attack
OccupyWEF condemns the attacks by the police as disproportionate. The police maced the protestors through a sturdy steel fence. Occupy WEF didn’t committed any acts of provocation. There was no need or urgency that could justify the use of pepper spray against non-violent protestors. The disproportion between the protection of the WEF and the repression of Occupy WEF activists shows that the public security forces are abused not only to protect the elite private meeting of the WEF, but are also forced to criminalize protest in general.

Occupy draws parallels
This attack  is reminiscent of the pepper-spray attack on the Wall Street Occupy movement on 21 November 2011, at the UC Davis site in California, where police forces sprayed seated protesters with pepper spray. The at the time involved police officer were suspended after a public outcry. Just as in California, now also in Davos the inhibition threshold for violence is lowered. OccupyWEF concludes that the proportionality had not been communicated well to the forces involved. Else the movement cannot explain why such violent measures have been used against peaceful activists.

Media Group OccupyWEF
medien@occupyzuerich.ch
www.occupyzuerich.ch www.occupywef.ch
twitter: @occupyparadepl @occupyzurich @occupywef @occupy_wef

OccupyWEF takes part in Open Forum

Today in a General Assembly, OccupyWEF decided by basic-democratic consensus that an activist from the movement will take part in tomorrow’s OpenForum panel (Friday, January 27th at 7:00 p.m.). OccupyWEF is irritated with Klaus Schwab for having stated in the media that the movement has also been invited to the World Economic Forum (WEF) itself. The movement has not been directly contacted in any form, much less been invited to the WEF, by WEF officials.

The movement is frustrated that the invitation to the OpenForum came only very recently and over indirect, poorly organized channels while other participants have already been known months in advance. This invitation appears to OccupyWEF to have been simply another step in the WEF’s disingenuous media dance, and is not to be appraised as genuine interest in OccupyWEF’s input at the OpenForum. The movement also doubts that the WEF is open to any solutions formulated in a basic-democratic way. This is clearly demonstrated by the breakdown of the WEF’s list of participants: Out of 2600 participants only roughly 20 Social Entrepreneurs have been invited, this despite Klaus Schwab’s having gushed that Social Entrepreneurs are the heroes of the 21st century.

The OpenForum Panel will take place on Friday, January 27th at 7:00 p.m. at the Schweizerische Alpine Mittelschule Davos, Aula, Guggerbachstrasse 3, Davos Platz.

Media Group OccupyWEF
medien@occupyzuerich.ch
www.occupyzuerich.ch www.occupywef.ch
twitter: @occupyparadepl @occupyzuerich @occupywef @occupy_wef

OccupyWEF receives director of Greenpeace International in Igloo Camp in Davos

OccupyWEF will host a prominent visitor. Kumi Naidoo, the director of Greenpeace International, will join the Igloo Camp in Davos for dinner and conversation, followed by a cozy night’s sleep in an igloo. With this event, the Occupy Movement and Kumi Naidoo wish to draw attention to the fact that 6.9999 billion people have no voice at the World Economic Forum (WEF). Naidoo is hoping to bring at least one of these voices to the WEF. OccupyWEF does not recognize the WEF as representative of the 99% and looks forward to this chance for a face-to-face conversation.

Kumi Naidoo, the executive director of Greenpeace International, will visit the Occupy Movement in Davos on Thursday, January 26^th, for dinner and conversation with activists followed by a night camping out in an igloo. “As the crisis of equity, ecology and economics escalate; the public frustration over the way our planet is being run by the 1% cannot be ignored or silenced. If the leaders in Davos, be they of government or companies, do not realize that their future is bound to that of the 99%, and place equity, ecology and economy at the centre of any solutions, then they are consciously sleepwalking us into crisis of epic propositions, and jeopardizing all of our futures, including their own.” said Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International.

For the Occupy Movement, this is a sign that face-to-face contact with prominent leaders is possible—quite contrary to what the comportment of WEF participants may suggest. OccupyWEF criticizes the WEF for not including the 99% in its decision-making, and emphasizes that 6.9999 billion people are being left out—and that bottom-up solutions should be sought. Occupy WEF stresses that “the representatives at the WEF are fully capable of taking on the corrupt financial system, climate change, world hunger, poverty, and many other issues. They have the means financially, they have the connections, and they have the power to implement fundamental transformations. Instead they sit in Davos and work on increasing their companies’ profits at the expense of 6.9999 billion people. We demand that they finally put their money where their mouths are!”

OccupyWEF Week of Action – despite police threats of consequences for peaceful actions

OccupyWEF has erected an Igloo Camp in Davos and is carrying out creative and peaceful direct actions daily. On Tuesday WEF participants were greeted with a banner reading, “Welcome to the WEF, where 0.00001% destroy our future.”Further actions like loudly beating on kitchenware outside the Convention Center, messages written in the snow, and spontaneously singing protest songs show that this year a new wind is blowing at the WEF and that the 99% can no longer be ignored. Yesterday the movement let fly a giant banner over Davos reading: “Hey WEF, where are the other 6.9999 billion leaders?” Despite police threats of consequences should there any further trouble, OccupyWEF will continue peaceful actions over the course of the week.

medien@occupyzuerich.ch
www.occupyzuerich.ch www.occupywef.ch
twitter: @occupyparadepl @occupyzurich @occupywef @occupy_wef

Occupy greets WEF participants
WEF’s own greeting “occupied”

To accompany the kickoff of the World Economic Forum (WEF), OccupyWEF hung a banner 8 meters high in the center of Davos, with the message “Welcome to the WEF – Where the 0.00001% destroy our future.” With this message the movement wishes to emphasize that social, economic, political, and environmental issues and the rights of the individual have taken the back seat to the profit motive in recent years.

The invited guests of the WEF represent the 1% which controls 50% of global wealth. They represent first and foremost multinational corporations and in the context of today’s prevailing profit-maximization dogma insist on constant economic growth. The movement sees this as incompatible with the WEF slogan “Improving the State of the World” because the profit- and growth- motive, along with its inevitably accompanying debt pressure, is the cause of many of the urgent problems in today’s global society.

OccupyWEF wants inclusion of the 99%
The guests of the WEF drive today’s global economic politics and have to a great extent helped to cause today’s global problems. The movement wishes to point out that it is exactly these people, who claim to be developing new solutions to be carried out worldwide—under the motto “the Great Transformation: Shaping New Models”–really only serve the interests of the 1%. The movement demands that these very real problems be taken seriously and without excluding the 99%, and that criticism of the WEF not be criminalized. OccupyWEF is of the opinion that a global economic system based solely on competition, growth and profit only gets in the way of solving global problems.

No reply to open letter
WEF organizers have not reacted to OccupyWEF’s open letter, published on January 20th. They have offered neither a chance at participation at the WEF nor a seat at the OpenForum session “Remodeling Capitalism”, a discussion which will directly address the worldwide Occupy Movement. This brings the movement to the conclusion that the WEF is considering sweeping global ideas, strategies and solutions without including or listening to the people who these strategies and solutions directly affect.

Occupy WEF Media Group
medien@occupyzuerich.ch
www.occupyzuerich.ch www.occupywef.ch
twitter: @occupyparadepl @occupyzurich

Greetings WEF-Members, Greetings Mr. Schwab

We are activists from Occupy Zurich; we followed the press conference on January 18, 2012, via Internet Livestream.  Mr. Klaus Schwab was asked, “Why isn’t Occupy taking part in the WEF?”  He replied he does not know who exactly represents the Occupy movement.

Yes, this could be seen as problematic – but at issue is not Occupy’s representatives or seeming lack thereof.  The problem is about representation as such in our current political systems worldwide. Despite these systems’ claims of being democratic, they do not act democratically; this is demonstrated clearly by the WEF itself.  Here is the 1% which controls 50% of all wealth and uses it to buy political influence among democratically elected representatives to further its own agenda. This view of current power structures is widely held, and has been given urgent expression by the Occupy movement.

At the WEF press conference it was said that the WEF seeks solutions for 100% of humankind.  But you cannot just invite the 1% and claim to find solutions for all – this has never worked, and this is becoming more obvious than ever before. Out of this very fact Occupy was born. Yet as far as we know there has been no invitation extended by the WEF to the Occupy movement, not even for the OpenForum where Occupy is a discussion topic (Remodelling Capitalism). There is talking the talk and then there is walking the walk. This lack of real democractic outreach shows that the WEF operates only from the perspective of the 1%.

Mr. Klaus Schwab seeks, based on his own words, a wholistic solution. We would be delighted if this were more than just talk. The Occupy movement worldwide and Occupy Zurich in particular wonder: when will he walk the walk? When will Occupy be invited to a WEF panel or discussion?

Occupy is a broad movement, perhaps as broad as the WEF would like to pretend it is but can never be.  People from all walks of life are represented. For example, sure, there are “hardcore” activists among us who have been politically active for quite some time, but then there are activists who still would not call themselves activists, who prior to October 2011 had never been politically active as such. But all are people who have taken responsibility for themselves and their future and who seek, at long last, a real dialogue with those responsible for the current state of the world.

“Together rather than alone we walk the path of change” is one of our slogans at Occupy Zurich. It is only together that we can develop and implement changes which are supported by all; in this process there are no “winners and losers” anymore.  If Mr. Schwab and WEF members are serious about their slogan “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models,” then the activists of Occupy Zurich are ready to join this dialogue. We are also seeking a Great Transformation.

Sincere regards,

Occupy Zurich Media Group
medien@occupyzuerich.ch
www.occupyzuerich.ch / occupyzurich.jimdo.com
twitter: @occupyzurich

by Corin (Occupy Zurich, January 2nd, 2012)

10th December 2011 I visited our fellow comrades in Stockholm. This is a small report, as the video, which I recorded, are rather add-ons, as substantial ingredients of the report. Failed, but something learned.

The occupiers pitched their tents at the Brunkebergtorget, a small green space between the swedisch banks. They were not evicted, quite the contrary, the police offered security to them. Their main objectives reside in the improvement of the democracy and in the higher state of the human rights related to the financial system.

When I arrived and said, that I came from Occupy Zurich and visiting, one occupier jumped up and gave me a hug with the words, that I was the first international visitor and he was very happy about it. What followed were hours of good and explosive topics of topics. Internationally Occupy Stockholm was welcomed, as Sweden has a good reputation in regards of social aim. So, the stockholmers think far reaching: the idea about an international network in Europe to occupy a piece of land with 20,000 to 30,000 people, and my jew dropped when I heared that. The nations should permit to let a kind of guenie pig for an alternativ system, as the occupier suggested. How would they evict a couple of thousands of people? More than an idea or vision this wasn’t yet, but a beautiful one I think.

The camp has about 10 tents, whereas one art gallery, a working tent (see video below) and a tent for storage which belongs to the collective. Of course the tent for sleeping are wind and winter proof, with small gas hearts which heat the tents within minutes to a cozy temperature. Aside of the demonstrations the stockholm occupiers also organize free flee markets at the subway stations.

See you soon !

References:

• OccupyStockholm.org
• OccupyForum: Visiting Occupy Stockholm