Through a large demonstration in Bern, we wish to express our solidarity with the protests against the WEF in Salzburg and simultaneously to send a signal to Davos and to the Swiss federal Parlaiment: the WEF has no democratic legitimacy and we will not permit it to return to Davos.
On the 16th and 17th of September, in Salzburg, Austria, there will be the European meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF). The WEF is an exclusive paid-entry club of the 1,000 richest multinational corporations in the world, many of whom are heavily involved in military contracting. It is one of only two non-governmental organizations that has consultative status with the United Nations.
As with the annual meetings of the WEF in Davos, Switzerland, the protests against the actions of the self-proclaimed global leaders are growing. As in Davos, the WEF transforms half the city into a military fortress. But the WEF is not only in Davos. On five continents, it organizes annual meetings to dicuss specific regional questions. This year, there were WEF meetings in Durban (South Africa), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Beijing (China), New Dehli (India), and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).
The WEF forum on European questions has taken place in Salzburg for several years. Last year in Salzburg, despite a general police prohibition on demonstrations, thousands of demonstrators managed to enter the Red Zone. Police responded with tear gas, dogs, and brutality from the riot police, and encircled hundreds of demonstrators in the street, holding them there in the sun for more than six hours. Despite this, demonstrations remained festive and creative, winning a high degree of support from local residents, and protests continued for several days. This year, the integration of Eastern Europe into the EU and NATO is the central theme of the Salzburg meeting. Instead of integration, it is more a question of exploiting resources, such as cheap labor, to benefit the European economy. These projects are calling for global structural reforms of the candidate States (the keyword is privatization) to permit the European corporations access to the Eastern markets. The «reforming states» will profit from this from alongside the corporations. These structural adaptations are not only imposed by economic pressures but also, if necessary, by military means. Migration politics (fortress Europe, selective immigration) and security politics will be among other themes addressed during this meeting.
Created at the beginning of the 1970s as a European management forum, in the 1990s the WEF transformed itself into an interface between multinational corporations and governments.
With the disappearance of the two-power world order in 1989, new markets could be conquered; the WEF offered (and still offers) a nearly ideal framework to conquer them with. Representatives of the world's thousand largest corporations (two thirds of which come from North America and Europe) can meet in an informal setting to negotiate and do business among themselves, but also with important representatives from governments around the world. It is obvious that the principal concern here is the profit going to CEOs and the politicians in league with them. Social problems are not seriously discussed unless they cause serious problems for the economy. Ideologically, the neoliberal paradigms in place today have been co-developed in a decisive manner through the pressure that the WEF exercises on governments.
Through a large demonstration in Bern, we wish to express our solidarity with the protests against the WEF in Salzburg and simultaneously to send a signal to Davos and to the Swiss federal Parlaiment: the WEF has no democratic legitimacy and we will not permit it to return to Davos. The ten million Swiss Francs (about seven million Euros) that the State plans to spend to protect the WEF summit in Davos, could be spent in a more intelligent manner! On September 14th, we will make a trip around town, visiting the different members of the WEF that have their offices and shops in Bern, to loudly express our revulsion and revolt.
Primary supporters: ATTAC Switzerland, Cafébeldia, CETIM Geneva, Direct Solidarity with Chiapas of Zurich, Swiss Anti-WTO Coordination, FAUCH of Bern and Thun, the Swiss Greens, Inwo Switzerland, World Women's March, Sans Papiers Collective of Bern, SoAL/Solidarity of Basel
mail: anti-wto@reitschule.ch
web: www.antiwef.org