[discuss-dan] FWD: Report on the Jan 27 Davos Protest

[Doc Rosen <drdrdoc@dr.com>]

Sent: January 27, 2001 9:46:35 PM GMT
Subject: Report on the Jan 27 Davos Protest


Today we drove by car from Klosters up to Davos.  Davos
is about 7000 meters
above Klosters, a veritable fortress, easily protected
from unwanted entry
through its single small pass.  As we headed up the
Wolfgang Pass, we had to
pass thru a police checkpoint.  The car two cars ahead
of us was refused
entry and sent back the way it had come.  There were
four adults in the car.
They did not look like trouble-makers.  As we drove a
bit further, we saw a
truck parked and several men with rifles fitted for
rubber bullets and tear
gas were beginning to climb the hill near the truck to
gain a better vantage
point to watch cars coming up the hill.  At the next
little intersection we
encountered a policeman in full riot gear standing
there.

When we entered Davos, we found police standing at
every intersection.  Many
roads were completely blocked by barricades to prevent
cars from traveling
through town.  The entire city was guarded with a huge
force of police and
army and there was heavy equipment parked around town. 
We found out later
what that was for.

As we drove up to the Dutch Asthma Clinic where our
alternative (and legally
OK'ed) conference was being held, we saw that the
police were stopping
pedestrians who were on their way to the conference
(walking, by the way, in
a totally different direction from the WEF conference).
Police were checking
papers, taking names, asking what the people were doing
here--were they
working for an organization, for the media, etc.  The
ambience was very
disconcerting.  Folks couldn't believe how their rights
were violated.

The hall of the Asthma Clinic was filled; about 150
people were listening to
a panel. More folks were out in the lobby.  All were
dressed nicely and were
clean cut.  Few were under age 30.

The total number of protesters which were able to make
it to the protest in
Davos later that afternoon was somewhere around 300. 
Official estimates were
even less.  Those who got stopped in Landquart at the
bottom of the mountain
were at least 600, including many buses.  They held
their own protest there,
closing the highway and stopping the railway as well
for some time.  Police
used tear gas on them.  After leaving Landquart about
300-400 of the
demonstrators held a further demonstration this evening
in Zurich, where an
alternative conference had also been held today.

The weather had turned snowy and blowy in Davos.  Not a
lot of fun to be out
in.  Those of us in Davos who marched, basically
consisted of two groups:
young activists and church groups.  The young people
chanted slogans and the
older folks sang peace songs.  There were only a few
banners because they
were next to impossible to get through security.  I had
written a couple of
messages on notebook paper which got widely
photographed.  I wrote: Democracy
Suspended in Davos (a slogan coined by Tony Juniper of
Friends of the
Earth-UK.  I also wrote No Global Rule without
Transparency, Accountability
and Democracy.  I was interviewed at one point by Time
Mag.  I told the
reporter that I was a member of Reclaim Democracy and
Alliance for Democracy
and that I came from Boulder, CO.

We were able to march from the train station to about
half way to the
Congress Center where the WEF was meeting.  The police
had barricaded the WEF
so well throughout the entire week that the street in
front of the Congress
Center has been totally deserted.  I think most of the
invitees had no idea
that a protest was even planned for today or noticed
that it was even
happening.

When the police stopped us at a barricade several
blocks away from the
Congress Center, they pulled up one of those large
pieces of equipment we had
seen earlier.  They warned us in several languages that
they were going to
shoot their water cannon at us, and then they proceeded
to do it; shooting
fifty-foot-high, well- aimed long-distance volleys in
all directions.  The
poor guy from Time Mag. who was talking to me got
drenched.  We pulled back a
bit and stood around for about a half hour.  Speeches
got made.  But there
was a lot of milling around.  Then another of those
water cannon vehicles
appoached our group from the opposite direction and I
was afraid we were
really in for it.  But soon, he backed off and left,
and the march reversed
its steps back to the train station.  About that time
the sun came out. After
a few thrown snowballs at a line of police standing in
front of a hotel,
armed with guns and rattan shields, the protest group
eventually disbursed
The trains and buses were stil not running by the time
Roger and I
rendez-vous'ed and headed out of town, but the police
were starting to take
down some of their blockades.

In fairness to the police and Davos residents, it has
been noted that there
were people who were part of the organizing of the
protest who would not
commit to non-violence, and the police certainly were
within rights to make
sure that such violence didn't occur.  But totally
blockading the town and
preventing hundreds of people from voicing their
concerns can not be
considered an appropriate response.  What you have is
another clear example
of the state supporting (through its police and army)
the monied class and
protecting them from being inconvenienced by
dissenters.  Please let me know
what you hear from the local media about the Davos
protest and about the WEF.
--Sharon

Somos la misma familia,
Doc
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