About three hundred individuals converged in Davos, Switzerland on 31 January 2009 during the World Economic Forum (WEF). The protesters mainly consisted of youth groups, members of Amnesty International, and the Green Party, carrying banners that read, “Wipe out WEF,” “You are the crisis,” among many others.

The Anti-WEF Coordinating Group in Geneva, “The crises (ecological, economic, social, food and the increasing inequality are consequences of the unfair politics of confiscation of the social welfare by a minority. The privatisations and the deregulations are being decided in the [great] ambiance of Davos while billions of people don't have access to drinking water.”

Jo Lang of the Green Party of Switzerland remarked, “The WEF is not part of the solution but part of the problem. We cannot expect a human world from Davos, this is being born at the World Social Forum in Belem in Brasil.”

Meanwhile, Alex Heideger, another member of the Green Party said, "It's the same people who came last year and said the world economic situation is fine, and now we're in a financial crisis. Now it's the taxpayer who has to solve the whole problem."

Given the tight security details in the area around the conference centre, rallyists had to undergo thorough checks even before they were allowed to alight from the train.

Snowballs and shoes were thrown towards the direction of the convention centre.

Similar protests were also held other cities. The biggest was in Geneva where the headquater of the WEF is located. On 31 January 2009, around 2,000 rallyists gathered peacefully in Geneva despite the ban against the anti-WEF rally by the Geneva city government. Jean Ziegler, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food came to express his solidarity with the protesters. However, the rallyists were blocked by the tremendous armed police forces present when they started to march. Worse, the police encircled the protesters, leaving them in the cold for hours and without any quick escape from the tear gas that the authorities deployed.

Sources:
Anti-WEF Coordinating Group-Geneva (1 February 2009). “Communiqué de presse. Malgré l'interdiction, l'opposition au WEF se fait entendre largement et pacifiquement” E-mail corespondence. Translated from French to English by Bianca Miglioretto.
Swissinfo.ch. (31 January 2009). “Rallies held to protest against WEF.”
URL: http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/swiss_news/Rallies_held_to_protest_against_WEF.html?siteSect=204&sid=10270676&cKey=1233420193000&ty=nd
Various reports from the websites of 20 Minuten, Indymedia Switzerland and Suedostschweiz.ch/. /Translated from German to English by Bianca Miglioretto.