TwoFools in Zürich

Don't ever let anyone tell you Zurich is a sleepy town where nothing ever happens. Last night a full-on riot happened on Bellvueplatz, culminating in rubber bullets, tear gas, broken shop windows and trash cans on fire.

Johannes Dietschi, newspicture

Things got hot, literally, around midnight, and the action extended from Bellevue to the Stadelhofen train station. Apparently responding to 20 protesters who climbed on top of the tram shelter, police took action and things went downhill fast.

According to 20 Minuten, the street party was staged as a form of "revenge" for recent police actions against other illegal (un-permitted) parties. The rallying cry of "No Party is Illegal" (Keine Party ist Illegal) brought over a thousand young protesters to the Bellvue in an action that ended with 6 police injured and one man taken to the hospital for a head injury. Only one arrest has been reported and damage to vehicles and surrounding businesses has not been tallied.

Okay. Seriously? The right to party? That's the best we can do for a protest movement around here?

I'm pretty sure the right to party was not one of the anti-WEF slogans from earlier this year.  Not much in common with the peaceful antiwar marchers dragged off to jail across the US in 2003 either. Last night was not exactly on par with the 1999 Seattle WTO protests and the violent police repression that accompanied them.  I'm not sure it can even be fairly compared to the anti-bougeois protests in Zürich in the 1980s, even if some of the language and imagery seem to recall it.

Maybe I'm missing something? But where is the oppression here exactly? It's not like these youths traveled in from dystopian suburbs that surround Paris. There are young people in Switzerland who get the short-end of every stick, but I'm pretty sure they weren't the ones at the party last night.

Dudes, fight for your right.