The World

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As highlighted in Gillian Tett’s post last night, and Jasmine Whitbread’s post in our rolling blog, income inequality is a big issue demanding the attention of Davos delegates this year, whether they like it or not.

So, we organised a quick email Q&A with David Roth, the spokesman for OccupyWEF, asking him to tell us why he’s protesting this year and what he hopes to achieve. Here’s what he had to say. Do add your comments below.

Q) What are you hoping to achieve by protesting outside WEF?

A) Our protest stands for the massive injustices created by neoliberal capitalism over the past decades. We are a sign of resistance against the idea that people who have been responsible for crises since the 1980s (and the crisis we live in today) can yet claim to be the rescuer of the world economy.

Those who pretend to have the solution want to divert attention away from the question of substantial change. We are succeeding in building pressure against this.

Q) How did you prepare e.g. did you do research on how to build igloos and protect yourselves from the cold?

REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

A) Yes, we consulted and invited experts of snow sports and igloo building. Our contact man in Davos, mayor Hanspeter Michel, was also a competent advisor. Therefore we knew quickly what to provide for the week in Davos and what to take care of. The majority of the preparation was handled by the secretariat of the Young Socialists Switzerland (JUSO) and other free leftists, who regularly met up with each other for planning.

Q) Roughly how many people are taking part in OccupyWEF?

A) By Monday more than 30 activists had joined our camp. For the final rally on Saturday (a village square party) we expect even more participants, possibly up to 100 people.

Q) What do you think of the World Economic Forum as an institution? How – if at all – would you like to see it change?

A) Every institution fancying itself as being entitled to control the world’s economy without appropriate representation of the population and without fair involvement of all relevant political and economic views is a highly undemocratic farce! It’s as simple as that.

Nobody needs an elite forum, but we need the renewal of genuine democracy.

Q) Would you class yourselves as full-time protesters or do you have “day jobs” that you will return to when Davos is over?

A) We are a mixed bunch. Some of us are on vacation from university and others are unemployed. Many others are unregular participants, who have jobs, go to high school or have other commitments.

Q) How old are you?

A) I am 26 years old.

Q) Do you think that young people have a chance of changing the establishment?

A) Our camp can be a good way to wake up young people. We don’t expect to build so much pressure that our authorities will suddenly embrace radical change, but we can be part of a future generation who will proceed to an economic system beyond capitalism.