On October 29 there were protests in front of the bank UBS

Despite the financial crisis, despite the massive drain of deposits and the losses from speculative trading, UBS announced that it would pay millions in bonuses to its cadre. To protest against this, the youth party of the Social Democratic Party of Switzerland, the JUSO, called for rallies across the country on October 29 in front of the branches of the largest bank in Switzerland.

These took place under the motto “Give back the bonuses!” and put the managers under pressure to not accept this year’s bonuses or to pay them back. Furthermore, they demanded is a restriction of manager’s wages to 500,000 francs per year (340,000 euros) and the cancelling of the “rescue package” for the banks with a cost of 68 billion francs (45 billion euros).

Before the action in St. Gallen, the independent communist youth organization REVOLUTION participated in preparing and carrying out protest actions. At the protest rally in St. Gallen, about 30 people took part. They were not allowed to protest directly in front of the UBS branch but had to use the square opposite “to avoid traffic obstructions”.

First, the JUSO held a speech: they spoke of predator capitalism and locust capitalism, and said this kind of capitalism is now finally showing its devastating effects. They argued that precisely this crisis presented the chance to create a fairer, more humane and better regulated economy. On the other hand there was no mention of overcoming capitalism or even of socialism.

This changed, however, as a comrade of REVOLUTION spoke. He said: “There is neither locust capitalism nor predator capitalism, but only capitalism” and “Capitalism didn’t make an error – it is the error.” Our position is that such a crisis is not a crisis within capitalism but rather a crisis of capitalism. With this speech based on class struggle we made clear to all present that the capitalist system of exploitation and oppression cannot be tamed by reforms but only overcome in a revolutionary way.

On the same day there were rallies in many Swiss cities, including one with 400 participants in Zürich..

by Bert, REVOLUTION St. Gallen