BERN - Around 1,000 people answered anonymous calls for an unauthorised rally against capitalism and imperialism in the federal city on Sunday. The date was no coincidence: exactly one year earlier, a Gaza demonstration in Bern escalated into hours of violence that left police officers, demonstrators and bystanders injured and caused extensive property damage.
This time, the unknown organisers had announced on Telegram that they wanted to avoid a confrontational demonstration. They relied on a decentralised concept with several meeting points across the city. The largest group assembled in the afternoon in the Rosengarten, a park above the old town that is popular with families and tourists.
A decentralised route
From the Rosengarten, the demonstrators moved through outer districts toward the Reitschule, escorted by a large contingent of cantonal police reinforced by officers from other cantons. Over loudspeakers, the police made clear that no other route would be permitted. A water cannon stood ready on the Kornhausplatz, and targeted identity checks began shortly after midday.
Smaller groups followed calls circulating on the internet and moved through other parts of the city, at times blocking stretches of traffic through the centre. The calls had named possible targets including UBS, the Amthaus administrative building and a Raiffeisen bank branch. The cantonal police were omnipresent in the city centre and reported the crowd's movements step by step on the X platform.
New tactics on both sides
The demonstrators demanded an end to military occupations and state repression, as well as protection for indigenous peoples and the return of their historical land and self-determination rights. By early evening the rally had dissolved at the Reitschule and all roadblocks were lifted, the police announced.
One person was detained after officers found them carrying several knives; the individual had felt disturbed by the rally and was taken for further checks. Police also seized material and recorded isolated cases of soiling and vandalism, but spoke of no major incidents. Both sides, observers noted, had changed their tactics after last year's escalation. The weekend's only serious street violence came elsewhere, when an illegal party near Zurich's Hardplatz turned into an attack on police on Saturday night. A week earlier, a Gaza march through Zurich had shown how a large demonstration can stay peaceful.