The International | Youth protests: The “Joker” is on the loose!

Photo: Pixabay He's been pounding on the surveillance camera at the bus stop for several minutes now: "Tok, tok, tok!" And you ask yourself what surprises you more: the doggedness with which someone is pounding. “Tok, tok, tok!” Or the thickness of the surveillance camera glass.

It is Saturday evening at exactly 11:23 p.m. and the protests all over Europe have also reached Switzerland. With a completely original approach: this October 31st, the protest will dress up in Halloween costumes, elegantly circumventing the official ban on masking. Grinning clowns, shrill ghosts and Guy Fawkes masks have gathered on Zurich's Langstrasse. Cheap canned beer is distributed to onlookers as a lure, techno music is played from mobile loudspeakers.

Then the petards are ignited and we're off. No banners with slogans, no demands expressed - a speechless procession, only brushed with riot. Garbage cans are wheeled in and bottles are sorted into shopping carts as projectiles. Then the first containers and whatever else is available in today's urban space (electric bicycles, e-scooters) will burn.

On this evening, you don't have to want to distinguish between so-called good protesters and bad rioters, between militants and followers: everyone obviously wants to make a mess, and hardly anyone came without protective glasses. And the police are already delivering the expected ingredients with their water cannons: first the cold water and then the tear gas. The blazing flames, the masks, the sirens - it's all a little reminiscent of the uprising for the "Joker" in Todd Phillips' 2019 film of the same name. And yet it seems like a riot in miniature, zoomed in from the Instagram feed into affluent Switzerland. Which didn't stop the media from scandalizing the riots just hours later, led by the SRF "extremism expert." Politicians follow suit and demand more police. The masterminds must be caught, the president of the local SP also eagerly joins in the chorus.

What is hardly mentioned in all the articles, but is literally in the air: It's primarily about the tension, the tickle, the kick. About feeling yourself again. Even if the work is dull, destructive, nihilistic. Appropriately, a lonely preacher in front of a long street bar holds up a sign: “Heaven or Hell? Where will you spend your eternity? Jesus Christ: your Savior or your Judge!”

Meanwhile, at Helvetiaplatz, several guys hit two ATMs and spray-painted “revolt” on them. And I notice how, as a local resident, I also become indignant: Hey there, that's my ATM, next to the Hipsterbeck and the always slightly overpriced neighborhood market! “My” ATM? The simultaneity of alienation and participation that neoliberalism radiates is probably one of the reasons for the current protests that are flaring up everywhere. The padded promises become increasingly difficult to keep and the warm feeling of identification disappears. What remains is the emptiness. Clear the stage for the Joker. 

The left-wing media landscape in Europe is not large, but it does exist: whether it is the French “L’Humanité” or the Swiss “Wochenzeitung” (WOZ), whether “Il Manifesto” from Italy, the Luxembourg “Zeitung vum Lëtzebuerger Vollek”, the Finnish “Kansan Uutiset”, the British “Morning Star” or “Naše Pravda” from Prague. They all examine international and national developments from a progressive perspective. »nd« has been working with a number of these media for a long time - in terms of content, for example, with our international annual review or the takeover of reports and interviews, and technically with the development of our digital app.

With the column “Die Internationale” we are taking this cooperation one step further and publishing a commentary from our partner media every Friday in our app nd.Digital that takes a close look at current topics. These can be events from the respective countries as well as questions of “big world politics”. All texts at dasnd.de/international.

The “Wochenzeitung” (Woz) is an independent national left-wing weekly newspaper in Switzerland based in Zurich. The newspaper, founded in 1981, is published by the infolink cooperative; The paper is financially supported by the ProWoz support association. The newspaper has no publisher or editor-in-chief; important decisions are made on a grassroots basis.

Through continuous and critical reporting on migration policy, environmental and economic policy, as well as fundamental social analyses, Woz has become a recognized corrective in the Swiss media landscape. The “weekly newspaper” currently has almost 19,000 subscribers. “nd” developed its digital edition together with Woz.

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