Two groups of protesters against climate change Monday blocked the entrances to Switzerland's two largest banks in the heart of Zurich's financial district.
Just under 200 demonstrators from the movement against climate change Monday blocked the entrances to UBS and Credit Suisse on Zurich’s Paradeplatz and chanted slogans against the banks’ business practices.
Under the motto «Rise up for Change», the demonstrators are protesting against UBS and Credit Suisse’s investments in oil, gas and coal, according to the flyers they are distributing.
There is a large police presence at the scene in the heart of Zurich’s financial quarter, with some officers discretely posted at the side of the Credit Suisse building.
Part of Summer-long Campaign
The position of the mostly young protesters is that if the banks stopped investing in fossil fuels international climate-change targets would be met more quickly.
The activists protested in the same place a week earlier and handed in an open letter to Credit Suisse as a representative for the whole of the Swiss financial center.
The demonstrations are part of a week of action within the framework of a summer-long campaign with a licensed anti-climate change camp in the city and a final demonstration in the capital, Bern.
Two activists staged a sit-in next to the UBS building complex on a high bamboo scaffolding. The police had to «free» them with a crane.
The police cleared the entrances to the banks in the course of the morning and detained around 30 people. The demonstration was largely peaceful.
