Several hundred Zagreb residents joined in the anti-capitalist protest taking place around Europe by gathering in the downtown Zrinjevac park and going on a protest march.
The organiser of the initiative labeled "M31 – European Day of Action against Capitalism" has warned in a Call for Action that citizens have been told from the beginning of the crisis that banks and corporations would carry some of the burden but that the exact opposite is happening, as the crisis is being used as an excuse to stamp put labour rights, increase worker exploitation and jeopardise citizens' existence.
The initiative says that urgent emergency measures were introduced at many European Union summits to rescue capitalism, with the political oligarchy, big capitalists and the media assuring citizens that if the measures bear fruit, the recession, collapse and mass poverty will disappear.
The initiative holds that the cause of the crisis is not in lazy workers or the corruption of a tiny elite but in the very system and that in this crisis of capitalism citizens are only a cost and redundant.
M31 warns that while some are increasing their capital and political power, the lives of others are more and more uncertain, poverty is growing and social divisions are increasing.
The initiative says that the destructive logic of capitalism will be reproduced as long as citizens fail to fight it, and that the "European Day of Action against Capitalism" can be the first step in that direction.
The crisis may manifest itself in varying ways in different countries, but all citizens share a common goal: "We don't want to save capitalism, we want to overcome it," says M31.
The slogan of the protest is "We won't pay for your crisis" and it is taking place in many European cities.