he actual number of the protesters is however not known, as the organisers do not have the info and the Ljubljana Police Administration would comment on the number in order to avoid any misunderstandings.

Protesters in Ljubljana were addressed by Andrej Kurnik, a professor at the Ljubljana Social Sciences Faculty, who said that the number of the protesters was "enough to make a change". Later he handed the microphone to other protesters.

Around a half of the protesters left Congress Square around 5 PM to protest in front of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange. The rally was peaceful, however, the protesters did tear off the letter "R" from the sign saying Ljubljanska borza.

Some of the protesters still remain in front of the Ljubljana stock market. The protests were among others attended by several members of the new movement for Sustainable Development and Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovic.

Matjaz Ugovsek of one of the associations at the rally said that they decided to take part because they oppose a system that is unfair to the people and fails to take care of its citizens. The association does not believe the rally can change the system, it simply wants to draw attention to the issue.

Sanjin Jasar, one of the organisers in Maribor, said that these protests were only the beginning, actions will become ever more frequent and the positions of the protesters will become more and more clear.

In Koper, protesters gathered in the morning, pointing to negative effects of global financial and political system and calling for change. At the peaceful rally, some protesters urged the Slovenian voters to boycott the early election.

Protests in Slovenia are organised by Skupscina 15O, an association bringing together the Invisible Workers of the World, a movement of migrant workers, as well as a number of social movements, civil initiatives and individuals.

With the rallies, Slovenia is joining the global movement that started with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York on 17 September, which staged protests today in some 13,000 cities in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Africa.

The police said on Friday that the protests were not reported by the organisers. Skupscina 15O posted on Facebook that they wanted to report the rally, but the Ljubljana Administrative Unit told them that a rally advertised by various social groups via online social networks and without an official organiser would be considered a "spontaneous public rally".

The police nonetheless stepped up control today, with additional units at the Congress Square, the government headquarters and the parliament building, as well as the US embassy.

The STA talked to two sociologists ahead of today's protests, who both believe that the protests will bring no consequences.

Both Gregor Tomc of the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts and Matevz Tomsic of the Nova Gorica School of Advanced Social Studies (FUDS) believe the global protests were brought on by the dissatisfaction caused by the financial crisis.

Tomc however said that if the movement continues to develop, it might come to power in some countries, similar to Bolsheviks.

Tomc touched on the online social networking that is used by the protesters, saying that they "know to use the potential of the internet but do not really know what to do with it", comparing them to activists from the early staged of industrial revolution.

Tomsic wondered whether the rallies in Slovenia would also be bashing western financial elites, global capitalism and neo-liberalism, as he believes that these do not have much to do with Slovenia's situation, which has found itself in this position due to the "leftist parties of transition".

Meanwhile, the opposition Democrats (SDS) responded to the protests. "We feel like a part of the 99% that is fed up with the greed and corruption of the 1%. The burden of the crisis in unfairly distributed, also in Slovenia."

The Slovenian "capitalism of mates" has ruined a number of companies and brought others to the verge of survival, the party said, adding however that anger with "some foreign financiers or domestic tycoons will not help."