LIBERT! EQUALITY! SOLIDARITY!

on the sunniest day yet this year, 1200 people took to the streets of Glasgow to celebrate and participate in the worldwide struggle against capitalism and its ever expanding web of exploitation. protestors, many of whom were dressed in ridiculously beautiful costumes, met at 1pm outside buchanan street underground, where they were noised up by a makeshift samba band beating a rhythm on recycled water barrels. they stayed in buchanan street for an hour as the crowd gathered, workers on their lunch were entertained, hand made instruments were distributed and children played and danced to the music.
at about 2pm the crowd moved around to george square, where they were greeted by a massive sound system blaring out utter techno and dub mayhem. protestors -- angry at the councils plans to shut a swimming pool in govan, angry at their plans to build a motorway extension through the heart of local communities on the South Side, and angry at their plans to sell of green space in Partick to local developers -- climbed on the walls of the City Chambers, blockaded the roads surrounding george square, and attempted to enter the council building. in a token gesture of 'solidarity' with the people who the government elite continually fuck over, the british flag which usually resides on top of the City Chambers had, for the day, been replaced by a red flag!
after picketing, blockading, noising up, entertaining, dancing on, and laughing at the council for 45 minutes, the march continued to wind through the streets of glasgow up to kelvingrove park.
there were moments of tension, for instance outside the army recruitment office -- from where so many have been sent to die for the state -- when it looked like it may have got trashing, but these came to little and the march proceded completely peacefully. this is the same as has happened in previous years and the good consequence of this is that very little police presence was visible (50 cops to 1200 demonstrators) and police intimidation basically nonexistant.
an autonomous space was set up as charing cross was temporarilly occupied and the police were forced to redivert the trafic, unsure which direction we would go, unsure if we would go indeed.
the day ended succesfully with a massive party in kelvingrove park, where the sound systems split into two -- one dub and reggae, one techno, gabba and hardcore -- with at least 15 different local DJs doing a turn on decks (mungo's hi-fi, radar, mad dog, rpm, zenith, syntax, ECM to name a few). there were makeshift recycling facilities at the park, and even fewer police in attendance (they obviously couldnt handle the pace), and people partied into the night before going to a club down town for the after-show party.
an awesome success on a beautiful day.
a brilliant expression of hope and resistance.