Protests yesterday in Liverpool carried on from the morning rush-hour till gone 8pm with school children and students leading the protests through much of the day. Aggressive police tactics early on in the day against children lessened as the crowd grew and by the end of the day, the police merely followed the protest.

The day started with a rush-hour sit down protest on Upper Parliament Street by members of the Aigburth StWC. The support of local Toxteth residents not involved in the protest caused the police to back off.

At 10am several schools walked out, the biggest presences coming from Calderstones School (200 pupils) and St Julie's RC High School in Woolton (150 girls). Pupils marched 5 miles down Allerton and Smithdown Roads in to the City Centre where they joined Liverpool University Students and staff (both the Guild and the AUT lecturers union had walked out) at the Guild of Students at 12:40. It was reported that along the way, the police had been needlessly aggressive towards the good natured and peaceful pupils. Police horses, dozens of officers and the police helicopter were in attendance.

During a rally the pupils moved off to try and swell their numbers from the nearby Archbishop Blanche School. The police then boxed them in outside the school railings and told those in the playground that anyone leaving school would be arrested. The University students then moved off to ‘liberate’ the pupils and with several hundred people heading towards the police lines, the pupils were released.

The combined march then heading off to Town down Mount Pleasant and blocked Lime Street. As traffic backed up right through the Mersey tunnel to Birkenhead, police ordered the demonstration to move by 2pm, threatening arrest to anyone trying to speak to the police, making sure the declaration that they were ‘organisers’ under the Public Order Act was filmed by the Police camera unit, who were also filming many of the 12 and 13 year old children close up. More school students, workers and shoppers joined in as well as a group of college students who had walked out from Carmel College in St. Helens and travelled the 15 miles to join the demo.

At around 2:20 the protest moved off down Dale Street, past the Town Hall and attempted to get to the Strand, the major route running along the back of the Liver Building that had been blocked the day before (this was already being referred to as the ‘traditional route’ with this being reinforced later in the day). This was blocked several times by police lines backed up with horses. Despite several attempts to out-flank the police in Derby Square (and amusing jumps up, round and through the Victoria monument), the crowd moved to the Lord St / South John Street junction where there was a sit down for another 30 minutes closing off the Bus Station.

The crowd then paraded through the pedestrianised areas and up to the Adelphi Hotel where a further road block was held for half an hour. By this point the Celtic fans, who had been present all day, were growing in number with some joining in with chants and others just being generally abusive to the group and sounded like they would have been to a pro-War demo as well.

Only half of the duel carriageway was blocked by a sit-down, with the other being blockaded by police vans (thanks!) – students tried several times to enter the other area, including attempting to jump through a raised flowerbead but were repelled by the Police, shoving children in the face back over a 4ft drop.

The only arrest of the day occurred at this point when a drunken non-protester in the crowd was grabbed from behind by two police, and screamed he had a broken arm. 6 other police then jumped in and wrestled him to the ground, pulling his arms behind his back and cuffing them, folding his legs back and standing on his ankles. Whilst other officers were holding the crowd back, a Senior Officer shouted for his me to get off him – obviously even he viewed the level of force against an already injured man to be excessive. If the crowd had been of a different composition or intent this could easily have sparked serious violence.

After a while more we marched up to St. Lukes Church (bombed out in the Liverpool Blitz and left as a Peace Memorial, then back into town where we waited until 5pm at the assembly point for the main Merseyside StWC planned action. Some of the children, who had been on the streets for 7 hours and had marched up to 10 miles started to leave at this point.

As the crowd started to build speeches were heard and then we moved back up past the Adelphi and blocked Lime Street outside St. Georges Hall (again!). This blockade was total, with traffic again building up through the Mersey tunnel. Banners were hung from a nearby multi-story car park. After 40 minutes the crowd again went down Dale Street, but this time the police obviously felt unable to hold us back, going ahead of us to the Strand and keeping traffic back.

The whole road was again blockaded, and with everyone lying flat on their backs, a two minutes silence was held for the victims of war. After this the protest moved back to town, past the Armed Forces Recruiting Centre (so far untouched, but let’s wait and see!) and up the pedestrianised area and back to St. Lukes Church where a closing rally was held.

Earlier today a smaller number of protesters gathered in Derby Square (with a large number of police present) and those not going to Menwith Hill or London plan to meet at 1pm at the Podium on Church Street.