My Story: Reflections on the Glasgow march
Thomas Graham | 30.03.2003 13:38 | Anti-militarism
FOLLOWING THE COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES in Iraq the Glasgow Stop the War Coalition held a march and rally in Glasgow city centre, which although I hadn't planned to, I ended up in attending. The day, which started off so well, ended so badly. In fact nearly tragically. This is my story.
I am sure I speak for many in saying that Glasgow hasn't seen such scenes in living memory. Effectively a state of Martial Law was declared on Saturday. The number of police, thought to be in the region of 1200, on the streets of Glasgow leaves one speechless. Many people I spoke to, including pensioners have never seen such scenes in their lives. Not even at potentially charged Old Firm matches have we seen such a presence. The police were quite simply preparing for, indeed planting the seeds for - for their own nefarious purposes - A RIOT.
I am not by any stretch of the imagination an anti-war campaigner, indeed a specific campaigner on anything, but after taking my usual morning's walk in Glasgow Green, and walking into town up Albion Street, I was quite simply flabbergasted. Standing more or less the entire length and breadth of Albion Street, a distance of about a quarter of a mile, were highly visible police officers in fluorescent tabards. Van after van after van, of police vans, hired vans, coaches lined the streets. When I remembered hearing there was a rally in George Square that afternoon, I realised that this might be what was behind the police presence. But that however, didn't explain the numbers. Something was afoot. The stage was being set for the biggest police show in history. And a pretty dastardly one at that.
As I passed the rear entrance to the City Halls - where the acclaimed
early 20th Century human rights campaigner John MacLean is commemorated in a plaque, one that also marks his imprisonment for his concerns a sea of activity was in evidence there with police coming and going.
It appeared that this was being used as some sort of base for police
activity that day. Many people I spoke to advised me that they observed signs on passing - inside the entrance - signs directing officers where to take prisoners. The police have denied this claiming that the City Halls were simply being used for the feeding and toileting of officers.
It would be interesting to find out whether they obtained permission from the City Council for this use of the building and if so from whom. Also how taxpayers were paid for this use, (if they were paid at all!)
My appetite sated, I thought, "what is this all about". There must be something to all this anti-war malarkey. And what were the police
expecting to happen to justify all this. A police operation, that in my estimation, based on staff salaries and overtime etc, will have cost in the region of £350,000.
As I passed up Cochrane Street, the same scenes that were in evidence in Albion Street were witnessed here. Montrose Street to George Squares North Frederick Street boundary. Wall to wall police. One after the other after the other. Standing shoulder to shoulder, one abreast. At that section alone there were about 200. Albion Street, 300. Around each corner of the square itself, and all around the sides, roughly 100 in each. Another 400. What was going on?
As I approached George Square, the sounds of seagulls cries filled the air. Up above a seagull had managed to get one of its wings impaled on a lightning conductor. Crows and other seagulls, ruthless cannibals that they can be, circled already trying to eat him, pecking at his vulnerable limbs. A bad omen, rather reminiscent of the cordons of police encircling the anti-war campaigners. A policeman whispered to his female colleague who was looking rather nervous, "when the riot breaks out,stick with me." "When" the riot breaks out. What did they know about their plans for later that afternoon, that the public could only speculate on.
A few rows of police along, I also observed many officers with video
equipment and cameras, used to film riots so they can identify "culprits" later, something I have only ever seen in London. Later that day, I would also learn from people that they had observed units of police, ready to use CS and Tear gas.
This operation, was hours, days in the planning. Involving seasoned
crowd control experts and army military tacticians. The police, planning to circumvent by hook or by crook, any attempt by any unofficial march following the rally, to bring the city streets to a standstill again, focussed on Charing Cross and the motorway, was carved in stone. It was a plan that would have no chance of failure. The streets of Glasgow had been thoroughly mapped out, and all likely routes of the unofficial march and any quasi-legal civil disobedience protests by the peace campaigners, had been researched, considered, evaluated, then reconsidered. All eventualities had been thoroughly envisioned and planned for.
The peace campaigners would be hemmed in, cut off and diverted on a
pre-arranged route. There would be no going back. Plans were laid out to close off sections of the streets of Glasgow, in the absence of any appropriate cause that would justify such an action - nuclear, biological or civil emergency. Citizens of Glasgow and the UK, shoppers, residents, campaigners exercising their legal right to walk, move and travel up a public street were to be summarily imprisoned for several hours in a city street. At one section, police officers standing three abreast at Holland Street. Further back in case they "broke out" and dared to exercise their legal rights to walk and shop and talk down the once proud safe and free boulevard of Sauchiehall Street, at Pitt Street, a further barricade numbering about the same, about 100 officers.
The same at Elmbank Street and North Street, with an additional line of mounted cavalry travelling down Sauchiehall Street towards Holland
Street, to block the street in a line of horses standing front to back. This line moved in tight against the crowd, a crowd numbering about 500. No one within the crowd had room to manoeuvre. It didn't need to be, but it was made that way by the police, this was standing room only, a crush and a frightening one at that. Gradually this line of horses was squeezed in further to cause further alarm and seriously place members of the crowd right next to the horses in danger of being trampled to death.
Many of the horses reared up on their hind legs. The police were to get their photographs to justify this behaviour. The reason they had blocked off this street was because there was a demonstration.
There was not a demonstration here beforehand. A quiet street moving
freely on a sleepy Saturday afternoon beforehand. But now there was "a demonstration". Or at least all the superficial appearances of one.
One protestor was observed hitting a horse with a placard. These people were rioting. That is why they, the police, were here and blocked off the street, to protect people. No announcements were made by anyone in any authority, placing great fear and alarm on the crowd about what might happen next. People asking the police to excuse them and allow them past, were met with no other response than refusal and that they can't.
No explanation was proffered as to why and when people would be able to get past. Telephone calls to the local police office met with a similar version of the read between the lines silent tautology in evidence above "as far as the police are concerned there was a demonstration in the street, and until the demonstration dispersed, no one would be allowed to leave." How a demonstration (if this was a demonstration!) is able to disperse when they are not being allowed to disperse is beyond me.
Eventually, a senior officer braved the crowds and came in to negotiate, and asked to speak to someone in charge but was informed by stewards, that officially there was no one in charge. This officer was very calm and relaxed and very easy to talk to. I don’t know his name, but he's the one you see on the TV being interviewed a lot, the one with a scar on his left cheek. Eventually I managed to get my voice heard, and suggested could it not be possible for people who wish to leave identify themselves in one corner of the street, and those who didn't identify themselves in another. I would later learn from reading and collating international press coverage around the world of other demonstrations that police tactics at the protests were practically the same all around the world. Herd like cattle. Divide and conquer. Staged dispersal of crowd. A few minutes later he announced that anyone wishing to leave the area should make their way to the left corner at Holland Street. I moved my way towards that area and fortunately was first in the queue. I asked an officer there, when we would be able to leave. He said he wouldn't.
Someone else explained what the senior officer had just explained. I
asked if their orders to allow members of the public to stand aside and let people leave, would be phoned in. I received a characteristically belligerent "Glesga polis" response - "whit phones, I don't see any fones!"
A minute or two later, the same officer arrived and instructed officers to create a corridor to allow 20 people every 5 minutes through.
I made my way down Sauchiehall Street. Breathing the fresh air.
The buildings somewhat lower than the section of the street we were at allowed the warm soothing rays of the sun to shine down into the street. People shopped, completely unaware of the human rights abuses taking place a few streets hence. They would go home and eat and sleep, continuing to believe that all was right with the world. That the police were honest people, that would catch the criminals from that dreadful housing scheme round the corner, that might steal my new DVD player, people carrier or garden lawnmower. Maybe tell my children the time if they get lost in town, pat them on the head and see them home safe.
I on the other hand would go home in shock at how easily employees of the state "following orders" would rob me of my human rights, to walk down a city street, and breath the clean, fresh air, something we do every day, but a right that we take for granted. And imprison me and endanger my life.
I never want to see scenes like that in Glasgow again.
I am sure I speak for many in saying that Glasgow hasn't seen such scenes in living memory. Effectively a state of Martial Law was declared on Saturday. The number of police, thought to be in the region of 1200, on the streets of Glasgow leaves one speechless. Many people I spoke to, including pensioners have never seen such scenes in their lives. Not even at potentially charged Old Firm matches have we seen such a presence. The police were quite simply preparing for, indeed planting the seeds for - for their own nefarious purposes - A RIOT.
I am not by any stretch of the imagination an anti-war campaigner, indeed a specific campaigner on anything, but after taking my usual morning's walk in Glasgow Green, and walking into town up Albion Street, I was quite simply flabbergasted. Standing more or less the entire length and breadth of Albion Street, a distance of about a quarter of a mile, were highly visible police officers in fluorescent tabards. Van after van after van, of police vans, hired vans, coaches lined the streets. When I remembered hearing there was a rally in George Square that afternoon, I realised that this might be what was behind the police presence. But that however, didn't explain the numbers. Something was afoot. The stage was being set for the biggest police show in history. And a pretty dastardly one at that.
As I passed the rear entrance to the City Halls - where the acclaimed
early 20th Century human rights campaigner John MacLean is commemorated in a plaque, one that also marks his imprisonment for his concerns a sea of activity was in evidence there with police coming and going.
It appeared that this was being used as some sort of base for police
activity that day. Many people I spoke to advised me that they observed signs on passing - inside the entrance - signs directing officers where to take prisoners. The police have denied this claiming that the City Halls were simply being used for the feeding and toileting of officers.
It would be interesting to find out whether they obtained permission from the City Council for this use of the building and if so from whom. Also how taxpayers were paid for this use, (if they were paid at all!)
My appetite sated, I thought, "what is this all about". There must be something to all this anti-war malarkey. And what were the police
expecting to happen to justify all this. A police operation, that in my estimation, based on staff salaries and overtime etc, will have cost in the region of £350,000.
As I passed up Cochrane Street, the same scenes that were in evidence in Albion Street were witnessed here. Montrose Street to George Squares North Frederick Street boundary. Wall to wall police. One after the other after the other. Standing shoulder to shoulder, one abreast. At that section alone there were about 200. Albion Street, 300. Around each corner of the square itself, and all around the sides, roughly 100 in each. Another 400. What was going on?
As I approached George Square, the sounds of seagulls cries filled the air. Up above a seagull had managed to get one of its wings impaled on a lightning conductor. Crows and other seagulls, ruthless cannibals that they can be, circled already trying to eat him, pecking at his vulnerable limbs. A bad omen, rather reminiscent of the cordons of police encircling the anti-war campaigners. A policeman whispered to his female colleague who was looking rather nervous, "when the riot breaks out,stick with me." "When" the riot breaks out. What did they know about their plans for later that afternoon, that the public could only speculate on.
A few rows of police along, I also observed many officers with video
equipment and cameras, used to film riots so they can identify "culprits" later, something I have only ever seen in London. Later that day, I would also learn from people that they had observed units of police, ready to use CS and Tear gas.
This operation, was hours, days in the planning. Involving seasoned
crowd control experts and army military tacticians. The police, planning to circumvent by hook or by crook, any attempt by any unofficial march following the rally, to bring the city streets to a standstill again, focussed on Charing Cross and the motorway, was carved in stone. It was a plan that would have no chance of failure. The streets of Glasgow had been thoroughly mapped out, and all likely routes of the unofficial march and any quasi-legal civil disobedience protests by the peace campaigners, had been researched, considered, evaluated, then reconsidered. All eventualities had been thoroughly envisioned and planned for.
The peace campaigners would be hemmed in, cut off and diverted on a
pre-arranged route. There would be no going back. Plans were laid out to close off sections of the streets of Glasgow, in the absence of any appropriate cause that would justify such an action - nuclear, biological or civil emergency. Citizens of Glasgow and the UK, shoppers, residents, campaigners exercising their legal right to walk, move and travel up a public street were to be summarily imprisoned for several hours in a city street. At one section, police officers standing three abreast at Holland Street. Further back in case they "broke out" and dared to exercise their legal rights to walk and shop and talk down the once proud safe and free boulevard of Sauchiehall Street, at Pitt Street, a further barricade numbering about the same, about 100 officers.
The same at Elmbank Street and North Street, with an additional line of mounted cavalry travelling down Sauchiehall Street towards Holland
Street, to block the street in a line of horses standing front to back. This line moved in tight against the crowd, a crowd numbering about 500. No one within the crowd had room to manoeuvre. It didn't need to be, but it was made that way by the police, this was standing room only, a crush and a frightening one at that. Gradually this line of horses was squeezed in further to cause further alarm and seriously place members of the crowd right next to the horses in danger of being trampled to death.
Many of the horses reared up on their hind legs. The police were to get their photographs to justify this behaviour. The reason they had blocked off this street was because there was a demonstration.
There was not a demonstration here beforehand. A quiet street moving
freely on a sleepy Saturday afternoon beforehand. But now there was "a demonstration". Or at least all the superficial appearances of one.
One protestor was observed hitting a horse with a placard. These people were rioting. That is why they, the police, were here and blocked off the street, to protect people. No announcements were made by anyone in any authority, placing great fear and alarm on the crowd about what might happen next. People asking the police to excuse them and allow them past, were met with no other response than refusal and that they can't.
No explanation was proffered as to why and when people would be able to get past. Telephone calls to the local police office met with a similar version of the read between the lines silent tautology in evidence above "as far as the police are concerned there was a demonstration in the street, and until the demonstration dispersed, no one would be allowed to leave." How a demonstration (if this was a demonstration!) is able to disperse when they are not being allowed to disperse is beyond me.
Eventually, a senior officer braved the crowds and came in to negotiate, and asked to speak to someone in charge but was informed by stewards, that officially there was no one in charge. This officer was very calm and relaxed and very easy to talk to. I don’t know his name, but he's the one you see on the TV being interviewed a lot, the one with a scar on his left cheek. Eventually I managed to get my voice heard, and suggested could it not be possible for people who wish to leave identify themselves in one corner of the street, and those who didn't identify themselves in another. I would later learn from reading and collating international press coverage around the world of other demonstrations that police tactics at the protests were practically the same all around the world. Herd like cattle. Divide and conquer. Staged dispersal of crowd. A few minutes later he announced that anyone wishing to leave the area should make their way to the left corner at Holland Street. I moved my way towards that area and fortunately was first in the queue. I asked an officer there, when we would be able to leave. He said he wouldn't.
Someone else explained what the senior officer had just explained. I
asked if their orders to allow members of the public to stand aside and let people leave, would be phoned in. I received a characteristically belligerent "Glesga polis" response - "whit phones, I don't see any fones!"
A minute or two later, the same officer arrived and instructed officers to create a corridor to allow 20 people every 5 minutes through.
I made my way down Sauchiehall Street. Breathing the fresh air.
The buildings somewhat lower than the section of the street we were at allowed the warm soothing rays of the sun to shine down into the street. People shopped, completely unaware of the human rights abuses taking place a few streets hence. They would go home and eat and sleep, continuing to believe that all was right with the world. That the police were honest people, that would catch the criminals from that dreadful housing scheme round the corner, that might steal my new DVD player, people carrier or garden lawnmower. Maybe tell my children the time if they get lost in town, pat them on the head and see them home safe.
I on the other hand would go home in shock at how easily employees of the state "following orders" would rob me of my human rights, to walk down a city street, and breath the clean, fresh air, something we do every day, but a right that we take for granted. And imprison me and endanger my life.
I never want to see scenes like that in Glasgow again.
Thomas Graham
e-mail:
poetry@breathe.com
