The racist Scottish Defence League took a trip to Kilmarnock this morning and were met with fierce opposition from local people and anti-fascists from across Scotland.

Although the SDL claim to be protesting against Islamic extremism and in support of free speech, their past record shows that they’re nothing but a bunch of racists and hooligans.

The SDL planned to assemble at the Rabbie Burns statue at Kilmarnock Cross at 11am and then march across town to spread their message of hate and intolerance.

Anti-racists occupied the space from 10am to ensure that the SDL didn’t get a foot in the door. There was a heavy police presence who pushed us into a small area of Kilmarnock Cross and didn’t allow us freedom of movement. We heard from various sources that the SDL had been herded into a nearby alley. A few of our number managed to break off and sneak away for a look, by following the sound of their vile chanting. As we approached we saw that the small number of SDL protesters were entirely surrounded and outnumbered by police.

At the SDL events in Glasgow and Edinburgh at this stage in the day, due to pressure from huge numbers of anti-fascists, the police stopped the SDL from having freedom of the streets and prevented them from their spouting racist abuse, by keeping them in one location and then removing them in buses.

This was not the case in Kilmarnock, however. Despite the SDL seeming quite happy to stand where they were and shout horrible things whilst waving Union Jacks, the police approached the group and told them that they would facilitate their “peaceful” demonstration, had identified and were happy with where the SDL wanted to go, and then invited them to march to Kilmarnock Cross.

Separated by only a few metres and a couple of lines of stony faced cops, the SDL shouted anti-Muslim slogans and made violent and threatening gestures at the assembled group of anti-racists, whilst we told them what we thought of them (and reminded them that even their own organiser thinks they’re all “wankstains”).

This went on for around 30-40 minutes – far longer than the SDL have ever been given free reign before. The SDL were eventually escorted away from the town centre. Rather than bothering to protect the people of Kilmarnock from the racist scum, the police instead focused all of their efforts on preventing us from pursuing the SDL. They were ultimately unsuccessful, as a small group of anti-fascists broke free and ran through multiple police lines to maintain a presence outside the hotel that the SDL had ended up in.

When we approached the hotel, a huge number of police officers swarmed around us and tried to pack us tightly into a small space on the pavement and didn’t allow us to move. The sun was blazing hot and we were stranded without food or water as the police desperately tried to persuade us to abandon our outpost and join the tokenistic rally in favour of multi-culturalism, organised by local trade union and political bureaucrats, that was being held near by.

Some of those anti-fascists who hadn’t managed to run past the police lines had been herded into the rally in park, where they discovered around 35 people nonchalantly lying in the sun, without even any speakers or political message being espoused. The speaker and the singer that were booked had both neglected to attend. One councillor made a half-arsed attempt at a speech and waffled a wee bit about how multi-culturalism is good. (Aye, that’s all well and good, but how come you’re too feart to say that racism is bad?) Whilst the fascists were being given free reign to roam the streets of Kilmarnock, the smug folk in the park were patting themselves on the back and talking about organising dancers and singers for a pro-multi-cultural event two months away in August.

Some anti-racist campaigners, frustrated at the lack of action, called on the people at the park to join the others outside the hotel in taking action against the fascists. Six polis on bikes immediately sped towards the group attempting to make their way to the hotel and LIED to their faces, telling them that the SDL were absolutely not in that hotel on that street. A couple of undeterred demonstrators pressed on, followed by the cops on bikes, only to be denied access to the street by more cops. Errr… but if the SDL aren’t there, as your colleagues claimed, how come we’re not allowed down this street? Confronted by their own lies, the police then attempted to intimidate the protesters and demanded their names and all of their personal details.

We continually faced harassment from both the police and the few SDL members who dared to show their faces outside of the hotel to attempt to goad us. After it became clear that the SDL were being allowed to leave the hotel in small groups unescorted by the police, we attempted to follow them down the street to ensure that they were contained and not posing a threat to local people. The police reacted forcefully and physically prevented us from moving. After a heated argument they realised that if the SDL were being allowed to disperse and go home, then they would have to allow us to the same.

As we walked down the street, we saw that a group of unaccompanised fascists had walked right past a few of the protesters that they had been threatening earlier on that day, as the police continue to hassle and harass us. It was potentially a very dangerous situation, that thankfully passed without violence from the racists. Understandably, we were a little shaken up and pissed off at the way the police failed to protect peaceful protestors from potentially violent thugs.

We were talking amongst ourselves about the scandalous behaviour of the cops, when one of our number said something about a “fat jolly policeman”. He was immediately grabbed by the arm and pushed against a wall and told: “If you say anything else, it’ll be the last thing you say today. Do you understand me?”

When the shocked protestor failed to answer immediately, the cop pushed him further the wall and repeated the questions, whilst his colleagues tried to block anyone else from seeing what was going on.

The police turned their video camera on the protestor and pressured and intimidated him into providing them with his personal details, whilst refusing to answer any of his questions. After being asked multiple times if he was being threatened, arrested, detained… the police said that he was required to give his details because he was a suspect. A suspect of what, exactly? They refused to say until they had been asked a dozen times, and it was clear that the rest of us were not going to leave – they then claimed he was suspected of breach of the peace. Pfft. The police forcefully pushed the rest of us away, in order to better intimidate the lone protester, despite the fact that he had been nothing but respectful – even apologising to the police, saying: “I’m very sorry if I caused any offense to you in the heat of the moment.”

It was a beautiful sunny day in Kilmarnock, there was great participation by local people and we had a degree of success – the fascists’ attempt to spread their message of hate was drowned out by our songs, and we certainly showed them that they were not welcome in Kilmarnock.

There are some things that could have made the day a lot better -  if there had been more protestors willing to confront the SDL, and if the police had stop trying to restrict us whilst the fascists do what they wanted, for example.

No doubt the SDL will proclaim today as a success,  but to the vast majority of the people of Kilmarnock, they came across as nothing but a bunch of pathetic racist thugs.

One thing’s for certain, it was a confidence booster for the SDL, and they’ll be back.

What are you gonna do about? Wherever they rear their ugly head, we need to be there to let them know that their racist rhetoric is not welcome in Scotland.

Not now, not ever.

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