Organisers in Glasgow are expecting thousands of people to travel from the North of England to join at least 20,000 in Glasgow, rather than head to London.
This is a call for all anarchists, anti-capitalists, left libertarians, and all the various anti-authoritarian groups and individuals considering participation in the anti-war demo in Glasgow on February 15th, to march together as a united red and black contingent.
The meet-up point for the demo has been changed from George Square to The People's Palace on Glasgow Green, as a result of the numbers expected on the day. The move-off time will be 11:00am, and Blair plans to speak at around 2:00pm. We hope to have the place surrounded before then, for what the organisers are calling a "Jericho Rumpus".
If we can’t get near the building, it should be noted that Glasgow is blessed with loads of mega motorways carving up the city, keeping the local cogs of capitalism turning, which also means that there are plenty of opportunities to chuck a spanner or two in the works. The Clydeside Expressway runs alongside the SECC, for example. The footbridge across it will be closed for "security reasons", but I don't think we really need a bridge.
Also near the SECC is the Orwellian MOD building, Kentigern House, some army recruitment offices, a Territorial Army base, the city’s business zone, and of course major shopping areas. In other words, they're going to need a big bastardin exclusion zone if they want to keep everyone away from symbols of capital and state.
So, come and join us in a united voice, not just against this war, not for pacifism, but against all wars but the class war. Anarchos and assorted anti-authoritarians from across Scotland and Northern England will be meeting up under the big red and black "FIGHT THE RICH - NOT THEIR WARS!" banner.
No doubt when the demo moves off we will be near the end of the march, but it is important to get to the SECC for 1:30pm when Blair is in the area. And the route is 2.5 miles.
CND have local information at:
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Organised transport from all over Scotland, and from Carlisle and Newcastle details at:
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a map of the route and more info is at:
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Comments
Hide the following 8 comments
Scotland eh?
03.02.2003 15:53
Kropotkin
Nae Problem
03.02.2003 16:51
Baw Heid
Freedom?
04.02.2003 20:34
I think you're being overly optimistic. We've got a few dozen anarchists, that's to say some philosopher types who dream of a better society but do nothing particularly relevant in that regard, some activist types who run from project to project getting arrested or hassled and suchlike and some older folk who were once one of the former. There'll be about 50-100 of us at best, because by virtue of Scotland's small population and England's larger one most people who have anti-authoritarian views will find themselves in London. There'll be several thousand polis. Unless something happens to change this things will not be all that insurrectionary, altho I'd love it if they were.
The whole bloc thing, while in theory it sounds a good idea, unless things kick off will be more about looking cool than bringing about the demise of capitalism and imperialist wars. We know there'll be six foot fences. We know there'll be at least 20,000 people packed around them. We know the spectacular guilty parties of the forthcoming genocide will be inside, and we know that we're not going to get a revolution unless we start acting like we mean business; we should at this point be thinking two and two. We should be concentrating our efforts upon both storming the SECC complex and upon maximizing the media potential that such an act would have upon the world. Would the best way to do that be about looking like crazy fuckers dressed like "terrorists" (God the way the world is these days half of the population of Scotland would read 'Muslim' or 'asylum seeker' there), or just to emerge like angry ordinary people from the crowd. If we truly wanted to see a better world we'd be fighting for it, not just making ourselves look good to feel better about ourselves.
Copernicus
er
10.02.2003 12:41
Perhaps you might consider a suggestion from someone who was at Genoa, help us build the demo before dreaming about what you are goiung to do when it happens.
Putting up posters and giving out leaflets may not be as much fun as posing with your litle flags, but without it we aint going to have much of a demo.
Sonic
Get real first
10.02.2003 12:43
Perhaps you might consider a suggestion from someone who was at Genoa, help us build the demo before dreaming about what you are goiung to do when it happens. Without all the local Genovese showing up we would have got a real kicking.
Putting up posters and giving out leaflets may not be as much fun as posing with your little flags, but without it we aint going to have much of a demo.
Sonic
The class struggle is not cool
11.02.2003 14:37
It does mention various points of interest in the town as contingency rallying points should it all go pear shaped at the conference centre, what with all this stuff about curfews, exclusion zones, blocked bridges etc. A leaflet will be available on the day, I hear, with a map of the area.
I would also like to comment on a few other points made above. Anarchists in Scotland are not interested in looking cool, at least not the ones I know. We are not interested in anarchism as a lifestyle choice. The anarchists who called for this visible presence on the demo are class struggle anarchists.
Various groups in Scotland such as anarchist federation, class war federation, solidarity federation, and unaligned groups and individuals recently got together and organised a dayschool in Glasgow where anarchists from across Scotland (and beyond) discussed politics and tactics for building the movement. A follow-up will take place in Edinburgh in mid-May.
We have produced leaflets on racism and refugees; leaflets have been distributed in support of the firefighters’ struggle (support groups have been initiated by anarchists in cities like Dundee); and we have just printed 20,000 anti-war leaflets. There have been workshops to produce materials for the Feb 15 demo. Posters have been made and pasted. Banners and placards too. There will be a visible anarchist presence there to spread the ideas of anarchism. We don’t try to look cool, we just happen to look cooler than you. And we do the boring propaganda stuff too.
We are in the main not attracted to violent direct action for it’s own sake, fun as it can be. We are sometimes partial to a wee bit of non-violent direct action in our streets and workplaces, if it suits the situation and it feels like it may be useful.
We are working together to spread the idea that there are connections between war, industrial exploitation, racism, sexism etc. We are not just opposed to this attack on the people of Iraq, we are against all wars but the class war. We are against the misery and oppression of the capitalist peace. We are against all forms of the nation state. (we happen to live on a lump of rock often referred to as Scotland, and as such use the name to identify ourselves geographically).
We are for a world based on the principles of mutual aid and voluntary co-operation. We don’t believe that such a world can be brought about by protesting, or by selling papers or by acting as some kind of vanguard front on behalf of the proletariat. Only non-hierarchical organisation can produce effective resistance and eventually lead to a world free from authority.
We did not call for this contingent in order to look cool. We called for it as part of our continuing mission to seek out new civilizations and, no, hang on, that isn’t it. Oh yes, in order to sell lots of papers, no, no that’s the other lot. Shit, I’ve forgot. Was it to get our pictures in the papers in order to get elected? Surely not. Was it to attract new members to collect their subs to mass-produce branded placards? Set up a front organisation or two to attract impressionable students?
Well, whatever the reason. I’m sure there will be lots of interesting options available on the day, and we will just have to see what turns up.
FIGHT THE RICH - NOT THEIR WARS!
anarcho-scot
Thanks for the response
12.02.2003 16:41
"We did not call for this contingent in order to look cool. We called for it as part of our continuing mission to seek out new civilizations and, no, hang on, that isn’t it. Oh yes, in order to sell lots of papers, no, no that’s the other lot. Shit, I’ve forgot. Was it to get our pictures in the papers in order to get elected? Surely not. Was it to attract new members to collect their subs to mass-produce branded placards? Set up a front organisation or two to attract impressionable students?"
The usual red-baiting comtinues I see.
Without us there wouldnt be a demo, or any of the other campains you show up on.
But lets leave it there, unity being strenth and all. genoa (which no Scottish anarchists attended strangly enough) left me with a bit of a problem of posuer anarchists starting bother then running off and leaving us with the consequences.
I would advise anyone thinking of doing the same on saturday that they better watch out.
sonic
URGENT NEWS
14.02.2003 21:45
anon