MY DAY AT THE DEMO by Mike (age quite a lot and a half)
A personal account of the 15 February anti war demo in Glasgow

Twelve of us went to the demo on a minibus from Muirhouse, a Council scheme in north Edinburgh. We were a mixture of local folk, three of us associated with the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh (ACE). Two others were old friends, with their 13 year old daughter, who I used to know through the anti poll tax movement and Edinburgh Unemployed Workers Centre.

We arrived in Glasgow in good time. (In the midst of potential traffic chaos our minibus transport worked like a dream all day - congratulations to the driver and organiser) Later we heard that hundreds going by rail had spent hours waiting at Edinburgh's Waverley Station, and some had never made it at all, as Scot Rail's trains buckled under the strain.

At Glasgow Green we immediately found the comrades with the huge box of Scottish Anarchist leaflets, stationed as per plan at the Arch. I gave out a fair few during the day and am continuing to distribute them back in Edinburgh.

RED N BLACK

The Red 'n Black block was to meet up at the Obelisk, a giant monument on the Green. It wasn't that easy to find each other, as already there were huge crowds. But maybe around 50 plus of us did manage to gather together, including perhaps 30 associated with ACE and from north Edinburgh, perhaps five or six Aberdeen-based anarchists and some folk from the Anarchist Federation and Glasgow. Our contingent was noisy and colourful with drummers, at least four banners, a magic carpet, and assorted multi-coloured, black and pirate flags. And most impressively, towering above everyone, anarcho-bird. White, with a giant head and huge wings, anarcho-bird's fiercesome beak threatened to do serious damage to any war-mongering politician unwise enough to cross its path.

Meanwhile more folk from Glasgow, including comrades from Counter Info and Class War, were dedicating themselves to distributing the Scottish Anarchist leaflets - at least 13,000 people got the message that "The only way to defeat Tony Blair AND George Bush is through people being prepared to take direct action without asking anybody's permission."

I was unaware at this time that some of the Red n Black block, hearing that Tony Blair had switched his Labour Conference speech from 2pm to 10am to avoid the demo, had gone direct to the conference centre to greet him. Unfortunately overwhelming polis numbers deprived Tony of a true Scottish welcome.

The crowds were absolutely huge, so big we couldn't even see what was happening. Due to this, and to our position towards the back, we didn't leave the park for hours, though this did give a chance to give out some of the leaflets. When we eventually got within sight of the road where the march was on the move, the stewards stopped the part of the march we were in, and said we would have to wait for the section already on the road to pass before joining. This was ridiculous as there was plenty of room on the road for everyone to just filter in.

An argument developed between us and the stewards, who formed a line to try and stop us joining the march. After some internal debate we agreed to wait a short while, as some of our number were concerned that if we pushed past the stewards we might get split up. Eventually we tired of waiting and just walked past them and joined up with the demo, managing to keep all together despite anarcho-bird becoming temporarily cut off from the rest of the flock. Our numbers seemed to swell as more joined us, I think we might have approached 70 - 100 people at the peak.

REBEL BEAT

The battery of drummers from Edinburgh, using home made tin drums, kept up an inspiring beat supplemented by whistles and homemade shakers (empty beer cans filled with gravel). Anarcho bird swooped and the banners proclaimed FIGHT THE BOSSES NOT THEIR WARS. The ACE magic carpet - like a long banner but actually a carpet with handles and carried by 4 people - is designed to aid progress through groups of state lackeys barring our way. It was used to devastating affect at the Edinburgh street party 18 months ago. It was fated not to see action this day, but its nice to be ready like.

Having been on countless marches where I have trudged along surrounded by lefty contingents with their dismal party propaganda it was exhilarating to have created our own empowering space. I felt that everyone on our minibus, including the local activists who joined in the rednblack block for the first time, returned feeling more empowered and encouraged than when we went, which can only be good.

Equally important, having a block gives us a potential mass for doing direct action. This time it didn't happen, but at least we know we can get a group together and stick together through the day, hopefully next time.....

Rather bizarrely, we seemed to have ended up next to a big Scottish National Party contingent. There are some good people in the SNP, but I am not in to creating yet another repressive state and yet another unneeded border. But there were also many home-made banners. I noticed one from remote Assynt, in the far north west and another reading SMOKE BUSH NOT IRAQ.

As we neared the Scottish Exhibition Conference Centre where the Labour conference was being held, the crowds became very thick, with many people leaving and heading back into town. Our contingent was determined to get as near the SECC as possible, and with considerable difficulty we managed to thread our way through the crowd, and eventually reached a fence in front of the SECC. Many of us made it, but we did seem to lose some numbers at this point. The fence was low and eminently climbable, but behind it was hundreds of polis.

We tried to make a din to encourage more folk to move up to the fence and then, who knows, but the speeches were on and our efforts petered out without much success. Anarcho bird relocated to a more central position in the crowd, and gathered some more re{bels to her wings. We then made a more concerted move to the fence directly in front of the entrance, folk started drumming on the fence, anarcho bird and black flags swooped over the fence into enemy air space. Several folk did see us and came over to join us, the police seemed to make some redeployments in response, but it never really came close to a situation where people would have felt empowered to knock the fence over and advance.

Still as we dispersed it was good to exchange farewells with the Aberdeen comrades, urging them to come to the anarcho day school in Edinburgh on 17 May. We listened awed at the reports of the huge turnout, the best estimates seem to be about 80,000. I don't know when there was any bigger demo in Scotland, certainly since I got involved at the beginning of the seventies there has been nothing comparable.

Then we went to the pub. Then we went home. Not The End.

THEY GOT THE GUNS BUT WE GOT THE NUMBERS...

If war starts, the Red n Black block will hopefully participate as an organised group in the planned sit down in Glasgow city centre the Saturday following the war starting. Over 2,500 people are already pledged to take part in such an action.

I also think we should consider other action, like trying to organise city centre disruption of work-bound traffic in our own towns/ cities the morning after, if war starts. The Industrial Workers of the World have suggested trying to disrupt freight traffic going into docks entrances etc, this is also a good idea.

Finally, many congratulations to the folk from the Scottish Front for Liberation who have now disrupted the Scottish Parliament twice in anti war protests. I think this illustrates that the Scottish Parliament was indeed A Good Thing - the enemy are nearer now, and it's easier to get them.

PS - contact the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh at 17 W Montgomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA (O131 557 6242) http//www.autonomous.org.uk ACE can also put you in touch with contacts round Scotland. If you would like a copy of the Scottish Anarchist leaflet for the day send a SAE, if you would like a bundle send a bigger SAE!

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