The school students strike and anti-war protest in Edinburgh was great today.

Again the schools students took the iniative and blew everybody away with their enthusiasm, optimism and their bravery to disobey the expectations of society with their battling creativity.

I joined the protest being late as usual, when the amazing crowd of at least 1000 people came down the mount, and were stopped marching onto Princes Street by the police, although all the buses and other traffic was already regulated and stopped for this main shopping centre road.
I was later told by an eye witness that police has also beaten up people when they clashed over accessing Princes Street.
The police closed the gates and restricted everybody, including journalists from accessing the gardens, as well as they did not let protesters out for quite a while.
There were many school students on strike, and in the gardens when the pupils were upset with being restricted access, they hold a POPULAR ASSEMBLY, deciding unisono to go to Princes Street whatsoever.-
The police has already changed their minds and let people pass again to the "mass die-in" with Mark Thomas and the usual SSP speakers, who continously tried to hijack the protest for their own party-agenda.
However, the teenagers were determined to make their own voices rise up, seldom has a protest before been so uplifting and refreshing as this one, rarely so optimistic, despite being clear to everybody that war is hardly to stop.
Unlike other commercial journalists reporting, it is to object the statement that the "kids were mislead", most of the pupils had a clear and distinctive, radical opinion and are obviously determined to make their voices heard despite of all the threads of suspension and other punishment declared to them by teachers, who were often pressured by police and others officials to pass the pressure onto the school students.
Fear and insecurity about their upcoming exams is not deterring these brave and self-confident generation from expressing their beliefs, that "war is wrong", that "there must be other solutions than violence" and that the opposition to war is a priority, as is to learn and to express democracy by taking to the streets, rather than for an individual and its elite to lead a country to war, when two thirds of its inhabitants are against it.

This clear injustice and inconsequense, as are the non-convincing arguments and lies of the politicians, is obvious and upsetting to everybody, but as usual, the adults seem to have mostly resignated, withdrawn and given-up, fighting and tiring of their every day jobs in need of survival.

After the "Die-In" and many more speaches, the demonstration took in front, or better at the back of the Scottish parliament, trying to drum out politicians, who were to be hiding inside or out for lunch at the front door. Again there was a rather boring speech or even more than one- who cares, trying to impress the future generation to lure them to the SSP, include many juvenile papersellers of various socialist frontgroup publications.


There was at least one arrest, possible more, of grown-ups.
There were some clashes in between kids, journalists and police, but the police let them go after taking names.

One clash included BBC journalist Ian Cowrie, who parked his unlocked car in the protest and got upset and laid hands on one teenager, whom he arrested and physically restraint, claiming to have damaged his car.
(pictures of this hopefully coming in soon).

Also, when the arrest was made at Waverly Station, this was made quite violent, with the protesters face forced into the pavement by police.

The protesters took to the US consulte, which was well fenced off, but the teenages discovered a small opening of steps through the private garden, in which the hedges were trimmed and sneaked through to be only a few metres and one fence and policeline away from the US consulate. Again the SSP speakers tried to hijack the protest, but thanks to drummers and the creativity of the kids, the teenagers staged a noisefull protest in front of the American embassy, surely the closest a protest has got near to in a while.
Impressive was not only the creativity of the pupils but also their tolerance towards each other and various ways of expressing opposition to the war against Iraq, the politicians had their speeches, but the school students had their own preferences and priorities, which they consequently followed.

After the protest at the US consulate, the demonstration marched again towards th Scottish parliament, and I have to say, the school students are clearly untirable, while my feet were already aching, they still kept going enthusiastically with their rebelling spirit and urging wishes for a better society than this one keeping them going.

At the parliament later this afternoon, two lines of policemen hemmed people in , then a sit-down happened on the mound for about 20 minutes, the police grapped Mick Napier, and the school students hold on to him, but the police official convinced the others and Mick Napier to take him aside to have a word with him in private.

Mick Napier then tried to disperse the crowd, probably as he was told, but the crowd still wanted to know what is happening with the arrested, and the crowd shouted "Free Bill S.!" and wanted to demonstrate to the front of the police station in solidarity of the arrested, but Mick Napier and the police official promised that the arrested will be free tonight, however, a small group of protesters went to the police station to support the arrested and will check if the promise is kept.
But the latest news at 6 pm say that he is still detained.

The protester is currently held in the police station telno. 0131 6625000, St. Leonards police station.
If you ring the number to ask when they will be released, that would be helping them a lot.


If the bombing starts tonight, there will be a gathering at 12 noon at Parliament Square in Edinburgh.
Also another protest has been called for 5pm the same day the war actually starts.