15,000 SCOTS SAY NO TO WAR!!!

REPORT OF MARCH AND RALLY IN EDINBURGH

SATURDAY MARCH 29^TH 2003

On a bright and breezy spring day thousands of demonstrators assembled in Waterloo Place near the city centre for the march against the war in Iraq. Placards to be seen included `Stop the War - Blair must go` and `Not in my name` and `Scotland says no to war` and `Saddam, Bin Laden, Pinochet, all created by the CIA` etc.  We built up our numbers between 2pm and 2.45pm and then marched along Princes street, Edinburgh's main thoroughfare, past the famous Balmoral Hotel with the Princes Street gardens on the left hand side and the myriad department stores on the right hand side. The large and colourful gathering had come from all over Scotland with banners from Dundee [Scotland's fourth largest city], Arbroath [a little to the North of Dundee], Glasgow [Scotland's largest city], Aberdeen and Inverness in the far North.

    By ten past three we had reached about two thirds the way down Princes Street and it was decided to sit down for a well earned rest and to make our point about the brutality of the war. The song "We all live in a terrorist regime" sung to the tune of `yellow submarine` was heard as well as "Bush, Bush, shame, shame, all this killing in your name!" Placards to be seen said: `Bush and Blair are war criminals – danger, unexploded civilians` and ` war is so last century` and `disarm the USA, depleted uranium kills`.

   Shortly after half past three we turned left into Lothian road and on looking back it was possible to see all the way back to Waterloo Place, a mile distant, where the march had started, people were still coming. The marchers had been allocated the left hand side of Lothian road while the traffic had the opposite lane but at the junction with the West approach road several dozen marchers sat down at the traffic lights thus blocking the whole road for over half an hour.  There was loud drum beating at this point and chants of `No blood for oil! `  There were dozens of Police to be seen thouigh thye seemed a little bemused and were frantically speaking to each other over their mobiles. After half an hour we moved on via Tollcross and Brougham Street and Brougham Place to the meadows, a large open space just south of the Royal Infirmary and University.

     Here we assembled to listen to a number of speakers. Firstly Mick Napier of Edinburgh Stop the War reminded us of the protest at the BP headquarters at Grangemouth on Saturday 5^th April. The best way to get there is by train to Polmont and the refinery is a 20-minute downhill stroll.

    Margo MacDonald, Independent Scottish National Party MSP, said that when she spoke in Glasgow in February 15^th she was against the war and she is still against it now. She urged Bush and Blair to go back to the UN and said to loud cheers "This is not in our name!"

   Tommy Sheridan, leader of the Scottish Socialist Party [SSP] spoke next and said that Bush wanted to annexe Iraq and its oil. Britain and the US were isolated throughout the world. To loud cheers he said "The Best way to support the troops is to bring them home!" He went on: "On April 12^th in Glasgow, let's make sure Glasgow Green is full to capacity and on May 1^st those who support this war will not get our vote!"

    Susan Karim, an Iraqi exile living in Scotland, said "Peace be with you." She played a few seconds of an air raid siren to let the crowd know what it is like for people in Baghdad. She said that for the last three days there had been no communications coming out of Baghdad and that the firing of 1,000 cruise missiles in just one day was tantamount to genocide.

   Comedienne Elaine C Smith spoke next and told us she was `so raging` after looking at the TV screens "How dare you do this to another country" and "the arrogance of the Americans is unbelievable". She made the point that for every bomb that is dropped a terrorist is born. George Bush did not scare her as he is too stupid but Cheney and Rumsfeld are pretty terrifying. Why is it all right for Israel to violate 70 UN resolutions? Why not invade them? She finished by saying that this was an unjust and immoral war and shouted "Stop the War now!"

   Lindsay German convenor of Stop the War spoke next saying: "This war is based on lies! We [the West] are the ones with weapons of mass destruction, the Iraqis may not love Saddam but they hate the Americans even more. This war is not about democracy, it's about oil." She continued: "If a crime is wrong when it is being contemplated, its even worse when it's committed." The Iraqi people are not our enemies and referring to Tony Blair she said: "A man who goes to church on Sunday and then bombs children on Monday is not fit to be Prime Minister"

   Labour MSP [Member of Scottish Parliament] for Dundee East John McAllion was next and told us that the pictures of the Sir Galahad delivering aid was purely for propaganda purposes.  The bombs dropped on Baghdad are terror bombs and George Bush and Tony Blair are terrorists. It was Western Imperialism that brought Saddam to power in the first place. He vowed that: "We'll stop this war and then we'll stop the next one!"

  Next Elsa Nichol of Leith Academy read a poem she had written.

    Osama who spoke next said he hoped that the troops did not either kill or be killed, on May 1^st we had to get rid of the Labour Party and referring to George Bush senior he said: "Read my lips, no more war!"

     Robin Harper of the Green Party followed saying: "It is wonderful to see so many young people." He reminded us of George Bush's failure to ratify International treaties such as the Kyoto treaty on greenhouse gas emissions and arms limitations treaties. He also said we must continue to protest until the war is brought to a stop. He reminded us of the big demo at Faslane on April 22^nd.

   Lloyd Quinan of the SNP came next and said "They have lied to us about this war, do not vote for anyone who will support this war"  He told us of his horror when he visited the Palestinian town of Jenin a year ago and that there was an underlying plan to expel Palestinians into Iraq. He said we were the Patriots in that we wantec the soldiers to come home.

   Lastly, Anthony Arnove a US speaker from Brooklyn, New York, told us of the massive demonstration in the USA with half a million people protesting in New York the previous week. Another world is not only possible it is necessary.

    The rally came to an end at 5.30 and we all felt it had been a good day.

There is no room for complacency of course; we must maintain the pressure and the momentum. The warmongers are in trouble and they know it. Rumsfeld and his gang of thugs had expected the Iraqis to surrender and greet the US and British troops with flowers instead of which they are being greeted with bullets. 

LET’S KEEP UP THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THIS VILE WAR,

SOLIDARITY AND REGARDS FROM PAUL

[ EDINBURGH STOP THE WAR, WWW.EDINBURGHSTW.ORG.UK ]