The rose street "mini-riot" was an inspiring place to be, to see all types of people, youths, anarchists, left wingers, anti-capitalists, some hippie type people some homeless people and even your average joe, together as one mass, differences put aside to fight against the thugs of the ruling class.

The Rose street "mini-riot" was an awe inspiring sight, Youths, Anarchists, left-wingers, punks, anti-capitalists, clowns, hippies, homeless people and even your average joe on the street united as one mass, differences aside, to fight against our enemy: The thugs of the ruling class.

We are support all of your resistance against capitalism and capitalist barbarians. Long live revolution, long live socialism!

My personal impression of the events also includes people throwing all sorts of stuff at the police without being directly threatened. I saw violence from protesters which was not in direct self-defence. The people I saw throwing objects could easily have walked away had they wanted to avoid confrontation. Some of them were definitely "dressed for the ocassion", with gloves and all. I also saw that not all protesters were happy with the actions of those who were violent - there was some "please stop!" and "what the f***k are you trying to achieve with this?!?" from people who had come for the protest but disagreed with uprooting flowers and throwing things. I am not saying that the police was any better - they quite suddenly changed from being ok to being very violent, trapping people between police lines and (so I was told) baton-charging non-violent protesters. But if Indymedia is about a true picture, then it's necessary to mention that there were some protesters who never wanted this to be a peaceful demonstration and that at least some of those caught up in violence would have had a choice to avoid this.

I spent the day at the carnival, and it started out nicely. Like our man says, the walk along George Street and Princes Street was phenomenal, it looked like thousands of people (corporate media reports say about 1000 - but with no cars around it looked like many more) reclaiming the streets in a massive version of our annual local edinburgh reclaim the streets demo. It was great, really beautiful. Even the Black Bloc guys and the people who'd clearly come prepared for something other than nonviolent protest were all smiles. But when the police decided to stop us, they didn't hesitate to be brutal. We were walking peacefully, at this point there was no violence or stone throwing of any kind, when the mounted police charged us. At the east end of princes street, directly outside Jenners, They charged at least three times, with batons unleashed on the final one, and while this had been happening they boxed us all in with lines of riot police. Trapped and panicked by the brutal tactics, things did escalate. I've been on many protests across scotland, and this was by far the most provocative and violent policing I have ever witnessed. The officers that I spoke to were generally from London or Manchester, and didn't give the friendly responses that I'm used to from our scottish police (see report on Faslane Blockade to see the other method of policing large groups - I approve!). Violent protestors resisted, uprooting flowers, pulling memorial benches to use as blockades (come on guys, that's dedicated to someone's granny!) and generally making it hard for the police to distinguish between nonviolent protestors and the much smaller number of ruckus-seekers. Eventually, through charges with lines of riot police they trapped us inside Princes Street Gardens East. I managed to get out the other side before the stormtroopers had secured it, but many of my friends and comrades were trapped inside. The police were very hostile and threatening, barking at people to move arbitrarily from place to place, on what appeared to me to be filthy fascist power-tripping. People were let out one at a time, with many being photographed and almost all having to provide names and addresses. It took around two hours for my friends to be released, after which we went to Bristo square where the (amazing, brilliant and fantastic) Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army and many others were having a party. This was a celebration, a creative and positive thing, and it was very much the kind of action I like to see. Music, dancing, drumming, singing, making new friends, and all in solidarity against the brutal exploitation of the capitalist system and the (fresh in our minds) brutal tactics of the police. Around 6.30, a clown got a loudspeaker and announced that there was still trouble down Rose Street way, and that the police were being out of hand. A group of us headed down to witness/backup our friends, although this was made exceptionally difficult due to the 'sterile zone' that had been set up. We were greeted with the sight of the central part of princes street, from Jenners in the East to Frederick Street to the west, totally blocked up with literally hundreds of riot police standing in lines along it. Truly frightening to actually see in the peaceful town where I've grown up, it was like being under military occupation. Eventually we made it to Rose Street, where at the St Andrews Square end there was indeed some serious trouble. There was a line of police officers about 20ft down from the square, and hordes of angry protestors, joined by local youths and flanked by the biggest number of photojournalists and media types I had seen all day. Now Rose Street is a cobbled street, and this appeared to be a tactical error on the part of the polis. Some more angry protestors (who had, admittedly, been brutalised earlier, and hence were considerably more militant by now than they might otherwise have been) started to dig individual bricks out of the street to use as weapons. This technique spread, leading to wide pelting of the police with bricks, and inciting them to charge forward. This was turning ugly, and as I'm against violent protest (because it makes us look like thugs, and because who's going to win in a physical fight, unarmed little me or heavily armored, trained and coordinated police officers? The battle is for people's minds, and for their hearts. Throwing a rock in a cops face doesn't help to achiev that) we decided to get out and head back to the peace-and-love vibe at bristo square. Despite heavy-handed police action, the day was an impressive show of what people can do to take back the streets.