The anti edl demo today was pretty much as you describe, it was unbelievable seeing all the people just leaving the edl in the pub and heading off for a jaw jaw in the park. Today was badly organised, and where it was organised well it led to very poor action against the fash.

We need people (or groups) prepared to meet this virus of the edl head on, no talking in the park over P.A systems, or rah rahs through the city (away from the fash no less!!!) Look at how France, Italy or Greece Antifa deal with the fash there. They take it serious, and organise to confront them, not find out where they are, chant for a bit, then leave cos there are alot of police there.

Many people i talked to were not pleased about how the day panned out, many went there to stand against the edl and in solidarity with the muslim community of glasgow, not walk around the city, go to the green, then walk around the city again.

I will post some pics and video of the whole thing tomorrow.

Well done for opposing the EDL today mate - we went to a UAF stall in London today, and, surprise surprise, they'd set-up their stall right next to an SWP stall, as if to deliberately alienate as many Saturday shoppers as possible from the good parts of the UAF message

Please post the Glasgow protest photos on Flickr ASAP  :)

Previous comments just about sum the day up, there was an altercation in Buchanan Street which could have got nastier, with about a dozen EDL scumbags singing Rule Brittania and God Save The Queen, I was joining in with the "Nazis scum off our street" routine  when  two younger louts saw my Palestinian scarf and started spitting, now that made me MAD, and I went after them. I was way beyond the police line screaming at them when I realised I didn't have a Plan B... there was no one with me!  Time for a sharp exit, I am 5 feet, 55 years old and all of a sudden I was a scaredy cat!  Bottom line is, it was a damp squib, they achieved absolutely nothing, and the 4 idiots trying to provoke our stall got short shrift from the police.

I reckon about three to four hundred marched from St.Enochs up to the pub where the EDL/SDL were . Maybe  100 Strathies were outside keeping the anti-fascists away and as soon as the main march arrived there were calls to go around the block to the other end. The Strathies quickly reinforced and cordoned off both ends of the street. At this point  the UAF section of the march decided to walk away - down to Glasgow Green - leaving maybe 50 or so to protest where the fascists were. I found this incredible. The only way to deal with the fasc is to run them off the streets, give them no space, heckle the sods but never walk away! About 12:15 the fasc came out of the pub heavily surrounded by cops who let them walk 50 to 100 yards up the street where they sang Rule Britannia and threw fascist salutes. After 15 - 20 minutes they were marched back the way they had come to be put on two buses and driven out of town. At this point some of the group that had walked away returned. If they had stayed the anti-fascists would have outnumbered the SDL about 5 to 1.

We all walked back down to George Square and rumours were around of small groups of fascists about the city centre. There followed a period of searching and general movement until a big demonstration of about 2000 came up from Glasgow Green towards George Square. If they had been at the pub we would have outnumbered the SDL 40 or 50 to 1. There then followed more rushing about the centre rooting out fascists. I saw five of the nazis nicked. Also at least one anti was arrested, maybe two. On the whole I thought Strathclyde police did a good job blocking the fasc and keeping them from assembling on the street. Generally a successful day but what were the UAF playing at?

Since the day I saw in here that there would be an antifa demo in Glasgow I have been looking forward to it. I was hopping that at least this one demo could be a massive one. I live here for 3 years and although I find there are so many and huge problems in your society, I haven't seen any massive movements so far; and believe me, I have searched.

Anyway, since no one of the few people I know here was willing to come to the demo I decided to go alone. I have years of experience in demos and going alone in an antifa demo is not the best thing. For this, I had decided from the beginning that if I saw that there would not be enough people there, I would leave. But I stayed.

I hope you won't take this the wrong way, but what is the matter with you people???!!! I couldn't believe in my eyes with what happened today. I have no idea who the people that left were, but you keep blaming them, while the fault is not only theirs. I agree they are to be blamed, but HOW is it possible that you are not able to organise a massive response to the fascists? Where are the anarchists, where are the lefts, what is happening in this country?

These people need to be shown opposition and this was not even near to that! Yes, it is a disgrace that the others left and went to oppose to NO ONE in the park. But what about the rest of you? I am terrified in the thought that only 50 people in Glasgow can stand up to the fascists and that they cannot find more people to join them. And although personally I have no problem whatsoever with rough confrontation, it didn't have to be rough. And because the Greek Antifa was mentioned in another commend, I have to say that most of the times all we have to do is shout at them. The only thing that was needed today, was 200, 300, 500 people standing infront of the fascists and screaming with one voice at them! Constantly and agressively. Believe me, this would have been enough, they would be wishing the ground would swallow them. They are only "brave" when they are more and have a weak one in front of them, they are all the same, in all countries.

But of course, all these need more than 50 people in order to happen.

More photo's from today here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/filkaler/

Anonymous wrote:

The anti edl demo today was pretty much as you describe, it was unbelievable seeing all the people just leaving the edl in the pub and heading off for a jaw jaw in the park. Today was badly organised, and where it was organised well it led to very poor action against the fash.

We need people (or groups) prepared to meet this virus of the edl head on, no talking in the park over P.A systems, or rah rahs through the city (away from the fash no less!!!) Look at how France, Italy or Greece Antifa deal with the fash there. They take it serious, and organise to confront them, not find out where they are, chant for a bit, then leave cos there are alot of police there.

Many people i talked to were not pleased about how the day panned out, many went there to stand against the edl and in solidarity with the muslim community of glasgow, not walk around the city, go to the green, then walk around the city again.

I will post some pics and video of the whole thing tomorrow.

 

I've pretty much already said my piece in the response to the "open letter to the UAF" article, but I'd like to reiterate it.UAF have gone beyond being unhelpful and bang into just playing at being protesters. Weyman Bennett, take a fucking bow.

 

- Jimmy

 

 

Couldn't agree with "a Greek" anymore. I have been saying things like this for a while. The way i see it is this:

Unless we have an effect, strong numbers groups to oppose the fash, NOT run or over run by SWPs then we are in trouble. The problem we have here is that the left is mostly run by the SWPs, they are a party at the end of the day and have party political ambitions. By nature this limits what they will and will not do.  The anarchists are not strong enough in number in Glasgow at the moment it seems. Could we set up a proper Antifa here in Glasgow, rather than just having only Antifa stickers in Glasgow?

There is also quite a good fly on the wall report here http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2009/11/14/glasgow-14-november-scott... one

The consensus of the various eyewitness and news reports - both on Indymedia and elsewhere - on the Cambridge Street incident seems to clearly indicate the following.

The UAF/SWP/Scotland United contingent left St Enoch Square to follow the SSP/Anarchist/GAFA contingent up to Cambridge Street. They then tried to lead it/commandeer it on the trek up to Cambridge Street. Having got there the UAF/SWP/Scotland United didn't hang about for long, and then led a lot of people away again down to Glasgow Green, taking a lot of unaligned people (and perhaps some confused SSP/Anarchists) with them in the melee.

This seems to have then left the SSP/Anarchist/GAFA contingent with less people at Cambridge Street than they arrived with. In short, it would have been better had they told the UAF/SWP/Scotland United contingent when they tried to follow them, thanks but no thanks. Or if you wanted to be less police "f*** off".

It seems clear the UAF/SWP/Scotland United set out up to Cambridge Street not with the sincere intent of joining in, but to blindly obey party (and police orders) to stay well away from the Scottish Defence League protest, and encourage and lead others away from doing so. That seems to be the whole point of why they were there instead of gathering at Glasgow Green - to sabotage the SSP/Anarchist/GAFA march and protest. That would explain why they didn't integrate, but instead gathered separately in a huddle in St Enoch Square away from the SSP/Anarchist/GAFA contingent.

The UAF/SWP took clear advantage of the lack of leadership in the SSP/Anarchist/GAFA, and the pre-programmed inclination of the UAF/SWP/Scotland United contingent to do what there told, or follow/copy what the majority seemed to be doing.

The SSP/Anarchist/GAFA could learn a lesson there that is essential to have some semblence of leadership, otherwise you leave yourself wide open to have some Pied Piper of the SWP, like Weyman Bennett, spiriting people away.

There are some that might suggest calling for the resignation of Weyman Bennett. Personally, I think that might be going to far, but at the very least you should call for some sort of investigation and disciplining by his party/campaign group.

His actions in leading people away left supposedly fellow protestors and comrades exposed and in danger. That can not, should not and will not be tolerated within the movement.
 

 

As someone who completely regrets the shambles of the initial confrontation on Cambridge St, I would like to inform you of my experiences of what led to this.

Rumour had it that our spotter knew of 15 SDL tools in the Cambridge Bar and upon hearing of this, a big group of us got there immediately. Upon arrival, the Strathies were out in force and blacked out vans and cars started to arrive and park along the edges of Cambridge St. Considering such a huge portion of us were up that far, I and many others thought a kettle was imminent  and we called for the others to get back as it did not seem worth losing what felt like a majority of the demo to a kettle for the sake of 15 SDL. I don't doubt that this was a flaw, but as it was such an early part of the day, and we were expecting a lot more SDL trouble, it felt logical at the time. Many SWP people were shouting that we had to leave, not out of fear of a kettle, but to hurriedly get up to Glasgow Green as the speeches were starting soon. There was absolute confusion. An SSP comrade came back from the face off with the Strathies to tell us that we were safe to keep going and it's worked out alright and if I remember correctly we then marched on to the right of the Strathies.

However, I then managed to be led to Glasgow Green and as a foreigner who doesn't know all the names nor the layout of the streets, it was not until myself and another SSP comrade asked where this was going, did we realise.

The only thing I can say that was positive about going to Glasgow Green was that it gave me the opportunity to go take a dump in the Peoples' Palace.

We then got a text from our spotter informing us that the SDL were doing their thing on Cambridge St and despite legging it back as fast as we could, they had been bussed out just as we arrived.

Glasgow Green was nonsense. Those speeches were nonsense. And unfortunately those who took it upon themselves to coordinate the march away from where it was needed were full of self serving/self important nonsense.

I consider the day very successful as there was a huge turnout and the racists didn't get to hurt anyone nor did they accomplish anything they set out to do. However it was successful INSPITE of the Glasgow Green fiasco and to those groups who organised and backed it, I will not be forgetting this vainglorious display anytime soon.