Despite a very heavy and oppressive police presence, around 100 anti war demonstrators succeeded in shutting down the Esso filling station at Canonmills, Edinburgh on 3rd April.
Demonstrators gathered for around an hour on Princes Street, leafleting passers-by with the new ACTION AGAINST THE WAR bulletin and displaying NO BLOOD FOR OIL and other anti war placards.
Moving off for Canonmills, the demonstrators were quickly surrounded and hemmed in by perhaps 40-50 police, who kept the anti war people to the pavement. In addition to the officers on foot, there were 4 police vans and mounted police. Demonstrators who managed to elude the cordon to leaflet passers-by reported that people were astonished at the overbearing police presence and consequently sympathetic to the demonstrators.
Although the the massive police operation caused the march to Canonmills to be slow and frustrating, resulting in some demonstrators leaving the demo, nevertheless the demonstration reached its goal. The Esso manager shut the garage down soon after the arrival of an advance guard of 3 demonstrators who had escaped the cordon, and the presence of the main body of demonstrators kept the garage shut for around an hour in total. There were no arrests.
The demonstrators who made it to Canonmills showed considerable determination to persevere in the face of police intimidation. However clearly new tactics and an increased level of self-organisation and adaptability during demos are needed to combat the police clamp-down. We can take heart though from the facts that the operation obviously caused the police considerable time and expense and that a normally lucrative moneyspinner for a major oil company was closed during the middle of the day.
Despite the lying reports in the Metro etc this was felt to be a successful action by those involved. About 100-150 people, pretty good considering the action was organised at four days notice. There was a heavy police presence. The polis were especially trying to intimidate school students, taking someof their names and threatening to take them back to skool in a polis van. We made much noise on Princes St for about 40 minutes, then set off forthe west end down the pavement. At lothian rd junction we blocked the road to shandwick place for sometime.
Then we moved along the road onto the Armed Forces Recruitment office in shandwick place. This had already been totally closed down with big doors covering the windows and a row of polisin front of it. We stayed there for half an hour or so. We were heckled by a lone bampot, which led to the Metro andother gutter press reporting that passers by and office workers hurledabuse.
We then set off back onto princes st, and walked along the road from near the west end to the mound junction, then sat down and blocked first one, then both lanes of princes st. After a while van loads of polis reinforcements arrived, and as we walked back along the road towards the west end we were physically forced off the road and ended up in princes st gardens. Noarrests.
Here we held a mass meeting, with contributions and discussion rather than speeches, and agreed to organiseanother action for thurs 3 april.
By the way there was an excellent photo o four FIGHT THE BOSSES NOT THEIR WARS banner in next days daily mirror. Plus there was a pretty good report on the scottish bbc news, with film footage and interviews.
A big demo, media said 6,000 but could have been more.
Enlivened by an unofficial blockade of western approach road by rednblack musical bloc, with drumming and dancing.
No arrests as far as we know.
Demo ended up in the Meadows, a good placefor playing football but crap for demos, why not have the destination somewhere in the city cente where there are passers-by and we can have some impact?
Distributed loads of stickers and action against war and scottish anarchist bulletins
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Check out: sklyarov case
Sat 22nd March:
Activist Simon was arrested in Edinburgh on 22nd March for displaying an upside-down US flag emblazoned with the words "Fuck Bush" and a swastika design.
The arresting officers said that Simon's flag was likely to "incite racial hatred" despite the message being aimed at George W. Bush and his administration and not the American people.
Copies of the flag have been produced as postcards and some think it would be a good idea to send these postcards to the arresting officers (details below).
Some believe it is "just the police trying it on, trying to hassle demonstrators now the bombing has begun. I think its a ridiculous charge and the police should be shown that loads of people agree with that."
A wave-in was held on Edinburghs Princes Street between 5pm and 6pm on Friday
Fri April 4th 5.00pm East end of Princes St at Waterloo Statue
*the postcards were held by or stuck on people attending demo.
*postcards were strung on bunting around the Waterloo Statue
The coppers in attendance were just those in uniform just observed like poets and did not follow the lead of their special branch plain cloths collegues in hitting and restaining in painfull wrist locks any of those displaying the defaced american flag, as done with Simon on March 22nd. (note it was then a uniform officer who than came in and cuffed simon after a long minute or so, but this would not have happened if not for actions of plain cloths officers).
Hopefully the charges will be dropped.
Some ask for you to download the postcard design and send them off to:
PC Phillip Gachagan & PC Lawrence Mackintosh,
St. Leonards Police Station,
Divisional Headquarters
14 St. Leonards Street
EDINBURGH
EH8 9QW.
Tel. No. (0131) 662-5000
20th March: Princes Street occupied both at lunchtime and dinner time. 3 separate arrests of adults now released. 2 charged with breach of the peace.
19th March: Mass Die-In Protest photo report
17th March: Protesters Storm the Castle
17th March: School Students Strikes - An Inspiration
Fight The Bosses, Not Their Wars! -- An anti-war leaflet
Stop The City - Stop The War -- An anti-war leaflet
For latest see Indymedia Scotland or J12 News