12.06.2002

Connolly rally ambushed

On Saturday June 8 the James Connolly Society held its annual march in Edinburgh despite weeks of organisational problems due to heavy police intervention. The Connolly march is perhaps the biggest annual republican event in Scotland. Around 3,000 demonstrators assembled in King Stables Road - considerably more than turned out for the May Day demonstration the month before. The police presence was massive in proportion to the march and very aggressive. Many of the demonstrators were searched as they made their way to the assembly point and some were asked to remove their sunglasses - which presumably were a cunning disguise to conceal the identity of paramilitaries and had nothing to do with the fact it was an extremely sunny day. The police continued their aggression throughout the march, shouting and forcing people into line, not allowing even the slightest of gaps between marchers. The mood, however, was upbeat with several bands playing and much singing (and just as much drinking). The annual march has often seen violent clashes with loyalist and the BNP, so there is a need for vigilant stewarding. This year there was some trouble when the march passed through Chambers Street, as a group of far-right loyalists started to cause some aggro, but it did not lead to violent confrontation as it often had in the past - probably because there were too few of them to successfully disrupt the occasion. The marchers returned to King Stables Road for a rally, where the speakers included Jim Slaven of the Connolly Society, who praised the marchers for their good behaviour and advised comrades to go off and have a quiet pint. The other speaker was Sinn Féin's Donnie Doulin, who made a short nationalist speech, urging people to support Sinn Féin's electoral campaign. However, his speech was disrupted. The organisers can be criticised for holding the rally in King Stables Road - not the most secure of venues. King Stable's Road is narrow with high walls on either side. At the back of one wall is a wooded hill, which offered a hiding place for a small number of people who attacked the rally by throwing missiles at the tightly packed crowd. The police, who had so forcibly handled the marchers, did nothing to prevent the rally being attacked. Having said this, according to a report in the Edinburgh Evening News, "more than 30 BNP activists were ambushed by police before the Connolly march" (June 10). Apparently police intelligence suggested that there were plans by the BNP to create major disruption. The group has been making its presence felt in Edinburgh, where it intends to stand in the council elections next year. According to the Evening News, police had "swooped" on BNP activists, including some of the organisation's leading figures, in pubs in Edinburgh's Rose Street, detaining them under section 14 of the Criminal Justice Scotland Act. This act, allowing detention on suspicion of intention to commit an offence, does the left no favours, of course, and we should not rely on the police or the law to defend our marches. Acts that allow people to be detained legally without having committed a crime can be used against the working class movement just as easily as the reactionary forces of the far right. Of course those wonderful fighters of fascism, the Anti-Nazi League, had in true form decided to hold their Scottish conference on the same day as the one march which is most prone to attack from the far right was taking place. There was not a single Socialist Workers Platform comrade in sight. On a more positive note, also notable by its absence was the Scottish Republican Socialist Movement (many on the left unfortunately use the word 'republican' as a codeword for 'nationalism'). On this occasion there was very little in the way of Scottish nationalist participation - just a couple of saltires. The left must stress the socialism of James Connolly and the progressive democratic demands of republicanism and a united Ireland without pandering to nationalism. Sarah McDonald