Today, the Yes Scotland campaign is having a march. The main reason for the march seems to be so that the march planned for 21st September 2013 is not the first march for independence.
Next Saturday, there will be another march: I expect it to be quite a bit smaller, but much more important. Alex Salmond won’t turn out for it, there won’t be any fancy rally in Princes Street gardens.
The “Scottish Defence League” will be holding a static demo in Edinburgh, having failed to get permission for a march. And we will be marching in opposition (rally 11:30, Saturday 29th September, outside City Chambers).
The SDL, wherever they protest in Scotland, are always fewer than a hundred – most of them have to be bussed in just to bulk out the numbers. And whenever they come to Scotland, they’re met with a crowd of several thousand whose purpose is to stand in their way.
We stand against them – as I wrote last time they tried this in Edinburgh:
Catholics and Sunnis, Shi’ites and Presbyterians, Hibbies and Jamtarts, people of any religion and none, lesbian, gay, bisexual, straight, transgender and cisgender, all of us Scots together, will march from the Grassmarket to Waterloo Place, through the centre of Edinburgh – far outnumbering the few dozen SDLers who may be gathering for their hatefest at Abbyhill.
That’s what I want for Scotland. Whether we vote Yes or No in 2014 is less important to me than whether we can stand up as Scottish together and say to these white nationalists with their notion of “defending Scotland” against diversity, that we are Scotland, and we are our nation’s own defense against them.
Open organising meeting Tuesday 25 September, 7pm, Forest Café, 141 Lauriston Place
Edinburgh Against the Racist SDL Saturday 29 September, we will meet at 11.30 at City Chambers on the Royal Mile. See you there…
Edinburgh Eye 