On Friday 250 antifascists made sure to oppose 30 fascists who decided to call a public meeting/protest in Edinburgh in a park. The fascist protest was timed to coincide with first day of the fringe but failed to draw any mainstream support. They were the same organisers who called a protest as part of ‘Great British National Strike’ in May in Edinburgh.
They were completely humiliated by our numbers, with our side chanting, singing, amazing speeches, full of young people dancing and a fantastic atmosphere of radical resistance.
They called a protest for 7pm and this meant that the protest could have felt tense/frightened or worried given circumstances given it was evening. But we called a protest for an hour earlier, occupied their space.
The policing of our protest was a disgrace, with many of us given warnings when fascists were escalating in anger at their humiliation.
The far right disgracefully used children to try and push through the crowds to attack us, and at one point a woman on our demonstration was injured by a banner being hurled into the crowd as a result of the frustration of far right. That being said the community feeling was pretty overwhelming in solidarity with one another and determination that the far right (who had already been humiliated) would be made to leave first.
We exposed their violence and we exposed that the rhetoric about protecting women and children was actually about fascists trying to move on our streets.