NAE TO NATO

There was nearly a week of actions and events in Edinburgh this week in protest against the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Here’s a round-up:

Friday: A group of around 30-40 gathered at the meeting place for a demo, and after a preliminary visit from some plain-clothes cops, were quickly surrounded by three van loads. They avoided a kettle and within an hour had mostly found their way to the conference centre. A group of around 40-50, with reinforced banners, tried to blockade the road outside, but were forced back by police, who attempted another kettle. The crowd managed to get away and marched towards the centre of Edinburgh along Princess St, finally ending up at the Forest Cafe, where a FIT team started filming them.

Saturday: During the day there was a No To NATO rally of about 5,000 led by Stop The War Scotland and CND. (While other protesters spent the day in Glasgow demonstrating against the far-right SDL - see ‘Out Of Their League’ in this issue). Later that evening, as the NATO delegates met for post-meeting drinks at a posh hotel, a group of six protesters gathered with a banner to make some noise, but were met with heavy police aggression, and were pushed back from the hotel, and filmed again by FIT. They remained to cause problems for police for two hours.

Tuesday: On the final day of the meeting, early in the morning Trident Ploughshares blocked the entrance to the conference centre. Protesters recited the names of the Afghani dead, and had pictures of wounded Afghanis on their shirts. Six were arrested for attempting illegal entry into a secured building.

* See http://natowc.noflag.org.uk, www.indymediascotland.org