A report from Edinburgh's Bedroom Tax Protest 30/3/2013.

I had been looking forward to this for weeks and it didn't disappoint. Walking to the starting point I passed vans full of police.  There was a really big turn out-1,000 people.

Walking into St Andrews Sq I was struck by the amount of people and the diversity of groups. There was a beautiful sense of reunion as I met up with fellow Occupiers who I hadn't seen in months.

The route was a scenic route from St Andrews Square along  princes street  to the scottish parliament at Holyrood where everyone assembled for speeches.


Present were Occupy(who I represented), SSP,SWP, North Edinburgh against the cuts, Edinburgh Green Party, James Connolly Society, Midlothian Against the cuts, The Black Triangle campaign,Yes Scotland, Scottish Independence groups(esp "END LONDON RULE"), Aberdeen group against the cuts, Coalition of Resistance  as well as unaffillated members of the public etc...

It was brilliant and very inspiring.There was a strong sense of solidarity. It feels like it's inspired a revival of Occupy.
We got to sing  "Iain Duncan smith you ratbag ,you can shove yer bedroom tax up yer arse" which felt very expressive of our anger at the government away from tame slogans and was referring to a recent news event when protester Willie Black called Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith a "ratbag".

Also I started a chant against tax dodging Vodaphone as we passed. There was a lot of singing,mockery,fun and a good sense of comraderie among the occupiers and others.

I also soldified my politics once again. Occupy passed under a socialist party banner as if symbolically we were moving under or beyond their assumptions and strategy.

I've recently come to be critical of vanguardism and marxist-leninist socialist(SSP, SWP etc)I had this year been working with the SSP looking to join though all the time having reservations (I don't like Castro's Cuba like they do and I'm not a Trotskyite) Well within the last couple of weeks I've done alot of reading and absolutely cannot stand Lenin,Trotsky and Castro.

I'm a libertarian socialist(nearly but not, an anarchist). My politics cannot fit in a political party.My politics and allegiance is with Occupy,with the building of a new society, with people rising up and taking power back from the authorities.Occupy continues to inspire me that though it is incredibly difficult to work towards that goal it seems to be the only way to have a better society. A better society cannot come about by voting X political party into power not even Green or socialist.

I think Libertarian socialism is the more authentic socialism. It takes forward the idea that ordinary people should rule themselves and themselves work for a better society as opposed to vanguardists who wish to lead the masses then become the totalitarian ruling party over them. This issue alone prevents a left wing unity.


The news seems to have downplayed the protest alot preferring to focus on London or Glasgow if anywhere in Scotland.

All in all a good day showing solidarity and got to reclaim the streets for a couple of hours against the authorities and the traffic.


Will it change anything? I'm always skeptical and realistic.But I never went into it with that expectation.It's about a public expression of anger and opposition and about showing solidarity.It's a symbolic act not one which would achieve something necessarily.It may,I don't know.

I tend to think protests like this are the authorities allowing you to show you disagree then ignoring you i.e. they are safe means of channeling legitimate rage and dissent into acceptable forms and expressions in much the same way political parties do or bureaucratic unions do.



See here for video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clP-xJ1t5tQ