Earlier this evening over a hundred young people gathered in central Glasgow to show their opposition to the imminent arrival of the first Tory regime in thirteen years -- despite the best efforts of the state and FACEBOOK to sabotage the demonstration.

Last night, an event was created on Facebook calling for mass opposition to the new Tory government, announcing plans to take to the streets of Glasgow this evening. By this afternoon, over 1700 people had confirmed their attendance. Similar numbers planned to attend to-be-announced demonstrations in Liverpool and Manchester, while 40,000 had joined the original group for a ‘riot’ in London.

However, this afternoon Facebook, without explanation, removed all the anti-Tory protest groups from the internets, in an atrocious attack on democracy and the right to protest. With Glasgow the only event with a location and time confirmed, however, the organisers went ahead with the event this evening, albeit with much reduced numbers. That said, with less than 24 hours notice, and no activity to build it apart from a Facebook event, a turnout of over 100 was pretty decent. Especially when you consider that most of those people were not activists or aligned with a political group, but just young people angry about the return of the hated Tories.

From 6pm, demonstrators started gathering in the city’s George Square, and over the evening a number of different young people spoke over the megaphone, giving their own views on the Tories-in-power and why they’d felt the need to take to the streets tonight.

Young people from Motherwell spoke of the last time the Tories were in power and the devastating effect it had on their local community, with the annihilation of major industry, including the Ravenscraig steel mill near their own town. Others spoke of the lack of democratic mandate the new Tory government has from the Scottish people, with us now subjected to five years of rule from a government a tiny minority of Scottish people voted for. A volunteer at the Unity Centre, which offers help to asylum seekers in Glasgow, spoke of the Tories’ racist anti-immigration policies. SSY speakers made the connection with the current struggles against austerity measures in Greece, as well as underlining the case for Scottish independence.

Other highlights of the demo included the many people passing by who stopped to chat to us and why we’d taken to the streets tonight to oppose the Tories, not to mention the symbolic burning of a David Cameron effigy!

The demo was not everything we hoped for -- in no small part due to the actions of Facebook who, acting in collusion with police, ensured that all those planning to attend through the event received a message announcing it was cancelled. Nevertheless, around 100 mostly young people from Glasgow and the surrounding area did take to the streets tonight to show their opposition to the new Tory administration, and their anti-working class agenda of cuts, war and state-sponsored racism. And we burned a fucking effigy of David Cameron in George Square!

Stormtroopers for Socialism

Burnt Face Cam

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