Cameron, retreat, the youth control the streets!

'Zombie marcher' Andy Bowden is capable of showing his opposition to cuts EVEN WHILE ASLEEP!

. . .at least on Saturday we did for a bit. While opposition to the cuts hasn’t got as cool in Scotland as it is in France yet, this weekend saw an important beginning for a mass movement to defeat the Tories and Lib Dems with an all-Scotland march organised by the Scottish Trade Unions Congress.

Over 20,000 people through the centre of Edinburgh the weekend after Gideon ‘George’ Osborne announced the government’s comprehensive plan for ruining your life. We were proud to take our place alongside all Scotland’s trade unions, as well as angry people facing cuts to services on which their whole lives depend.

Our materials for the day went down well, with socialist meerkats calling on marchers to Compare the Council Tax. With council tax set to become a big issue in the election campaign (the SNP want to continue their useless policy of freezing the level of it, Labour want it to go up, using the cuts as an excuse), the SSP’s policy of taxing the rich according to their income, so that most people pay less for local services but at the same time we raise an extra £1.6 billion to pay for them, is the only one that can deal with both cuts and poverty. Simples!

Welcome fool, you have come of your own free will to the appoined place. . .

Edinburgh also got completely plastered with our ‘Hey Tories, Gonnae no dae that’ stickers as well, which you can expect to see everywhere soon. Apart from these and some pretty homemade placards, perhaps one of our main political contributions was to popularise the chant, “Maggie Maggie Maggie, Die Die Die!” This brought a smile to the faces of everyone who was old enough to remember why it is all the forces of good in the Universe hate Thatcher.

Ending up in Princes Street gardens, the huge size of the crowd at the bandstand showed just how angry people are already, and the real grounds for a fightback there is. But when we all dispersed from the march, that wasn’t the end of the day of politics for SSY, not by a long shot, because we still had AN EFFIGY OF DAVID CAMERON TO DEAL WITH.

After some detailed tactical discussion in our political nerve centre Wetherspooons, it was ascertained that there were in fact some nearby Tory offices which would make the best place for the sacrificial victim to prove that we really are all in this together by burning for our amusement.

This being the posh heart of the centre of Edinburgh, we made our way past all the caviar and top hat shops to the bunker of the Tory occupation forces in Scotland, where Dave was to meet his ignominious end. Or so we thought – but that was before a wormhole to the 1920s opened up across the street, and a very posh and disgruntled woman (with an amazing hat that made her look like a cockerel) popped out to put an end to the socialist ruffians daring to stand up against the fine gentlemen of Her Majesty’s Government.

YE SHALL BURN ME ONCE AGAIN?!?!

As the flames began to lick at Dave’s bin bag suit, she angrily demanded to know what we were doing, which surely was fairly obvious. She then intervened to bring the sacrifice to an end, but chose the method of blowing on the flame to put it out (we hate to break it to you, but that’s how you make flames get BIGGER). Realising this had failed, she then chose to KICK DAVE THROUGH THE RAILINGS into the front court of whoever is unlucky enough to occupy the premises below the Tory office. Assuming these are not just more Tories, then we can only apologise for the bizarre sight that must have greeted you of a half burned David Cameron on a stick, and assure you that we didn’t put it there!

More photos from the day:

Working class dogs hungry for a socialist message

. . . and he does!

Style and panache: decisive contributions of youth to the anti-cuts movement

Of course, Saturday’s march was only the beginning of the fightback against the Tory blitzkrieg, so keep checking back here for all the latest news about the resistance to the Tory occupation of Scotland.