As I mentioned in a previous article, the Scottish TUC, Stand Up To Racism and a handful of other groups announced a “call to arms” of sorts in the hope of pumping life into their ailing counter-demonstration against the #ErskineSaysNo demo which was organised by Homeland on behalf of the good people of Erskine who do not want up to 200 fighting immigrant men dumped into their town.
Now I have to come clean and say I am only writing about this as the news seems to be full of the usual irrelevant nonsense like Manchester City, Phil & Holly and other regurgitated nonsense.
So, how did they get on? It has to be said it looked pretty good. They had gazebos, food, drinks, a PA system and a whole load of folk there. Brilliant, good for them. We let them get on with it.
We decided a few weeks ago that we would not show up on this particular day. Instead, we had a lower-key flash demo on the Saturday. Why would we do that, you may ask?
Simple – we control our own demo, we start and finish when we like, we set up in such a way that we can turn away and completely ignore them or grab the microphone and mock them mercilessly. For the most part, they stand there staring over at us, hoping one of us looks in their direction, then getting animated when we do. Then we walk under our gazebo to make a cup of tea and ignore them.
It’s gone on for months like this, like a weekly humiliation ritual. Things are so bad for them that when we decide we are packing up and leave them standing (keep in mind the police keep them back until we’re gone), they think it’s a victory!
Well, it isn’t. They pushed as hard as they could to get that big turnout on the 21st.They had a mixture of celebrities endorse their wee shindig; this union, that union, this anti-racism group, that BAME or LGBTQ group, free buses from the other side of the country, and all they got was a couple of hundred people together.
Where were you all? The STUC alone has 560,000 members and, considering you think everyone agrees with you, where were you? Your numbers should have been in the thousands, tens of thousands even!
They are toiling to catch up, as everything they do at Erskine is a reaction to what we do. We bring a PA system, they sometimes do. We bring a gazebo, they (after ten weeks) bring one of their own. We bring tea and biscuits, ten weeks later, so do they.
That they display an increasingly aggressive attitude towards the locals just shows they know the writing’s on the wall. We have witnessed on more than one occasion masked thugs on their side making a beeline towards locals old enough to be their parents. It must be frustrating for them; they’re not used to losing. Usually they push against open doors and they’ll campaign and protest a government who is happy to accommodate them. Do you really think the Rainbow Warrior would have made it up the Clyde during COP26 if it wasn’t meant to be?
These people have now come up against opposition in Homeland and the Erskine locals, who won’t be bullied, can’t be intimidated and, worst of all for them, we do it with a smile on our face.
So, going forward at Erskine, we suspect they may have a reasonable turn out for the next week or two but before June is out, their numbers will be back down to twenty or so. Anyway, see you on Sunday!
