Demonstrations against fascism in Greece took place on Saturday 19 January in several cities around the world, with Athens as a central location (Solidarity with Greece anti-fascist movement Sat 19 Jan). This initiative was about protesting against the fascist role and activities of the Greek party Golden Dawn, which is unfortunately growing fast, creating new branches around the world (there are rumours that they are about to open a branch in Chicago!)
The demo in Edinburgh was attended by approximately 100 people. There were some SWP protesters with nicely designed banners and posters, as well as several Greek students from the University of Edinburgh protesting against the rise of fascism in Greece, but also some non-Greek protesters of various ethnicities representing more generic anti-racist positions and claims.
We stood for about an hour in front of the National Gallery listening to short speeches and responding to the weak threats of a tiny fascist group (maybe 10 people in total), who were standing opposite to us with two swastika signs, drawn in a ‘postmodern’ style, as mentioned by Willie Black (of the SWP) in his speech. We then went to Charlotte Square to drop a petition to the First Minister’s house, but there was no letter box, so we had a little ceremony of sticking the petition on the door with tape, and the outcome was documented with still cameras with the intention to be circulated via Facebook pages.
Demonstrations took place in several locations, including the city of Leeds in England. This one had a very small number of participants, not even twenty people, but included a couple with their twins in a double pram, and some others who had attempted to include Greek words on their banner! The spelling mistakes on this banner with the double pram in the background turned this miniature demo into a rather touching event, very much telling about the power of human nature, as a core element in the project of the revolution.
>Sophia Lycouris, 20th January 2012