Left- and Right- Wing Groups hold Competing Protests in City Square 

By Connor Bertie and Campbell Napier

Last night, City Square became the site of competing political demonstrations with around 80 left-wing protesters confronting a much smaller anti-immigration rally as police worked to contain tensions.

Organisations represented included the Socialist Worker’s Party, the Scottish Socialist Party, Stand Up to Racism and trade union Unison on the left, and Patriotic Alternative on the right.  

There was a heavy police presence on the Square throughout the demonstrations, with approximately twenty officers in attendance.

Attempts were made to keep the opposing groups separated with an area between them in the middle of the City Square, however a contingent of Scottish Socialist Party demonstrators gained a foothold in the centre area early on and police attempts to move them back proved to be unsuccessful. 

According to Police Scotland Liaison Officers who were present, the demonstrations were specifically regarding immigration, however a number of different political issues seemed to be on the table.  

The left-wing protestors numbered somewhere between 60 and 80 people, whilst the anti-immigration demonstrators had, by comparison, an extremely low turnout of at most 15 people.

One bystander on the left-wing side of the demonstration said:

 “It’s heartening to see how few people are on the other side. 

“It’s honestly pretty embarrassing on their part, but the fact that so many people feel we need to show up to counter an anti-immigration rally is pretty terrifying, because so many more of them could have turned up. There’s no way of knowing.” 

The majority of the right-wing protestors appeared to be younger people, aging in their early-to-mid teens.

There were a notably smaller number of adults participating in comparison, one of whom was seemingly a representative of Patriotic Alternative, which is widely recognised as a Neo-Nazi and white nationalist organisation, and are proponents of extreme conspiracy theories such as white genocide and Holocaust denial. 

Whilst the demonstration was generally uneventful, there were a handful of incidents during the evening. The first of which involved a member of an anarchist group throwing a water bottle at a right-wing demonstrator, and was subsequently detained by police and removed from the area.  

Later on, a man who had been on the right-wing side the entire evening revealed a Celtic Football Club t-shirt beneath his hoodie and shouted “Free Palestine,” before being removed from the area by police officers.

At around 08.45pm, he returned and was held separate from the protest by five officers for a time, and was eventually detained, leading to high tensions between remaining demonstrators and police officers.