‘From Scotland to Spain, the struggle is the same’ chanted
the crowd over and over as it weaved its way through Edinburgh city centre in
the early evening darkness. ‘From Scotland to Greece, no justice no peace’ they
added.
Around 600 of us marched in support of workers in 23 other
European countries who had themselves been protesting against Governments
austerity cuts.
The Edinburgh city centre traffic snarled up behind us as we
snaked slowly along Princes Street.
And for SSP activists carrying our party colours it was
remarkable to be on a demonstration where English was not the main language
spoken. These young people mainly from Spain chanted mainly in Spanish. They
work here in Edinburgh albeit in low paid, casual, temporary and largely part
time work because they had to leave Spain to get work and they consider
themselves to be the lucky ones because compared to their compatriots back
home, they reasoned, they were far better off.
So delighted were these young workers to see Scottish
Socialist Party members standing shoulder to shoulder amongst them that several
asked to have their pictures taken next to our banner to send, via email, to
their folks back home.
‘The workers united will never be defeated’
translates beautifully into Spanish, Greek, Portuguese, Italian, French…….
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