Stop The War Scotland Demonstration

It took me a long time to figure out that it was the expression of human emotion in an image that appealed to me most. Candid street photography was second best, although it was the only real option during my working life as an IT engineer, very often on-call with limited free time at the weekend. However, since retiring four years ago I now have the necessary time to pursue what really matters to me, hence the abundance of imagery from demonstrations and rallies, where emotions are on display for all to see. While static events provide this subject matter to a certain degree, it is the marches that really hit the spot for me, especially those that take place in bad weather, which is fortunate living where I do. In fact, my own Lightroom preset which I use on every single image is specifically designed to produce monochrome images captured under those horrible lighting conditions.

Those conditions came to pass once again on Saturday 23rd November 2024 as the city of Glasgow hosted a national demonstration jointly organised by Stop The War Scotland, the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament and the Scottish Trades Union Congress, the aim of which was to call for an immediate ban on the sale of British manufactured arms to Israel.

This coincided with the arrival of Storm Bert from the North Atlantic which had already dumped a fair amount of snow as I waited for the bus to take me to Glasgow. I live relatively high above sea level, so snow at home usually means rain in Glasgow. Wrong! On arriving at Glasgow an hour later I found conditions to be worse. The snow was lying as slush, which is by far the worst form of water state known to man. I made my way down to the weekly demonstration outside Barclays bank where I usually meet up with some other freelancing friends. The small number of hardy souls who had turned up to picket the bank were packing up to go home in the worsening weather conditions, and there was some doubt as to whether the main event would even go ahead.

Various anecdotes of transport disruption across the country meant that I had a decision to make. Do I head back home now while I can, or do I wait another hour until the assembly time for the main demonstration and risk getting stranded? I opted for the latter even although my wet weather defences had started to give way to the driving sleet.

I made my way to the assigned start point at the entrance to Glasgow Green. The original plan for the demonstration was a circular route through the city followed by a rally back at the Green with addresses from various keynote speakers, including former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, a principled socialist politician whom I greatly admire. That wasn’t going to happen. Jeremy, along with many other participants, was unable to travel due to the weather, so the organisers and Police agreed on an amended route straight through the city with a rally indoors at the end.

Eventually we were underway. By this time, I couldn’t feel my fingers and the sleet had made its way through my waterproof suit to the skin. The camera was covered in sleet and the lens kept misting over - this was tough work. However, it was also important work. Just over a thousand demonstrators had made it, and they were making their voices heard. Emotions were on display aplenty; despite the discomfort I was in my element. I was documenting something that mattered to me.

I left just before the procession arrived at its final destination, the lure of an hour on a warm bus was stronger than the need to document the speeches, the press do that anyway. Celebrity sells more than emotion. Fortunately, the roads had cleared by now and the buses to the sticks were running again. However, the much hoped for comfort never materialised until I got home. The driver, in a seriously flawed attempt to dry the inside of the bus, insisted on travelling with all the windows open, despite the subzero wind chill factor. Being the only passenger I had no allies in the ensuing discussion, he won!

Campaigners from most Scottish cities had been expected to attend, however Storm Bert swept in from the Atlantic and the resultant heavy snowfall in the morning disrupted transport links leaving many unable to travel, including keynote speaker Jeremy Corbyn. This resulted in around one thousand marchers completing a shortened route through the city centre to the final indoor rally where the assembled audience was addressed by speakers from the supporting organisations.