50 to 60 people with banners, shakers, whistles and placards gathered at the doors of the Spanish State Consulate in Edinburgh on the morning of 11th March for a protest against the War on Iraq.
The police had to call for reinforcements and used violence to clear the Consulate steps. Despite this, demonstrators, who were mainly citizens of the Spanish State living in Scotland, maintained a spirited presence for four hours until the Consulate closed for the day.

People started gathering in North Castle Street in Edinburgh city centre at around 11:00am with the intention of occupying the Consulate of the Spanish State, but unfortunately the police were already waiting for us.
Some of the activists tried to get through the police barrier but were stopped immediately.
After the first attempt by the demonstrators to access the Consulate the police forced all demonstrators to leave the Consulate steps. Some demonstrators, who resisted peacefully by sitting on the ground were removed forcefully by the police.
During the short period of tension at the beginning of the demonstration, the police threatened the protesters verbally and physically, assuring them that arrests would be made. One demonstrator was handcuffed by a
policeman, who refused to slacken the handcuff despite the demonstrator's protests that he was being hurt. This left the demonstrator with an injured wrist.
While all this was going on the police tried to take some demonstrators to the police van but they did not succeed thanks to the solidarity of many others who were there for the same reason. After the initial conflict everything went peacefully with many chants, slogans
and even a picnic.
After a while one of the protesters was allowed to get in the Consulate to hand in a communiqué to a Consulate
representative who declared that the consul was not in the mood to talk with any protesters.
The Communiqué, apart from denouncing the position of Bush-Blair and Aznar (the Spanish State Prime Minister) in supporting military action in the Gulf,also embraced many other issues such as the situation in the Basque Country , the political prisoners and mistreatment of dissidents in the Spanish State, the Prestige ship
which sank off the Galician coast causing a major environmental disaster,the disgracefully bad treatment of the immigrants and the fascist government policy.

During the gathering the protesters chanted slogans such as "Aznar bad boy (bastard)" the people say no to war" Jump and stamp if you are not a police officer" ," The people united will never be defied", " Aznar use
your mustaches to clean the (Galician) oil spillage", "Aznar facist bloody terrorist".
Leaflets in both spanish and english were distributed to
passers-by.

The police confiscated a banner reading "Bombs = Money = Deaths" and politely asked a few of the protesters to come to get it at the police station. The
police physically abused and harrassed various demonstrators during the course of the demonstration even although the protesters were in a way
complying with the police requirements.

Despite the cold and sometimes wet weather the protesters stayed until 15:00 when the consulate closed. The vibrant demonstration - which clearly had a considerable impact on the Consulate staff -reflects the fact that in the Spanish State 80% of the people are against the impending war.