As the hour approached I had tried to lower my expectations of turnout to a few hundred. I was shocked when I encountered the demo already on the march and couple of thousand strong. They were marching towards me so I got absorbed into it. I looked back over the crowd to the rear and I couldn't see the back of it. One of my first thoughts was the police seemed hopelessly outnumbered.
The most profound moment happened early on, and a short distance from the university starting point. We walked past a primary school and all the children (aged about 8 or 9) pressed up against the fence to watch the spectacle. I heard someone shout "its your future we're fighting for", slightly in jest, but it moved me and I hope it made a big impression on them.
I spotted a lot of red and black flags (and hardly any Socialist Worker placards), anarchism is growing in Liverpool, but what suprised me was the girl in a group of high school students waving a red and black flag. I would later learn Merseyside Police had warned high school students to stay away. I'd estimate about a hundred turned up but it should/could have been a few thousand.
Before I could begin thinking about asking the students about anarchism, someone from the Liverpool Daily Post approached me. "We're doing some live feed for Twitter and want to ask you why you're on the protest". >"Because I'm representing the Socialist Party of Great Britain and education should be free" I replied. He asked for my name but added a fake one was okay "Edgar Hardcastle" I said. We entered the outskirts of the city centre and the public were equally surprised at the turnout, the only ones who reacted were positive and supporting by applauding.
I got concerned about the route avoiding the main centre, the protest against the Lib Dem conference had been police-directed and this one looked police-directed at first too. Fortunately outside the main train station everyone sat down (stopping traffic) and heard speeches from the Liverpool University against the cuts committee leaders (one from Workers' Liberty and one from SWP). It was here I actually bumped into a Spartacist (on the reverse of his sign) and asked him why he was a Sparticist and he just said he reads their paper.
I wondered if the party "leaders" would try to hijack the protest and get political but they didn't mention politics really. By the same token, had I been recruiting or propagandising at this stage, it would have seemed like hijacking. While the protest had a dynamic active movement I was going to go with it.
We were led away from the shopping centre (mustn't interrupt capitalism or the local news put it bluntly "disrupting trading"). Outside the town hall we gathered to hear a Labour councillor who said, to much (possibly anarchist) booing that Liverpool council supports the protest but now please disperse. No-one dispersed and some idiot let a red smoke flare off (although no-one seemed to be hurt). The protest finally broke with police orders and marched on the shopping centre. The police (and mounted police) formed a line, and the protest thought for a moment then went another route to Liverpool's newest and biggest shopping experience the Duke of Westminster's Liverpool One. They hung around again and a "leader" (possibly a girl from Socialist Worker) made more incomprehensible comments through a megaphone but even the leaders were beginning to lose control. The crowd chanted "Bold Street, Bold Street", the speech was cut short and we moved on, now practically completely leaderless (or that's how it seemed). We successfully marched through the shopping centre and ended up outside what was rumoured to be a Tory party club. It was here the police restored some sort of order, they brought vans and formed lines again which would suggest the rumour was true.
Clearly the protest had taken a London-inspired turn. A police helicopter swooped over, I spotted one Police Forward Intelligence Team. Some eggs and oranges were thrown at the police line (some scallies in front of me seemed to enjoy this). The worst the protest got was a feeble attempt at kicking the Tory club door. After some time, the mob meandered back towards university, splitting and regrouping (and probably diminishing) in the process.
It was during this downturn that I spoke to three groups. One was a male and female couple who were sixth form students with a home-made sign. The girl said she was Labour all the way but seemed interested in socialism and both took leaflets. The next was a couple of girls with homemade signs who I failed to engage at all. One answered me that she was in the Green Party but largely averted her gaze, it was a losing battle so I drifted away.
I spoke to a group of three, two lads held a Bob Marley flag and a girl (with them) had a sign with a Bill Hicks quote about spending the weapons-budget on welfare. I liked her motivation and spoke to her, I gave them all leaflets. She seemed really keen and asked for my contact. I told her to contact Head Office.
The protest was winding-down and presumably so was the numbers when a handful half-heartedly scaled the Liverpool Union roof until two police officers wandered upstairs. There were more speeches by the two party "leaders". When I spotted someone giving out Liverpool Uni against the cuts leaflets, I copied and quickly gave out almost all of my leaflets. By then anyone still around was committed and just hanging around, so it seemed the right moment, rather than on the march.
I found one leaflet on the floor which I picked up and put in the bin. I spoke and gave leaflets to a few remaining groups of friends who weren't obviously party-aligned.
There were many witty homemade signs including "This wouldn't happen at Hogwarts!". One lad I saw intrigued me, he had "Me for Prime Minister" and a Hammer and Sickle. I wanted to speak to him throughout the protest. After everyone had left the protest, I found him at a cash machine with his friend . He said he was only 16 and not in any communist party. He was extremely enthusiastic about the protest and "communism" and hugged me. He asked what I stood for, and after pausing, I said "a stateless, moneyless, workless society of free access" to his delight. I gave him and his friend leaflets and humoured his friendly good-natured well-intentioned "Vladmir Lenin, Vladmir Lenin" chants on parting, by his sheer energy, warmth and enthusiasm.
I gave some more to a group of about 5 girls (one with a sign about Clegg done in the style of the Carlsberg logo) then went home.
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