IT now seems certain that a crowd numbering in excess of five figures will take part in the All Under One Banner march and rally in Stirling and Bannockburn on Saturday.
Although highly unlikely to match the 60,000 figure recorded at the May 5 march in Glasgow, the significance of the place and date – the 704th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn – could bring out a crowd of 10,000 or more.
Some activists think it could be more. One local SNP member said: “It was looking like being relatively low key compared to Glasgow, but we think the Tories’ actions in Parliament last week that led to the SNP walkout have recruited thousands for the march
The National is pleased to print the route but we emphasise that this could change.
AUOB told us: “We have been having route issues, with Stirling Council demanding we go through a housing scheme and climb hills, despite us having people in wheelchairs.
“We were trying to avoid the areas they want us to go through because we anticipate a significant counter-demonstration or two.
“We did request a change of route stating public safety is being breached by placing the movement in the back streets of Stirling. We made changes and edited our applications but that has fallen of deaf ears, so we are just holding out hope for a last-minute change of heart on grounds of public safety.”
The start time is confirmed as 1.30pm at Kings Park and the route is just over two miles to Bannockburn.
The National will update this story online as we get final information and make sure to buy your copy on Saturday for a full preview.
AUOB spokesman Neil Mackay said: “Bannockburn will be the third in our 2018 series of independence demonstrations across Scotland which see AUOB go on a national tour for the first time since its inception as an organisation on October 12, 2014, with Inverness, Dundee and Edinburgh to follow.
“We also, and undoubtedly with greater importance and relevance, acknowledge that the Battle of Bannockburn reverberates into the 21st century. Scotland’s current destitution at the hands of the Westminster regime and its ongoing tyranny of economic austerity keep Scotland’s children and most vulnerable in poverty, keep our workers in wage slavery and keep our land and resources firmly under the grip of British imperialism in all its unadulterated gluttony.”
One group who will be noisily in attendance is Yes Bikers. The group said: “Let us gather on June 23 and march for those who fought and for those who fell all those short years ago, defending Scotland and the liberty of the Scottish people – a battle where our independence was asserted and fiercely claimed.
“The Battle of Bannockburn continues to resonate despite the passage of time and we expect to see a massive number of independence supporters swell the ranks of this year’s Bannockburn March to commemorate our ancestor warriors who drained their dearest veins so we could be free and we could be Scots living in a nation called Scotland, as that was what was at stake and what was held over the course of those two bloody days in June 1314.
“And so, in these 21st-century democratic wars for Scottish independence, we assemble to march on Bannockburn field in our thousands. Let this be the rallying cry to all the clans to unite, all the Scots people, as they did all those many short years ago, for Bruce, for Scotland and for us.
“Let’s make this a Bannockburn March to remember.”
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