NHS MARCH - PART 2 - MID 80'S

Stretching the full length of Lochee Road, the protesters march past Peter Flynn's fence down to the Marketgait and eventually arrive in the city square.

It was the Thatcher government who was in power at the time so needless to say they were the ones who brought upon the privatisation of the NHS, kick-starting these rallies in the first place - and still the battle rages today.

They'll be putting parking meters in ambulance depots next!

Photos by The Bear.

NHS MARCH - PART 1 - MID 80'S

Yes I know, there are a lot of photos to scroll through and I could have just plucked out a selected few to display instead, but I decided to post the whole caboodle because I reckon the people who crop up in them will not have seen them before, so thought I'd use this opportunity to include all the images I have for the participants and their families to see.

This NHS march was an "anti privatisation" protest that took place around 1986ish.

It starts off with the great gathering up at Dudhope Park (the DRI was still on the go back then) then from the Pleasance Bar on the corner of Gardeners Lane it snakes its way down Lochee Road heading for the city centre.

It was a good natured march with nurses leading the way, followed by fellow workers, unionists and family members. Even the police are smiling!

Some of the placards and banners are from the like of COHSE - NALGO - NUPE - TGWU etc...with a few home-maders too.

I will be putting a similar quantity up again tomorrow, so if you don't spot anyone you know in this bundle, perhaps you may have better luck with the second set.

To view the large versions, just give the pictures a click.

Photos by The Bear.

DUNDEE ANTI POLL TAX #3 - THE DEMO

Things are literally starting to heat up now with this demo against the Poll Tax that took place in the City Square in 1989.

Here we have a bunch of activists doing what they said they were gonna do, and that was to burn their Poll Tax books.

"Don't Pay - Don't Collect - We Will Win" was the slogan, with one of the biggest banners in the crowd belonging to the Ardler/St Mary posse.

Our photographer with the mob - The Bear.

SCOOBY DOO DEMO - 1971

Back in April 2009, I posted an item to do with a Scooby Doo protest that took place in Dundee in the early 70's.
I put it up as a pretend April Fool, but revealed it was an actual real event.
Although it generated lots of comments, all of us were a bit hazy as to how it came about and when it took place.
Now I have a few details about it.
February 1971 is when the city square / Tay bridge demo started up, organised by Jimmy Brown and his schoolmates.
It wasn't just Dundee either, word soon got out to the youngsters of Scotland and not only did big cities like Glasgow join in, many of the smaller towns got involved too, places such as Fort William, Keith and Lochaber.
The protests all ended the same way - sending petitions with hundreds of signatures, into the BBC.
2 months later, Dundee's Jimmy gets a message from the BBC - Scooby Doo will now be returning to the screens.
A rather satisfying victory for those pesky kids!
The article above was published on 8 April 1971.