All Under One Banner hits out over Unionist harassment

In addition to being hit by attempts at sabotage through the spreading of false information about its marches, AUOB revealed members of its organising group have been the subject of “constant individual attacks” and “malicious lies” and that volunteers have been “targeted and harassed”.

However, AUOB urged people to see the attacks made on the group as a sign of its success.

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The group said: “As many of you are aware, All Under One Banner is under constant attack by Unionists. They are trying to discredit our movement with websites appearing and fake FB [Facebook] pages popping up giving wrong dates and times.

“The AUOB organisational team is under constant individual attacks, with malicious lies and fake rumours by Unionists, and volunteers being targeted and harassed.

“They fear us. Westminster learned their lessons from the British Empire and tactics developed by the East India Trading Company are now being deployed. What Westminster does not understand is that the days of empires are coming to an end.

“All Under One Banner was founded in 2014 with our first march taking place in 2015. In the rain and bad weather, we marched with numbers as low as 100. Now, in 2018, our marches have grown with numbers exceeding 60,000. This has all been achieved by a handful of people (and of course our marchers) who have dedicated their time and made many sacrifices over this period.

“We have successfully organised marches and rallies across Scotland to galvanise independence support. We felt it our duty to pick up the fight and get us back in the ring. When others had gone silent we shouted the loudest now we are the biggest grassroots movement in Scotland.

“As an organisation we have made mistakes along the way and learned lessons. The organisation is still run by the main organisational team, however, we welcome new and trusted volunteers coming on board helping to move us forward.

We have not let you, and more importantly Scotland down. We ask you to keep your faith and trust in us. We do and will continue to do everything in our power to make sure the independence movement keeps gaining momentum and getting stronger.”

Tens of thousands of people have taken part in AUOB marches in Glasgow, Dumfries, Bannockburn and Inverness this year and a five-figure turnout is expected again today.

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Those taking part are asked to arrive in plenty of time at the starting point at Baxter Park (South West Entrance). Stewards will organise them into formation for the march, which will leave 12.45pm. AUOB urged those taking part in the march to avoid becoming involved in any confrontations with Unionist groups.

It said: “Any counter demonstrations will be handled by stewards. Marchers can either ignore the counter-demonstrators or smile and wave.

“There should be no standing beside them or mixing in with them – our movement doesn’t need any negative publicity. The Unionists have now started to implant infiltrators hoping for a ‘Kodak moment’ to portray us in a bad light. We will not allow that to happen to be broadcast across the world by the Unionist press spreading fake news.”

AUOB will unveil a new logo to lead the march. The group said it intends that people who have made a stand-out personal contribution to the Yes movement will carry its flag at future marches.

A bucket collection will be made at the start of the march. People are asked to check for AUOB identity badges and tamper-proof security tags. Full details of today’s arrangements are on the event Facebook page.