My Experience At The Stop Spiking Protest

“What Do We Want? SAFE SPACES, When Do We Want Them? NOW”

This past Saturday night, I participated in the Stop Spiking protest & march from Bristo Square to Parliament in Edinburgh. The protest was organized amidst all of the recent reporting of spikings & the new drugging being carried out through needle injections at clubs.

Countless organizations and activist groups around the UK have been calling for changes to be made to allow women to experience a night out without the constant fear of being drugged. Unfortunately, these calls to action have not been taken seriously so we are now taking to the streets in the hopes that collective activism like protests will help us be heard.

The Stop Spiking protest in Edinburgh on the 30th of October brought out a huge number of people marching in the streets. Organizers had coordinated with Edinburgh police, cordoning off streets and halting traffic. This felt like an immensely powerful protest to be a part of as we forced pubs and clubs around us to listen to our demands.

We protesters chanted calls to action as we marched: “What do we want? SAFE SPACES, When do we want them? NOW”, “Whose night? OUR NIGHT”, “STOP SPIKING NOW”. One protester’s sign was so clever it became its own chant “SPIKER NO SPIKING”.

This was the largest gathering I had attended since the start of the Pandemic and it was also discussing a topic I usually find very angering to even think about. So going into this, I thought I would spend the march either anxious, mad, or both. What I found instead was a deep sense of calm.

To be surrounded by like-minded people who were also afraid and fed up and anxious and empowered was a very centering experience. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by emotion, I found myself surprisingly tranquil as I knew that I was surrounded by people who were experiencing the exact same thing.

This protest helped me see this issue in a whole new light. Instead of feeling helpless, it left me feeling supported. I felt empowered as I yelled about reclaiming my night in the Cowgate tunnels, our shouts echoing all around us. And most of all, I felt energized to continue doing more work.

So if you have the opportunity to attend any sort of activism protest, rally, or march for an issue you care about, I’d highly recommend it. It could be the calm amidst your storm that helps you to continue fighting.