The GDC expresses its
full solidarity with the four anti-war activists arrested and charged for
unfurling a ‘Resist Militarism’ banner from the Finnieston Crane on 28 June,
Armed Forces Day. We urge all our supporters to send messages of support to whitefeatherclubglasgow@gmail.com and join all future court protests. Here, a GDC supporter looks at the
growing trend towards normalising militarism and repressive policing, and the
real role of the Commonwealth Games.
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| 30 June: GDC join White Feather, Anarchist Federation and Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! supporters to picket Glasgow Sheriff court for the release of Finnieston 4 |
Boots on the ground
Stirling, Glasgow…cities of Empire?
You’d think they were trying to tell us something. Britain’s national event for
Armed Forces Day this year was held in Stirling on 28 June. As it happens,
purely coincidentally, Stirling was chosen as host city at the same time as it
would hold events to mark the 700th anniversary of the Battle of
Bannockburn. The Princess Royal, alongside Prime Minister David Cameron, Leader
of the Loyal Opposition Ed Milliband, and Alex Salmond, were on hand to oversee
the carnival of reaction: service parades, ‘exciting military demonstrations’
of Apache attack helicopters and Red Arrow fly-bys. As families looked on, the
very same day, these instruments of death were being put to other uses, as the
IDF pounded artillery shells into Khan Younis and wounded seven Palestinian children
and a pregnant women.
A month later, the Red
Arrows were back in Scotland, flying over Glasgow to mark the opening ceremony
of the Commonwealth Games as Her Royal Highness shuffled around Parkhead, God
Save the Queen was sung and presumably, teary-eyed, the Chief of the Armed
Forces looked longingly over the remnants of the colonial empire she once
proudly headed.
And, just in case we didn’t
get the point, Glasgow has been chosen as the focal point of the British
government’s activities to commemorate (or should that be ‘celebrate?’) the 100th
anniversary of the mass slaughter of World War One. The Secretary of State for
Scotland, Michael Moore, has invited Commonwealth leaders to remain in Glasgow
and attend a special ceremony after the Games end to ‘add to the sense
of occasion.’
As independence looms, the
British establishment, and its willing toadies in the City Council, seem keen
once more to present Glasgow as a loyal city of Empire.
Resisting
militarism…
As
the artillery rolled through Stirling, the same day four brave female anti-war
activists scaled the Finnieston Crane in Glasgow to protest against the
glorification of war on Armed Forces
Day. A huge banner was unfurled that read ‘RESIST MILITARISM #whitefeather’.
The Glasgow Defence Campaign salutes this imaginative and brave act of dissent.
Speaking from the top of the crane, one of the protesters, Friday Grey, said:
‘When children in Scotland go to see tanks and bombs today in Stirling, that’s
part of the normalisation of military culture.’ Actions and protests such as
this are crucial in disrupting that culture.
As
a statement from White Feather on the protest noted, £55 million is being spent
on the UK government funded celebrations of the start of WWI: ‘”The War to end
Wars” was a lie then and a 100 years later a new generation is being told that
lie to indoctrinate them with militarism and with a heartless irony, sell them
a myth to ensure support for current and future wars. It’s time to speak out and
these brave activists have done so in the proud traditions of Glaswegians Mary
Barbour, John Maclean and the many, many war resistors from Glasgow and far
beyond.’
…policing dissent
Unsurprising,
Police Scotland responded to this peaceful protest against mass slaughter by
arresting the four activists, detaining them for 48 hours in police cells and
charging them with ‘breach of the peace.’ Presumably, the Finnieston Crane felt
‘fear and alarm’ at being so wantonly abused. The Procurator Fiscal duly took up
the case against the activists as being ‘in the public interest.’
Supporters
of the GDC will be familiar with the concerted attempts at Police Scotland, and
its predecessor Strathclyde Police, to harass, undermine and criminalise any
expressions of opposition to war and militarism in Glasgow. In the past week alone, supporters of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! (FRFI) organising
solidarity with Palestine have had streets stalls disrupted and public meetings
visited by uniformed police officers demanding information.
The four activists appeared
in court on 30 June, with the GDC joining the supporters who gathered inside
and outside the Sheriff Court in solidarity. The four women all pled not guilty
and were released on bail with the next court date set.
In a significant
development, however, the Crown initially tried
to impose bail with ‘special conditions’ preventing the accused from
entering what they termed the Commonwealth Games ‘events zone’ which included
over a dozen areas of the city and the entire Marathon route. As the judge, who
struck down the attempt, commented, this would have meant the accused being
unable to leave their homes and going to their places of work, study and other
locations. All this over a breach of the peace charge and a protest that had
nothing directly to do with the Commonwealth Games.
Boots
on the ground
As the GDC has consistently
noted, the attempts to impose special bail conditions on anti-cuts and anti-war
activists shows more than anything the political nature of these arrests and
charges. Other activists in Glasgow, including GDC supporters, have previously
faced repressive
bail conditions such as ‘city centre exclusion zones’ and bans on
‘gathering with two or more people for the purposes of a demonstration.’
The attempt by the
Procurator Fiscal to deploy the Commonwealth Games as a factor in the treatment
of the arrested activists confirms another point made by the GDC, the Glasgow
Games Monitor and anti-ATOS campaigners over the past two years: that the
Commonwealth Games is being used as an excuse to clamp down on dissent, extend
increasingly repressive policing, normalise the deployment of armed soldiers on
the streets and destroy any opposition to the corporate interests which
dominate both the Games and Glasgow itself. The case of the
Glasgow Against ATOS 2 – FRFI activists arrested and charged for speaking
on a megaphone against the Commonwealth Games sponsors – and the recent arrest
of an anti-ATOS activist during
the Queen’s Baton relay in Barrhead are just two examples. The latter was
banned from entering any Games venues for the duration of the event.
The security operation for
the Commonwealth Games is the biggest ever seen in Scotland. The policing
tactics of Police Scotland during the event are based on the ominously named
‘Project Servator’, developed by the City
of London police in order to ‘protect the City as a global financial
centre.’ According to Project Servator, one of its tactical pillars is ‘hostile
reconnaissance’ – the ‘purposeful observation of people, places, vehicles and
locations with the intention of collecting information to inform the planning
of a hostile act.’ The targets of such hostility are helpfully defined as
‘criminals, whether extreme protest groups, organised crime or terrorists.’ Alongside
dozens of armed police officers on the streets of Glasgow, more than 2,000
Armed Forces personnel are involved in the security operation, including units
from the Black Watch, while Typhoon fighter jets are on standby. Detective
Chief Inspective Allen informed the public that ‘those going to events will see
uniformed personnel, whether they’re military or police, at the entrances.’
To borrow from the marketing
jargon of the Games organisers, this will be one the key ‘legacies’ of the
Commonwealth Games. This huge security operation will not melt away after the
Games. Like Armed Forces Day, its role is to normalise the apparatus of
repression, of armed police and soldiers on our streets. Its real target is not
some anonymous ‘terrorist threat’ but the protesters, activists, and in the
end, the working class communities of Glasgow who may dare to raise their
voices in opposition to the endless violence of the British state at home and
abroad.
We answer them with the
words of Glasgow’s revolutionary son, John MacLean, as the first volleys of the
World War were being fired: ‘Let the propertied class go out, old and young
alike, and defend their blessed property. When they have been disposed of, we
of the working class will have something to defend and we shall do it.’
Miriam Kelly,
28 July 2014
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