Strathclyde police carry out another eviction in Glasgow

 Less than 48 hours after a widely-condemned operation involving 100 officers violently evicting students occupying a building in Glasgow University in opposition to education cuts, Strathclyde police this morning deployed 'dozens' of police officers to evict Margaret Jaconelli from her flat in Dalmarnock in Glasgow's East End. As Jack Jaconelli told reporters today: “What’s this operation costing? There must be about a hundred and fifty police here. Terror tactics…they took the demonstrators away so that nobody could see them. An operation this size is a joke.”

Once again, the commitment of Strathclyde police and Glasgow City Council to defending the political and economic interests of the rich and the powerful at the expense of basic democratic rights and dignity has been exposed in this shameful episode. 

See BBC news video here.

Below we reproduce a statement from the Glasgow Games Monitor 2014 on this morning's eviction.

Jaconelli family evited: some 'legacy'
After kicking up a huge fuss and reavealing the hypocrisy behind Glasgow City Council’s ‘Legacy’ claims for the Commonwealth Games 2014, the Jaconelli family were finally evicted today at around 7.20 am after Sheriff officers and ‘dozens’ of police arrived at 5.00 am.

The Jaconelli’s have been barricaded in their home now for nearly a week after a last-minute offer of ‘mediation’ by the Scottish Government was rejected by the City Council unless the Jaconelli’s left their home. The City Council have repeatedly said that the gap between their offer and the Jaconelli’s demands was ‘unbridgeable’, yet as we’ve repeatedly pointed out, enormous compensation fees for speculators like Charles Price have been quite happily ’bridged’ by the City Council. The double-standards are there for everyone to see.

There is much more to be said about this case (and we will say it all in time) but for now we want to congratulate the Jaconelli’s and their family, friends and supporters for fighting back against a City Council who would happily have walked all over them.

We’ve said all along that mega-events like the Commonwealth Games are more about land-grabs, than helping the local community; more about property speculation than social housing; more about the image of the city than its reality. Close observers of the Jaconelli struggle have now seen the truth of those observations. The City Council will now try to bury this story, but we have a feeling its going to run on and on…

Police harassment at UNISON protest, Scottish Labour party conference, 19 March

On 19 March, UNISON held a picket of the Scottish Labour party conference outside Glasgow’s Science Centre to defend “the jobs of 34 Asylum Support Workers threatened with privatisation, wage cuts, worsening conditions and no pension guarantee. This means a worsening support service for asylum seekers with poorer qualified and paid staff, working under more stressful conditions.” Two FRFI supporters who joined the protest in solidarity were once again targeted by Strathclyde police officers.

One young activist was surrounded by officers as he stood at the side of the crowd: police questioned him as to why he had attended the protest, told that him that he should be grateful for being "allowed" to hand out leaflets and sell a political newspaper and was noted down as a "potential troublemaker" for refusing to give his details and defending his right to practice these perfectly legal activities. Up to 8 officers stood watching the two FRFI supporters as the crowd gathered round for a closing speech.

One of the FRFI supporters addressed the protesting council workers and pledged his support for their struggle against redundancies. He highlighted the importance of any action that exposes the role the Labour party is playing in implementing the cuts through councils – like Glasgow – under its control, receiving a round of applause for his intervention.

The FRFI supporters asked the union spokesman to keep an eye on any attempts by police to apprehend them as the protest dispersed. The Glasgow Defence Campaign has no doubt that had it not been for this canny intervention the police would not have hesitated to surround the supporters as they left. In the end, they were followed by two officers as they crossed a nearby bridge and finally were “allowed” to walk away without police hovering over their shoulder.

Once again, Strathclyde police have shown their commitment to harassing peaceful political activity. The GDC calls on all those interested in defending democratic rights and combating the cuts to unite in organising against Strathclyde police and Glasgow’s rotten Labour council.