One Day All The Lies Will Collapse----.

        Another interesting and informative article from Glasgow Games Monitor 2014. This one is on, the pie-in-the-sky, "legacy" of the games. The magic phrase that is supposed to make you think that, all that public money being handed over to the corporate world, is actually for your benefit. After the "greatest show on earth" moves on, we will have a wonderful "Legacy". As Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda master said, "The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed". However, even he knew it must all come crashing down.

   From the Games Monitor article:

     However, we argue that ‘legacy’ claims are one of the primary means to legitimise, and deflect attention from, massive public expenditure on Games events. This expenditure on urban spectacle is almost always for the benefit of business; the bread and circuses of the spectacle is a great way of alienating people from the exploitative realities of land-grabbing, displacement, and gentrification. Glasgow City Council Leader, Gordon Matheson, intends to sell “two weeks of magic” to an increasingly suspicious public.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

It's Our City, Let Us Shape It.

 

      All you good people who turned up last Monday for "These Streets Were Made For Walking" Perhaps you could all come together again for another matter of abuse in our city. The Accord Centre in the East End of our city, WAS, a day centre for more than 100 kids with learning difficulties, a place of fun and learning and a chance of respite for parents and carers. Our caring city council decided to demolish it to create a temporary bus park for the "Games". The families were promised a new centre, to date, nothing.

 
   

     The families and friends of those kids have been fighting a lone battle to get something to replace the centre that the council demolished, all to no avail. Perhaps if the thousands that turned up that Monday in Govanhill, threw their might behind those struggling kids and their families, the council might listen. This is a community matter that demands support from across our city, these are vulnerable kids, they and their families are being abused. Mass protests could change the picture, and end this abuse. It's our city, let's shape it the way we want it.

This from Vice:

        Grace Harrigan is an East End resident for whom the Games have not been a blessing. In early 2011, she learnt that the Accord – a day centre used by her son and 120 other adults with learning disabilities – was to be demolished. It was, to quote a clinical letter from a council official, “located in the area designated for the Games”, with their plot lined up to become a coach park. Unsurprisingly, knocking down a disability centre for the sake of a temporary parking facility, for an 11-day event, proved controversial. Carers at the centre found themselves thrown into a high profile campaign and even Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, mindful of an approaching election, waded in to remind Glasgow’s Council not to risk jeopardising the “reputation and integrity” of the Games.

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

East End Injustice.

       Glasgow East End residents got an opportunity, (at last) to voice their anger, (perhaps I should say "righteous anger") at the treatment the have and are receiving, as the council steamrolls a path for big money to make a killing, in what is called, The Commonwealth Games 2014.

This from Glasgow Games Monitor 2014:

      1.  Very interesting 'Angry Games Residents Meeting' last night: http://gamesmonitor2014.org/2014/05/28/residents-vent-games-anger-at-packed-meeting/

       2. We meet next at 6.30pm-8.30 pm, Monday 2nd June at UNITE the Union offices, John Smith House, 145/165 West Regent Street, Glasgow G2 4RZ. All welcome! http://gamesmonitor2014.org/meetings/

    3. Event challenging stigma in the East End, 5.30, Thursday (tomorrow) 29th May, Parkhead Library (Community Meeting Hall), 64 Tollcross Road, G31 4XA: http://gamesmonitor2014.org/2014/05/28/event-beyond-stigma-exploring-everyday-lives-in-the-east-end-of-glasgow-and-the-cwg2014%e2%80%8f/ Cheers,http://gamesmonitor2014.org/ 

Also from Glasgow Games Monitor:

   This event tomorrow night may be of interest to people in the East End especially... Beyond Stigma: Exploring Everyday lives in the East End of Glasgow and the CWG2014 The East End of Glasgow has had a lot of negative media and political commentary attached to it. With your help, we want to explore the lives and promote the voice of people actually living in the East End of Glasgow. We are looking for people to keep diaries of their thoughts and experiences throughout the Commonwealth Games 2014 and beyond. To be involved, please come to our community meeting at:Parkhead Library (in the Community Meeting hall)Thursday 29th May 2014 at 5.30pm64 Tollcross Road, G31 4XA If you would like to be involved, or want more information please contact Vikki McCall.Phone: 01786 467698; e-mail: vikki.mccall@stir.ac.uk 

       More about the Project… We seek to explore the impact of territorial stigmatisation on the people that live in the East End of Glasgow in the context of the Commonwealth Games 2014 and other social and economic changes that are impacting on the city.The 2014 Commonwealth Games sets out ‘Glasgow’s ambition… for a meaningful legacy that will go beyond 2014 and will benefit everyone’. Yet beneath the fanfaring, there is little supportive evidence that mega sporting events can achieve the aims set out by local government. Further still, this regeneration initiative was envisaged in different set of economic and political conditions.The City of Glasgow has the highest number of people living in conditions of multiple deprivation and the East End in particular is subject to negative media and political discourse and stigmatisation. Those living in the East End of Glasgow will have a certain level of awareness of these discourses and are also actors in negotiating the process of stigmatisation as well as living with the consequences of it. But how exactly are such discourses being received and experienced in the East End? Do they create further material inequalities?     How do stigmatizing narratives and structural inequalities coalesce? In asking these questions, this research will examine the relationship between territorial stigmatisation and gentrification/regeneration. 

        It will explore the material underpinning of narratives of lack which devalue and/or valorize neighbourhoods and people of those places. It will compare these narratives to the everyday lived realities of Glasgow’s East Enders. Who is involved… The project is led by Dr Gerry Mooney, from the Open University in Scotland.The project is being managed by Dr Vikki McCall, from the University of Stirling. Vikki lives in the East End of Glasgow and is on the Board of Parkhead Housing Association. Please feel free to tweet @vikki_mccalland Dr Kirsteen Paton from the University of Leeds. 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Disappearing Population.

      Glasgow was once a city of just over 1 million people, it is now down to around 600,000. It seems to be a city of a disappearing population. Lots of densely populated areas were cleared to make way for motorways, shopping malls, large office blocks and expensive apartments. Its people were dispersed to new towns, overspill areas, and housing schemes on the periphery of the city. Areas of vibrant communities became deserts, before being handed to the big money developers. What's more, it is still going on, Glasgow's East End has seen its local communities banished, to allow big money to make a quick buck on the back of the Commonwealth Games.

A date for your diary, from Glasgow Games Monitor 2014:

KINNING PARK COMPLEX

(next to Kinning Park Subway),

Sunday 25th May, 2-4pm. FREE

      Second instalment of screenings from a series of films about Glasgow, originally aired on BBC in 1982. The series is a vital document of Glasgow, and the East End in particular, and gives a crucial historical context for understanding present-day social and environmental problems in the city.

     These episodes (3 and 4) focus on housing policy and life in the once notorious Barrowfield estate next to Parkhead stadium, and culture, religion and community belonging in Glasgow, both positive and negative. The screening will be introduced by members of Fight Racism Fight Imperialism (FRFI) and Glasgow Games Monitor. Open discussion to follow. All welcome!

  http://gamesmonitor2014.org/2014/05/16/glasgow-1982-film-screening-2-2/

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 

Glasgow Diary Date.

A reminder from Glasgow Games Monitor 2014: 
Hi all,

    Our next group meeting is on Monday 3rd March, 7-9pm, Unite the Union offices, John Smith House, 145/165 West Regent Street, Glasgow G2 4RZ. Meeting Dates:

http://gamesmonitor2014.org/meetings/Contact: gamesmonitor2014@googlemail.com 

      Also, giving advance notice that we will be holding a joint HOUSING CRISIS meeting with Unite the Community Union at the Bridgeton Community Learning Campus, on Tuesday March 18th, 7-9pm: http://www.bclc.org.uk/ We will be examining the promises of housing made for the Games and Clyde Gateway and more generally drawing attention to the annihilation of social housing in Glasgow, Scotland and the UK more generally. More details to follow soon, please add to your diaries and let others know if interested. Cheers,http://gamesmonitor2014.org/

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

A Concerted Attack, Requires A Concerted Defence.

      The living conditions of the ordinary people of this country are under attack as never before, and on so many fronts it is imperative that we join all our campaigns into one massive revolt against the financial Mafia's grand plan. This grand plan is being implemented by the Oxbridge millionaire cabal, sitting in The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, and consists of slashing all social services and the demolishing of our hard won working conditions, We have ATOS destroying the lives of the sick and disabled, we have the bedroom tax attacking the poor, we have workfare getting you to work for the multinationals for no wages, and then we have the "zero hours" contracts, tying you to a phone in the hope that you get a few hours work. This is not going to stop until we stop it, you will not wake up tomorrow and find that they have turned all compassionate and are reversing the damage done by their brutal and vicious assault.

      If you don't know where to get involved you could contact your local Clydeside IWW, Anarchist Federation, or Glasgow Against ATOS, a good place to start would be the Glasgow Games Monitor 2014. Here is some info from them:

A wee digest of new posts up on the site. Note especially the important new documentation of Alex Salmond's visit to the Accord Centre:

Accord Centre:    Alex Salmond vist to the Accord centre (video and full transcription): http://gamesmonitor2014.org/2013/08/08/alex-salmond-at-the-accord-centre-a-promise-unfulfilled/

Image gallery of selected City Council and Scottish Government letters to the Accord: http://gamesmonitor2014.org/2013/08/03/save-the-accord-letters/Atos:

Image gallery of Chris Hoy Velodrome occupation: http://gamesmonitor2014.org/2013/08/03/photos-from-the-velodrome-occupation/

Games Monitor comment on 'Atos kills' and the Games: http://gamesmonitor2014.org/2013/08/08/atos-kills-and-it-has-accomplices/

Documentation of the 'Dirty Laundry' event on Glasgow Green, 3rd, August (Atos protestors included): http://gamesmonitor2014.org/2013/08/07/documentation-of-glasgows-dirty-laundry-event/

Cheers, Glasgow Games Monitor 2014: http://gamesmonitor2014.org/

ann arky's home.