Greater Glasgow

End Pensioner Poverty. Glagow March for Independence

Let’s End Pensioner Poverty

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End Pensioner Poverty was the theme of Saturday’s march and rally in Glasgow.

End Pensioner Poverty. Glagow March for Independence

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Pensioners for Indy partnered with Believe in Scotland to put on this event. it was a big jog and we have been involved with the planning of it over the past six months. Members from our Fife, Glasgow, Selkirk and Ayr groups were in the steering group, along with some of the Believe in Scotland team.

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Marlene Halliday, who is Treasurer of our National Coordinating Group as well as a member of the Glasgow Group,was one of the speakers at the rally.

There are two suggestions for action in Marlene’s talk. One is about addressing pensioner poverty by creating a Scottish Pensioners Payment similar to the Scottish Child Payment. The second is about addressing the two thirds of older voters who are still not convinced about independence. She intends writing her speech up for the National and if possible talking to Young Scots for Independence at their conference next month.

Here is her speech:

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Mary McCabe, Co-Convenor of our National Group as well as a member our Greater Glasgow group, has written some more about the day:

Saturday was a glorious day in all senses. Even the sun turned out for the first pro-indy march of 2024. 

This was the first time Pensioners for Indy has been involved at the organisational level of a major demonstration (in partnership with Believe in Scotland) and members from our branches in Edinburgh & Lothians, Selkirk, Dumfries & Galloway, Fife and of course Greater Glasgow all brought their banners to march behind the big horizontal banner we’d commissioned for the occasion. Alan Logue, our National CoConvener, brought his Indy-Trailer to park beside our stall. Thanks also to Sheena Stephen and Neil Querns-Anderson who stayed in George Square looking after the stall while the rest of us were away on the march. 

Speakers included First Minister Humza Yousaf, Iona Soper, James Robertson, Jane McAllister, Pat Kane. Other celebrities who turned out included Martin Compston. Marlene Halliday, our esteemed National Treasurer, made a rousing and informative speech on behalf of Pensioners for Indy. She also got to walk along next to Martin Compston at the head of the March!

End Pensioner Poverty. Pensioners for Indy

We were joined by pro-Gaza marchers who chanted “Freedom for Palestine; Freedom for Scotland; Freedom for Everyone.” 

Our flags and T-shirts and Morag Simpson’s delicious fruit cakes flew off the Glasgow Pensioners for Indy stall. I sold a copy of my novel “Two Closes and a Referendum” and with donations we made £188.60.

Onward and Upward. There are at least a dozen more pro-indy marches planned for 2024 with the first (under the auspices of All Under One Banner) being again in Glasgow in a fortnight’s time, on May 4th.

Unfortunately the recording didn’t pick up Mary’s vote of thanks but it did get her very final words of the day. Let’s not forget them.

If you’d like to know more about how the thinking behind putting on this rally and what its aims are, have a look at our blog post Pensioners on the March!

Chain of Freedom Pensioners for Independence

Chain of Freedom – We Did It!

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Mary McCabe, of our Greater Glasgow group, organised our section on the Forth & Clyde Canal for the Chain of Freedom Event on 14th October. Here is her report back:

Mary writes:

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The Chain of Freedom on October 14th was more successful than we had dared to hope. And Pensioners for Indy played our part in it!

At the time I left the house to go to our allotted section 3E at Bishopbriggs, I had exactly 40 on my list. I was thinking well I don’t expect all 40 will actually turn up. If we get 25 that’ll be a good showing. In fact 54 turned up for our section! Not my figures: the count was carried out by Christian the official appointed steward for our section.

The weather was glorious and we looked and sounded cheery and lovely with our flags and banners strung along the bank of the gleaming canal.

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Rumours Are Spreading : Did Unionists try to sabotage the event?

Apparently there were  a few blank sections where nobody appeared. Mary heard that this was because Unionists (either human or bots) had registered by the hundred and filled up some of the sections thus stopping genuine activists from getting in. Next time – and there will be a next time of some kind – the organisers will be wise to the possibility of underhand tactics.

Thanks, Mary, to you and all your companions on Section 3E. Meanwhile on Section 2A at Knightswood and Clydebank in Glasgow more of our members were enjoying themselves. You’ll maybe recognise some of them in this clip.

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Our friends, Marlene and Fiona of the IndyPodcaster Team (they’re also members of Pensioners for Indy) have made this longer souvenir video of the event. It’s got more footage from Knightswood, some from near the Falkirk Wheel, from Bonnybridge, and from Kelvinhead, a drone’s eye view, and the Silent Clansman in his canoe!

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See you all next year! Because we’re sure the Chain of Freedom team are thinking about a possible follow-up event….

In Rutherglen with Pensioners for Independence

In Rutherglen with our Glasgow Group

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As campaigning hots up in the Rutherglen & West Hamilton by-election, our Greater Glasgow group decided to take their stall to Rutherglen Town Hall this week and do a bit of independence campaigning themselves. This is them on Tuesday. It was busier than it looks!

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The Scottish Independence Podcast team joined us…

On Thursday we were joined by Marlene and Fiona of the Scottish Independence Podcast team (they are also in the Glasgow P4Indy group). They had a chat to some of us. Then they went off looking for other campaigners. They chatted to an Independence for Scotland Party supporter, found a Scottish Socialist Party stall, and managed to get a few minutes talking to Keith Brown of SNP on his way out to canvas for Katy Loudon. Here is the video report:

Edinburgh Rally for Independence

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Pensioners for Independence joined 25,000 other supporters of independence (figures from Edinburgh Polis) for the March down the Royal Mile to Holyrood and the Rally outside Parliament.

Here are some photos from our Glasgow Group

Were you there? If you were, send us your photos and we’ll add them here.

Another of the Glasgow Group was there as one of the Scottish Independence Podcast team.

Here’s their souvenir video.

Thanks to Believe in Scotland and Yes for EU for organising the event. You were brill. And you even got the sun to shine!

If you haven’t heard the speeches they will be available on Scottish Independence Podcasts on Friday 8th Sept.

UCI World Championships Glasgow 2023

Showcasing Scotland – Glasgow World Cycling Championships

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Mary McCabe from the Glasgow Group wrote this for us:

A bunch of us joined the Believe in Scotland demonstration outside the King’s Theatre on Sunday 6th August during the World Cycling Championships. The idea was to attract for our cause some of the global attention surrounding the races. We pinned a banner proclaiming “INDEPENDENCE IS NORMAL” to nearby railings so it was visible from the street or from the air. 

Activists of Just Stop Oil (on their own separate demonstration) glued themselves to the tarmac further on the men’s road race course in the Fintry Hills, blocking the track. They did this to protest against the Shell sponsorship sported by some of the competitors. So everything was held up for about an hour….

While we were waiting for the riders to come through, Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp came over to say hello and discussed his new plan for a “double majority mandate” for Independence at the next UK General Election.

Eventually the cyclists appeared and we stayed, waving our flags wildly, until several groups had passed. 

Another of our members recorded her own impressions from the championships.

It’s the first snippet in the August Bits & Piece podcast. Just click on the image to listen: