Greater Glasgow

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:

Our Greater Glasgow Group Out & About

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Mary McCabe and her team of stalwarts set up their stalls twice a week in Argyll Street and another team set up another stall once a fortnight in Milngavie. Rain or shine or windy…. they’ll be there. And – they get themselves and their stall to marches, to demos, to events.

A few months back they organised a Hit The Road, Jack demo at the UKGov HQ in Glasgow. More recently they were at Bannockburn March. Mary was one of the speakers, and spoke about the 1800s Scottish Wars of Independence.

They’ve got some new banners for the stall, too. One is research from Ember-Climate Org about how energy flow across the UK are expected to develop in the next 6 years. In a nutshell, Scotland will be providing 40% of UK’s energy supply… all produced from nice clean wind and solar sources.

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Last week, the Glasgow Stall gang supported the Cost of Living Crisis demo outside Tesco in St Enoch Square. The demo called on the UK Government to use its reserved powers to tackle inflation by putting a cap on big business profits instead of focussing  everything on restraining wages. This year TESCO is expecting a profit of £2.3 billion.

Here they are.

I bet King Robert was impressed with their determination. And by the way, that wreath was in honour of Winnie Ewing.