Govanhill Neighbourhood Centre
6 DAISY ST
Glasgow
G42 8JL

We’ll be aiming to finalise the second issue of the Crane – thanks to all for articles and letters we’ve received.

Remember all are welcome top come to The Crane meeting, likewise anyone can submit articles and letters.

The Crane – First Meeting of 2010.
Daisy St. Community Centre, Thursday 14th Jan 2010 at 7pm.

All Welcome
Anybody who is interested in the paper, would like to contribute or has any other ideas regarding The Crane please come to the meeting.

GLASGOW ANTI-FASCIST ALLIANCE

IN THE COMMUNITY

GOVANHILL

Through mobilising 100s of people Glasgow Anti-fascist Alliance successfully stopped the fascist and racist Scottish Defence League from gaining a public platform in the city centre on November 14th.

The longer term threat to our communities comes from the electoral rise of the Nazi BNP. Even a 1000 votes for them in the recent North East Glasgow by-election is a 1000 votes too many. They may stand candidates on the south side in the upcoming General Election. They try and divide the working-class by scapegoating migrants and people who just happen to have a different skin colour for social problems caused by the unfair distribution of wealth.

Thankfully the BNP have no presence in the south side. But in Govanhill there is a problem with disorganised racists and casual racism. There are reports of people of Irish descent trying to get together with Pakistanis to ‘sort out’ the Slovakians. Another person of Irish descent has criticised a local councillor for, in their opinion, spending too much time helping migrants instead of helping another community group. Another community activist of Irish descent has been perpetuating racist myths about the most recent migrants in Govanhill. The same ignorant, racist myths, almost word for word, were spread about the Irish and Pakistanis when they first moved here. Racist attacks in Glasgow are on the rise. This is the sort of environment the BNP thrives in and why the Labour Government can get away with introducing racist immigration policies. Thousands of years of human history show that migrants always add socially, economically and culturally to society. Even a casual racist likes a kebab on a Saturday night and listens to music of black origin.

We support the actions of the Govanhill Youth Project who have brought diverse groups together through football and the actions of the Govanhill Residents Group who have challenged slum factors. But fascists and racists also need to fought politically .

Join Us:

• We will stop the SDL from gaining a public platform.
• We will counter the Nazi propaganda of the BNP.
• We will stop them from doing any electioneering.
• We will celebrate International Workers’ Day with a festival in Queen’s Park with performers from the different migrant communities of the south side.

Received from Glasgow Anti-Fascist Alliance – www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=138704466669&ref=share

The work for the second edition begins now – please send articles, ideas, notice of events etc. to southsidecrane@googlemail.com. Hopefully the second edition will be out early in the new year.

Articles that appear in the paper will be posted on this blog as well as more upto date articles and features that we recive. Remember this is your newspaper, a communityy newspaper so please send us articles, ideas for articles, issues of concern, notice of events etc.

Articles can be written in any language. We’d like to see articles on this blog translated to other languages.

If you can contribute to The Crane in any manner or would loike to contact please email at southsidecrane@googlemail.com.