WYNDFORD RESIDENTS are soon to receive a survey asking two open ended questions in an attempt to gauge views on how our communities should take action. The survey will ask, 'What are the biggest problems in the area?' and, 'What makes you angry?'. Teams of volunteers from across Glasgow are to be put at the disposal of community organizers in a plan that will be determined by the local community, and the civil society groups in the area. The listening exercise is to form part of a plan to rally the community in Maryhill over the coming months to prepare the

community during what is widely thought to be a time of widespread change. Asked to comment, Lead Organiser for Power In Community, an organisation which specializes in community organising, Nick Durie, noted, “This is a time of change for Scotland. Many different things may happen to the nation, this city, and our communities over the next few years. We need to listen to our families, and our communities, so that we know what it is that concerns us most, and what priorities of the new alliances our communities are rapidly forming should take on. If change is happening all around us, we can’t just allow our needs and desires to

be neglected; if we do that we risk just being blown about in upheaval. That isn’t good for families. We should be in charge of our own destiny.” In an era where 'local' and 'Big Society' are words that get bandied about frequently in the media, sometimes it can seem that in the rush to consult, change, or in the next big local upheaval the actual views of communities can be hidden by box ticking exercises. The listening exercise is to take place over the autumn. Look out for teams of volunteers in the Wyndford this October.

MEMBERS OF THE Maryhill Anti Cuts Group joined thousands of trade unionists, students, poverty campaigners, community activists, pensioners, public sector workers and disabled groups on Sat 1st October for the STUC People First march and rally. It snaked its wet way through torrential rain, which could not dampen the spirit of those attending, to protest against the Coalition Government's attack on ordinary people's living standards and services which are being cut. Continued on Page 2…

Disabled people and carers demand decent services THE CAMPAIGN to save the Accord daycare centre for adults with learning disabilities had a widely supported demo at Parkhead Forge on Saturday 27 August with at least 500 people in attendance. The Accord Centre is being demolished to make way for a bus park for the 11-day long Commonwealth Games spectacle in 2014. Users of the Centre are demanding a like-for-like replacement to keep this service in the East End. A replacement promised by Glasgow City Council has now been dropped. The Council has tried to transfer Accord Centre users and carers to a hired room in a community centre, a move they describe as “completely unacceptable”. The treatment of the Accord Centre shows that the legacy of the Commonwealth Games 2014 is not for the people who live in the area where the Games will be held. This has already been seen with the treatment meted out to the Jaconelli family, evicted from their home by sheriff officers and dozens

of police when they refused to accept the compensation package offered for their tenement home in Dalmarnock. Meanwhile, Mayfair property developer Charles Price walked away with £9 million for land just across the road. These moves are also part of an overall attack on services for disabled people across the city. Rather than sit back and take it, the Save the Accord campaign is organising and fighting back. The demo followed one in July which was also widely supported, showing the continuing anger at the City Council and the depth of solidarity with disabled people and

their carers. It was backed by groups including STUC, PCS Scotland, UNISON Glasgow Branch, Coalition of Resistance, Defend Glasgow Services and the Right to Work Campaign, alongside a host of other groups who have contributed to the Save the Accord campaign. The support of all these groups is welcome in the wider fight against cuts across Glasgow. The lesson to be learnt here is that when we dig our heels in, in our own homes, in our own workplaces, in our own services, in our own areas, we can start to challenge the logic of the cuts we’re all facing.

Continued from Page One… The protesters raised the question that while the current financial crisis in Britain has been caused by reckless greed and profiteering of the bankers, why should ordinary people be punished for it? The rally although curtailed by the weather was briefly addressed by Tony Benn who is currently national president of The Coalition of Resistance against the cuts. Maryhill Anti Cuts Group works together with Coalition of Resistance Glasgow and others to organise the defence of our services and jobs. Tony Benn contended that the present government is mounting the biggest attack ever made on the welfare state which was created after the Second World War, and that

the Coalition’s aim under Clegg and Cameron is to finish the work begun under Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. Benn went on to say that when people returned from the Second World War in 1945 the view was that it was the responsibility of government representing the people as a whole, to provider affordable homes, free medical care, education for all, and key public services. Those attending the Put People First march assert that these social gains are now under threat from the UK government's programme of austerity and privatisation, which they argue will take our society back 80 years. Maryhill Anti Cuts can be contacted on, 0141 576 4773 (answering machine available) or emailed at: maryhillanticuts@googlegroups.com

AFTER SEVEN MONTHS of hard-fought struggle, students at the Free Hetherington brought the occupation to a triumphant close on the last day of August. The occupation began on the 1st February amid fears that Glasgow University management were planning a broad programme of cuts to courses and student services. These fears were confirmed later that month, when the Senior Management Group (SMG) announced that Slavonic languages, nursing and the Department of Adult and Continuing Education (DACE), among others, were destined for the axe. Matters came to a head on the 22nd March, when SMG attempted to evict the occupation. Campus security began the eviction, and Strathclyde Police became involved, resulting in numerous injuries, including one concussion.

Following an occupation of the plush Senate Rooms lasting several hours, management were forced into a climb-down, allowing the students to reoccupy the Hetherington late that night. Occupiers remarked at the time, “It's not an eviction, it's an upgrade!” Following the eviction, the occupiers redoubled their efforts, and were rewarded when the consultation on the measures recommended that several of the

courses, including archaeology and anthropology, be saved. These recommendations, which still left several courses under threat, were upheld by the University Court on the 22nd June, while hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside. A Maryhill resident involved in the occupation said, “This is an unprecedented victory for the student movement, and I'm thrilled at what we’ve achieved. However, we shouldn't rest on our laurels. DACE is vital to many people accessing higher education later in life, and it has lost its public funding, meaning more of the cost is passed onto the end user. There are also plans to more than treble annual tuition fees for UK students coming from out with Scotland. Both of these risk making university a privilege of the wealthy elite.”

THRILLED: local resident

to sign the new contract and accept wage reductions of up to 19.5% from 1st October or be sacked and re-hired with wages reduced by up to 23% and an increase in workers' contributions to the pension scheme. Management have frequently ignored attempts by Unison to get them to sit down and negotiate a compromise with the mediation service, ACAS. The one time Quarrier's bothered to show up they refused to participate. On 6th September, Unison members went out on strike for 24 hours. Quarrier's staff managed to maintain the quality of care to the vulnerable people they support, while at the same time causing disruption to Quarrier's management. A rally held outside the Glasgow City Council building at George Square was packed with Unison members and supporters from Maryhill and throughout Glasgow. Since the strike, Unison has stepped up its campaign with politicians and remains determined to protect workers at Ruchill Street and Wyndford Road. The “What If?” project is still desperately needed in North West Glasgow, and the staff who work there should be treated far better by their employer.

STAFF AT Scottish charity Quarrier's “What If?” projects in Ruchill Street and Wyndford Road support some of the most vulnerable young people in Glasgow – all have experienced homelessness, most have suffered abuse while growing up and many have mental and physical health issues. Quarrier's workers in Maryhill – along with their colleagues at other projects throughout Scotland – were shocked when management threatened pay cuts of up to 23%. These cuts will force many workers into poverty. Quarrier's has told staff they need to sign up to a new contract or be sacked and then hired back with worse conditions. Workers are fighting back against these miserly cuts. Membership of Unison, the union that represents Quarrier's staff and other charity workers, has grown – in-house membership has increased by 25% in the last six months. The union is organising meetings for Quarrier's staff, advising staff not to sign the new contract and arguing the case for decent wages with politicians in the Scottish and UK parliaments. Meanwhile, Quarrier's Human Resources director continues to harass staff with letters warning them

THE BURGH ANGEL has learned that a trial ‘Dispersal Zone’ in Possil led to the targeting of young children by police. From 4 December 2010 until 14 March 2011, a square mile of Possil, including Saracen and Hamiltonhill, was covered by a dispersal order giving police the right to disperse groups of two or more people. Anyone refusing to disperse was liable for a fine of up to £2,500 and/or imprisonment for up to three months. This is a transcript of a group discussion Dawn Hunter held in March with seven children, aged between 10 and 13, in Possil. They have been named A to G to protect their privacy.

Have any of you had any direct contact with the police regarding the dispersal order? A: Every one of us probably. Every night you go out you see the police. They just hassle us. C: When you’re walking about they just stop you and question you. E: They ask you for your details. A: Your name, address, date of birth, phone number, school. F: What you had for dinner. Do they ever split you up? A: All the time. F: I was dispersed when me and my pals were walking home from school. B: Even if we’re just walking to the shop, they’re just waiting to disperse us. Like if I have to go down the shops for my mum, I can’t go with any of my pals because we’ll get dispersed. D: Me and three of my pals were walking home from football and a couple of older guys started shouting stuff and the police dispersed us but not them. Do they tell you where to go? G: They don’t care as long as its outside the zone F: Me and some of my pals have been told just to get right out of an area altogether. D: Aye, excluded, that’s called. That’s called an exclusion? D: Aye, so if you stay in the jungle [semi-derelict residential area just off Saracen Street] because of the dispersal order the police just stop you even if you’re by yourself and you’re walking down to Possil. A: I’ve been pulled up hundreds of times for breaching the exclusion because I stay there. So how does that make you feel? A: Pure raging because they’re pure cheeky to you sometimes. B: They make me feel really disrespected. They treat us like we’re not part of the scheme and that we’re just out for trouble, when all we want to do is just play football and hang out with our pals. Do you think the police are targeting you specifically? G: They don’t bother stopping everybody. See if a group of older people were to be walking by, the police wouldn’t bother with them. F: The police are rude to us, there’s just no need. We’re normal people and so are they, so why do

they act like this? B: But the thing is, see when they’re being cheeky to you, you don’t want to talk to them. See if they speak to you like a human, then I’m alright with them. So what kind of activities is this stopping you from doing? F: We got pulled up for standing at the bus stop on the way home from school. D: If you’re walking along the road at night going to get a big game of football, the police will pull you up. B: We were going out to the bowling and we decided to stop and get something to eat and they stopped us all and searched us. I had some money on me for something to eat, because the club was paying for the bowling and the police were like, “that won’t pay for your bowling, where are you really going?” How many of you have been searched? [7 out of 8 put their hands up] Do they tell you why they’re searching you? Do you tell you what law they’re searching you under? (Several) No. What about if you were to leave here tonight in a group? G: We’d get split up. B: We got pulled up and dispersed leaving here last week. D: Usually after this we’d leave here in a group and go and get something to eat but we can’t. How many people round about your age do you think are being affected by this? B: All of us. A: I’ve heard of wee weans at 6 being told to disperse. B: Aye, and because of that people from different schemes have started coming down here. People from different schemes are coming to Possil? What have they started coming here for? B: To cause trouble, start fights and that. Usually it's because they know you’re not going to be cutting about with your pals. A: I’m wondering, though, if there’s four police cutting about, can we tell them to disperse? E: Aye exactly!

Have any of your families said that they’re sick of you getting pulled up? (Several) Aye! F: My granny complained, my dad complained, my mum complained… Who can they complain to? F: Haha, the police! How do you feel about the police now? G: I can't stand them. B: They’re a joke. F: I never had any bother off of the police in my life before this all started and now I’m getting booked left right and centre. What do you think about the police and the council, who decided there should be a dispersal order on Possil? B: Why this scheme? E: Why us? This place had really calmed down before the dispersal, it’s not like it used to be. G: There should have been a vote for the people in the area about the dispersal order. E: Aye, everybody over the age of 12 should have been allowed to vote about it. B: Definitely, we should have had a say because it’s gave us a bad name. F: It was on the news and all that, now people think that everybody from Possil is scum. Do you have anything else you want to say about the dispersal order? E: Aye, it better no come back! A: My attitude has changed because I never used to bother with the police, I used to quite like them. But see if they’re going to lift me now, I might as well give them something to lift me for.

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