Stranger's arms
reach out to me
'Cause they know
I'm so lonely
Then my mind
goes back to you
Your sweet love
sees me through
Your sweet love
sees me through
Strangers take
my lonely hands
Tell me that
they understand
I'm tempted
then I think of you
And your sweet love
sees me through
Your sweet love
sees me through
The world is watching us.
We are responsible people,
and we'll conduct
ourselves with dignity and discipline.
You get some dinosaur trade unionists
that are stopping the very jobs
we want to see.
Maggie Maggie Maggie!
Out out out!
Maggie Maggie Maggie!
Out out out!
Reporter: For more than two months now,
these women have occupied
the Lee Jeans factory
to stop it from closing down.
200 of them taking it in turns
to keep the occupation going.
We're determined,
we'll just keep fighting on.
Reporter: This is the first tractor made
at Caterpillar since the work-in began.
It's become far more than just a tractor,
This 'Pink Panther' is now a symbol
of what the workers are trying to achieve.
It is a special privilege to be a guest
of this great city, Glasgow.
The people of Glasgow, 6,000 miles away,
declared us to be free.
We love you all.
-
- Thank you.
Strangers take...
Reporter: Pupils at a school in Glasgow
are campaigning
to support a family
who were turned down for asylum.
Tell me that
they understand...
Then I think of you...
Reporter: The unarmed Mr Floyd,
who was black, died in Minneapolis
after being pinned down
by a white police officer.
In Britain, a London police officer
has been arrested
for the kidnap, r*pe and m*rder
of a young woman.
In the aftermath
of Sarah Everard's m*rder,
shock, grief and anger were shared
at vigils around the country.
Well, I've lived in that close
for 32 years,
and you could write a novella
about the couples,
the families that have come and gone.
My partner Liv was...
41 weeks pregnant...
so I was a week past my due date.
So, you know, the birth pool was inflated,
the plastic sheeting was down.
And I had a maternity appointment,
so I left the house quite early.
I decided that I'd spend the day writing.
Part of our flat looks down
onto Kenmure Street,
and that's where I work,
I have a wee study there.
I'm conscious there's some sort
of commotion going on, on the landing.
I was working at the kitchen table
and I heard some noise...
Because it was roundabout Eid,
I thought it was maybe kids playing
outside, in the back garden.
- So I went out and looked...
- It's not the kind of thing
you expect to see when you open
your curtains in the morning.
I was quite surprised actually
at how blatant it was.
The van had 'Immigration Enforcement',
in big letters on the side.
I messaged some friends
and I tweeted about it as well,
saying precisely,
'What do you do in this situation?'
Because I had no idea.
I opened up the door and I was saying,
'Lakhvir, what's going on?'
And he was being marched down the stairs
by Home Office officials,
heads down, don't-talk-to-you or anything.
And so I just, still in my pyjamas,
ran out onto the street
to see what was going on.
I just started sending
messages out to anyone
that I thought would be up
for coming down.
Babysitting exchange groups,
reading groups.
There was like a WhatsApp group
for our building.
Eid was going to be one of those days
that was going to be really special.
I guess it would be the same for anyone
celebrating Christmas or Diwali.
Pandemic, the world, and then,
an opportunity to come together.
I started getting these text messages
that there was an immigration van
on Kenmure Street
and I don't live too far,
just around the corner.
I don't have anything to do yet.
All the family are still asleep.
I can go, I could do this.
There'll be a situation,
but maybe it'll just be a couple of hours.
I'll see how it goes.
What's really going to happen on Eid day?
I got there within three minutes
of receiving the text message.
I think one of the things
that have become quite evident
in recent years,
is how important it is
to document things yourself.
And I just started live recording.
This is Immigration.
These people are here.
I think this is part of that new...
Home Office dawn raid thing.
The Home Office Immigration Enforcement.
As soon as I woke up,
I looked at my phone
and I had a text saying,
'Raid on Kenmure Street.'
'Can people get there now?'
Jumped out of bed, got dressed,
walked straight to Kenmure Street.
I didn't really think about
what I was going to do
when I went out onto the street,
I just knew that I had to do something.
When I was sitting on the ground
and the police kept turning up
this is when I was like,
'Oh, God, what have I done?'
Soon after we arrived, somebody whispered
to me that there's somebody under the van.
This man just ran underneath
to stop the van.
If it wasn't for him,
the van would have left.
It would have happened so quickly.
And his actions delayed things.
It delayed things enough
for people to come round.
Hey, folks.
Who's all here as part of the protest?
Anybody?
Anyone here protesting?
I thought it was actually an accident.
I thought it was an ambulance
and two police cars.
So I was telling myself not to be nosy
and not to look.
And just as I was getting on my bike,
I had a little glance
and then I noticed someone was filming it.
And I thought, that's odd.
Why would you film an accident?
There must be something else happening.
And then I realised the person filming it
was my colleague and friend...
Tab.
Hey, John,
it's the Home Office raid,
the dawn raids.
I didn't know the guys,
but their next-door neighbour's
a good friend of mine, Jonathan.
Hi, Jonathan.
Hi, Jonathan.
One of the neighbours who's a mutual
friend came up to me
and said, Tab, this is awful.
What's going on?
These are my neighbours.
They're such good people.
And it's terrible.
You couldn't have actually done anything
that was conceivably as provocative
as to launch a Home Office eviction
on the day of Eid
in Scotland's most diverse community.
So he put me in the picture quickly
about what it was about.
These two men had been here for ten years.
They're part of the community
and they're now in this van.
So that was enough for me.
It was just a strange thing,
it was a dystopian sight
not what you'd expect
in a quiet suburban street.
I'll take one, thank you.
I was in my sixth year of high school
and I was heading to my biology class.
I was leaving and my mum told me
about what was happening
on the front doorstep.
I still brought all of my school stuff
because in my head, I was like,
I'll still make it to biology on time.
Police officer: Alright, pal?
You alright still, down there?
You got some water?
You need anything else?
Give us a shout if you do.
I've been involved
in demonstrations before
but being in that kind of epicentre
of things, not really.
Hi...
I'm Van Man and this isn't my face
but these are my words.
Getting under the van was a bit cramped,
I'm not a small guy
but once I got under there
and I was able to get my hands
around the axle
and just kind of cling on...
I don't think anyone would have been able
to drag me out of there if they'd tried.
Who's under the van?
My initial thoughts were good, good, good.
I couldn't see anything
beyond boots stomping around the van.
I thought they knew I was already
in the van
because I thought my friend from the
network might have told them, but...
fair enough, she hadn't.
So they'd already gotten into the van
with the guys
and they were sitting ready to drive off
when they were told, or found out,
I'm not exactly sure.
I'm glad they did because they could have
put the keys in the ignition, and...
run in with my head directly in front
of the tyre, I was that close.
Police officer: Keep going.
The idea is to delay the van
and delay the removal team
because if they have to spend another hour
milling around this address,
that's an hour taken out of their schedule
and you're buying time for other people.
They tried to tell us that one
of the people in the van
wanted to be returned
to his country of origin,
which I don't know whether or not
that's true.
We want them to have the choices.
Let the other guy go.
Getting a bit cold now.
When people started gathering,
there were friends
and one gave me a shawl,
one gave me a jacket
and they're like,
'You just make yourself comfortable, Tab!'
and I'm like, 'Thank you.'
People were coming out
of the neighbouring buildings
to stand around or to give blankets.
Someone turned up quite quickly
who was a nurse
and who spoke to the person under the van
about their own safety
and their well-being under there.
Van Man: There was an amazing
off-duty nurse
who appeared and just didn't leave.
This is not my face,
but these are my words.
I was a bit worried about this guy.
He was squashed in
and nobody seemed to know who he was
or was speaking to him.
So I wanted to check
that he was all right.
Do you have any health problems?
Anything I should know about?
She was sitting at the back of the van,
by the bumper, checking in on me.
I had to keep explaining, he needs to keep
warm, he needs to be looked after.
Can we bring in a water bottle?
'No, we need to check what's in it.'
You've just seen this old lady
bringing it out of her house.
They were very strict.
Only after a while they sort of would let
me pass some things.
Let them go!
As a nurse, we have a duty of care.
It happens to me quite a bit
in and about the city,
finding people collapsed in the street.
I think I have a bit of bad luck
with that.
Van Man: She would check in with me
every 15-20 minutes.
Not just to see if I was conscious,
but also reminding me to move
whatever I could
to prevent nerve damage
and that kind of stuff.
So much hinged on the fact that
it had been his decision
to get underneath the van,
which is not how safety and health work.
Lots of people do loads of things that put
them at risk
for different reasons.
That doesn't mean it should change
how we think about their safety.
I'd done zero logistics, I was...
I was just so lucky to have good friends
and good strangers around me.
I remember when I was in nursing school,
in the introductory days,
we're told about our code of conduct.
And somebody asked, what do I do
if I don't agree with the situation?
And the teacher said,
you're talking about politics, no nursing.
We're trying to keep as much of a sterile
space in here as possible.
The prisoner removal team's going to come
in and try and get them out soon.
Protestor: Guys are trying to pray there,
guys. It's a mosque. It's Eid.
Protestor: The prisoner
removal service?
Cameraperson: People celebrating,
like, and living.
It was still quite early in the day
when I was making my way
back to the south side.
As the road opens up,
you can get quite a clear view
from a while away,
and there was a small crowd in the middle
of the road,
and there was a van sitting there.
It sort of had the feeling of just people
from the flats
who'd just come outside.
I suppose that's exactly what it was.
And I got a sense,
there's something going on here.
I'm going to stick about.
Stop deportation!
No borders! No nations!
Stop deportation!
No borders! No nations!
Stop deportation!
I had to put my phone off.
It's first thing in the morning I put
all this stuff on 'Do not disturb.'
But then after maybe like two hours,
I was like,
I'm just going to have a wee look
at social media,
look at the internet,
see what's happening in the world.
And then when I turned my phone on,
I had all these notifications.
Let them go! Let them go!
Let them go!
I couldn't believe this had erupted,
and I'd only left two months previously.
So, I caught a bus
as far up Pollokshaws Road as I could,
and then cut down towards Kenmure Street.
I didn't expect it to take very long.
As I expected,
there wouldn't be a lot of us.
I suppose it was an element
of a token resistance.
It was a gobsmacking scene, let's face it.
It's hard to believe that somebody
was under the van
or that the two men were in the van.
This was somewhere
I'd lived for 30-odd years.
Pollokshields has always been
a fairly racy place.
The majority of people who were there
still at this point
didn't know why they were there.
The Home Office doing
what the Home Office do...
I don't think there was any expectation
that they were going to change anything.
I think the expectation was that they were
there to be witnesses to something.
It's a tight-knit community,
and it's quite built up
with those big rows of tenements.
Tenements almost form this, like,
natural amphitheatre.
Out of my window,
just turned slightly left,
and it was the back of the van.
Let them go!
These are our neighbours!
Let them go!
That's a powerful thing, to know
that the community is watching.
And so we opened the window,
and we sat out on the ledge
and the Kenmure Street sign is beside it.
And then I filmed it as much as I could
on my smartphone.
We won't leave!
Until the people are free!
We won't leave!
- Who are you guys filming for?
- STV.
STV.
Crowd: We won't leave!
We won't leave!
I work at a farm out in Neilston,
but we have a small site
at the side of Bellahouston Park.
So we were working there,
planting up tomato plants.
I got a text through from a friend.
'There's an attempted dawn raid
at Kenmure Street.'
'Come down if you can.'
And then I started to hear the sirens
going down Dumbreck Road.
There was a lot of them, so I'm assuming
that's where they were going.
I was texting back friends,
saying, 'Are you there?'
'There's a lot of police coming.'
I came out of the maternity appointment,
and while I was walking home
my phone kept buzzing.
But also I was walking
through Queen's Park.
It was like a strange feeling,
because it felt like
so many people in the park
were also walking back to my house.
Let them go! Let them go!
God knows how many vans are here now,
police vans.
Just for two men.
I was driving towards the mosque,
and I saw a lot of police presence there.
And I became worried.
I thought, there's something
that's happened, or it's been done.
So I quickly parked up.
I met someone who was coming out,
and I said, 'What's happening?'
And he said, 'I think a couple of people
have been arrested,
and it's got nothing to do
with the mosque.'
Being in that peaceful mode,
coming right outside,
boom, right in my face.
Let them go!
What did I just walk out to here?
I mean, it was literally at the doorstep
of the mosque.
We've not seen
so many police
in Pollokshields
in such a small area before.
They were everywhere.
There was a rumour
two Muslims will be deported.
So I think that must have angered
some of the attendees
who had come for Eid prayer,
whose cars were blocked, actually.
They couldn't really move.
So without the Eid prayer,
there is no Eid.
You can imagine,
it's very busy in the morning.
Council tax, mate, everything.
All the tax we pay, mate.
You don't need to lie to anybody.
It's all on social media now.
People are live here on Facebook.
Never abuse your power.
- This is live.
- Disgusting.
You go into the mosque, you pray,
you come out.
You just want to go home and start eating
and be normal again.
But obviously it wasn't time to be normal
at all.
Let them go!
I phoned to my mum.
I said, 'Mum, you better just put my food
in the fridge,
because I'm not coming home anytime soon.'
Let them go!
Let them go!
It was Eid al-Fitr, the small Eid.
I pray with the Afghan community.
So I was at Scotstoun
before the 8 o'clock prayer.
My nephew, who's quite young,
he sent me a small video.
And then I left immediately.
I knew what it was.
So I arrived there and parked
near my sister's house and then walked.
More vans have parked up, Ruby.
There's a lot, there's a lot of them.
Yeah, yeah.
It just seems very unnecessary.
Like two guys
that they could just let out.
Yeah, exactly.
Does it really mean that much to them?
They've got the whole community out now.
They're coming into this community on Eid.
No one should be dragged out their house.
It has a really...
It resonates all those things
that you've heard in the past,
of the way people
have committed atrocities
and the way countries have dealt
with foreigners.
I thought the Home Office said
that they were not
carrying out dawn raids anymore.
And this was very visible on the date
where many people are going around
meeting friends and family.
Yeah, look.
Cordoned completely off.
Salam alaikum, Asif.
How are you?
I was at the prayer.
- Yeah, I've been here for a while.
- What's happening here?
Two men, they've got two men
in the immigration van.
And they won't let them go.
I have a good list of journalists
on my phone.
I started texting my friends and others.
In total, like, Messenger messages,
WhatsApp, normal messages,
I sent, like, maybe 600 messages.
I sent a Twitter message to Nicola.
Then I texted Anas Sarwar,
the Labour Party leader.
And I said, this is happening
in your area, in Nicola's area.
Whatever you want to say, you must say.
Let them go!
These are our neighbours!
Let them go!
These are our neighbours!
Let them go!
You only find out about a dawn raid taking
place if people say it
to campaigners or if somebody
in the community spots it.
It's very difficult to identify and say,
yeah, a dawn raid took place.
The moment I got a WhatsApp and realised
how close it was,
sitting down, eating my muesli,
I was just, well, OK, that's my day then.
And I figured out that then
what I would do,
to be honest, I figured it would work.
I just assumed
I was going to spend the night in a cell.
Let them go!
They're our neighbours!
Let them go!
They're our neighbours!
Let them go!
Nurse: I overheard them saying things were
OK because there was a nurse,
yet they wouldn't let me do my job.
They didn't even check
I was an actual nurse.
I didn't have any equipment,
I barely had access to him.
That was enough for them.
That's a leak under there,
that's worrying.
Have we worked out what the leak is yet?
Uh...no.
We have a couple of ideas and this man
said, 'We'll send our sergeant round.'
Our sergeant went round
and didn't look at it.
All of the cops near the leak
have now backed away from it
and we still don't know what it is.
At one point,
there was something leaking from the van,
running down this guy's head.
There was something dripping on me
after a while.
I was worried it was a fuel leak
or something.
And they were refusing to check
what it was.
Is this vehicle safe?
What is it?
They said they couldn't ask anyone because
they couldn't move from where they were.
It took an hour and a half to find out
that it was maybe, probably,
the air conditioning.
Van Man: The good news was
it wasn't petrol.
The bad news was it was everyone's sweat
up there, dripping directly down
onto my back.
If something happened,
things would escalate very quickly
and it would have been hard
to help him in any way.
He was practically invisible under there.
Sometimes people panic or hyperventilate.
Also, the van was always moving.
Police officers going in and out.
It wasn't a good place to be.
There was half a dozen dudes
inside moving around
and when they moved around inside the van,
I could feel the whole thing
shift on me.
It was intense.
Because any time they stomped their feet
or pounded the walls,
I could feel the vibrations.
They were strangers,
but we spent...
all that time
cooped up together.
I didn't know anything about them or...
who they were.
Everyone gets nervous
at a time like that.
At first, I didn't know what was going on.
After a few minutes,
I realised why we weren't moving.
There's a person underneath.
When the police began to intervene, that's
when I knew: there's someone underneath.
I'm a mechanic myself.
Another one or two people
get into the van.
Their weight goes onto him.
Even more weight on him!
There are six people in the van now.
These are our neighbours!
Let them go!
These are our neighbours!
Let them go!
Protestor: Let them out!
OK, can you ask him if...
I'm not, no, I'm not...
Lots of police officers don't know much
about the asylum and immigration system
so if they're stonewalling you,
It's not necessarily because they're...
trying to be difficult,
it's quite often because they don't know.
They have a right to legal representation.
Their lawyer needs to know
that this is going on.
I don't know if a solicitor's aware
of what's happening with them just now.
- OK, well...
- OK?
And if you, as a concerned member
of the public, wish to phone a lawyer,
then I can't stop you from doing that.
No, but I don't want to phone
a lawyer now,
if they've already got a lawyer
and the lawyer's not aware,
because that's just a waste
of everyone's time.
No legal agent has made themselves
known to us.
- Can you ask them?
- Crowd: Let them go!
I could see that that was a possible way
out that wouldn't end in...
the police really violently
clearing everyone.
Let them go!
No justice, no peace!
No r*cist police!
No justice, no peace!
No r*cist police!
No justice, no peace!
No r*cist police!
We were walking down Kenmure Street
to my gran's, I was panicked.
I was like, 'What's happening?
What's going on?'
I recognised a few faces.
So then, by the time I reached
my grandmother's house,
I immediately jumped onto social media
and I found Tabassum's livestream.
We're here on Facebook Live,
we've been here the whole time.
Eid Mubarak, everyone,
this is how I'm spending my Eid.
Crowd: Shame on you! Shame on you!
It's not just South Asians.
There's people there from all different
backgrounds and you're like, actually,
there is love here,
even at this most stressful point.
And the radical people around you,
you didn't realise were your neighbours
this whole time.
I had some paints from the middle of Lidl
that I'd bought a while ago
and a couple of bits of hardboard
that were the back of my sister's
Billy bookcase
that I was supposed to get back to her.
And I just spent half an hour rather
quickly painting on the kitchen floor.
I stuck the banner out
and I'm slightly deaf
and I suddenly realised
there was this noise
and it was actually the crowd's cheering.
So I think I gave them a thumbs up.
We thought a good idea
would be to open our mosque
for toilets
because the police and the protesters
would both need to use them.
And that was interesting
because you would see the police
and the protesters both coming in
to use the bathroom,
but then outside they're shouting and
screaming in their own line of defence,
I presume.
Police officer: You're not wearing any
face mask, are you?
Get back.
I've got my hands behind my back.
You're putting your hands on me,
not the other way around.
You're trying to as*ault me?
- Police officer: No, we're not.
- Right, well don't come to me then.
Police officer: OK,
so nobody's assaulted anybody.
Everything's calm.
Why don't you stay back
and leave it alone?
Stay here.
Typical, typical.
What did I say to the sergeant?
If youse don't escalate it,
it won't get escalated
and yet youse have escalated it.
- Police officer: I'm lawfully touching you.
- No, you're not.
No, you're not.
- No, no, no.
- He's not moved!
He's not moved!
Now you've said it.
This community hasn't given you...
...do you know about policing by consent?
This community hasn't given you consent.
Please don't push me.
Don't push me.
Don't push me.
You've approached me.
You've approached me.
I'm not happy with this.
Just step back, he's doing nothing.
Just look around.
BBC cameras, Scotsman, STV, everywhere.
Do your job.
Go and get the two kidnapped guys
out of the van.
They've got no powers
to do what they're doing.
Let them out.
Do your job, and then we'll go home.
Come on tae f*ck, man.
Abusing that uniform, man.
Bullies! Bullies!
That's what you are, bullies!
Smile, mate.
Smile to all these cameras.
Smile, mate, smile.
I had to remind my son
to not get too close to the police.
You're going to be trending in Glasgow.
So I was a little concerned for him.
I thought, OK, if your mum gets taken
away, that's OK
but I don't want anyone to take you away.
No justice, no peace!
No r*cist police!
No justice, no peace!
No r*cist police!
I read a tweet.
I immediately was concerned.
And I said to my boss,
I actually need to go.
I'm going to take the half day off.
And I was very fortunate
because I work for an MP.
We put out tables.
We thought, let's make a wee
Eid celebration out of this.
We said to some of the folk, just stay.
You know, your cars are blocked.
Have tea and biscuits with us.
I'd stopped at the shop
to pick up some snacks because
I thought, if this is going to go on
for a long time,
probably people need some food.
And when I got there,
one of the bus stops on the street
was completely full of water and snacks.
So everybody else had had the same idea.
The bus stop was turned into, like, water
station and with snacks and everything.
You know, samosas, pakoras...
Refreshments.
People were bringing out blankets, water.
They were bringing things in.
We went into our flats and took any
packets of biscuits and crisps.
People constantly trying to get you
to take bags of crisps
and biscuits and stuff like that.
Shopkeepers arrived with, you know,
blocks of water.
And then you would get the bin bag
to put the crisps in
to make sure you're not leaving the place
in a state.
The bus shelter became a kind of support
station, a tuck shop,
a first-aid post.
And that really struck me
because it was just such
a kind of act of care
around the broader act of care.
Got any water, mate?
Somebody brought this great big cookie
that said 'Eid Mubarak' on it.
And they obviously brought it to share and
it just sat on top of a car roof all day.
I think people were too polite
to break into it.
As we were growing,
we were growing in confidence.
Like, everybody was getting jobs to do,
looking after each other,
organising in the community.
It does show you amazingly
how challenging the system
gives people this confidence
to take control of our lives
and start running things for ourselves.
Let them go! Let them go! Let them go!
Five hours in, there was a point
where the police were asking
someone who had parked their car
if they could remove it.
And people shouting back,
'Could the owner of this immigration van
please remove it?'
When everyone else arrived,
the noise got even louder.
We knew they were fighting for us.
We heard it all.
The lady Immigration Officer asked me:
'Who are you?
Who are you that all these people
have gathered here?
In Pollokshields, who are you?'
I'm nobody. I'm normal.
Van Man: I overheard someone on
a megaphone addressing the cops, actually.
I'm paraphrasing,
but the gist of if it was...
I don't think you realise that we're here
for the long haul.
It's Eid.
We've just come from the mosque.
We spent an entire last week preparing.
We have all the logistics here.
And you don't,
you may as well give up now.
It was incredible.
We would not have a mafia from London
who can take us
from our houses and throw us in the van.
You're trying to remove any negative
energy in the month of Ramadan.
You're spiritually growing yourself.
And I know mentally I had prepared myself,
and I had a whole month of fasting.
It's what it's all about, this battle
within yourself to be a better person.
I could have easily lasted a whole night
and day there.
We call it the personal jihad.
Stand tall and nobody's moving
until those people are released.
The fact that I'm a nurse
gives some level of protection to me
that other people wouldn't experience.
I'm sure there were lots of people there
who were doctors and lawyers
and all sorts.
Some teenagers around the van
were saying very similar things
to the police that I was saying,
but they were getting shouted at
and pushed back.
I'm not un-arrestable.
I could be arrested.
And that means I couldn't work as a nurse
pending an investigation.
But it's a bit of a strange area,
to be honest.
I have to sign a statement saying
I'm of good character as part of the job.
Never to get arrested for something
presumes that anything you could do
or be arrested for is presumably
a bad thing.
It's a very critical position to take
in the context of a protest.
These are my words,
but this isn't my face.
When I realised that the car
was being moved,
I was on my own at the other end
of the street.
I could see a recovery truck,
so I just ran.
Let them go! Let them go!
If that car gets moved,
they might be able to move the van
so I dived under there,
just feet first underneath the car.
Dickhead!
Get off him!
Get off, please!
You proud of yourself, you?
Arrest him for what?
Let her go!
You do not need to do this!
Let her go!
Let her go!
Let her go!
Let her go!
It felt really lonely.
Just a swarm of people with cameras
and camera phones.
People shouting to let me go
and things like that.
De-escalate it and take it away!
That doesn't mean you can just do
whatever you want.
She's done f*ck all!
There was one Glaswegian voice
in particular
who really put himself in the way.
I did really appreciate that.
But at the same time,
there was just something
really dystopian about the whole thing.
You're pushing people against...
Move, move! Get back!
Just let her go!
De-escalate the situation.
Get back!
Get your hands off me!
They've already let this guy
go under the van.
They couldn't stop him because he went
under the van before they arrived.
Immigration had phoned the police,
the police had turned up.
But they could stop her.
And they stopped her with a lot of force.
And it's a show of force
to show everybody else.
It's not just about her and stopping her,
it's about showing the rest of us.
'If you try anything like this that's not
just standing about chanting,
we'll drag you through the courts.'
Get back, get back!
Get back!
Get back!
- Shut up.
- Get back!
Look, excuse me.
Can I speak to you honestly?
This officer, excuse me, this officer,
he's the worst officer I have ever seen.
The worst...
You have no respect for women,
for children, for nobody.
This guy is the worst man I've ever seen,
this guy.
Listen, you're a police officer,
get your guy...
This guy, send him home.
Trust me, send him home, this guy.
I don't want to speak to anyone.
That's it.
I'm telling you, this guy, send him home.
You know, he should be cutting potatoes.
And then I got angry and I said, he's good
to sell potatoes or tomatoes.
He's not good to be a police officer
in this tense situation.
Get back, get back.
Get back, get back.
Move to side.
Protestor: Don't f*cking push me, wee man!
Keep moving.
Off the road, please,
off the road.
Off the road, off the road!
Guys, get off to the pavement!
Off of the road!
You can walk on the pavement.
Get on the pavement.
Get off the road.
You can live here for 200 years,
but in the eyes of the establishment,
you are not British.
I mean, yes, the people are different from
the regimes.
And I experience it every time
I travel abroad,
I come in and get picked from the queue.
I was asked in 2005
if I know where bin Laden was.
I said, 'Are you serious?'
He said, 'Yes.'
I said, 'Look, if I know
where bin Laden was,
I wouldn't be coming to Glasgow today.'
He said, 'Then where will you be?'
I said, 'Downing Street.
I'll be telling Tony Blair,
there's bin Laden.
The five million reward, give it to me.'
They want this to become ugly.
So we're not going to get ugly.
We're going to continue
the peaceful protest,
no matter if it takes one day,
two days, three days.
If they have the time, we have the water.
I think in that moment, she's off to jail.
It's important to try and keep everybody
unified around a singular thing.
Folks, listen up, listen up.
The police are issuing orders.
They're moving their vans.
They are going to get prepared
to move this van.
If they try,
everybody has to sit on the ground.
I want to see a show of hands!
Who's prepared to get arrested?!
Who's prepared!?
Do not allow them to move us.
If we're standing, they can push us back.
If we're sitting, they're going to have to
lift every single person,
and they cannot do that.
It got to that point
where there was too many protesters
for the police to lift them all,
to pick them all up.
And there was no way that the protesters
were going to go home
or going to go anywhere.
I thought there's going to have
to be a clash.
There's going to be a riot.
Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you!
A lot of people there were other mums
and dads from the school run.
I think my instinct
is to act as a journalist.
It's to record, it's to capture,
it's to document.
But...these are my neighbours,
these are my friends...
Let them go! Let them go!
Let them go! Let them go!
Let them go! Let them go!
I was meeting my children for a spot
of lunch and started getting text messages
and I'm sitting trying to concentrate
because the kids are saying:
'Dad, stop looking at your phone.'
I'm trying to look at what's going on.
I could see from the videos,
something in the region of 40 riot vans.
When people were coming in,
they were saying,
'Wow, the whole of the area
is surrounded by the police.'
So if something was to kick off, I'm sure
it would have been an absolute riot.
At one point, there was a helicopter.
It was just,
why is there a helicopter here?
What's going to happen?
And I remember the liaison police officers
had told us,
'We're going to change the police who are
outside the van because they're tired.
Be peaceful, don't react.'
And for me, that showed the police
being scared of ordinary people.
Difficult situation for the police,
as well, because it's not like
you're driving protesters out of the area
they'd marched,
let's say, to the City Chambers,
or they marched to Trafalgar Square.
This is their homes.
These are their communities.
Are they going to go door to door,
battering folk?
Are they going to smash the windows in?
If you've got young children,
you've got old people,
they're just going to drive through
and people are going to get hurt.
And that inflames the situation
because I know as a young lefty,
one of the things I was told
was there's nothing more radicalising
than being hit with a baton.
It almost felt like as though it was
a trap that was set for everyone.
A trap set for the Scottish government,
a trap set for the people of Glasgow,
for the people of Pollokshields.
It's a trap set for Police Scotland.
Kenmure Street,
like many other streets across Glasgow,
carries the name of an individual
or a property
that has connections to Britain's Atlantic
sl*very economy.
In this case, it refers to Sir William
Stirling-Maxwell, born in Kenmure House.
Their family seat was in Pollok
and they had long-term imperial
connections in India
as well as estates in Jamaica.
They built Kenmure House in Bishopbriggs
using the wealth from the plantations
and on those plantations,
you'll find at least 400 enslaved people.
There are two sources of revenue
for the construction
of the great industrial cities
within Britain in the 19th century.
One, of course,
is the exploitation of labour,
indigenous labour, if you like,
within the factories.
So particularly within Glasgow,
you've got a lot of Highland labour
coming down,
Gaelic speakers working in the early mills
and the mines and factories and so on.
But the other half of the equation is,
of course,
to do with the plantation economy
and the history of the sl*ve trade.
Glasgow has a long historical connection
with Atlantic sl*very
from the mid-17th century.
We begin to see
the Atlantic sl*very economy
and the import of sl*ve-grown produce,
particularly sugar,
dramatically shift Glasgow's economy.
sl*ve-grown commodities
are the driving forces
behind the Scottish Industrial Revolution.
Glasgow really becomes the epicentre
of Scotland's Atlantic commerce.
They had limited involvement
in the triangular trade,
historically known as the sl*ve trade,
and we think there is only 27 recorded
Scottish sl*ve trade voyages.
The majority of them would have left from
Port Glasgow and Greenock,
but it's a tiny amount compared
to the major English slaving ports,
Liverpool, Bristol and, of course, London.
But where the Scots really monopolised
was the trade in sl*ve-grown produce,
especially tobacco.
In one year, 1758,
they import more tobacco to Clyde Ports
than all the other English ports
put together.
And Robin Blackburn,
the great economic historian of sl*very,
estimates that anything up to 50%
of the capital needed to finance
urban construction in the 19th century
came directly from the plantation economy.
The Stirling family themselves
are Scotland's most prominent
Jamaica enslavers,
and they own two plantations,
Hampden and Frontier.
The Maxwell family had connections
with St Kitts,
plantations and enslaved people.
There is then a marriage,
and their estate in Scotland was vast.
It was sustained and maintained by profits
from India and then the Caribbean.
After the abolition of sl*very,
the last plantation is sold off in 1850.
And the very next year,
the development of Pollokshields began.
At the time, people who profited
from the labour of enslaved people
were not ashamed.
In the UK, it was abolished in 1833.
And then in 1837,
you get the Compensation Act,
where people who now have to free
their enslaved labourers
are getting compensated
for the loss of income.
The British government had to take out
a massive loan of twenty million pounds
in order to pay off
all of this compensation.
And as British taxpayers,
we have been repaying that loan
through our taxes right up until 2015.
In today's money,
we've paid off about 16.5 billion
to compensate people
for the abolition of sl*very.
sl*very is a practice of empire.
This city benefited through violence,
exploitation, particularly to people
who were racialised.
Many of the systems that we see replicated
over and over again
were developed to divide us through
wealth, race, gender and class.
Enslavers made wealth very, very quickly.
Being able to show that off is building
these magnificent buildings,
making their money visible.
The rage around that...
of course, people are angry.
Pushed to the margins,
witnessing injustice,
turning that into something positive
we can achieve through protest.
Glasgow is a city of paradox.
We like to think of ourselves as a city
that's anti-r*cist,
that's radical,
that is willing to stand up
and protest for people's rights.
But on the other hand,
we're also a city that was built off
the back of enslaved
and chatteled African people.
My grandmother,
she was probably one of the few women
who was in George Square in Glasgow
on strike in 1919 when the police rioted.
And in running away she lost her shoes
and she used to tell us
she was more worried about going home
to her mother in Ibrox
to say she'd lost her shoes
than she was of the police.
My grandmother was a suffragist
and anti-w*r.
She was very disappointed
at the start of the w*r
that the suffragettes as they were then
had actually called off
the actions demanding the vote,
part of a group of women
who probably invested too much in it
because they actually thought
it would bring about change.
There are those in society that try
to diminish
our own ability and our own intelligence,
who try and inculcate into us
almost from childhood
that we're here to be ruled
and somebody else is here to rule us.
Jimmy's speeches,
they gave the shipyards an identity
and they were key to the success
of the whole thing.
Nelson Mandela: It is a special privilege
to be a guest of this great city, Glasgow.
It will always enjoy a distinguished place
in the records of the international
campaign against apartheid.
The people of Glasgow in 1981
were the first in the world
to confer on me the freedom of the city.
We respect, admire, and above all,
love you all.
Thank you.
Nelson Mandela Place
used to be St George's Place.
They changed the name
of that particular street
as opposed to any other street in Glasgow
because it was the location
of the South African consulate
and it meant that the consulate
had to receive mail
with the name of their most notorious
political prisoner on it.
The most important thing that has emerged
for all men and women of good will
who regard that the whole world
is the theatre of their efforts,
you are part of that generation.
In a way, Kenmure Street brought like
a lot of memories back.
You know, when we were young,
the same thing happened.
- Hello.
- Hi, Agnesa.
Can you tell me exactly what happened
on Sunday morning?
They came inside the room,
I was sleeping.
When I heard immigration, I screamed.
Hello?
One of our friends was detained
to be deported.
We started a petition for Agnesa's family
and hundreds of people signed it.
I'm afraid, they come to our door
in the middle of night
and they take us away like Agnesa.
That's where all the Scotland people
have seen us, so it's good.
Agnesa was one of my best friends.
I knew her for like about three years
and I was very upset about what happened.
Seven girls saved their friend Agnesa
and we managed to end child detention
in the UK.
Ground!
And it's been added
into the education curriculum.
Children can learn
about the Glasgow Girls' Campaign
and what it means to be a refugee
and asylum seeker.
Half a mile away, the Govanhill Baths
was the longest sit-in protest
in British history.
The council were determined
they were closing our swimming pool,
which was in the street
I lived in at the time.
And the community were equally determined
that they weren't.
I was tiny
when they shut the Govanhill Baths.
I was four and I lived on Calder Street.
Eventually, a little group of people went
for a swim one Wednesday night
and when they came out, they got dressed
and then chained themselves
to various parts of the building
and refused to leave.
We occupied it from that night in March
until the 7th of August.
Perhaps now I would go,
'How could you possibly prevent
the police entering a building
just by standing there?'
But at the time,
we just felt anything was possible
and within that campaign,
anything was possible.
I saw people hold police back by just
drawing a chalk line on the ground
and saying: 'There and no further.'
And they didn't cross the chalk line
and we were just thinking,
'That's bizarre.'
It was vibrant, there was a clown
and a unicycle, juggling and music
and then there was the absolute
attack on people by the police,
the kettling,
getting charged by police horses,
folk getting wrestled to the ground.
But it was that sense of almost being like
a community under occupation, you know?
Like, it was like,
'No, we f*cking live here.'
Do you know what I mean?
I think with Govanhill and Pollokshields,
they're very distinct communities
but they're also part of the one broader
community when it comes to resistance.
And then of course,
because of all the Islamophobia,
we had a lot of far-right activity
in the area as well.
And lots of people
from the Baths campaign,
occupying streets to prevent
the far-right marching towards us.
At times, standing basically toe-to-toe
with them
to prevent them entering Pollokshields.
The day they came to remove us
from Govanhill Baths,
they came with 300 police officers
and horses
and a helicopter and riot police.
So of course,
that can make people fearful.
Being a child of a migrant family...
I'm second generation Pakistani.
These things resonate with me in a way
maybe it doesn't with other people
because it's fragile, our space here.
We've had these conversations
with our parents
about our place in this country
and there was always a little fear
in our parents' hearts
that whatever's happening,
there'll be a time when we're not welcome.
It was a shock to my system
that this happened outside my door.
But as I spoke to some of my neighbours,
and people I've got to know
in the community,
particularly who are of Pakistani origin,
you realise that that is just
their life experience.
They have to deal with this throughout
their life.
Beside the mosque on the side,
there's around 50 police officers
just on standby, numerous vans
and really it was, I would say,
an overreaction to the situation.
And I lived through Pollokshields
through the 90s,
there was a lot of race riots
and a lot of fighting.
But this was the first time
I felt quite vulnerable
just because my children were there
and my daughter,
my younger daughter Zainab,
she was asking me:
'Baba, why is there so much police
outside the mosque?'
'What is happening?'
And it's Eid,
and they've got the pretty dresses on
and they don't really know
what's happening.
Refugees are welcome here!
Refugees are welcome here!
Refugees are welcome here!
They had a line of police that linked arms
and just tried to charge.
Oh!
Stop!
Scum! Scum! Scum! Scum!
We're trying to get them out the of van.
We're all on the same boat here, mate.
If you want an ambulance through,
fair enough.
If youse come in shoving people when
there's a big crowd, that causes stuff.
If youse come up and speak to people
properly, it's fine.
But if youse come in heavy-handed,
people will stand their ground.
Protestor: Put the paramedic through.
We'll let him through, no bother, mate.
Seriously.
I will personally let the paramedic
through, send them through.
They then later claimed that this was them
trying to get the paramedic
to the guy under the van,
but of course we just let the paramedic
through because why would you not do that?
Hey there, buddy, you can film
but can you just stand back
while we're discussing
with the paramedics.
Alright, it's to do with
personal information.
You guys still not sent
the paramedic through?
Cops go home! Cops go home! Cops go home!
The police, they are doing their work
but you shouldn't be here.
I respect your daily job
but you shouldn't be here.
In 2005 I campaigned with my friends
to stop
the inhumane detention and dawn raids.
We see this again happening
in our great city, Glasgow.
Shame on the police being here
protecting the immigration and the UK.
Shame on you!
Crowd: Shame on you!
I was watching. I saw the
police make a chain and charge the van.
I've spent half my life here.
This is where our family has been made.
I came here in my youth
and I've made my friends here.
I wanted to stay here,
that's why we were fighting the case.
I did have a lawyer,
my case was ongoing.
And then the phone calls start to come in.
One of the main individuals,
Mohammad Asif...
I said, 'You must come',
and he said he's with children
and I say, 'No, you must come, Aamer.
This is a very difficult day. You must...'
At that point, I thought I need to go.
I made several calls trying to find out
from people in the government
what they're saying - the Scottish
government - what the position is.
I've seen texts and tweets coming out
from the Scottish government
at the time which were supportive.
And I was told by a senior police officer
that it was a volatile situation
and they would welcome some intervention.
There was definitely
some sort of power dynamics.
It's interesting, of course,
because obviously,
Immigration is reserved to Westminster,
so the Home Office Immigration Enforcement
is Westminster
but Police Scotland is reserved.
This is wonderful, trust me.
You are an example for the rest
of the United Kingdom
or whatever kingdom you call it.
I hope that Scotland parts company
with an imperialist state soon.
I parked some distance
because the roads are blocked up.
I went up to one of the junior officers
and I said, 'Look can you get ahold
of senior officers in command
and can you tell that I'm here,
I'd like to speak to them.'
I don't know these guys,
you don't know these guys.
We're here...anyway I'm going to cut my
speech, I have my very good friend here.
Police described him some years ago that,
"You are a black man with a big mouth
and your big mouth needs to be shut!"
So his mouth is getting wider and bigger
and he's here.
My very good friend Aamer Anwar.
Eid Mubarak to everybody in our community.
The first thing I want to say is this:
What that Immigration Enforcement van did,
the Home Office did,
by picking today of all days - one of the
holiest days in the Muslim calendar -
was deliberate.
It was provocative
and it was intended to incite this.
What the hell did they think they were
doing by bringing an enforcement van
right into the heart of Pollokshields?
We should be proud of the fact
that these pictures
are going out right across this country.
That every single politician,
including Nicola Sturgeon,
and the Cabinet Secretary for Justice
have tried to pick up the phone
to the Home Secretary,
to the Home Office
For some reason, that Priti Patel
and her r*cist government
are not answering the telephone.
There is only one way
that this is going to end today
and it is simple and the message is clear
to Police Scotland, to the chief
constable, to the area commander
that people want this
to be resolved peacefully.
They want to go home to their families
but there's only one way
this is going to end:
that the two men in that van
must be released without condition!
In order that the Home Office learns...
In order to de-escalate...
Crowd: Let them go! Let them go!
Let them go!
If the Home Office wishes to de-escalate
the situation,
there is only one way they can do this:
Open the van doors. Let those men go.
So our community can go home
to our families!
And there is a simple message
to Police Scotland today:
What exactly do you call
community policing?
What do you call policing by consent?
We take no pleasure in having to do this
but we will not let our neighbours
be dragged out of their houses
off their streets,
or any more dawn raids.
We have the Glasgow Girls
amongst our midst!
We showed the way forward to the people
of Scotland and to the United Kingdom
And we will do so again
as this r*cist government
ratchets it up trying to divide us.
They will not divide us!
Black and white, unite and fight!
Thank you, Aamer!
Thank you, Aamer.
He's negotiating with the police
because he knows most of the high-ranking
officers in Scotland.
Aamer: I went into
the portable control room.
They'd already been informed
I was coming down
and I said the only way I see it,
you have two options.
I said, 'Well, Plan A is that you
obviously want this
to come off peacefully.
These two men,
release the men into my custody.'
So I presented that as an option.
I was told that's not possible
it's a Home Office... thing.
Then I said,
'Well you're Police Scotland.
You're not the Metropolitan Police.
You don't work for the Home Secretary.'
But I understood the mechanics of it.
The safety of the men's a priority,
the safety of the crowd,
the people of Pollokshields
but the community is filling up.
People will be coming back from colleges,
from school...
Those streets are going to be bursting.
You already got about a thousand,
to a thousand and a half people.
When we get to about 5 o'clock,
you're talking about 4,000-5,000 people,
maybe more.
You're not going to be able to stop them.
So Plan B was...
I think the words I used was,
'You have 140 officers.
You seem to have over 40 riot vans.
You got shields, you got batons, send them
in. Use your batons. Use your violence.
Smash up the crowd.
Get the the detainees out of there.
But you will be picking up the pieces
for the next 20, 30 years.'
We've not had a Bradford in Scotland.
We've not had the Toxteth riots,
which is where I grew up.
We've not had a Brixton.
But that's what you will trigger,
if you go in.
It'll be a disaster for Scotland
if that's the way you chose
to deal with this.
So, of course, the police then said to me:
'Okay we're going to need to speak
to people.'
I was aware of the fact
that the Home Office
wasn't communicating with them,
that people weren't picking up phones.
I knew from Humza Yousaf,
the Scottish Justice Minister,
that London weren't discussing anything
with anyone.
Van Man: The passage of time under there
was a little hazy.
Nurse: It'd been 8 hours.
Holding on to the axle gave me a thing
to focus on that was, like...
OK, this is my job.
We were not there to give up; to just go
for one hour, two hours and leave.
If it's going to take the whole night,
we are going to stay here the whole night.
The crowd had grown.
There was nearly 2,000 of us.
There was just a feeling
of strength and unity.
We've all decided, if we're all going to
get arrested, we're going to get arrested.
If we're all going to make a stand,
we're going to make a stand.
This is where we're going to be.
I said to my husband,
'This is going to turn nasty
and I'm frightened for the people
down there',
including our daughter and our friends.
Let them go! Let them go!
Let them go! Let them go!
They have sent millions of pounds
worth of resources
in to stop us preventing this.
You can have quite a bleak outlook
and it can be difficult to appreciate
the importance of an act like that.
The way the UK government's decided
it wants to interact
with the rest of the world,
and the way that it wants to treat people
that weren't born here, it's been...
absolutely horrible.
Drawing a line like that,
I think, that has implications.
It changes their sense
of what they can get away with
and it changes our sense
of what we can achieve.
Let them go! Let them go!
Let them go! Let them go!
Let them go! Let them go!
The privilege that I have is only
because I was born in this country
but even that could be stripped away now.
Things are changing fast.
Let them go! Let them go!
Let them go! Let them go!
I firmly took that space
and I held that space.
That moment in time, whatever was
happening, I was present, I was there,
and I wasn't going to budge.
I was nervous.
I didn't want to leave.
- People!
- People!
- People!
- People!
- Power!
- Power!
- People!
- People!
Everything happened extremely quick.
Fatima from Govanhill Baths
gave me her phone,
and she said, 'Pinar, read this out!'
I have a message from Police Scotland.
Please listen!
...having taken the well-being of all
people involved in the detention...
and subsequent protest on Kenmure Street,
Pollokshields today.
Chief Mark Sutherland has,
following a suitable risk assessment,
taken the operational decision
to release the men!
Cameraperson: They're letting them out!?
We should make a path
for the detainees.
So they can go and walk
to their home in dignity.
With their heads held high.
And most importantly,
this teaches the lesson to the rest
of the United Kingdom
that the people of Scotland
should not be messed with.
The people of Glasgow
should not be messed with.
Right, can I just say...
we've negotiated with the police.
Negotiations have come off.
We have an agreement, it is in writing,
these men will be released safely.
They will not be arrested, there will be
no enforcement action against them,
and I have an agreement
that they will then...
The police will form a cordon around
the van with myself and the two men.
And then we will be walked to the mosque
where they will be released.
I would ask everyone to disperse
so that the vans, the horses,
the police officers
can disperse from this community.
Everyone in this community should be
extremely proud of what we have achieved.
One last message,
I am going to go to the van
when I get told to go to the van,
the police will need you to move back.
Right, move, I will need you to move back
in order that we can get the two men out.
And when they say move back,
I don't want anyone
to try and do any antics.
We won this today
but we have got big battles ahead,
and also don't forget we have
the demonstration for Palestine on Sunday.
No justice, no peace!
No justice, no peace!
No justice, no peace!
No justice, no peace!
Some of the words that Aamer used,
I remembered,
about conducting ourselves peacefully,
not being intimidated,
the world is watching us.
There will be no vandalism,
there will be no bevvying
because the world is watching us.
I thought, 'My goodness, Dad.'
Of course, he would have loved this.
First of all,
What I want to do
is to thank every single one of you.
You've done an incredible thing today.
You've come out and stood up
against the hostile environment.
You have come out and stood up
against the Home Office.
I want to thank you from the bottom
of my heart for what you have done today.
We have done together an amazing thing.
Thank you.
I am so proud of all of you,
I am so proud of Glasgow, I could cry...
Thank you all so very much.
I thought, it's just a ruse.
There's no chance
that that's going to happen.
You know it just takes one thing to happen
for chaos to unfold.
There's a lot of mistrust there.
Surely to God, they won't blow up
and turn on the crowd.
Please make some space
so we can have some...
Go back, please, go back down.
Go back please, yeah.
Can we have some space...
What we've done in Glasgow today
is going to change the narrative
and framing of asylum and immigration.
Thank you.
The family appreciates your support.
But this is the last few
very important moments.
When these two men are taken away,
everybody stay in their places, please.
Thank you for your support, thank you.
The female officer who was in charge,
she came to me:
'Mr Anwar, could you do us
one last favour?'
I was like, 'Yep, aye, what's that?'
She says, 'Van Man, the man underneath,
he's not moving.'
So I was like, right, OK, so,
I got on my knees.
A guy in a suit squats down underneath
the van and introduces himself.
'I'm not moving, I'm not moving...'
He says, 'I want guarantees, those men...'
I said: 'Look,
I'm giving you guarantees.'
'Those men will be released now
and they'll be free to go.
But they can't be released until you get
out from underneath the wheels of the van
because the van needs
to get out of our community.'
I was pretty sceptical about giving up
the only leverage that we had
on a good-faith basis but yeah...
this is Aamer, he's not a naive dude.
So I went, 'OK, sure, all right.'
And then he said,
'Do you want me to include
your release as part of that?'
And I remember
just laughing at the time
because I didn't realise
that was an option but...
sure!
So I had to get off my feet
and I go back to the police officer,
'That's fine, I'll get him to move
but could you just give me
one more guarantee?'
The notion of getting to walk
seemed ludicrous.
Let them go! Let them go!
Nurse: Eventually, Aamer said,
'Okay, you have to go now.'
I'm going to walk to the mosque,
but you have to move.
Nobody's going to get arrested,
go right now.
I was mostly worried about this throng
of cops surrounding the van
and I was worried about accidentally
tapping one of their boots with my elbow
and getting done for as*ault
on an officer.
I'd been hoping the guys
would get out first
partly because I wasn't entirely sure
I'd be able to crawl out
while I still had all that
extra weight on me.
I went straight through the crowds
and into the back streets.
Missed seeing them being released,
just put my hood up and left.
We felt it vibrate
underneath,
we could feel him moving out.
We could feel it in the van.
People have surrounded the van,
they're moving it.
It felt to me as if everyone
was connected with the van.
The people united!
Shall never be defeated!
When I was released,
I stepped out,
I looked up to check everything's fine,
that my dad is watching what's going on.
I felt so happy that all these people
have come together for us.
The people here won't stand for injustice.
They stand for each other,
not just for me, but for each other.
Refugees are welcome here!
Refugees are welcome here!
When Aamer passed,
with the huge crowd behind him,
he looked up and I looked down at him.
And I recognised the woman,
it was Eileen Reid,
the daughter of the great Jimmy Reid.
There just was a moment
of complete recognition.
I remember tears started
rolling down my eyes because
I was thinking of Jimmy,
and I was thinking of Glasgow,
and I was thinking of all the years,
the three decades,
because you could see the faces I had seen
from previous marches,
previous campaigns that we fought,
who were young boys at the time, who were
now parents themselves or grandparents.
Thank you, thank you!
Start moving back, please!
It's about being part of a continuum,
you know.
I might not see what we want just now,
but my grandchildren might.
I feel very privileged, actually,
to be part of that day,
because I have a lot of friends
who grew up with me
in Pollokshields, but missed that day.
It changes your mental landscape,
having a moment like that,
that's shared with your whole community.
I think it was
sort of an alchemy, frankly,
and a damn bit of good luck.
Our Eid became more colourful.
We need to have a moment of celebration,
because it happened
this doesn't usually happen.
Craig, who stays up the road,
did a painting of the demonstration,
and I have that up in the kids' bedroom,
and quite often at bedtime,
they ask to have the story of the van,
and it kind of has this mythic place
in their childhood.
That's how we talk about it
with our kids now.
We tell the story of the baddies coming,
and then putting our neighbours
in the van,
and then everyone coming out
to look after each other
and then finally the neighbours being
freed and the baddies having to go home.
Everybody put a day in that day,
for something very special.
A day is nothing in your life.
Please listen to instructions,
please listen to instructions.
Half of my life I have been in Scotland.
Kenmure was one of the best days.
It's just like, you know,
Maradona scoring the winning goal.
I ended up getting a D in biology.
I never showed up.
I sleep like a baby.
Maybe that's a good tip for people
to sleep well.
Go on protests and campaign on things
that you believe in.
I've never experienced anything like it,
because people were watching
from all over the world,
and seeing the full force of the police.
For them to back down
was quite extraordinary.
Please make way,
please make way.
Please, thank you.
Crowd: Bye, bye, bye!
Policies are being made, but...
what you're essentially doing
is you're telling people
that they're not worthy.
Who gets to decide that?
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Everybody to Kenmure Street (2026)
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