Why is the demo not at Dungavel?

The border regime is all around us. People protesting in Edinburgh on Saturday 21st stand in solidarity with the weekly pickets at Brand Street reporting centre in Glasgow, and with other protests elsewhere. Lets expose the repressive border regime wherever we can!

other related upcoming stuff

Tuesday 24 March, 7pm independent film and discussion exploring migration, borders and human rights @ The Forest Café, Bristo Place, Edinburgh. Free

Tuesday 7 April, 7pm 2 more films exploring migration, borders and human rights @ The Forest Café, Bristo Place, Edinburgh! Free

Saturday 18 April Unity Ceilidh 7pm-midnight
This is a ceilidh collective event with 100% of profits going to the Unity Centre in Glasgow, providing practical solidarity and support for asylum seekers http://unitycentreglasgow.org/
@ South Side Community Centre, West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9ER. £10/£6 (concession)/£3 (children under 12)

Saturday 9 May No Borders Dayschool @ the Forest Café, Bristo Place, Edinburgh. More info to follow…
 

"Why is the demo not at Dungavel?"

Its not 'either/or'! If you want to organise one there another time, I will come. But there are plenty of good reasons to picket G4E dont you think, like the ones in the above article?

Maybe you didnt mean to sound so critical and dismissive, but thats how your comment came across.

Solidarity with the organisers! 

Isn't the whole point to stand in solidarity with the victims of border fascism and for them to know we are with them? - hence my comment re-Dungavel. If I had the network I would of course get organising - need to get networking obviously.

Sorry if anyone felt slighted.
 

I guess the reason why there are questions about where this demo is being held is because it may take away from ongoing struggles on the west coast of Scotland.

The picket of Brand Street was initiated by asylum seekers themselves and supported by the collective of volunteers at the Unity Centre and is not just organised by 'activists'.

Solidarity is to be welcomed but the weekly picket in Glasgow hasn't been going for long - only two weeks - and hasn't become established yet so it is a legitimate question to ask why another demo is being organised only thirty miles away...

It's a bit like organising a protest in Leeds about a problem in Bradford or organising an action in Newcastle when the company headquarters is only in Durham.

It just seems a bit weird when folk are needed at the Glasgow picket.

For anyone else who is interested the pickets of the Reporting Centre - where people are detained and taken by G4S to Dungavel which they also operate - are held every Wednesday from midday. Meet at the Unity Centre at 30 Ibrox Street G50 1AQ Map and directions on our website.

All welcome!

UNITY! (sic)

Some piccies from the weekly UNITY vigil held outside the Home Office reporting centre at Festival Court, Brand Street, Glasgow every Wednesday in solidarity with people required to report.

Support needed!

I wasn't aware that the pickets at Brand Street had been restarted (they pre-date the opening of the Unity Centre, if I recall right).

You all should add it to the calendar (link here).

I don't see how a picket outside immigration profiteers in Edinburgh takes anything away from a regular picket on a different day in Glasgow, though. If anything, it's a platform to promote the excellent work going on by folk on the west coast.

Make sure there's suitable propaganda for the folk in Edinburgh...

"I guess the reason why there are questions about where this demo is being held is because it may take away from ongoing struggles on the west coast of Scotland."

Why would it? I rarely go to glasgow for a protest, but this one is really near-by so I will go to it. It is also on a different day to the Glasgow one, which is wednesday during the week, which prevents many many workers from attending, while this one is on a Saturday.

"It's a bit like organising a protest in Leeds about a problem in Bradford or organising an action in Newcastle when the company headquarters is only in Durham."

Its nothing like that! What it is like:- people in Edinburgh autonomously organising a protest, that Edinburgh based people who cant afford to travel to Glasgow (either time or money) can go to, in solidarity with the struggle of asylum seekers, precarious immigrants and sans-papiers.

Moreover, the Islam family, including two children, from my community (Pilton, North Edinburgh. G4S is in Telford - very near by ), got dawn raided, imprisoned in Dungavel, and deported last month, back to Bangladesh, which they had fled from because they were subjected to political violence. It is not an exclusively Glasgow problem.

"For anyone else who is interested the pickets of the Reporting Centre - where people are detained and taken by G4S to Dungavel which they also operate - are held every Wednesday from midday. Meet at the Unity Centre at 30 Ibrox Street G50 1AQ Map and directions on our website."

I would agree wholeheartedly that anyone who has the time and money to go through to Glasgow on a weekday should do so. Im not an organiser for the Edinburgh protest, but I am surprised that someone supposedly from the Unity collective is condemning someone-elses protest, especially considering that Edinburgh based people who dontate time and/or money to Unity are supporting this one.  

I must point out that the person posting above as 'UNITY' does not represent the opinion nor position of the collective that runs the Unity Centre. I think that if people are going to post their own opinion upon matters, especially when it's posted in such a snide manner, then it should be done under the individuals name/nickname/handle/whatever.

Could different groups and organisations who wish to post stories/comments on IMS maybe create user profiles for their organisations? That way folk could know to only trust statements from those accounts or the admin folk could delete them. It would stop people abusing the anonymous posting facility to spread disharmony amongst the left, not saying that that was the intention of the above poster but group positions should be decided upon by a group not an nidividual.

Well unless you're a Tanky :) or in the SWP/SSP/MFI
 

There is an Indymedia 'groups' feature that is currently being tested. Unity and other organisations can have a log in, an info page, and all their posts will be accessible from this page. Should help with this sort of thing!

Its Lothian Bus Number 42, by the way. (Silverknowes) Goes over the Mound, crossed Princes Street usually at the National Gallery.  With the tram and road works it might go via Waverly...?