COUNTER-PROTESTERS have gathered in Glasgow in a bid to drown out an anti-immigration rally attended by people trying to “divide communities” across Scotland.
A demonstration by Pink Ladies at Glasgow Green has been met by hundreds of counter-protesters, including members from Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) and trade unions.
The two opposing protests were contained in separate areas on the eastern side of the park, with both demonstrations separated by the People’s Palace and a heavy police presence.
Chief Superintendent Stevie Dolan warned of a “strong response” ahead of today’s protest and counter-protest if there was any violence after flashpoints at a previous demonstration in the same park in July.
MSPs Alison Thewliss, Scottish Government minister for Community Care, and Greens MSP Iris Duane attended the SUTR rally, along with STUC general secretary Roz Foyer.
Prominent figures on the Scottish right such as Reform UK deputy leader in Scotland Thomas Kerr, Reform councillor Audrey Dempsey and Craig Houston, a podcaster and member of the neo-Nazi-backed Restore Britain party, attended the Pink Ladies event.
Speaking to the Press Association, Foyer said: “It just confounds belief that people are prepared to weaponise a really important issue like violence against women and girls and use it to create more hate, more division, and more fear in our communities and in our society.
“That is exactly what’s happening right now.”
Foyer said the anti-immigration protesters were “trying to stir up real trouble”, adding it was “really unfortunate so many officers were required to police the events.
“I’m much more worried about the very angry people who are dressing in black, wearing masks and running about our city centre at the moment, trying to attack ordinary citizens who are just going about their daily business,” she added.
“Much more worried and much more fearful of that than I am of any migrants coming into our country.”
Speaking at the rally, Thewliss said she had received correspondence from people who have come to Scotland and “don’t feel safe”.
She said: “It’s so important that we reach out to each and every person we see on the street, whether that’s a smile or whether that’s a handshake, or whether that is standing next to them if we see that they feel afraid.
“It is up to us all to make people feel safe and to stand up.”
Pictures shared online showed a banner from Patriotic Alternative, a far-right group, that read “Deport All Illegal Migrants” among those protesting along with the Pink Ladies.
Other images showed a large number of men wearing all black along with face coverings among those in the anti-migrant demonstration.
Speaking to PA, Kerr said he was invited by the organisers to attend and had come to “hear what working class women in particular are saying”, adding that counter-protesters were “extremists”.
Kerr said: “There is nothing more extreme than the extremists at the other side of Glasgow Green.
“The people who are there are trying to shout down working class people who finally have a voice.
“They’re really, really angry about what’s happening in our city and rather than listening to these working-class women, what this mob over there are doing is lecturing them, telling them what they must feel.
“I think that’s ridiculous.
“I think the extremists in this argument are the people trying to silence other people rather than allowing people to have their democratic right and the freedoms to say what they need to say.”
A spokesperson for SUTR called on people to attend a counter-demonstration on Saturday, saying that “racists and fascists fail to grow when we oppose them in big numbers”.
They added: “We expose the real nature of their violent, hate project and show that the majority of us reject their division.”
