Going on the march in bid to save our venues
Protestors will rally against the continued closure of leisure hubs across Glasgow
CAMPAIGNERS will again march across Glasgow to protest against the closure of vital cultural and sport facilities. The rally, organised by Glasgow Against Closures, will take place this Saturday and start outside Buchanan Galleries before moving to the Gallery of Modern Art.
From there, the march will continue to Glasgow Green where there will be a mass public rally.
The rally will include speakers from trade unions, including GMB, Unite and Unison, and from several campaign groups that make up the campaign group.
Glasgow Against Closures member and organiser Jim Monaghan said: “We’re marching again this Saturday to remind Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Life that we’ve not gone away, this is actually a growing campaign.
“We had a protest at the parliament two weeks ago and this campaign’s growing.
“As more and more people join in we have to give them a bit of an outlet. Each campaign has their own events; the libraries have read-ins outside, the Friends of People’s Palace are challenging the closures there, some of the libraries are actually taking action against the council and with Glasgow Against Closures what we do is provide an outlet for everyone to come together and show the council how angry we are and how upset we are.
He added: “The problem with this stuff is we don’t see libraries and museums and sports facilities as add-on extras, they’re not luxuries that you can just decide to have or not. They’re an essential part of what a council is for, they’re as important as the other things that they do, the health and education and other things, and also they’re a key part of those things.
“If you don’t have libraries, social work and unemployment and things like this become much more difficult because people don’t have access to computers, people don’t have access to information.
“If you don’t have sports facilities health is worse, if you don’t have museums and libraries education is more difficult.
“We see these as essential services and we’re concerned that the council is starting to see them as optional extras that they can strike off the balance sheet.”
Protestors will gather at 12.30pm on the steps at Buchanan Galleries.