On Saturday 26 November we ran a session called ‘Glasgow (Re)Governed: A Session on Local and Alternative Democracies’ as part of Glasgow Belongs to Us: A Summit on Ownership and Democracy, organised by the Glasgow Against Closures campaign. Since publishing our report Glasgow Strife: What’s the real reason behind 62 Glasgow Life venues remaining closed? we have been working alongside the Glasgow Against Closures campaign to draw attention to the venue closures and to the wider democratic inconsistencies they have revealed.
As part of our session on Saturday, we asked participants “If Glasgow City Council were with us in the room today, what would you tell them or ask of them?”. Our attendees wrote a line each and we collected them in a random order to create a collaborative poem to Glasgow City Council.
The poem reads:
Oh Glasgow City Council
What does democracy mean to you?
Can you explain why any councillor would vote to close libraries or community centres?
How often, if at all, do you disagree or take a different path from that recommended by your officers and executives?
Tory Scum Out!
More democracy please!
How do you justify slashing services that people so clearly need, while touting policies of social justice?
So, what do you really mean by ‘social justice’?
What have you done to decrease inequality in Glasgow?
Are you going to tackle climate targets? Really?
Don’t you think Glasgow deserves better?
Isn’t it time you listened?
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