SCOTTISH FILM SHOWING …

~ Mayday past and present, including Glasgow 1937 ~
~ Historical dramatisations of prominent events ~
~ Direct action and community projects ~

… & DISCUSSION

Every day, wealthy shareholders receive £30 million from North Sea oil profits; the 5 million people of Scotland earn just 5 per cent of that sum, £1.5 million.

The Scottish parliament building will cost £430 million; The UK’s three of the poorest Areas are in Glasgow – life expectancy for males in Easterhouse is 63.

Jack McConnell (Scotland’s first minister) has declared that Scotland needs new immigrants to stem the flow of Scotland’s falling population yet goes along with Westminster policy to limit migration; Dungavel, where asylum seekers are interned, sometimes for years on end, has been extended within the past few weeks to house 200.

Only 1% of native woodland remains intact; land values of ‘sporting estates’ are valued by the number of deer per acre. Deer are said to be 3 times as numerous than is sustainable, and the frequently absentee landowners, “custodian’s of the countryside” (conscious of the tourist buck from the wealthy keen to ‘bag a stag’) often refuse to cull “their herds” – driven to starvation in winter they eat the saplings of young trees. In parts of Scotland there are no trees under 300 years of age.

Recent research shows Scotland can produce a massive surplus of energy from underwater turbines in the Scottish archipelago, one of only three places in the world capable of doing this; thusfar there has been little or no investment in this technology.

The General Register Office (Scotland) reckons the number of Scots speakers at 1.5 million. The UK Government has ratified European charters which should guarantee both the recognition of the language and its active promotion. Scots receives little or no funding, scarce recognition only among an educated elite who do not speak it, little or no provision for its use or promotion in schools, beyond tokenistic overtures to ‘culture’ and most of its speakers are under the erroneous impression that what they speak is ‘worthless’, ‘slang’ or at best a widely used patois.

To raise awareness of the Scottish political situation and help raise funds for the Glasgow Autonomous Project social centre in Glasgow, opening in MAY.

Suggested donation £3 unwaged / £5 waged

Come along Sunday (4/4/04) @ 2 PM to the occupied social centre, 'Ex-Grand Banks' @ 156 - 158 FORTESS ROAD, TUFNELL PARK, LONDON NW5.

*A Glasgow Autonomous Project benefit event*

www.nocog.org/~autonomy 07762 261379

Flier available from  http://www.tramping.org.uk/files/scotland_event_flier.rtf