Civil disobedience - from rent strikes to Kenmure Street

Information

BSL Interpreted

From the poll tax to sit-ins, from The Glasgow Girls to Kenmure Street, civil disobedience in Scotland has long been a method of achieving social change. It is no surprise that the concept of communities banding together in resistance against a single issue and supporting each other to effect change in imaginative ways has inspired so many film and theatre makers. Join the panel to discuss why and how Scotland’s civil disobedience is generating cultural expression with popular appeal.

Chair: Deputy Presiding Officer, Katy Clark MSP

Panellists:

Katherine Mackinnon is a writer, organiser and part-time PhD researcher at the University of Glasgow. She uses archival research, collaborative writing, oral histories and community arts to explore the politics of migration and collective memory. She is a co-founder of Radical Glasgow Tours, developing walking tours and events for critical public history.

Tabassum Niamat is a community organiser and activist and the Executive Director of Bowling Green Together, a by and for majority-led BAME community organisation in Pollokshields, Glasgow. With a focus on the community’s health. Tabassum’s live stream footage of the Kenmure Street protest in 2021 was used widely in the award-winning film Everybody to Kenmure Street. She has amassed a wealth of experience in empowering Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities.

Paul English is a journalist and broadcaster who has covered arts and culture in Scotland and beyond for 25 years. Paul co-conceived the National Theatre of Scotland’s 2026 show Stand & Deliver: The Lee Jeans Sit-In with playwright Frances Poet, working with Frances as story consultant on the production which tells the story of 240 women who occupied their factory in 1980s Greenock to save their jobs.