Do you recognise these scenes of a Glaswegian community in action from back in 2021?
This photo was (and still is) proof that communities can come together when their neighbours are targeted by immigration enforcement.
We’re looking back on this day five years on because you can now watch ‘Everybody to Kenmure Street’ in a cinema near you. One of our ARCtivists, Paul, has already been to see it and is here to share his reflections:
Using footage captured on the day, the film tells the extraordinary story of a spontaneous community uprising in a Glasgow suburb in 2021.
The Immigration Service was expecting the community of Govanhill (one of the most racially diverse areas of Scotland) to be distracted preparing for the Islamic festival of Eid…
So in an insult to the community on one of the most celebratory days of the year, and in an attempt to minimise the resistance that they knew would come from the community, they detained two local men who were seeking asylum – Sumit Sehdev and Lakhvir Singh – in a dawn raid.
Dawn raids had been increasingly used by the Home Office, not just to detain people, but to make migrants feel unwelcome and to spread fear among their friends and neighbours.
In 2026 you would be forgiven for associating these tactics with the US and the notoriously cruel and violent ICE raids we have become used to seeing on our screens, but five years ago our own government was using a similar tactic…
However, if the Immigration Service thought the community would simply allow their neighbours to be taken away on Eid of all days, they were woefully mistaken.
A beautiful moment of community action and solidarity was sparked after one local resident (now known simply as “van man”) scrambled underneath the immigration van and clung onto an axle for over eight hours. As a result, the Immigration Service found itself that morning with Sumit and Lakhvir held in a van they could not move.
Neighbours noticed the disturbance and wandered out onto Kenmure Street to investigate. They activated their impressive networks of contacts and the crowd quickly grew to proportions that Police Scotland were utterly incapable of addressing. In the hours that followed, despite the best efforts of the police to start a riot, locals stayed calm, organized and totally unmoved. They were simply a community being present and protecting their neighbours.
In contrast to the aggression of the police, locals turned their defiance into a party, with music, hot and cold food, and soft drinks. People hung supportive signs from their windows. Afterwards, Sumit and Lakhvir said they could hear what was happening outside, and it gave them strength knowing their friends, neighbours, and strangers were trying to protect them.
By contrast, the Home Office resentfully described the protestors as a ‘mob’.
It was no mob, quite the opposite.
The local mosque opened its doors to protestors and the police so they could use their toilets. A local nurse spent the entire day crouched down by the van, ensuring ‘Van Man’ was OK, negotiating on his behalf with the police, who only reluctantly let him even have water. Sumit and Lakhvir knew he was down there, too.
Ultimately, after a stand-off lasting many hours, the Glaswegian lawyer Aamer Anwar explained to Police Scotland that they had two options:
1.Hand Sumit and Lakhvir into his custody, so he could walk them to the local mosque for release, or…
2.Don riot gear and batter the crowd into submission (by that time several hundred strong) in an action Aamer said would set back policing by consent for decades to come.
The protestors won, and the two men were released.
So how was it that a community, on Eid, was able to spring into action like this? What can we learn from this, five years on, as we face even more overt anti-immigration views in our communities, echoed by much of the media, the British government and many of the opposition parties?
For me, I was struck by the community networks of love and mutual care that the community had built which enabled them to react instantly when injustice came to their street. It was because of this foundation of community building and organising that this Glaswegian neighbourhood was able to effectively challenge the excesses of the Immigration Service, Police Scotland and unwieldy Westminster politicians.
As an older white man who is trying to be a good ally, the film made me realise the absolute requirement to join activist community networks, and to play a role in helping to develop them. If you wait until a crisis visits your community before you engage actively with it, you’ll simply miss the boat.
Luckily for me, one key network I’m already part of is Anti Racist Cumbria. On several occasions now I’ve been able to step up and stand up when needed, in a hurry, because I’m part of this wonderful community. ARC has provided me with the love, support, education and encouragement I needed to do more than just feel concerned or express empathy. They have ensured I was resourced to take meaningful actions, and through ARC I’ve connected with other networks where I can make change.
My message to you? If you are worried about the state of the world, don’t wait until you need to react, because that will simply be too late. Be proactive, link up with other people locally so that you are ready to take action as a community. That way you can really make a difference.
These successes can only happen when ordinary people decide they will step up and show up. Will you?
