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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” Glasgow’s anti Racism, Fascism and Bigotry message

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When the Green Brigade added alternative Street signs with the titles of Rosa Parkes and Sheku Bayou alongside those already adorned with names connected to links to Glasgow’s infamous links to slavery, it was an action taken to educate not antagonise.

It was direct but peaceful action to show solidarity with those who feel marginalised and oppressed in their own country, much like their own ancestors had done when arriving in Scotland.

Celtic as a club followed suit and showed racism the red card and used its Twitter account to add a supporting message.

At the Black Lives Matter gathering ‘the Rangers’ anti-racism campaigner told the demonstration on Glasgow Green that the club “needs to change.”

All good right? This was starting to look like there was a common ground here. A turning point where the majority of fair minded people could send out a consistent message that racism will not be tolerated. Force the extremes of Scottish society to the outskirts, marginalise them and show their outdated bigoted views are not welcome in a country that wants to be embrace, wishes for equality and desires justice for everyone.

Then within days it started to unravel.

I’d like more from Celtic as a club. I’d prefer if it wasn’t left to supporters alone to stand up and be counted, to show a club that grew from those being oppressed could take some time to remember those origins and support todays victims of discrimination as kindred spirits.

Yet I’m happy we’ve made some effort. The show racism the red card team photo was a little more diluted, a bit late to the party and not clear cut and powerful as say Liverpool’s message down south. But it was something, an acknowledgement change was happening and that Celtic’s social conscience had to get involved in some way. It was at least a good start.

And that seemed the same from ’the’ Rangers when Richard MacDonald – a member of the Ibrox club’s Everyone Anyone diversity and inclusion campaign said that there had to be change at the club.

“I was born in 1968 and right now I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe with emotion here today to see so much support, it’s unbelievable. Rangers as an institution has to change and I’m there to help it change.”

I don’t know about you, but to me that seemed a massive statement to make and at odds with what I perceived would be ‘the’ Rangers stance. For more years than I’ve been alive Celtic and Rangers fans are often met with the same response from those who don’t get involved in football or support other clubs. ‘They’re both the same as each other’.

It’s nonsense of course. It’s something the politicians, media and Police used as a cloak, so as to not to have to address the blatant racism exhibited at Ibrox. UEFA saw it and acted. At home the footballing authorities, Police and Government Ministers in the main ignored it. And so it went on unchallenged. In fact we saw the same playbook in the recent statement from the Police after this week’s trouble in George Square. Blue and Green. No difference. Shameful.

With that speech on Glasgow Green, Celtic and Rangers almost appeared to agree. Black Lives Matter, change is necessary and we are going to be on the same page with this one. It was amazing to hear from a representative of Rangers. That was the 7th of June.

Then only two days later, Richard MacDonald ‘clarified’ matters:

“In response to an interjection from the crowd which referenced Rangers FC, I responded with a phrase which with hindsight, I would have reacted to differently. I should have said ‘society has to change’ and we can all do better and given recent events in America, I am sure any fair-minded individual would agree”.

MacDonald it appears took a bit of stick for his speech. I’m sure he’d have expected that. I’m almost as certain he meant what he said when he made that speech that it wasn’t off the cuff. It was planned and the words chosen carefully. Dare I say deliberately? That’s why it caught everyone’s attention. So why the back track two days later? As if we really have to ask.

Those at Rangers don’t want change, they are not forward thinking nor tolerant – and they are broke.

To marginalise even that vocal minority within their support with right wing views would cost them money. It would mean addressing the huge elephant in the blue room and as such they retreated.

I don’t think anyone believes Richard MacDonald mis-spoke but there’s many who would believe he was silenced. And with it any credibility the Everyone Anyone campaign had was lost – shown up as the token gesture necessary to placate those at UEFA who require such a scheme to participate in European competitions. It’s an empty jersey. Not only that, it actually emboldened the fringe element. Rangers took one step forward and two steps back with this and now we’ve seen the repercussions.

Into the flux steps Tommy Robinson’s call out to defend monuments with his skewed view of British history as his reasoning. Robinson’s right wing army of ‘football lads’ take to the streets to defend statues of which they have no idea of their history or background nor any genuine interest.

It was no surprise to see Robinson’s call to arms find supporters from Glasgow’s new club. New club, old ideals. Loyalism, royalism, right wing rhetoric and direct action against anyone out of kilter with their outdated ideology. Everyone and anyone who didn’t agree a target.

The alternative approaches, message and behaviour of the Green Brigade compared to an element amongst the Rangers support, show that any argument that there is anything similar when it comes to ‘the’ Rangers and Celtic is as redundant as it always has been. That should be remembered today.

What follows is right wing racists attacking peaceful protests with violence, and the Police in turn take a softly-softly approach to arrests and retribution. Is it any wonder the aggressors feel emboldened?

It’s no surprise last weekend and again on Wednesday there were clashes in Glasgow. The midweek attacking of a peaceful campaign to highlight the treatment of refugees being forced to live in unsuitable accommodation and face eviction, without the protection from it that you or I would be afforded by the courts beggared belief.

Politicians and Police have allowed this to happen, with the light touch to enforcement on the part of the police and until recently an unwillingness from those in positions of power to choose the correct descriptive words when addressing the real antagonists.

The right to peaceful protest should be protected by authorities. There is no right to simply gather to attack that peaceful protest. That should face the full force of the law.

In Scotland however that doesn’t seem to be the case. Counter protest it was apparently called. Well I know the message of BLM and No Evictions Glasgow, both were peaceful rallies and protests. I’m still unsure what the counter protests message was, perhaps I just missed it amongst the right wing song book, Nazi salutes and punches thrown.

What is clear is that Rangers as a club could do something about this. It is from small beginnings and relatively minor –to date- skirmishes that anger and frustration boils over and people get hurt, that division becomes deeper and that anarchy kicks in.

That’s what Tommy Robinson and his pals want in every town and every city across the country. This BLM movement is a real and coherent threat to their outdated beliefs. They don’t want to defend statues, they don’t care. They want to maintain this idea that the white man reigns supreme and the more violence that can be organised, the more people become scared to march for equality, the more chance this movement has of being defeated.

When Richard MacDonald flip-flopped and clarified his speech, oxygen was given to that mind set. These right wing middle aged men attacking peaceful protests could and should be marginalised by the Rangers board – much like now the belatedly are by high ranking politicians – and save me the idea we don’t know for sure that the majority of those acting in a violent matter are Rangers fans. It’s the same colours, clothing, songs and language of hate that we’ve all seen for many years, we know where their allegiances lie.

Of course they are not all Rangers supporters, they do not represent everyone who supports their club. But while the board at Rangers remains silent on this matter and doesn’t allow people like Richard MacDonald to affect change, then those who run the Ibrox club become complicit in the actions of their knuckle dragging fringe minority.

Times are changing and today they will continue to change with another march in Glasgow. It isn’t too late for ‘the’ Rangers to call this out, change their rhetoric and be part of change moving forward. Just like their own Richard MacDonald clearly wanted. Let him speak, let him be challenged but support him when he is. Don’t back down at the first sign of protest or loss of income, or be fearful of alienating a small part of the support. Be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Yet they won’t will they? They are either too scared, or more likely their views don’t differ a great deal from those attacking refugees and their supporters on the streets. They may not be militant about it but they know what side they are on, that was made clear when that statement that sounded like a clarion call for change on Glasgow Green was made and immediately retracted.

Society is changing. Richard MacDonald didn’t have to clarify that, we can see that across the world with our own eyes.

MacDonald was right Rangers as a club need to change with society. Only at Ibrox could in the year 2020 it be seen as a PR error to be on the right side of equality and the fight against racism. Yet it says a lot I was more surprised with Richard MacDonald’s speech than I ever was in his retraction.

Nicola Sturgeon at last spoke up and called it what it is:

“Disgraceful scenes in Glasgow tonight. Racist thugs shame Scotland. If they break the law, they should face the full force of it. And all of us should unite to say that welcoming refugees and asylum seekers is part of who we are”

As today’s ‘Glasgow United against Racism’ march in Glasgow takes place, it is one endorsed by Celtic’s Green Brigade. Nicola Sturgeon’s words show such an endorsement is not putting those from the North Curve as two sides of the same coin with those who oppose it.

Should this march be met with counter protest, Anti-anti-fascist’ if you like – how ridiculous does that sound as a political standpoint – then the Police can no longer envelope all sides of the argument into one law breaking grouping as their midweek statement did this week.

They have been put on notice by the First Minister no less. Sturgeon has made it clear who she sees as the aggressors and the lawbreakers and it’s not those opposing fascism and racism. It will now be up to the Police to ensure the safety of those protesting peacefully and punish those who threaten that right to protest.

If the Ibrox club was to alienate this group further by publicly backing Richard MacDonald and in turn distancing themselves from this element of their support, perhaps they could avoid guilt by association.

When Edmund Burke wrote to Thomas Mercer and said “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” he certainly wasn’t thinking of a football boardroom in Glasgow in the 21st Century. Yet now lies an opportunity to prove such men do inhabit the corridors of power at Ibrox.

I won’t hold my breath.

Niall J

About Author

As a Bellshill Bhoy I was taken to my first Celtic game in the summer of 1987. It was Billy McNeill’s return to Celtic Park as manager and Celtic lost 5-1 to Arsenal . I thought I was a jinx, I think my Grandfather might have thought the same. It was the finest gift anyone ever gave me when he walked me through Parkhead's gates.

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