Unemployment. Rising prices

Never bothered me before.

Now, struggling for subsistence

I slowly realised my wasted years

steeped In ignorance" 1

 

A few lines from John McGarrigle express with painful simplicity the feelings of despondency and disappointment, the feeling of a missed opportunity due to circumstances out with your control; as a kid dreaming of all the things life could bring and the things you could be, only to slowly realise that this house, this scheme, this day-to-day 'coping' might be all that you will have. Glasgow was also a city of great promise, but seems to have missed the boat according to many subject to the hype surrounding its role as Culture City 1990. The relocation of a large part of Glasgow's working class to sprawling big estates on the outskirts of the city from places like the Gorbals and Maryhill must be one of the biggest mistakes post-war municipal socialism has ever undertaken, if it wasn't all carefully planned with the aim of isolating people, dividing them and grinding them down through long-term unemployment and environmental sterility. The organisation and spatial segregation of the environment is one means through which modem society structures oppression to further alienate and atomise human subjects. It would have been difficult to foresee the alienating effects that such social segregation has eventually but quickly brought, and now, the schemes have been abandoned by the Labour Party, abandoned by the trade unions, ignored by the city fathers, excluded from the city's cultural festival, and the people themselves have lost any ability to occasionally say 'no, not his time'.The Specials If Ghost Town" is a fitting, theme tune and it said more than the lyrics expressed. More recently, Pat Kane suggested a new motto for the city; "From workshop of the world to craftshop for a year" . (2) This Is supposed to be ironic.

 

 

"Two men looked out from their prison bars. One saw mud and the other saw stars " says the closing statement to "Mud and Stars" a video made by Drumchapel based group De-Classed Elements. II expresses the polarisation In Glasgow,a city of contrasts, where grinding poverty exists side-by-side with plush city centre developments: " ...a city polarised between the haves and the have-nots, between those struggling to exist on next to nothing , those living with the realities of Thatcher's Britain, those with nothing to lose - dressed up to Impress everyone but those who live there."

from 'Mud and Stars' video, De-Classed Elements.

 

 

 

The city planners have ignored the outer areas for developments inside the centre, or what is now called the Merchant City, within a policy of attracting tourists to the city which has been fiercely promoted by the District Council since 1985. Class divisions will come as no surprise, but it is the rhetoric that accompanies this about a new renaissance and a city reborn, not rediscovered, but re-modelled in a mutant shape dictated to by the ethos of Capitol and the commodity. It is understandable that a bitterness has been created among Glaswegians who see all this as a PR exercise and as the foisting of an artificial culture upon them. In some cases, however, bitterness is not sell-defeating but empowering, and more working class voices are speaking out and various projects are becoming visible, the publications of Clydeside Press (3) and the videos of De-Classed Elements being parts of it.

 

De-Classed Elements emerged a few years ago within a community centre in Drumchapel, which is funded by Urban Aid. Within that an Employment Project was started with the aim of giving people 'training' ('keeping them off the streets'),but rather than spend the money on woodworking or bead classes, they decided to buy video equipment and set up a print workshop in order to facilitate the expression, anger and fears of locals who would make use of it (the video equipment comprises of Lo-Band Kit 2 machine Umatic editor with TBC). De-Classed Elements was made up 01 politically minded individuals, of anarchist far left inclination and it was through discussions they had in the centre that the video group was built up and from which the ideas for "Drumchapel - the Frustration Game" were formulated. It was from that political base and through discussions that the script was written by John Calder, a resource worker, at the centre and main executor of the project. They are in all respects, however, independent producers and the videos receive no funding. "Drumchapel - The Frustration Game" was made in 1987 -88 and it was a response to the ineffectuality of Projects such as the Drumchapell initiative, set up to ' revitalise the scheme', with little-to-no-effect and " was also an attempt to confront how people were becoming de-classed in such places, with no representation (and with no desire of having any). It exposes Drumchapel as a 'testament to failure', where the locals are brutalised by poverty and unemployment which is supposed to be disguised by a multitude of projects and layers of bureaucracy manifesting themselves in the social work department housing, education, business initiatives, community workers; all working to conceal the obvious - that nothing is going to change under present circumstances, except go further down. "Mud and Stars" is the more recent video and continues in a similar polemical manner to .....Frustration Game" and is an attempt to take a look at the realities of Culture City 'from a working class perspective'. The critique is unrelenting:

" With the death of Glasgow's industrial working class we are now In an age of averageness, the day of the middle classes....

respectable,

moderate,

nothing-to-boas-of,

second-rate,

second-best,

fair-la-middling,

mediocre,

decent

and empty"

 

 

It wouldn't be easy to dismiss such vehemence since it is executed so effectively on video, which despite having no clever structural tricks or anything which might differentiate - in the way that it is made are in no uncertain terms strong political videos, and their capacity to engage you with every word, every sordid image never falters - you have not already left the screening throwing up your hands in horror at such desecration of Glasgow's new image. "Frustration Game" begins with tracking shots of Drumchapel to give way to static shots with unobtrusive pans and zooms of various scenes of the scheme, which despite their repetitiveness, never become boring. The sound reproduction is also of primary importance an atmospheric backdrop to the high rise flats and boarded up houses with a narrative read by Jean Calder which never falters In its flow. Scornful accusation is directed at the politics of reform of community groups and local authorities just as much as it is directed at the locals' resignation in the face of humiliation. "Mud and Stars" is also structurally similar - beginning with a slow track from a boat on the Clyde at the derelict splendour of shipyard cranes taking us into a tour of the gloss of Culture City - parks and art galleries, opera and theatre - "a spectacle for the few" . It uses some poetry read by the authors, the aforementioned McGarrigle amongst them, but Linda Henderson's "Sideshow" presents a perfect metaphor for Glasgow. ''They are dressing up the beggar for

the show,

covering her sores and scars with bright

bunting

scrubbing her face and hands

and plastering on make-up

de-lousing her hair

pleating It with ribbons.

Put the beggar on display now.

For the people who count In the real

world

the world of Garden Festivals and

Culture.

The visitors will come from far and wide

to gawp at the beggar In her finery.

But don't strip her too soon

we don't want th em to see the true

Glasgow

do we?"

The true Glasgow isn't a figment of the imagination, it's real and the facts are there for all to see. Peter Hetherington, (4) in writing an article on the publication of the "Workers City" book laid out the facts that of the 170,000 council houses in a city said to contain the largest public stock in western Europe, 40,000 are 'at risk' through lack of maintenance while another 62,400 need urgent treatment for dampness. Overall, one third of the city's houses - 97,400 - are classed as 'below tolerable standards' The true Glasgow with over 20% unemployed overall. It Is some surprise then to see culture promoted as the new industry,which means tourism - the arts are seen as an aid to business development, of boosting the confidence of the business community, of increasing property value, and improving the qualify of life for a few in the city centre. Business might claim that the arts have helped to offset the decline in the manufacturing base of ' the city, but more realistic interpretations might say it has acted as a distraction to the realities of the present problems. According to John Calder culture, the arts,writing, etc. have replaced real political' struggle because the political apparatus does not exist to focus dissent

 

A few years ago, says Calder, there were many active political groups in Drumchapel - Communist Party, Labour Party, Militant, SNP, even CND, all staging well-attended meetings from 20 to 40 people which suggests that some Questions were being asked, that some resistance was there, but now, says Calder, there's no activism, no fightback, its acceptance of everything...of all the wee things that are supposed to be wee rocks that people are hanging over the Residents Association, the Community Council. I suppose these are things that people can try and resist things with, or improve their conditions,but they don't The people who join them are all the respectable dross who aren't going to fight back, who are content to have tea and biscuits with the factor. They are the community worthies. Calder is one of the people who, despite having the political foresight, did not leave Drumchapel like some other activists, but widespread de-politicisation hasn't silenced him or the voices that speak through De-Classed Elements videos. There's no room for romantic workerist notions either:

''The scheme Is becoming more and more lumpenised. I've lived here since 1953 and I remember It being working Class.....people treated you with a little bit of respect. Not any longer, every street Is full of dope and drink and people getting bettered."

They're not in the business of making things comfortable for people, they are not a part of the mechanism of social control that many bureaucratic community organisations are whilst using the rhetoric of social liberation, and not surprisingly, their unwillingness to make any concessions to the authorities has inevitably ostracised them.

A previous video De-Classed Elements made on behalf of the Scottish Homes Legislation concerning the privatisation of District Council property was banned from ever being shown in any Regional Council property (community centres, etc.) because, the authorities claimed they couldn't show an anti-poll tax poster (which was behind one of the interviewees), he couldn't refer to the Tories as the Tories and couldn't talk about poverty or refer to "democracy Thatcher style", so the video was never shown.

They tried to get money from the council to make a broadcast programme to coincide with 1990 on the subject of all the different communities in Glasgow, ethnic, Irish, etc but they refused the offer of a BBC executive producer who would have acted as a gag on the politics of it Urban Aid attempted to close them down three years ago after their evaluation because of misappropriation of funds - £20 given to Militant to help 2 unemployed young people to go to Manchester. This accusation was not substantiated when it was Investigated so they were reprieved, but Calder doubts if they will slip through this time (next September) nor do they intend to. The extent of their ostarcisation is displayed in the fact that they do not exist as a resource on the Social Work Dept data bank, a deliberate attempt, it is claimed, to prevent people from going to them. Says Calder; "we exist In Drumchapel In a vacuum we don't get on with the Drumchapel Initiative , the Social Work Department , the Housing Department. .. we don't participate In Youth Training Scheme, MSC or any other government scheme · except the one that gives us the money. We don't make any concrete Inroads Into the system".

 

Such a resilient position displays a political nerve rarely expressed by those working in the community sector, or by those unwilling to take a stand against the poll tax when they have nothing to lose except a 'minor' confrontation with the forces of authority in the form of letters. Such a radical conclusion couldn't fail to encompass a total critique of his own job;

"Community work doesn't work because Its all about levels of control It's their money and their rules and their games and you can 't play their game because you can't win It. We called the video " Drumchapel" - The Frustration Game" - It was originally going to be based on a game of monopoly which means you just go round and round and round, you never get to the end, you get nowhere, you finally expire In a heap of dashed hopes and dreams".

 

You have to be positive about being negative, but these Viewpoints can't really or reasonably be contested - and that is the pertinence of the video tapes. The video workshop will probably fold as those members move on to other things, back to politics, or to a different job,or may be out of Drumchapel if they're lucky. It takes more than an outcry of injustice to fight against present mystifications. These videos were not made solely against the Culture City label - they are for something, a fight for enrichment, fulfilment, compassion, honesty, understanding of your neighbours, some humanitarian justice, to destroy injustices, for some control over the mechanisms of life. It is those that will claim that these videos and this group are spouting the politics of failure, the bitterness of exclusion, that will hypothesise passivity and will mystify the lies of ideology. And it is them that have the most illusions about the disenfranchised of contemporary society due to their complete ignorance about the realities of the conditions imposed upon the new lumpenised proletariat, about the price they have to pay, every moment of their lives for the production of all that.

 

Calum Macintyre Notes 1 'Old Young Man' by John McGarrigle from his book of poetry "Glasgow's McGarrigle", Fat Cat Publication, 37 High Street. Glasgow. 2. From ''The cur' magazine, sometime early '89. 3. Notably "Workers City" anthology ed. by Farquar Mclay. Many of the ideas in "Mud and Stars" parallel that of the aforementioned book, though both were unconnected at the time. 4. The Guardian, 27 July 1988.

 

From:Variant 7

http://www.variant.randomstate.org/vol1/issue7.html