{"id":602930,"date":"2025-11-30T07:49:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T07:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/602930\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T07:49:49","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T07:49:49","slug":"moment-security-guard-grabbed-protester-by-neck-as-she-stormed-glasgow-council-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/602930\/","title":{"rendered":"Moment security guard grabbed protester by neck as she ‘stormed’ Glasgow council meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The female Living Rent activitst was manhandled by the security guard as they tried to enter the conference.<\/p>\n

A female protester<\/a> was grabbed by the neck as she tried to ‘storm’ into a major Glasgow conference.<\/p>\n

Campaigners from tenants\u2019 union Living Rent<\/a> marched into the Old Fruitmarket area on Friday morning, November 28, to disrupt the annual State of the City Economy event, with First Minister John Swinney in attendance.<\/p>\n

Glasgow City Council <\/a>said protesters \u201cstormed\u201d the conference and \u201cphysically attacked venue staff,\u201d but a union rep denied any workers were harmed and said the council\u2019s security was \u201caggressive\u201d.<\/p>\n

Footage from the union, captured a security worker<\/a> grabbing a woman\u2019s neck, and the union has also alleged another member was punched.<\/p>\n

One council source said: \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t be coming to your work and getting injured. This wasn\u2019t a political protest, it was thuggery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stella Rooney, chair of the union\u2019s Glasgow branch<\/a>, said members were \u201cpeaceful\u201d and the council\u2019s security \u201cacted totally disproportionately to our actions and the threat we posed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe woman is grabbed by the neck. (Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Protesters entered the conference hall as council leader Susan Aitken<\/a> was making her opening remarks. They unfurled banners and chanted: \u201cWhose city? Our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union said around 40 members<\/a> disrupted the conference to protest underinvestment in the city\u2019s communities. Living Rent has an ongoing campaign demanding the council invests revenue from its upcoming tourist tax into public services.<\/p>\n

Members said they have been ignored by the council and its leader.<\/a> At the conference, Cllr Aitken said she was \u201cmore than happy\u201d to meet with them.<\/p>\n

After the protesters<\/a> left, the council leader added: \u201cIt\u2019s a shame they weren\u2019t interested in staying to listen to what we are going to say, because I think both I and the First Minister are going to talk about all of the issues that they raised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aiken added that they would discuss housing<\/a>, poverty, transports and \u201call the other challenges Glasgow faces, which I am determined to deal with\u201d.<\/p>\n

Following the conference, a council spokesman said: \u201cLet us be absolutely clear; these people stormed an event and physically attacked venue staff. This is completely unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of our review of how our staff were treated, we will of course consider any evidence that is shared with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is understood there were venue staff, from the council\u2019s arms-length firm Glasgow Life<\/a>, and licensed stewards from an outside contractor present.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Living Rent protesters.(Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Ms Rooney said: \u201cAs our members attempted to enter a conference to peacefully protest and hold our elected leaders to account, Glasgow City Council\u2019s security was aggressive, punched one of our members and pulled one young woman by the neck.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members were peaceful, and simply attempted to enter the hall in order to highlight the issues that we face, including sky high rent and bills, expensive and unreliable buses, and crumbling public services. At no point did they harm any staff member.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe council\u2019s security acted totally disproportionately to our actions and the threat we posed. This highlights how desperate our city council\u2019s leaders and Glasgow big business bosses are to avoid speaking with ordinary residents about the issues they face, and it’s totally unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The female Living Rent activitst was manhandled by the security guard as they tried to enter the conference.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,10650,4884,7852,189027,712,1523,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-602930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-glasgow-city-council","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-john-swinney","13":"tag-old-fruitmarket","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-taxes","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115637560123105760","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}