THIS sunny Thursday in Glasgow, grown men moved from window to window outside the New Gorbals Housing Association, phones raised as they tried to film inside.
"Happy days," one said, apparently pleased by what was happening.
"Scotland for the Scots," another chanted not long after.
The housing association had already closed its doors for the day. It said it took the decision because of the "potential for trouble" after AI-generated posters circulating social media – created and amplified by far-right and anti-immigration groups and influencers – invited residents to rally at the Crown Street offices, claiming migrants were being prioritised there over locals.
Roughly 40 people had answered, although many were simply curious onlookers watching from the periphery. A small group of counter-protesters stood at the side, a gaggle of journalists too – and a few police officers.
It was the latest of almost daily anti-immigration protests of late across Glasgow – which has felt like a tinderbox in the July heat.
Some in attendance in the Gorbals were certainly locals, with several expressing valid concerns over housing in Scotland’s biggest city – which declared a housing emergency in 2023.
But an investigation by The National has found that a number of these so-called spontaneous (almost daily) protests across Glasgow have been amplified on social media by a loose network of anti-immigration activists and far-right-linked groups, many of whom are not from the communities where demonstrations are taking place.
One of the most influential and involved groups – with more than 50,000 followers on Facebook alone – is Unite The Clans.
A loosely organised far‑right group which started in Aberdeen under the name Aberdeen Against Illegal Migration (AAIM), it organises and attends anti‑immigration protests across Scotland – including at the Scottish Parliament earlier this year.
The group has repeatedly shared posters advertising the Glasgow protests beforehand, as well as videos at the protests – including one early last week in which a father-of-three, also in the Gorbals, was falsely labelled as an "invader" filming children in a park. The video was later amplified by Tommy Robinson. Police confirmed the allegation was false, but the man told The National that he has since received death threats and fears for his family's safety.
It wasn’t the only protest that was called and amplified online by Unite the Clans – among others – on the basis of false information.
Whilst the protest in Springburn came in response to a horrific sexual assault, the one in Castlemilk on July 8 led to the police being forced to clarify that the person living in the property targeted by protesters was an "innocent member of the public" rather than the “migrant” and “sex offender” that was being claimed online. Windows were smashed, and police issued a warning about hate crime and violent disorder.
After a protest in Possilpark a few days later, meanwhile, officers said that the online speculation that led to the care home being targeted – apparently because it was claimed online that it was being extended to house asylum seekers – was "entirely factually incorrect".
Unite The Clans appears to have formalised its communications of late with the advent of Anglo Scot Broadcasting, run by – according to Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) – one of its activists and self-described “citizen journalist” James Melbourne. This has included the formation of several Facebook groups, notably “Scottish Patriot Scene: News and Events”, which already has more than 3700 members.
It describes itself as an "independent, unbiased news and event directory covering the entire right-wing scene” across Scotland. The majority of the Facebook events advertising the various protests across Glasgow listed this page and Melbourne as the organisers.
In a previous Facebook post he shared addressing Scotland’s Muslims, he said: “LEAVE NOW WHILE YOU STILL CAN SOMETHING NASTY IS COMING IT IS NO LONGER SAFE ESCAPE WHILE YOU CAN BEFORE THERE IS MOLOCAUST”. He then clarified this was “not a threat at all” but a “prediction”.
In a post responding to the SUTR claims on Facebook, Melbourne rejected all of them.
The events and videos circulated of the protests afterwards aren’t limited to Unite The Clans but are also reshared and amplified by a wide network of far-right and/or anti-immigration accounts, including far-right agitator Tommy Robinson and the Unity News Network.
The Sunday National has identified well over a dozen further profiles that have shared and amplified videos or images of the protests, often amassing tens if not hundreds of thousands of views across various social media platforms.
This includes the Spartan Child Protection Team, a self‑described online “child protection” outfit, founded by Alex Cairnie – which says it exists to intercept online child groomers and has built a large social media following around vigilante‑style confrontations.
North2South – a Glasgow‑based group that claims to patrol the city’s streets at weekends and positions itself as a community‑safety outfit – has also been involved.
Reform UK’s leader in Scotland, Malcolm Offord, has previously gone on a patrol with the group.
He dismissed allegations at the time that the group are “vigilantes” and was widely panned for saying there are “large groups of foreign men” on the streets of Glasgow late at night.
Some of the groups mostly post about local issues such as housing, food provision and mental health. But have also occasionally shared videos relating to the protests. Then there are the various smaller influencers that appear to jump on the bandwagon, including the likes of Scottish Citizens Army whose profile brands itself as a “proud supporter of strong immigration laws, community safety, and putting local people first”.
Many of those sharing content online also attend the protests in person, filming the events and agitating – raising questions over how spontaneous the protests really are – and how local frustrations are being channelled and then distributed online by groups with a wider far-right political agenda.
The protest at the Gorbals on Thursday was subdued when it first started at noon. Journalists and counter-protesters outnumbered the protesters.
It all started to descend into chaos after a journalist from The Scottish Sun started interviewing Richard McFarlane – a prominent activist for the fascist group Patriotic Alternative, who also later identified himself to me as being part of Unite The Clans.
This was when various protesters took out their phones and started filming.
One young woman confronted the group, saying she lived in the Gorbals. “No, you ain’t,” they shouted.
After she listed local community groups as a method of proof, the group of men started insulting her clothes. As she tried to escape, she accidentally bumped into an older woman in attendance. “Assault,” they cried. “Typical leftie.”
Police officers waved it away.
Over the course of the next hour, the group of mostly men would confront counter-protesters, journalists and police officers – often shoving the devices in their faces, pressing and agitating for a reaction. This included a member of North2South. Those who were in attendance and were confronted described the behaviour as aggressive and intimidating.
Whilst housing was mentioned at times – the advertised point of the protest – it more often than not involved discussing protecting women and girls from sexual abuse and assault and immigration to Scotland.
Later in the protest, Cairnie from the Spartan Child Protection Team also arrived.
Dr Judith Sijstermans – an expert in the far right and a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen – stressed however that the frequency of protests shouldn’t be directly conflated with interest.
“A lot of the time we're seeing what I would say is dwindling numbers. We saw the same pattern happening in Falkirk,” she told the Sunday National.
“At the Cladhan Hotel, there were big protests at the beginning, but we saw a pretty noticeable decrease in the number of people at those protests to a point where you were seeing them posting online saying we need more people.”
That isn’t to say that they aren't dangerous, she said though.
“What we often see is the conflation of migrants and people of colour with criminalisation, so this idea that migrants are always going to be transgressive or doing illegal activity or somehow sexually deviant.
“And that is used as a tool for othering, for pushing them to the outside and saying they're somehow different – that's a very common tool that we see across the world, in the far right.”
Towards the end of the protest, Denise Christie from the Fire Brigades Union – one of the counter-protesters and a local to the area – was being interviewed by a journalist from Go Radio.
“I heard there was a demonstration at the housing association to protect women and girls. Well, I’m a woman from the Gorbals. And I just want to come down and have a conversation with people and find out what the issues are,” she said.
Swarmed now by some of the men, some of whom have cameras in their hands filming – the interview is moved to the side in an attempt to escape.
Christie continued: “I heard there’s a protest to support women and girls. As somebody who has been on various protests to support women and girls, like Reclaim The Night – where women are marching to reclaim the night-time where they’re being attacked by men. A couple of days ago, we were campaigning to support women’s services.”
Not long after, the interview is again cut short by protesters shouting at her.
“I’m not being intimidated,” she said to one of them. This would continue for a few minutes.
Trade union official Sean McLaughlan reacted to the video of the interview, posted to Twitter/X: “This protest was all about protecting women and girls, apparently. Bit weird the guys did nothing but shout down and attempt to intimidate a woman.
“Maybe, just maybe, it was never about that at all.”
An older woman in running gear later jogged through the group with a "choose love" sign.
She, too, was harassed with phones pointed into her face until police intervened.
The issue and the protests aren’t set to go away anytime soon, with Glasgow not the only city or town seeing an increase in protests.
Anti-racism campaigners will hold a rally on Glasgow Green on July 25 to counter a much-advertised meeting of Unite The Clans which is expected to see far-right groups from across the UK in attendance.
A spokesperson for Patriotic Alternative said: "Patriotic Alternative and groups like us have said all along that we don't want mass immigration changing the social fabric of our towns and cities. If we had been listened to in the first place instead of demonised, then these tensions you seem so concerned about would never have happened."
North2South, Unite The Clans and James Melbourne have been approached for comment.
