Govan Free State: living in the early days of a better nation 

So COP26 is coming to town, about the same time as GalGael enter our 25th year. And so we thought what more appropriate way to mark all this than to declare a new free state - returning to our roots. As you’ll likely have heard, GalGael came into being around a protest fire at Pollok Free State - an anti motorway camp. 

Much has taken place in the past 25 years, but too little has changed. So as the 26th COP sprawls a few blocks away from us here in Govan, we set out to declare our independence, our interdependence and radical dependence. With UN and UK law poised to displace Scots law in the Blue and Green zones, for the duration of the convention, we will invoke older laws and recognise laws of indigenous peoples. Recognise territories. Recognise common struggles. Recognise root causes of all that confronts us.

A playful, creative exploration of power and legitimacy in the face of climate emergency. An act of solidarity with those communities struggling for recognition of their territories. A declaration of independence, interdependence and radical dependence. An antidote to climate fatalism. Oxygen for the political imagination needed to respond.

The statement “declare yourself welcome” will define the borders of our territories. We’ll print and issue our own passports and make our own ceremonial ‘objects of state’. We will make oaths to wild places, dying species and more climate vulnerable communities and peoples. We will invite others to declare their own Free States too and we hope to launch a downloadable Declare Yourself A Free State pack - an invitation to ‘decolonise yersel’… be that your bedroom, your tenement close, your street, your community garden – however you might choose to define your territory. A template for a constellation of distributed Free States.  A declaration of hope, of intent, of solidarity.

Visit the new site for more about our new state: www.govanfreestate.scot and please join us for the Declaration of Independence on 1 November - more info and booking here