08/05/2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Stand Up to Racism to respond to Reform gains in Scotland with emergency unity march in Glasgow tomorrow
Saturday 9 May, 10.30am
McLennan Arch, Glasgow Green
Anti-racist campaigners are calling on people to come together in Glasgow for a 'day of rage against Reform UK' and a 'unity march and rally'. The march, authorised by Glasgow City Council, will assemble at McLennan Arch at 10.30am. It will march through the city centre to the top of Buchanan Street, where a rally will take place from 12noon.
While the extent of Reform gains in Holyrood remains unknown, campaigners expect they will gain a considerable number of MSPs, marking the first time a far-right party will have parliamentary presence in Scotland.
Organisers say the march will be an opportunity to 'demand real change, not racism', to show that ordinary people will reject the normalisation of far right ideas in Scottish politics from the first day after the election results, and to stand in solidarity with communities across the country who are being targeted by the far right.
Stand Up to Racism (SUTR) and Women Against the Far Right activists distributed around 200,000 leaflets across Scotland during the election campaign urging voters to reject Reform UK's racist politics. SUTR also coordinated eleven unity marches and rallies across the country, including in Paisley, Dunfermline, Livingston and Kilmarnock.
Saturday's Scotland-wide unity march in Glasgow will be the culmination of this programme of action. Thousands are expected to attend with people travelling from Inverness through Falkirk to Dumfries to join the march.
During the election campaign, Reform UK Scotland blamed migrants for the housing crisis while its leader Malcolm Offord boasted he owned six houses and six boats. During the election campaign, the party dropped nine of their candidates after they had supposedly been approved by Reform's vetting process.
In a promotional video for the march, Glasgow southside anti-racist campaigner Zamard Zahid said:
"This is our chance as the people of Scotland to unite and send a strong message that we reject the hateful and divisive politics of Reform and the far right, that we choose to celebrate diversity and not fear it."
