This is reposted from CelticQuickNews
One of the benefits of being a club, open to all for over 120 years, is that the Celtic Movement is rich with diversity. That diversity ensures a culture of respect to the ever changing face of Scotland. Our very existence stems from a desire to feed the hungry in the late 19th Century Glasgow, so the need of the world’s downtrodden often echoes within Celtic Park; we are fertile ground for requests for help.
One of the things I really like about the Movement is that no one is in control of it. This means that sentiment emerges from a variety of places. It is unstructured, sometimes contradictory but remarkably democratic, something evident on the pages of Celtic Quick News.
The Movement is not, however, rent-a-demo, open for people outside the Movement to lob in political demonstration requests, especially when that request is low on detail.
Hapoel Tel-Aviv fans are part of the international Alerta anti-fascist movement, which reaches around two dozen clubs, including Celtic and St Pauli . They bear “Say No to Racism” banners at games, in both Hebrew and Arabic and were formed by trade unionists in the 1920s. They will receive the warm welcome all visiting fans get (first time around anyway) at Celtic Park. I am sure they will not bring Iraq or Afghanistan flags to Glasgow in some misguided protest; their geo-political awareness is far too well informed for that.
If you are part of the Celtic Movement and want to respectfully make a point, I would back to you the hilt, but any organisation outside the Movement better come with their Celtic Movement credentials when requesting a political demonstration from fans.
Are the STUC new? I think they must be, we have never heard from them on the many contentious issues affecting Scottish football in the past, but that would be brave and would draw consequences for the STUC, instead of delegating consequences to the Celtic Movement.
A warm welcome to the Hapoel fans, I hope you enjoy your stay in Glasgow and your team get a good hiding tomorrow night.
