MUSICIAN Katie Gregson-Macleod has been announced as the headline act for a fundraiser concert to help send surgeons to Gaza.
Unite Hospitality Glasgow have announced they will host a benefit gig, Serve Solidarity, at the legendary venue The Hug & Pint on February 27 as they aim to raise vital funds for Islamic Help’s Gaza appeal.
The fundraiser follows the successful sold-out show at St Luke’s in July last year, where the union managed to raise more than £14,000, which helped send two surgeons to Gaza.
The Serve Solidarity will feature a line-up led by the Inverness-born Gregson-Macleod, who will be joined by Becca Sloan, Lacuna and Terra Kin.
There will also be a range of speakers from across the movement throughout the evening.
“Islamic Help is a charity I am proud to be raising money for. Over the past while they have been working on sending teams of surgeons onto the ground in Gaza, and successfully did so with the help of fundraisers like this one,” Gregson-Macleod said.
“Currently, their focus is on providing food and clothes to the people of Palestine who have been displaced and needlessly targeted over the most recent of brutal campaigns launched by the Israeli government.”
Serve Solidarity: Glasgow to Gaza is part of Unite Hospitality Glasgow’s wider Serve Solidarity campaign, which aims to empower hospitality workers to organise boycotts of companies and produce listed as complicit by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Unite Hospitality members across Scotland have already taken action to make their workplaces apartheid-free zones, most notably at The Stand where a service boycott won a national roll-out of BDS-friendly policy.
Tickets for the show, which is supported by local DIY promoters and artist management firm Crowded Flat which provides a platform for grassroots artists in Glasgow, sold out in the first two hours.
Chair of Unite Hospitality Glasgow branch, Nick Troy, said the union has taken part in protests and pickets to voice their opposition to the genocide and the UK Government’s complicity.
He said: “As workers, trade unionists, and above all, human beings, we have been disturbed by the horrors unleashed by the Israeli military against the people of Gaza and the West Bank, particularly since October 2023.”
Troy added that it “only made sense” to utilise the hospitality sector’s alliance in Glasgow to help raise vital funds to help raise funds to send more surgeons to Gaza.
He said: “The same corporations suppressing our members wages, price-gouging them at the supermarket and with their energy bills, and making inroads into the privatisation of the NHS, are the same multi-national corporations profiteering from the devastation in Palestine. Our members understand the struggle against the slaughter abroad is fundamentally intertwined with the struggle for a better tomorrow at home.
“As workers central to the cultural scene in Glasgow, it only makes sense to utilise our natural alliance with cultural workers to raise funds to send surgeons to Gaza. Live music is integral to the working life of all parties involved and allows us to elevate our campaign to a wider audience.”
A spokesperson for Crowded Flat added: “Having previously contributed to the NO A MEAN CITY fundraiser, which raised over £1500 for Refuweegee, Crowded Flat aim to continue using their platform to bring attention to the barbaric issues that the people of Palestine face on a daily basis.
“Providing help and raising awareness for those that have been displaced and are facing insurmountable struggles in Gaza is something that is extremely important to Crowded Flat, as we believe in the right of the Palestinian people to live their lives without persecution.”
You can click here to find more information about the event.
