Articles

A Statement on the CCA's Refusal to Endorse PACBI

“You have something in this world. So, stand for it.” - Ghassan Kanafani

After twenty months of an urgent call for the Centre of Contemporary Arts Glasgow (CCA) to endorse PACBI, the board of trustees have decided to do nothing, exposing their incompetent and undemocratic leadership. To choose to do nothing during a genocide, is to side with the oppressor.

The board’s statement was a response to a petition of 800 signatures from CCA’s community and a flood of letters from partners, art workers, curators, former employees, cultural organisations as well as a petition from 40 workers at CCA (90% of their workforce).

Just a few weeks ago Falastin Film Festival brightened the centre with radical empathy, care and the will to resist. Yet the board has chosen to follow in the blood-stained footsteps of the GFT.

While CCA was eager to host the festival, the board’s refusal to endorse PACBI, illustrates performative and profiteering allyship. You cannot claim to be a progressive space, when you fail to stand against oppression. CCA is flouting its own commitment to “unravel the web of legacies left by the colonial project”.

The board’s statement demonstrates a total disregard for Palestinian lives, centering the CCA, rather than the genocide in Gaza which was the motivation for mobilisation of artists, audiences and workers.

The claim to be ignorant of PACBI until last month proves their unfitness to govern the organisation, given the mass movement among art workers for Palestinian liberation. 190 cultural organisations and collectives in Scotland have now endorsed PACBI, the biggest anti-colonial movement in the history of Scottish arts.

In light of the CCA’s decision we demand:

1. The board convene an extraordinary meeting to formally endorse PACBI by Friday 13 June 2025.
2. Following this, the resignation of the Chair and Vice Chair of the board, who have lost the confidence of the CCA community
3. That the CCA community democratically elects suitable candidates for the board.

The CCA community – its workers, artists, audiences, partners and collaborators – must work to reclaim, reimagine and rebuild. After years of mismanagement, together we can turn the CCA into a liberated space. As Ghassan Kanafani said, “You have something in this world. So, stand for it.”

The struggle for Palestine demands more of all of us and we refuse to leave this statement unopposed – we will continue to escalate and we will not back down.

Until liberation.

Art Workers For Palestine Scotland
Falastin Film Festival
Solidarity Screenings Glasgow