Press Releases from 2016

Whitehall has for the first time released a confidential Cabinet Office paper outlining the "Contest" counter-terrorism strategy developed in early 2003

According to Glasgow City Council, nearly 5000 Glasgow teachers have been given Prevent training this year.

Responsibility for the operation of the Government's Prevent policy in Scotland has slipped into a constitutional black hole. SACC will be holding a meeting at Glasgow Science Centre on Saturday to draw attention to the issue.

SACC gives a cautious welcome to the Early Day Motion tabled this week by Alistair Carmichael MP calling for Prevent to be scrapped. We remain opposed to any move to replace Prevent with alternative schemes for monitoring and manipulating Muslims.

Teachers in Glasgow schools received training last week in the controversial Prevent strategy. SACC is dismayed that this training has been delivered in the face of opposition from human rights organisations and trade unions. Prevent is a snitchers' charter that turns educators into informants.

SACC is calling for a moratorium on the Scottish roll-out of controversial counter-terrorism training for teachers following a damning report on the programme by the charity Rights Watch UK.

Resistance to state repression and institutional racism is more important than ever in the aftermath of the EU referendum

The death of Jo Cox MP was an appalling personal tragedy and our deepest sympathies go out to her family and friends. It is also a political matter.

SACC does not support calls for the murder of Jo Cox to be treated as terrorism. We campaign for the terrorism laws to be repealed and for crimes of violence to be prosecuted under the ordinary criminal law. We also campaign for the widest possible political forces to work together in the fight against fascism.

SACC statement in solidarity with everyone affected by the mass murder at Pulse nightclub in Orlando. We will resist any attempt to exploit this tragedy to promote violence, repression, surveillance and war

Scottish universities implementing Prevent are complicit in a policy that is widely thought to be damaging to democratic society, that may increase the risk of terrorism, and that may violate or stand on the brink of violating fundamental human rights. They must take a stand against Prevent.

SACC condemns the continuing airstrikes on Aleppo by Syrian Government and/or Russian forces. The airstrikes are producing a humanitarian catastrophe. They shame all the governments represented in the International Syria Support Group and the UN Security Council.

SACC is deeply shocked at the killing of Asad Shah in the Shawlands area of Glasgow on Thursday. We stand in solidarity with the Ahmadiyya community and we call on the communities affected to work to eradicate tensions.

The Scottish Government is now proceeding rapidly with the implementation of Prevent. Despite the importance of Prevent and its potential impact on Scottish Society it has not been on the agenda for this weekend’s SNP conference.

SACC has expressed over the possible involvement of Amina MWRC in the Prevent strategy. Amina's response reinforces our suspicions.

Our 7 policy demands for the Holyrood 2016 election

The Scottish Government says that it gives "anti-terrorism" funds to community groups, but it refuses to disclose which ones.

SACC has no collective view on whether Britain should stay in the EU or leave it, but we are appalled at the reactionary views being put forward by some opponents of the EU

SACC has written to the Scottish Government urging disclosure of funding given to Third Sector organisations in connection with the Prevent strategy.