Humanist Society interview series: writer and activist Henry Bell on Kenmure Street, people power, and humanism
March 7, 2026
Writer and activist Henry Bell helped initiate the protest against immigration enforcement officers in Glasgow in 2021 which resulted in the freeing of two men from an immigration van. The events of that day are documented in Felipe Bustos’s Sierra’s forthcoming film Everybody to Kenmure Street. We caught up with Henry to ask him what the Battle of Kenmure Street, as it’s now known, can teach us about people power, community, and humanism in Scotland.
Hi Henry! Can you introduce yourself?
I am a poet and historian living on the Southside of Glasgow. I’ve written a biography of the Scottish revolutionary John Maclean, and a history of the red flag through the centuries. I also run local projects like Radical Glasgow Tours, which leads guided walking tours examining the history of social and political struggle in Glasgow; and Red Sunday School which is a socialist kids’ club. I’ve lived on Kenmure Street for about 12 years.
How were you involved in events on Kenmure Street on 13 May 2021?
The day the Battle of Kenmure Street happened I was actually waiting for my partner to go into labour. She was a week overdue with our second child and planning to have another home birth. She headed off to an appointment at the New Victoria, a pal took my oldest daughter to a dance class at the bowling green down the street, and I sat down at the desk in my bedroom to do some work. I looked out the window and saw what I thought at first was an ambulance. Realising it was actually a border enforcement van I chucked my shoes on and jumped out of the door.
A neighbour told me that someone had locked on under the van, and a few other people I know were standing in the street raising the alarm. I joined them and then spent the next eight hours trying to help stop the UKBA from detaining the two men from across the road, who wave at my daughter in the morning and who have lived in the Shields as long as I have.
I spent the next eight hours trying to help stop the UK Border Agency from detaining the two men from across the road, who wave at my daughter in the morning and who have lived in the Shields as long as I have. .
It was one of the most inspiring days of my life. If you are involved in politics then all too often you experience defeat, or the slow attritional type of action in which you never really know whether you have achieved anything much. Here was a day when we came together and stopped harm from happening, where we kept some neighbours safe and showed many more that there are lots of communities on these islands that believe that everyone is welcome here. I’ll never forget the whole street erupting in chants of “The People United Will Never Be Defeated” as the van doors opened and Lakhvir and Sumit stepped blinking into the light.
What lessons can we draw from Kenmure Street about community and people power?
There are so many reasons that what happened on Kenmure Street happened. Decades of political organising, community building and public education, and of course chance. I think it’s important to see it like a flowering fruit. It might be the showy bit that we see, but really it speaks to a huge organism underneath, with branches and roots all over the place.
The anti-eviction campaign in Glasgow, the Living Rent branch in Pollokshields, my neighbour Tab’s amazing work turning the bowling green on Kenmure Street into a community space, the terrible fires that had taken out two tenements at Albert Cross, the history of racist and anti-racist organising in Pollokshields, the mutual aid Whatsapps that sprung up during covid….
There’s a long history of occupying contested space in Glasgow. from the UCS work-in to the Govanhill Baths occupation to the Pollok Free State and lots more.
There’s a long history of occupying contested space in Glasgow. From the UCS work-in to the Govanhill Baths occupation to the Pollok Free State and lots more. Experiences like the Glasgow Girls – when a group of schoolgirls protested against the detention of their friend in 2005 – and the mythologisation of their story had helped build a strong public sense that detaining deporting of migrants is wrong.
I think the lessons Kenmure Street took from the many historical examples is that you can hold space against the police and really win something meaningful and long-lasting for your community. I hope that’s a lesson Kenmure Street teaches to future generations, too.
What about the importance of diversity to the events of that day?
Pollokshields is a brilliant neighbourhood and always has been. It’s extremely diverse, not just in terms of nationality, ethnicity, and religion, but also class and other identities. I think that’s a great strength. But in most of the time I have lived in this neighbourhood there’s been very little integration.
The work Tab and others did at the bowling green, building a space where you’d see new families, Scottish-Pakistani aunties, and the young team all hanging out in the space and over-lapping: that’s perhaps the most important thing for me leading up to the Battle of Kenmure Street. It was slow and painstaking work, making sure folk on the street knew and trusted each other.
In many ways, what happened needed people with no politics or interest in community to show up as well, because it needed everyone.
None of that is to say that we should have an idyllic view of all this. In many ways, what happened needed people with no politics or interest in community to show up as well, because it needed everyone. I remember one neighbour shouting at police “fair enough, deport the illegals. But not on Eid!” That’s a sentiment I could hardly disagree with more. But it is also touching in its way. It shows that even anti-immigrant people were there trying to make things better.
Humanists believe in the capacity to do good without belief in God. What can Kenmure Street tell us from a humanist perspective?
Well, I am a communist which may not be a common viewpoint among your membership—or maybe it is! But it’s certainly one with a broad and important shared world view with humanism. In fact when I think about the struggle against borders, or capitalism, or against the genocide in Palestine, it’s a humanist perspective that I take.
No idea of god or authority is needed…we can use reason and experience to build a better world. I think one of the reasons Kenmure Street happened is because it embodies the truth of humans as social beings with our innate drive to care for each other.
I believe in the potential of humans and of society to better themselves, to not lessen life, to stand unalienated and true to their species essence. The crucial importance of centring real humans, their needs and consciousness in a transformation of society that is not just economic, but moral and cultural, means for me that no idea of god or authority is needed, that we can use reason and experience to build a better world.
I think one of the reasons Kenmure Street happened, and one of the reasons it resonated, is because it embodies the truth of humans as social beings with our innate drive to care for each other, regardless of direct connection. Marx wrote: “Communism equals humanism.”
Reform are riding high in the polls and pledging ICE-style immigration crackdowns. What hope can we draw from your story?
Organising against the rising tide of vicious right wing rhetoric emanating from the Labour and Conservative parties and delivering us into the hands of a Reform government has to be a priority. If there was one lesson from Kenmure Street it is to talk to your neighbours. Organise with them. Invite them round. Make things with them. Many of them will have different views to you. Some may even have imbibed racist views. Still, talk to them, try and find out where these ideas come from and help them find a way out of them.
Far-right parties like Reform are very good at latching on to emotion, fear and anger, then using those emotions to turn people against each other. We need to do the opposite. Not by lecturing or hectoring, but by hearing out people’s feeling of fear, hurt and anger. And giving them positive human places to connect and work together to feel less alienated.
People are right to be angry. Their country has been sold out right under their noses, the planet is in dire straits, we all should be angry. But we definitely shouldn’t be angry with anyone who has arrived at these shores in a small boat, nor any neighbour who is working hard on an expired visa. Our enemies don’t have any trouble getting visas!
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