For all it’s worth, Guy is pretty humble about the whole thing. For all the angst this may cause us in the present, there’s also – when it comes to this account, at least – something a little poetic to it: Instagram will eventually peel away, just like the stickers themselves. However, if 2022 taught us anything, it’s that no social media platform is forever. And yet, unlike the easily moveable Instagram-made ‘stickers’ we may place upon a witty story, the ones on of.southside feel a little more fixed, plastered upon a page created just for them. Digitally documenting them out and about, as they were intended to exist, helps move that hope towards a reality. Despite all their stickiness, they rarely last very long the hope, however, is that the messages of these ones will. They’re very vulnerable to the elements,” Guy explains. “Stickers, especially on the street, are very ephemeral. With stickers, it’s as simple as peeling one off and pressing it onto the nearest bench, bin, or lamppost. Ta ing or wheat pasting have long radical histories but they’re time-consuming acts, leaving folk vulnerable to getting caught, or at least noticed. “They’re used in quite a covert way,” Guy continues. It’s a subtle, yet powerful, way of doing so. “It’s a way of signalling to other people that they are among friends,” says Guy. In Glasgow’s Southside, such movements are alive and kicking and the stickers are testament to that. On the account, there are ideas that come up again and again: queer solidarity, anti-racism, pro-immigration, workers’ and tenants’ rights, to name a few. Guy was convinced that if they didn’t do it then and there, in the middle of the street, they maybe never would. “She saw me scanning the lampposts and I explained and she asked me, ‘Do you ever look at the nice ones?’ And it was a very simple and obvious question.” With that, was born. One day, while running errands together, their friend noticed this habit. “One – because they don’t deserve the platform and two – because I don’t want other people seeing them and then having a bad day or feeling scared in public,” they explain. Over the years, they had formed a habit of keeping an eye out for stickers of the bigoted variety and then scraping them off. Guy* has lived in Govanhill for some time now. There’s a strong focus on radical politics and grassroots organising, particularly – as the bio reads – from “the good folks flying their colours in and around Govanhill.” Strangely, the Instagram account began partially in response to the not so good folks. It does exactly what it says: posts pictures of stickers around Glasgow’s Southside. Instagram account has been active for about a year now, first posting in January 2022. Just people.’ A little further down, a handwritten one predicts: ‘Coming to a green space near you… GREEDY DEVELOPERS.’ It looks like it’s on one of those green electrical boxes, outside Langside Halls and across from The Shed, maybe, but it’s a little unclear. Two hands love-heart around a trans flag with ‘Sisters not cis-ters’ written upon it.
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