Given To The People is a film telling the story of the Pollok Free State. The Free State was initiated by the actions of local resident, Colin Macleod, who began a tree top protest against the building of the M77 motorway through Pollok Park in the early 1990s. Over several years this grew into a series of camps across Pollok. It sought not only to block an unwanted motorway cutting through one of Europe's largest inner city public commons, land that had been gifted to the people of Glasgow, but also raised issues over the rights of local people to determine the use and development of public space - rights that many felt were being denied. It was part of a bigger ‘No M77’ protest across Glasgow that included many groups, including Earth First!, Glasgow For People and Scottish Militant Labour, as well as attracting support internationally.

Whilst the Free State was unable to stop the motorway it nevertheless succeeded in giving the people of Glasgow something far more powerful: demonstrating the ability of ordinary individuals to come together in common cause, take responsibility for their surroundings, and realise their own initiatives for transforming them. One of these was the creation of the GalGael, a locally run boatyard in Govan which has been widely recognised as one of the most successful community projects in Scotland.

Out of the chaos of the scheme an order was born - in the housing schemes people were disempowered, there was no responsibility ... in the Free State people re-learned how to take responsibility and re-learned how to articulate issues that mattered to them.
- Colin Macleod

The film is made from interviews with a number of people who were closely involved in the No M77 campaign and the Free State. These are edited against camcorder footage shot by members of the Free State and local Pollok residents with music by the Glasgow band Foxface.

It takes its name from a statement made by Macleod, that is captured in this footage, whilst explaining the protest to a local resident: Pollok Estate was given to the people in 1939, once given it cannae be ungiven, it can only be stolen. Pollok Estate had previously been owned by the Maxwell family who had gifted the land to the people of Glasgow in 1939, and was the first land to be placed in the care of the National Trust for Scotland. In being gifted in this way, Pollok Estate became part of Glasgow's Common Good.

The No M77 campaign was one of the biggest environmental protests of its time, raising issues of air pollution and climate change. It was distinctive, for this time, in being a protest that was primarily led by local working class communities, and highlighted the relation between urban poverty and a poor environment. Today, many members of the Free State continue to be involved in supporting and fighting for community causes, including the GalGael, Govanhill Baths, and Kinning Park Complex.

This website includes an online version of the film, with some additional short film pieces related to it, full written transcripts of all the interviews, plus an archive of photos, campaign letters, pamphlets and posters from the Free State and No M77 protests.