Stick To It: The stickers of Glasgow's Southside

Two hands love-heart around a trans flag with 'Sisters not cis-ters' written upon it. Another reads, 'No borders. No nations. 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. 

Instagram account @stickers.of.southside has been active for about a year now, first posting in January 2022. It does exactly what it says: Post pictures of stickers around Glasgow’s Southside. 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. Guy* has lived in Govanhill for some time now. Over the years, they had formed a habit of keeping an eye out for stickers of the bigoted variety and then scraping them off. “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. One day, while running errands together, their friend noticed this habit. “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, @stickers.of.southside was born. Guy was convinced that if they didn’t do it then and there, in the middle of the street, they maybe never would. 

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. In Glasgow’s Southside, such movements are alive and kicking and the stickers are testament to that. “It’s a way of signalling to other people that they are among friends,” says Guy. It’s a subtle, yet powerful, way of doing so. 

“They’re used in quite a covert way,” Guy continues. Tagging or wheat pasting have long radical histories; but they’re time-consuming acts, leaving folk vulnerable to getting caught, or at least noticed. With stickers, it’s as simple as peeling one off and pressing it onto the nearest bench, bin, or lamppost.  

“Stickers, especially on the street, are very ephemeral. They're very vulnerable to the elements,” Guy explains. Despite all their stickiness, they rarely last very long; the hope, however, is that the messages of these ones will. Digitally documenting them out and about, as they were intended to exist, helps move that hope towards a reality. 

And yet, unlike the easily moveable Instagram-made ‘stickers’ we may place upon a witty story, the ones on @stickers.of.southside feel a little more fixed, plastered upon a page created just for them. However, if 2022 taught us anything, it’s that no social media platform is forever. 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. 

For all it’s worth, Guy is pretty humble about the whole thing. “It's just me putting [up] cool stuff that I saw – just like everyone else does with their lunches, or their weekend trip to Skye or something,” they say. In theory, yes, it’s not that deep. But knowing there are people out there who believe in the same things as you, who will welcome you and care for you, is sometimes enough to keep you going. 

Ultimately, for Guy, the important stuff is the “material stuff”: “where you actually meet people and work with them to actually make material changes – whether that's feeding people or keeping people warm or organising for employment rights or tenant advocacy.” No matter how much vinyl coats it, a sticker’s impact is limited.

“There's all these different organisations around the neighbourhood who are focused on all these different aspects that have very tangible effects on people's lives,” says Guy. Such groups are what allows the stickers to, well, stick with us. Amid all the gentrification Govanhill and its counterparts have endured, these stickers are a hopeful reminder: it’s not all oat flat whites and rising rents. 

Guy is keen to hear from any creators of the account’s stickers – they want to credit good people for their good work. Such collaboration also plays its part behind the scenes. “I have people messaging and submitting stickers that they've seen in the wild as well, which is also really gratifying,” they say. These stickers often preach a certain togetherness; it’s unsurprising that they further facilitate it. 

The world we want to live in will need more than a little adhesive to truly stick. But these stickers and @stickers.of.southside will continue to make their mark – even if it won’t last forever. “At this time, at this place, there were people who believed in this thing,” says Guy. “These are things worth documenting.”

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Follow Stickers of Southside on Instagram at @stickers.of.southside
*Name has been changed to protect identity.

Illustrations by Lizzy Snow