Parents from Wishaw, North Lanarkshire vowed to fight on against the impending closure of their local primary school despite being forced to end their occupation after threats by the authorities to send the pupils elsewhere until they left.

The five protestors, including four parents and one grandmother, took direct action as part of the Glasgow Save Our Schools campaign by occupying St Matthew’s Primary, just outside the city, as a protest against its planned closure. They are angry at the actions of North Lanarkshire council who are seeking to sell off the site along with three others in the region.

Parents at the other threatened primaries – Belvidere in Bellshill, Gartsherrie in Coatbridge and St Francis of Assisi, Cumbernauld – have staged other similar protests. At the end of last year over 150 parents and pupils marched on the council’s education headquarters, demanding council leaders reverse their decision to close Gartsherrie Primary.

Proposals to shut the four schools were drawn up after a report was presented to the council citing falling numbers and poor building maintenance, but campaigners argue that the plans were based on information almost ten years out of date. One parent commented: “Our children are going to end up in overcrowded classrooms with poorer facilities”, adding, “We are not going to give up. Everybody in this community is 100% behind us and determined to save Gartsherrie.”

Save Our Schools was set up in 2009 as a response to the planned closure and merger of 13 primary and 12 nursery schools in the Glasgow area, affecting more than 2,000 children, to save the council £3.7m from their budget, the very same amount, local activists argue, they plan to give private property developers “affected by the recession” to build on the school land. Previously Wyndford Primary School, and St. Gregory’s have been occupied by parents and activists as part of the campaign.

Glasgow anarchists have played an active part of the campaign since the beginning, which continues to receive overwhelming public support.