o the south of Glasgow, amid the woodlands and parklands of Pollok estate, a site of extraordinary resistance has emerged. From the roadside a huge red banner with bright yellow letters proclaims Pollok Free State, and where the road gives way to a dirt track, amid tall beech trees, one enters a place transformed. Huge carved totems of eagles, ravens, and owls stand as silent sentinels below tree houses. Shingle paths wind past recycling containers, sunflower beds, a small kitchen, and an information centre in the process of construction. A campfire is tended day and night, symbolic of the residents' spirit of resistance. Scattered amid the woodlands are a varied array of tents--the homes of the residents of Pollok Free State. Multi-colored flags flutter in the wind, upon them the message Save Our Dear Green Place. The dear green place is Glasgow in the Gaelic tongue, and the Free State is the symbol of the resistance to the spectre that is haunting Glasgow--that of the construction of the M77 motorway extension through Pollok Estate. Strathclyde Regional Council and the Scottish Office have awarded £53.5 million of taxpayers money to Wimpey Construction to build the road, ignoring the wishes of a majority of Glasgow residents. The motorway will cut a swathe of concrete and traffic through the city's largest green space. The resistance to this road, whose focus is the Free State, represents Scotland's first anti-motorway ecopolitical conflict. gh opposition to the motorway dates back to the 1970's, several recent developments saw the resistance coalesce into a more potent force. In the spring of 1994 Glasgow Earth First! was formed, a non-hierarchical group committed to engaging in nonviolent direct action in order to prevent further environmental destruction. The group soon began to focus its energy upon the M77 issue. In April 1994, the Stop the Ayr Road Route (STARR) Alliance was launched, as a merging of various community and environmental organizations pledged to four goals: (i) to have the M77-Ayr Road Route cancelled; (ii) to re-direct financial resources saved from the cancellation into an alternative, environmentally-sensitive transport strategy; (iii) to re-instate the land within [Pollok] estate to its previous condition as open space and woodland, as enshrined in the 1939 Conservation Agreement; and (iv) to restore all open spaces and buildings blighted by the M77-Ayr Road Route, and give priority to provision of pedestrian and cyclist safety, public transport and park-and-ride facilities.