WITH more than 800 tickets already snapped up for its national conference in Edinburgh next month, the Scottish Independence Convention (SIC) is asking local Yes groups to tell them what they are doing ‘on the ground’ at the moment.
Entitled Build: Bridges to Indy, the conference in the Usher Hall on Saturday, 4 November, is aiming to offer the Scottish independence movement some practical steps that can be taken to build bridges with voters who are not yet convinced by independence.
In order to show how the movement can organise itself, local Yes groups are being asked to send in videos of people in their local groups with a message to be shown at the conference.
Messages can be short snippets of what local groups get up to on a regular basis, what they would like to see from the SIC in future or just general goodwill messages to the movement.
The Scottish Independence Convention is a grassroots umbrella group made up of all national level pro-independence campaign organisations. It brings together independence-supporting parties (SNP, Scottish Greens, SSP), the national independence-supporting organisations (including Labour for Independence, Women for Independence, Radical Independence Campaign, Business for Scotland, NHS Yes, Common Weal and a range of others) and representatives of grassroots groups.
The Convention says: “Following on from January’s sold out conference in Glasgow, the Usher Hall conference aims to build on the work that is being done all across Scotland to outline practical steps that we can take to build bridges between ourselves and those who are not yet supporters of Independence.”
The full programme is due to be released shortly and the conference is also expected to play host to entertainment throughout the day.
Event passes are now available to buy on the Usher Hall website for £15, while concession prices are £8.
Confirmed speakers include Lesley Riddoch, Elaine C Smith, Audrey Birt, Dr Iain Black, Robin McAlpine and Liam Stevenson.
Interested groups should contact Shona on info@theconvention.scot for more details.
Elaine C Smith said: “For supporters of independence, old and new, this conference will be the time and place to find out how we go forward as a movement.”
National columnist Lesley Riddoch commented: “This is a vital time for Yessers to come together and explore how the movement can make a coordinated and effective case for independence which doesn’t ebb and flow with the electoral cycle.”
An SIC spokesperson said: “While this is a national conference in Edinburgh, we’re not going to stop there. We are already planning to begin a major dialogue with Yes groups from around Scotland and work on more events around the country.
“We want local groups to address conference so if you can’t make it on the day we hope you can send us in a few words by video instead”.
Deadline for submissions is Sunday, October 19.
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