THERE is just over a week to go until the first formal event bringing together Yes groups from across the country – and the organisers are hopeful of a big turnout for The Gathering in Stirling, set to take place in the city’s Albert Halls next Sunday, May 27.
Organiser Jason Baird of the National Yes Registry has explained the thinking behind the event, which he says is “designed to be the start of a collective process that has local groups, their members, individual Yessers and all of Scotland’s different community needs at its centre”.
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Baird said: “It is a process of local group mobilisation where individual participation, group consent, popular support and new technology come together to build Yes into an effective, non-party political, campaigning force focused on winning indyref2, whenever it’s called. The organisers and the event itself have absolutely no agenda to push, apart from providing a platform from which the grassroots can collectively define for themselves how best to organise and work together in preparation for winning indyref2. Only the groups and active Yessers can collectively set out a practical campaign agenda for themselves and the movement, one that avoids factionalism and naturally comes with the authority of its activists.
“Autonomous groups lead themselves, so the real task of The Gathering is to identify: shared experiences, campaign ideas, resources and proposals that the groups collectively feel are of strategic importance to the movement. These will then be posted on the new IndyApp for the newly networked groups all across the country to assess and decide upon for themselves.”
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The Gathering will also see the official launch of IndyApp2.0 which Baird and his colleagues see as a major tool for the Yes DIY movement,
He added: “We would like to invite all group members and dedicated Yessers to come along and attend this first national Gathering of the grassroots. It has been designed as a day of discussion and workgroups, where all those attending can have their voice heard and develop ways for the grassroots to begin to come together. It’s a face-to-face way to start creating the many social and campaigning Venn diagrams needed to see where local group interests and activities overlap across the movement.
“Once mapped, we can then develop effective ways for those overlapping interests to be acted upon collectively by every interested group and campaigning individual that wants to be involved. This is exactly what The Gathering and new IndyApp have been designed to do.
“So please come along, share your experience and have your voice heard.”
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