THE Scottish Independence Convention doesn’t call this series of conferences “Build” for nothing. We are very aware that winning a future referendum will not be easy and doing so will take huge amounts of very hard work. Scotland is still in an excellent position to move forward towards independence. But it is us – who have campaigned and marched for it – who have to take this encouraging starting point and build from there to success. As we all know, it’s not going to magically happen and there are many forces rallied against the mere idea of Scotland ever becoming an autonomous nation. We all know there is much work to do.
The Scottish Independence Convention (SIC) is a coalition of all of Scotland’s national independence-supporting organisations, with strong representation from local groups. No-one is excluded from the convention and we are open to all. We have been meeting and discussing at length what all of us – our member organisations, their activists, their networks – need to do right now. And the answer was the same from everyone: we need to focus on how to persuade those voters who voted No – some for very sound personal or political reasons – to feel able to support self-determination for Scotland.
That’s why this conference in the Build series is subtitled “bridges to independence”. The whole event is focused on what we need to do to build good bridges from the independence movement which will help uncertain and sympathetic-but-not-there-yet voters to explore the idea of independence more.
It’s not our questions that need to be answered, it’s the questions being asked by the many voters who aren’t quite sure they made the right choice in 2014. It’s not going to dwell on what it is that we like to do, but will instead explore what it is that soft No and undecided voters say they want us to do to convince them. It’s not us listening to activists tell us about their issues, it’s about listening to what people who’ve never been active in politics are saying about what independence might mean for them in their lives – their fears, their hopes; the real ways that being an independent country can impact in a positive way on ordinary people’s lives.
Above all, the conference will be asking the questions: Was what we did last time, what we’ve been doing up to now, enough? What more do we need to do?
So this isn’t a conference to pat ourselves on the back or celebrate that we’re still here and still going strong ... although we may allow ourselves a few minutes of that! The grassroots organisations who are still out there week in, week out doing much heavy lifting deserve much thanks and acknowledgement.
But this conference is also to put tough questions to ourselves.
Why didn’t we persuade certain types of voters last time? Why didn’t we reach out to some groups as effectively as we might have? And perhaps as important as anything, are there others who are doing the same kinds of things that we’re doing – but doing them better? If so, what can we learn from them?
The Scottish Independence Convention has invested in some substantial public opinion research work to find out what No voters are really saying about us. The results are fascinating – and the first part of the day will be your first chance to hear the results. Then we’re inviting a range of speakers to talk to us about the issues that are most important to specific groups of people – the young, the old, women, the working classes. I suspect we think we know what is on their minds – but do we really?
We’ve picked four of the biggest questions that No voters tell us they still have – with excellent speakers explaining how we can put their minds at ease on each of them, and perhaps even inspire them. Finally, we’re going to look at some of the best campaigns around the world just now – including the Bernie Sanders campaign in the US. We’ll ask how they work and what we can learn from them.
But it’s not all top-down lecturing or being talked at. There will be room for participation from the floor of the conference as well as many great stalls, time for chat and some really good entertainment. Plus Alex Salmond will be bringing a bit of his “Unleashed” show to conference-goers and we’ll be hearing a speech from Anna Arque, one of Catalonia’s leading activists, so we can learn what is really happening there and in turn offer our solidarity.
If we stand still, if we do what we always did, then we’ll stay where we are and we’ll get what we got last time. The SIC is determined that that isn’t what is going to happen. So we want and need to build new bridges.
If you believe in Scottish independence, if you want to play a part in getting us all there, then you owe it to yourself to get tickets and make sure November 4 is in your diary.
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