15th April 2025
The last two or three weeks have seen an upsurge of optimism in the Scottish independence movement. Why at this point, you might ask when the world order seems to be in such a state of confusion and chaos? Well, it seems that some of the planets are beginning to be in alignment as they were in the early months of this year. What is my evidence for the claim of growing optimism?
Yes Branches getting active
At the end of last year my husband and I encouraged a meet up of the local Yes branch which had been very active during 2014 and until Covid struck. There was a very low mood among the activists but it was agreed that we should hold a social event with food and some Burns poems/songs (my suggestion) early in the New Year. This we did and we invited some Yes Branches from across Glasgow and had a very enjoyable and inspiring event that packed out the accommodation we had booked. I had ordered some pamphlets entitled ‘How we take back our independence’ from Yes Arbroath which were sold. At the end of the night our invited guests said how encouraging it was to see some Yes activity and to invite them to future events and stalls.
There have been some further planning meetings and there are meetings planned ahead -
- on Grangemouth -The Asset stripping of Scotland (May)
- the Wellbeing Economy of an Independent Scotland(June)
- the Journey of Liberation to the UN(September)
- a St Andrew's Night showing of the documentary 'As others See Us' with food and music
This may seem to be very local events tied to a particular group but I feel it reflects the shifting atmosphere across the Scottish grassroots.
The Liberation journey to the UN
The exciting news that Liberation had prepared its case for the Decolonisation Committee of the UN came to us before the Alba conference in Edinburgh. The Alba International Branch put forward an emergency resolution to conference proposing support for Liberation. This was rejected as 'too long' but a shorter version was proposed by the NEC and seconded by me and passed by acclaim, proposing support for all strands of independence initiatives. This was much welcomed by the many Liberation activists at the conference including our own executive member, Alan McMahon.
The Alba Conference(28th/29th March 2025)
There was a certain low key feeling at the conference early on Friday morning. Kenny McCaskill proposed the resolution on independence. I spoke to it and talked about my letters to the National and the Morning Star about the Liberation journey to United Nations and the importance of Alba supporting this initiative. The reason I did this was because I felt sure our emergency resolution was going to be rejected.
I addressed conference about the astonishing re-Tweeting of the Morning Star letter-a couple of hundred times and the 14,000 views. This seemed to me very significant given the silence of the mainstream media and a sure fire sign that the unionists were horrified by this development. My comments were very well received by conference and quite a few people came to tell me that they had seen my letter and that they were very pleased that I had raised the issue of Liberation at the conference.
By the end of Saturday there was a very positive debate about our electoral strategy and many calls for the need for unity in the independence movement. It was deemed important to follow our former leader Alex Salmond's strategy of Vote 1 SNP/Vote 2 Alba at the Holyrood election in 2026.
Independence Unity Project-Liberate Scotland
The fourth interesting and positive development is the setting up of a unifying independence project by blogger Barrhead Boy aiming at the list seats for independence candidates in the Holyrood 2026 elections. This promises to broaden the support for independents, for ISP and other independent candidates. It also pledges support to Salvo and Liberation efforts at the UN.
We will be reporting on all of this further. We know how difficult it is for our overseas members to keep up with what is happening around Scotland as much of this does not get reported in mainstream media.
Maggie Chetty
Convener.
Alba International Branch