Scotland’s All Campaign Media Call

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What does the Yes campaign have that No doesn’t?

Arguably, No doesn’t have a campaign at all, just a series of commercial relationships with media outlets and one very long smear. It remains the world’s first manifesto for mass-inertia. The world’s shortest political programme, that can be distilled into four tiny hopelessly limiting letters: ‘UK:OK’

But what does Yes have?

We are not one homogenous campaign, we are a huge diverse movement that is national and multifaceted.

We have a huge reservoir of audacity, optimism and determination.

In short, we are a movement, not  a campaign at all.

We don’t need to pay volunteers our supporters don’t need to declare that ‘they love Scotland’ or, ‘that they’ve always lived here’ or, most bizarrely, that ‘there children go to school here’. It’s a living breathing forward-looking grassroots movement brimming with hope and expectation, idealism and ideas.

That’s why, from next week at 11 am each morning at the CCA on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow, and for the last four weeks of the campaign beginning Monday 18 August the Scottish Independence Convention will host a media briefing at which all of the independent Yes campaigns can come together. All media will be invited.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be hearing from:

Generation YesRadical Independence Campaign, Women for Independence, Trade Unionists for YesNational Collective, NHS for YesFarmers for IndependenceAcademics for YesTeachers for YesLabour for IndependenceEnglish Scots for YesAsians for IndependenceLawyers for Yes, Academics for Yes, Commonweal – and many more beyond.

What do these groups have in common beyond a commitment to Yes?

We are all working against the tide of cynicism and disillusionment and the common experience that your voice will not be heard, your opinion is not valid and you have no power. We are all trying to move away from a designed exclusion to an architecture of participation that creates structures that encourages people to be included in society instead of structures that renders people as passive consumers and good British subjects.

The is the real campaign, self-funded and self-organised.

To reflect the breadth and depth of the movement we are kicking off this Monday with the launch of Scotland Yet online.

This documentary, the first feature-length film in Scotland financed solely through crowd funded donations, asks why a country, once at the heart of the union, now stands on the brink of irrevocable change. Eschewing many of the staples of referendum coverage: such as confrontations between political ‘big guns’ and the bear pit of party politics, Scotland Yet looks instead at a surge in grassroots political activity and brings together a vast array of voices from across contemporary Scotland.

 

Comments (27)

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  1. James D says:

    “We are not one homogenous campaign, we are a huge diverse movement that is national and multifaceted.” -.It’s international too! Check it out – http://www.solidaritywithscotland.com/

    1. Victoria Cox says:

      Thanks, James, for posting this link to Solidarity With Scotland. Lots of us in the US want to help but don’t want to intrude where we aren’t wanted or needed. This site gives some useful suggestions of what we can do. I’ll be sharing the link right away. Best wishes for success for Yes! xx

      1. gonzalo1 says:

        Thank you for your help. It is much appreciated.

  2. JimnArlene says:

    Let’s hope the media report on the daily briefings, fairly and impartially. Though getting them to report it, in the first instance, would be a result.

  3. tartanfever says:

    ‘ To reflect the breadth and depth of the movement we are kicking off this Monday with the launch of Scotland Yet online.’

    Confusing. The website is already online. Do you mean the film will become available online for free and for everyone to watch (which would be by far the most effective way to get the message ‘out there’) or are we still getting wee trailers and having to buy the DVD.

    1. David says:

      It’s the film which will be made freely available.

      1. Brian McHugh says:

        I suspected that ‘Scotland Yet’ would have to be made freely available on Youtube… there would always have been too much risk in any MSM channel pulling the screening at the last minute and it being too late to do anything about that before the vote.

        I was a modest funder of the production and purchased and received my DVD in the post last night (along with my Polling Card… Omen? :o)

        It is really a great documentary… everyone should see it.

        The theme song… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLHr7W8XnaI

      2. brianmchugheng says:

        I suspected that ‘Scotland Yet’ would have to be made freely available on Youtube… there would always have been too much risk in any MSM channel pulling the screening at the last minute and it being too late to do anything about that before the vote.

        I was a modest funder of the production and purchased and received my DVD in the post last night (along with my Polling Card… Omen? :o)

        It is really a great documentary… everyone should see it.

        The theme song… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLHr7W8XnaI

  4. Dan Huil says:

    The Yes campaign has positivity in its heart and in its head.
    The negative No campaign has bile oozing out from every pore of its sick body; it has no heart.

  5. John Mac says:

    This site and that other social media similarly vociferous site eg “wings over scotland…etc ” has done far more harm re, the independence vote than it has benefited. You both have played towards an Irish Catholic audience and have alienated a large proportion of votes that might otherwise have voted yes. The vote would have been far closer if not for the indoctrination proffered by your site. A chance of a lifetime has been lost by you’re deliberate partiality.
    Perhaps independence wasn’t your end-goal after all. Perhaps division is what you strive for. If division is you’re target then very well done you achieved your goals.
    Our country will never be independent while we have partisan bigots championing our cause.

    1. joseph O Luain says:

      Why am I reminded, John Mac, of the mischievous scum, genocide apologists, currently operating from Israeli embassies world-wide. Please go away and find something worthwhile to do with your miserable life.

    2. Hello John Mac

      I, probably like many here, am from a Scottish Protestant background. I wonder if I can question your statement? The Protestant tradition(s) is one that protests and which holds that the reformed church (in its various versions, Calvinist and otherwise) as the church that is continually reforming itself – “Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei.”

      Right now I’m on holiday (so forgive me if I’m lax in following this thread – wife is trying to impose a computer ban – must be her Huguenot (French Calvinistic) background. One book I’m reading is Marcus Borg’s (Lutheran) and John Dominic Crossan’s (RC) The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach about Jesus’s FInal Days in Jerusalem. These writers are putting the case that Mark’s gospel uses Jerusalem as a metaphor for Empire. The high priests were the landowners who racked the rural poor and the poll tax records for paying tribute to Rome were held by them in the temple. Jesus’s challenge with the money changers was a challenge to the heart of the imperial, and not just the Jewish, domination system. The one was co-dependent on the other.

      I am wary of any form of Protestantism that allies itself to ideas of dominance, manifest destiny, exceptionalism, etc. – see my recent Bella piece – https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2014/08/02/the-net-of-saint-andrew/

      You might argue that it is precisely dominance, manifest destiny and exceptionalism that characterises the Roman church. I agree that such has been so under conservative regimes, but that is hardly the case just now with Francis. We need to let one another breathe. That is why, as a liberation theologian and a Quaker by choice, I draw such nourishment from such writers as Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was gunned down by the death squads in El Salvador. Today, for a friend, I was writing out some of his sayings. I share them here. This is the depth of courage and vision that is needed in the Scottish independence campaign. To me, it matters not a jot that it comes from a Catholic. Likewise, I believe, to Christ as our culture’s understanding of the human face of God. These quotes are form The Violence of Love, an anthology from Romero compiled by Henri Nouwen, with forbearance begged from those of atheistic disposition on this site:

      To be a Christian now means to have the courage
      to preach the true teaching of Christ
      and not be afraid of it, not be silent out of fear
      and preach something easy that won’t cause problems.
      To be a Christian in this hour means to have the courage
      that the Holy Spirit gives….

      This is why the church has great conflicts:
      It accuses of sin.
      It says to the rich:
      Do not sin by misusing your money.
      It says to the powerful:
      Do not misuse your political influence.
      Do not misuse your weaponry.
      Do not misuse your power.
      Don’t you see that is a sin?
      It says to sinful torturers:
      Do not torture.
      You are sinning.
      You are doing wrong.
      You are establishing the reign of hell on earth.

      The church’s task in each country
      is to make each country’s individual history
      a history of salvation

      Peace is not the product of terror or fear.
      Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
      Peace is not the silent result of violent repression.
      Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.
      Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity.

      The world does not say: Blessed are the poor.
      The world says: Blessed are the rich. You are worth as much as you have.
      But Christ says: Wrong. Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven,
      because they do not put their trust in what is so transitory.

      This is the church’s stand, one that makes it suffer terrible conflicts, but one that also makes it feel faithful to God’s justice and to the gospel of Jesus Christ…….

      1. Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh says:

        Thanks Alastair for this thoughtful comment. It is much appreciated. It also allows me a further opportunity to draw attention to the philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd (died 1977), a profound Christian thinker on the nature of the State. Essentially, Dooyeweerd argues that the foundational criterion of a State is “The monopoly of the power of the sword over a given territory”. However, if that were the sole parameter it would of course lead to raw tyranny, so a second, higher, structural criterion of a true State ought to be in operation, i.e. “the pursuit of justice”. For those up for a bit of philosophical reading, I have posted a sequence of Dooyeweerd’s writing on this matter, starting here:
        http://gobha-uisge.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/dooyeweerd-structural-principle-of.html

    3. eris says:

      ” Generation Yes, Radical Independence Campaign, Women for Independence, Trade Unionists for Yes, National Collective, NHS for Yes, Farmers for Independence, Academics for Yes, Teachers for Yes, Labour for Independence, English Scots for Yes, Asians for Independence, Lawyers for Yes, Academics for Yes, Commonweal – and many more beyond.”

      Troll on, dude.

    4. gonzalo1 says:

      Total nonsense John. I am from a protestant background but I am not a bigot. There will always be various groups and self-styled movements piggy-backing on to our cause. I am a freemason and I teach in a Catholic school and I have many friends who are freemasons and catholics. There is no bigotry in this cause because we all believe that Scotland would better off if it ran its own affairs.

    5. ah! so there are two sorts of indy, a Catholic one (and “Irish” to boot) and a Protestant one. Could you kindly shed some light on the notable differences? As one of the Whore of Babylon’s Roman legionaries I’d love to know. Pax tecum frater!
      Btw the vote has not taken place yet. Nothing is “lost”.

    6. Clootie says:

      A truly idiotic post unworthy of further comment.

  6. Jeff Saunderson says:

    Do you have a crystal ball wrapped in a union flag under that bridge John, or is it just that your* poor grammar and psychological projection marks you out as another desperate astro-turfer?

    Either way, if you’re** looking for bigotry and poor campaigning you’ll find a far richer seam on the other side.

    To suggest the hugely successful array of internet sites supporting independence have done more harm than good is hilarious if only for the unsubstantiated audacity of your claim …. another trade mark attribute of BT/No thanks/UKOK whatever you’re** calling yourselves this week.

    I do agree with your last sentence though!

    Vote YES to free ourselves of the partisan bigotry of Westminster rule!

  7. You didn’t mention Business for Scotland which is putting in a vast amount or work across the country.

    1. bellacaledonia says:

      They are and we have spoken to them. This isn’t meant to be a definitive list, its a list of groups participating in this event.

    2. bellacaledonia says:

      They are and we have spoken to them. This isn’t meant to be a definitive list, its a list of groups participating in this event.

  8. gonzalo1 says:

    All fair-minded people are going to vote Yes in this referendum because it is a righteous cause.

  9. Fay Kennedy. says:

    Surely if you present as a Christian in the true sense of what it means then you would have to vote Yes. I’m of the agnostic mindset but all religions have more in common than their hierarchies like to display.

  10. rowantree633 says:

    Reblogged this on A Yes Voter in Nairn.

  11. Colin Dunn says:

    Oops. Typo.

    ” . . or, most bizarrely, that ‘there children go to school here’.”

    ‘Their’ surely, unless there should be a ‘sic’ included?

  12. Les Wilson says:

    Here is a song to motivate us, listen to the lyrics.

    1. Wee poor stupid Scotsman says:

      Is that a saltire on his keyboard?

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