Hi there.
You may have seen a piece this week in the National about the Scottish Independence Convention’s plans to try and help along with the rest of the movement reach our goal of Independence. It was an open letter from the executive committee.
However this is a personal plea from me to all of you.
I, like all of you, am passionate about a better future our country and I believe that the quality of people’s lives would be so much better if we were free from the chaos of Westminster. I also know that the tireless work of so many in the movement has continued from 2014 and it continues to build. The dream of Independence for Scotland has been kept alive by all the various groups who keep working, campaigning and marching. That work has been quite phenomenal at times.
The SIC has also continued to meet and organise as part of that bigger movement too. The last two years have allowed us to contact and include as many of the Indy groups out there as we can, to set up a proper structure in which to operate, initiate much needed research, set up a campaign group and organise two very large conferences and all done with no funding.
Now we’d like your help to get an official campaign up and running to allow us to help organise further.
The SIC is made up of groups from all over the country campaigning for independence. We want to pool our strength to bring together all the best bits of our movement. We’ve set up a crowd-funder (http://thisisit.scot/) to raise money for a small staff team to provide media, messaging and strategy support for the grassroots groups. This is not another top down “We’ll tell the movement what to do type” of organisation- I personally wouldn’t support that. This is a small staff team bringing skills and expertise, but more importantly, commitment to the cause, in an office that gives a central focal point of contact across the movement.
At almost every meeting or event I have attended over the past four years I have been bowled over by the self organising and work that is going on across the country. However I am always asked about a central place/organisation/hub that can distribute and communicate what’s going on with all the other groups. That’s what we aim to try and provide. We know there is huge commitment and expertise out there already so I envisage that there will also be many volunteers who will be a big part of the new office structure too.
We don’t know when the next referendum is going to be but we know we need to step up a gear and start this working now. (You can find out more details by reading the open letter at the end of this email.)
Here’s what I’d like to ask you do:- donate to the crowd-funder if you can – tell your friends and family – tweet and post about this on social media – share this email with anyone you think is sympathetic to the cause of independence.
There is a huge task before us and we will only achieve Independence if we work together. We need to listen to the people and convince them of the benefits and have as much of the detail and information that they need to get us well beyond 50%. I don’t doubt for a second that within the movement, and within Scotland, that we have the talent, dedication, intelligence and ability to do just that.
The time is now – this is it!
All the best and thank you,
Elaine C Smith
Please back and share this crowd-funder with everyone who believes in an independent Scotland – http://thisisit.scot/
