CommonSpace columnist David Carr suggests that not everything has to be about independence and advocates the power of positive activism
THAT’S IT! I’m sick of independence. Fire up your Twitter and start calling me a unionist.
Inconveniently, I’m not. I believe that Scotland should be and will be independent. I’m just a wee bit perplexed with some of the funny ways some folk have of going about it – and what they expect it to do for them.
You’d think it was a battle. You’d think the main obstacle in our way was the Westminster Goliath that had – somehow – to be brought to its knees before we can have peace. You’d think that all those who voted No last time approved of the UK status quo whereas all the decent folk voted Yes.
My No-voting friends thought that Scotland’s future was a false prospectus, as did many of my Yes-voting friends. And me. There’s common ground right there.
Folk who think like this should get out more. Here’s a preposterous notion – try listening to No-voting friends. You might find out out what they actually think – not what you think they think. By doing that you may have the sort of discussion that can lead to a mutual understanding of what’s good for Scotland. Surely, that’s what we will need to win a second referendum?
My No-voting friends thought that Scotland’s future was a false prospectus, as did many of my Yes-voting friends. And me. There’s common ground right there.
And if you say you don’t have any No-voting friends, you are inside a suffocating indy bubble that excludes half of Scotland.
Failure to engage ends up in silliness. I don’t buy Ian Macwhirter’s thesis that indyref was wholly polite. I experienced physical intimidation myself. And on the other side? Let’s be honest with ourselves and admit it was more than an egg thrown at Jim Murphy. There was nastiness from the Yes side. Your No-campaigning friends can fill you in.
So let’s take a step back and think about what we’re about. It’s about, simply, making Scotland a better place, isn’t it? Are we speaking the same language?
Let’s take a step back and think about what we’re about. It’s about, simply, making Scotland a better place, isn’t it? Are we speaking the same language?
Some seem to be after a top-down approach to this. Give Scots control of their own affairs and we can sort it out for ourselves. This political approach has its place. I am a member of a political party myself and did what I could at indyref.
But how does handing out leaflets or chapping on doors or even voting in parliament deliver a tangible change in people’s lives? I am by no means trying to be anti-politics here. But isn’t there a sense of ‘They only want us for our votes’?
Don’t we have to do it the other way around? Don’t we just have to be excellent to each other? Won’t this create a better society? Won’t that give us the confidence that we can take care of ourselves? Won’t people be happy to live in that Scotland?
I’m not suggesting that politics is kept out of it altogether. There is an important intersection between ‘good works’ and politics.
Here, the personal gets political. For many years my mother worked as a family planning nurse in Bootle. She provided contraception and terminations for her patients – despite interference from the establishment – churches and her own colleagues. It was her job – but one she believed in. My mother, the abortionist’s, politics rubbed off on me.
Similarly, amid the ongoing efforts across Scotland and the rest of the UK to take relief to the detention camps (let’s call them what they are) near Calais, many groups have organised around churches, mosques and community groups set up for the purpose – any convenient platform or network capable of bringing volunteers together.
If you want to be engaged in politics – real politics, that makes a difference – choose your cause. There are plenty.
In Scotland, these groups have included the SNP. At the SNP meeting I attended, it was stressed that the effort was apolitical – all were welcome to join. But, of course, these things are political. They give a model of how people can choose to behave.
And it’s also worth noting that there are other groups who are organising politically in the Calais Jungle. Why not? Should we assume that those who have lost their homes and families due to an imperialist war will be apolitical?
So if you want to be engaged in politics – real politics, that makes a difference – choose your cause. There are plenty: shale gas extraction; an end to zero-hours contracts; the eviction of tenant farmers; trade union rights; violence against women.
But how would we feel if someone did us a good turn – then handed us a bible and required us to pray? Possibly we’d be about as receptive as if someone linked all these things to independence – especially if we were one of the many people who voted No last time. Even more so if we were someone from an anti-independence party who was also involved in such issues. As many, many are.
It’s not all about independence.
We need to prepare. We need positive activism to demonstrate that we can, simply, make Scotland a better place.
Fortunately the people who are out there walking the walk don’t behave that way. It’s these who are the heroes, simply making Scotland a better place. They are much more likely to succeed in their task than those with a narrow, indy focus who are sometimes so caught up in the ‘fight’ that they forget – there isn’t one.
Politics – true politics – is about 90 per cent caring enough to want to do something, and about 10 per cent getting through the administrative details. Yes, independence is important, and I shall vote for and campaign for it at the time.
But we need to prepare. We need positive activism to demonstrate that we can, simply, make Scotland a better place. ‘The secret to change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.’ Socrates.
Work as if you are in the better days of an early nation.
Picture: CommonSpace