The saying “Successful people make things happen, unsuccessful people wait for things to happen” It suggests that those who achieve success actively take steps to create their desired outcomes, rather than passively waiting for opportunities to present themselves.This proactive approach involves taking action, pushing through challenges, and demonstrating resilience in the face of setbacks.
These words, by another, encapsulate perfectly the ethos of the newly formed Liberate Scotland political alliance. While so many Scots sympathetic to independence sit at home tweeting about how bad things are for Scotland inside the accursed union, a group of dedicated independinistas have decided to actually do something about it.
Already there are so-called independence supporters wishing this initiative to fail. The “You cannae do this, it will never work!” brigade! What they really mean is, I do not have the capacity to visualise, strategise, organise, and execute such a bold move so I will just condemn it.” If it fails, they will immediately be on their Twitter and Facebook pages smugly telling everyone, “I told you so!” They would rather be proved right than see their nation succeed! It reinforces their fear of personal failure.
Those in Liberate Scotland decided that there were more than enough keyboard warriors as well as more than enough talking shops to be going on with, what is required is people willing to change the landscape of the political situation in Scotland by actively campaigning to end the union next May.
History fortunately gives us inspiration. It shows the ability in the space of one election to change matters dramatically. Our cousins in Ireland who were the first to throw off the chains of English imperialism give us a perfect example of what can be done at the ballot box in a single election!
In December 1918, Great Britain went to the polls in that would turn out to be the most momentous general election of the 20th century for both Ireland and rump GB!
The old order of the Irish Parliamentary Party, the dominant grouping at Westminster had been led by Charles Stewart Parnell and John Redmond,it was about to be washed away by a new thinking, a new party and a new movement.
IPP was the 19th century Irish equivalent of the 21st century SNP in Scotland. The IPP was the incumbent it stood like a colossus over all the other Irish political parties. IPP had become too comfortable at Westminster. They had been sucked into complacency in London. They had forgotten why the Irish people had sent them to London in the first place. Everything for the IPP, Ireland and rump UK changed forever on 14th December 1918.The IPP was swept away in an instant by the more militant young guns of Sinn Féin.
Political figures who had been condemned by many of their compatriots during the Easter Rising were now transformed into heroes in the country’s most popular political party, Sinn Féin, led by Éamon De Valera.The landslide of Sinn Féin led directly to the foundation of the first Dáil. This ultimately led to the independence of Ireland from the British.
We in Scotland do not thankfully have an armed resistance. There has been no Easter Rising nor summary executions by the British. However, there is the same overwhelming injustice of imperialism pervading through every aspect of Scottish life. Like Ireland in 1918 Scotland is an English colony subject to the whims and wishes of a remote and uncaring London elite.
Scotland has a dominant subsumed equivalent of the IPP. The SNP have become too comfortable at Westminster and are now an integral part of the English hegemony over Scotland. The SNP at both Westminster and Holyrood has settled down and forgotten why the Scottish people elected them in the first place.
The SNP and their ever shrinking band of activists attack any and all Scots that attempt to move the nation on towards independence.Unity to the SNP is a bad word and a bad concept.They only want to win elections, not to win independence! Unity guarantees Scottish independence. Others have to decide why the SNP oppose unity.
Just as De Valera and his colleagues were condemned by some of their fellow countrymen so it is with those today in Scotland for those attempting to end the union next year.
Liberate Scotland is the new kid on the block. It is going through all the procedures to ensure that in May next year the people of Scotland have the opportunity to secede from the Union. The SNP keep telling the people of Scotland “Now is not the time” All of those in the Liberate Scotland coalition say ” Now is the time!” Independence,nothing else!
Seo an t-àm!
My view is also that we are in a situation very similar to Ireland a century ago. This is potentially momentous but getting the information out to the voting public by next May is problematic in that the media will ignore it and social media is full of infighting. Turning people off voting at all!
I would propose a crowd funded billboard campaign with a very simple message.
‘If you want Independence only a vote for a Liberation candidate in May 26 can achieve this’ On a simple saltire.
Or something very similar.
Thanks for this Alison we need all the ideas and help we can get. You are absolutely right it means nothing if we cannot get our message out. We do have a few ideas on that score but again it will be reliait on others stepping up and assisting us in our endeavours.
Redmond’s troughing IPP and Sturgeon’s troughing SNP, a very fair comparison. Don’t forget too, the undermining of Salmond as with Parnell. Everything changes, nothing changes.
The parallels are uncanny between the IPP and the SNP, Ditto the undermining of Parnell with Salmond and of course both were exonerated but not before the damage had been done.
It’s a tried and tested strategy and of course if that doesn’t work they will just kill you. Come to close and the bullet goes through your head, self inflicted of course, with you papers missing, and no enquiry into the circumstances. Or an accident or a heart attack, its all in play.
We need to open peoples eyes to what goes on around them. Too many look at the Northern Ireland troubles through sectarian eyes. But do they really no the filthy dirt tricks that the military did. The infiltration, the commissioning of murder squads, the advancing of timers on bombs to kill innocent and discredit the independence struggle. The Diplock courts. They did not call it The Dirty War for nothing.
People need to know what goes on. They need to know the extent of manipulation. The blackmail, the bribery, the set up. Its all in play.
My own special trick from Britain’s imperial past was the donating of typhoid laced blankets to North American Indians. A Scots army officer apparently was the overseer. Just one of the colonisers lovely tricks. But come further up to date and read up on the strategy.
The previously redacted books by Brigadier General Sir Frank Kitson on how to sort colonial aspirations is a good start. Gangs and Counter Gangs, The Bunch of Five, or Low Intensity Operations are a good start. Then maybe read about the deaths of lawyers Pat Finucaine or Rosemary Nelson in NI and shadowy military units like the Force Research Unit. Or the compensation recently paid to victims of the British military in Kenya. Its all in play and some folks don’t think there’s any dark ops going on here. Of course there is and folks need to know it.
This is Britain’s resource rich colony and they intend to keep it. 2014 gave them a fright, they will not make the same mistake again and that is why things are being ramped up, our political parties infiltrated, turned and democracy denied.
For all of us, the focus must be to get the message out as far and as wide as we can. The establishment are fighting a war, make no mistake about that. And the North American Indians thought they had a friend. Better Together in fact.
But there is a route out.
I really believe there is a battalion of Indy supporters out there (including myself and husband George) who would be prepared to pay into an extremely reliable account to facilitate such a campaign.
I would suggest someone like Craig Murray, Angus McNeil or Joanna Cherry if we could get her on board. There are quite a few more well trusted people who may be prepared to be involved. I certainly would be very happy to promote it on FB. After the fiasco of the SNP crowdfunder which raised well over £600,000 in a short time it has left a lot of us bruised so we need to regain trust. It could work well!
There will for sure be a need to crowdfund. The unionists and SNP have the TV studios and the foreign owned media. We need to find more creative ways to get our message out and we are working on several initiatives at present.
Many thanks for this post. Every day is a learning day. How do we get the message out for everyone to see and then make an informed choice on how they vote?
The message won’t go out via mainstream media. Leafleting every household plus billboards will call peoples attention to Liberation. Street stalls on high streets are also a good method.
You are right! Leafleting every household ( maybe a wee blue book concept?). Billboards gets the young and the old. The old are not on social media and the young are not connected to politics on social media. We need some clever help from people who know how we should proceed.
Without the SNP Independence won’t happen, end of.
I’m all for geeing things up but suggesting the SNP is/are not interested in Indy is childish.
We need unity of Indy supporting groups, not division.
Sometimes I think these new indy ‘groups’ are clones thought up by our opponents in Westminster.
United we stand, divided we fall.
Gordon it us the SNP that refuses to unite with the Yes Movement it us not the other way around. Sturgeon and Yousaf similarly distanced themselves from the wider movement. That is why fir oast 3 years every independence poll shows at 52-59% meanwhile, the SNP are running at 30-35%. To gain independence we need unity. This is why Liberate Scotland has been founded if the SNP won’t do it someone else mainly the grassroots needs to do it.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/25145556.john-swinney-pours-cold-water-snp-holding-independence-convention/