The Point

Last updated: 27 June 2022.

Building YES locally: one group's inspiring story

All over the country a mass movement for independence has formed organically over the last year. Toni Vastano of YES Badenoch Strathspey recounts the YES adventure so far in the shadow of the Cairngorms

 

YES! Badenoch & Strathspey formed in September 2013. Some of us had been on the Independence March & Rally, Calton Hill, Edinburgh and we were amazed by what we saw and felt there. A real sense of community. People from all over Scotland and from many other countries too. All races, all ages, all backgrounds. It didn't matter. We saw a glimpse of what our country can be. People representing their own communities, meeting together to celebrate a vision of Scotland as national community. Elaine C. Smith's words "What we need to talk about now is the kind of place we want to live in."

 

I thought "Well, there must be other people living in my local area who would like to have exactly that sort of conversation. We should start our own YES campaign group." I asked the local branch of the SNP for advice and they offered us the use of a room they'd hired for a routine meeting. There was no advertising, word just got round that there was to be a YES campaign group in our area. The response was overwhelming. We had over thirty people, most of whom were not connected with the SNP and many of whom had quite different ideas about how we should proceed. Everybody did agree on one thing - independence. They then all agreed to have me as Chairman.

My first job, only a few minutes later, was to stop an argument that was quickly developing into a slanging match across the room. One person said of the referendum "It's not about politics". Another said "Of course it's about politics". Then people started taking sides and getting angry. Voices were raised, the atmosphere in the room was stifling hot and things started to look bad. I wondered if we were about to split up the same night as we formed but I asked people to follow a basic rule of "speaking through the chair", whenever there is a dispute. The problem was resolved in that there has been no more anger and our meetings are always really enjoyable. We all look foward to our meetings and there's always a good turnout. We all work well together and we get things done.

But there's still a sense in which that basic opposition of ideas has never been resolved. I think that tension is fundamental to the YES campaign, not only in our area, but throughout the whole country. YES has brought people together everywhere. People who might not usually mix well, or at all, with each other. People of all political shades and none. That's not a problem. Its a solution.

YES isn't about politics and YES is about politics. It's not about the normal party politics, electioneering and managed debates, yet without the basic structure of support and donations that the SNP gave us, it's hard to imagine how we could have got off the ground. Their people have been out campaigning for generations. It is thanks to them that we have got to this point. But it's also about people who have never had much interest in politics before now becoming motivated to do something, to make the case for independence, to encourage others to take that step, to make that mark on a ballot paper that we know is the most significant political act that most of us will ever achieve. This is something more than politics. This is about local communities acting in the national interest. A National Collective. We have been inspired by that wonderful website and by many others, Wings Over Scotland, Bella Caledonia, Newsnet Scotland, The Reid Foundation and The Common Weal, we have a list of websites that we encourage people to look at – including this one, The Point. We also suggest looking at websites of parties who support independence, such as Solidarity, the SSP and scottishgreens.org. We know that we can't rely on the mainstream media to inform people.

Yet we also know that its not just a matter of information. No amount of information will allow us to predict exactly what will happen in an independent Scotland. But we can all feel that sense of community, that sense of confidence in ourselves to get things done. That is something that people can achieve anywhere and that is why we do what we can to localise our campaign. Sometimes more politically experienced people can feel that there is a risk of getting "bogged down" in local community politics, that by getting involved in purely local issues such as bad planning decisions or campaigns to save local services we might lose sight of the national debate. But that's not what we mean by going local. We try to localise our YES campaign by making it ours. We locate the YES campaign in our own local area. We are here and we are now and we are in this place. Independence isn't about people on the telly shouting at each other somewhere far away. Its not what the hostile, biased media say about it. Its about you and me. Its about all of us. It has to be that way. It belongs to everybody, not just to us or our group. Its what's happening.

This is the spirit that guides us. We still have a long way to go. Our first open public meeting drew an attendance of sixty to Kincraig village hall on a wet November night. The local paper, The Strathspey & Badenoch Herald, was impressed. Reporters can sometimes find it difficult to say much about small local events in rural areas but this seemed to spark some real interest. We had great input from our speakers, John Finnie MSP (Independent) with Highland Councillors Bill Lobban and Richard Laird (both SNP). We hoped that the choice of speakers would draw SNP supporters and that we would have a reasonable turnout. We also hoped that John, who famously left the SNP over the NATO membership issue, would provide some alternative views, which he most ably did.

Having shown ourselves that we could hold a public meeting, that we could plan everything, book speakers, advertise, write letters to the local newpaper, issue press releases, produce leaflets and deliver them by volunteers, we wanted to try something a bit more adventurous for our next meeting. We knew that we needed to involve more women. We needed female speakers and we needed to have the women members of our group to be seen and heard more. We also wanted to represent younger people. This wasn't straightforward. It can be difficult to book women speakers. Our own female members didn't feel that they were ready to speak in public. But we found solutions. Highland MSP Jean Urquhart (Independent) kindly agreed to speak at a meeting in Aviemore. The Scottish Green's PPC Eleanor Scott also agreed. Women for Independence put us in touch with Liz Walker and so now we had three female speakers. Richard Laird, one of the youngest Highland Councillors, agreed to speak again.

We wanted some way to get our own voices across too. So we made a video. And we invited a local group to sing. The video featured local members, including women, who said why they are voting YES. Local landmarks were also prominent in a slide tape that ran as the audience entered the community hall and settled themselves down. Everybody was welcomed and offered a cup of tea or coffee and a bit of cake. A press release featuring our secretary Erin, a young working mum, scored us a prime spot with nice photo in the local paper. Our focus was on women, no mistake. Except that some of the more traditionally minded men stayed away, thinking that it was a "Women's meeting"!

We kicked off the event with the video. That clearly localised our campaign and our meeting. Then we asked Gilly and The Cask to let us hear their new song "Let Alba Shine". This was all a bit of a risk as political meetings don't usually start that way. It was also slightly unfair to our speakers. After all, it's notoriously difficult to speak after music and there was a feeling that maybe the video and music could be kept until later on. But we figured that by the end of the evening people are ready to go home, get to the toilet, stretch their legs or whatever. We also didn't want our local connections to be marginalised, to be set aside as an afterthought or some sort of irritation to be endured politely by some while others were busy putting their coats on. So we started it off local.

It was our gig. Us here, in our local community and it all worked very well indeed. Our speakers all offered very different approaches so there was never a dull or repetitive moment. We had a capacity crowd of two hundred people who clearly enjoyed themselves. Our volunteers made sure that every house in the area, including all the farms and crofts and out of the way places, got a leaflet. Leaflets are localised by having our contact information, faceboook page, website, email and phone number on them. We haven't started knocking doors yet but we try to engage with people we meet on the way.

With only a few months to go, we sometimes have the feeling that we should do more, that we should get more serious about fundraising, youth events, designing more of our own campaign materials, local radio and many other things. But we are all volunteers and we all have our own lives. We will do what we can do and we will do it as well as we can. Ours is a very loose group. We have our own bank account, a secretary, treasurer and chairman and we haven't needed anything more formal than that yet. There are no rules and regulations beyond everyday common sense, respect for each other and love of our cause.

Our next meeting is on April 4th in the Grant Arms Hotel, Grantown on Spey. The theme is business. Fergus Ewing MSP, the Minister for Energy, Enterprise & Tourism, will share a platform with Jean Urquhart MSP, Maggie Chapman (Scottish Greens) and journalist & broadcaster Cameron McNeish. Again we hope to attract some don't knows. The presence of a government minister might even draw some "no" people. Cameron McNeish is a very well known wilderness advocate and we can anticipate some heated discussion about energy, especially windmills. But we have now invested in radio microphones and we can make sure that healthy exchange of points of view doesn't turn into a rammy. We want people to feel the real without being frightened of it.

This isn't about sides. Its not about winners and losers. We can all be winners. We have to be. We want to make sure that, whatever our own views on particular issues, people leave our meetings with the feeling that we can work things out in our new, old, wee, big country. That when we meet and speak with each other we catch a glimpse of the sort of place an independent Scotland will be. YES! It really is happening!

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And please watch and share this cracking video our group made collectively!