YES groups are invited to a meeting to commit to engaging with YES UNITED
as a national organisation for the purposes set out in this memorandum. The
arrangement is purely voluntary. No fees or financial commitment to YES
UNITED is involved for Yes groups. YES UNITED will seek to raise funds for a
central office and small staff by crowd funding and approaches to donors.
The meeting will be held at the Eric Liddell Centre, Holy Corner, Bruntsfield,
Edinburgh from 10.30am to 4pm on Saturday 23rd August. Individuals from
YES groups wishing to attend are asked to inform Jim Eadie of their intention
to do so.
Confirmation is needed as we have to inform Eric Liddell centre of number
who will attend; and we also need numbers as we intend to provide a
sandwich lunch and tea ( the Eric Liddell centre need information about tea
numbers).
Purpose 1. To consolidate and build upon the current 55% Yes vote by a
planned, systematic, coordinated, sustained programme of combined action
providing information to the people at street and community level, through the
YES groups.
The aim is a sustained effort to politically educate the people on why it is now
essential to escape from the union with England. Conventional methods,
leaflets and pamphlets, meetings, will be used, along with social media
outlets.
YES groups located in local areas, are best placed to engage in a well organised
national campaign for this purpose. It will not be a one-off effort. It will be
sustained.
Purpose 2. Political education of activists. A sovereign state will take Scots to a
higher level of responsibility, domestically and internationally, than can be
offered in any devolution system. There is at present no political education
being undertaken in order to prepare the winning generation for the
responsibility they will shoulder.Once established, and proven to work, YES UNITED will organise political
education seminars. There are a number of people doing excellent work in
preparing for independence, and our seminars will be organised to ensure their
work is known to activists at local level. We take the wisdom of Keir Hardie as
a guide: Educate, Agitate, Organise.
Purpose 3. Connectivity. Within the movement there are a number of great
YES organisations engaged in a wide range of Independence activities, projects,
and policy making, thereby maintaining a high profile for the idea of
independence, and all aiming to make it happen. However, there is no National
Organisation that brings this work together and shares it across the movement,
making it available to all YES groups and through them, to the people at local
level. YES UNITED seeks, through working directly with Yes groups, to provide
the means whereby the value they are producing, with their consent, and
origin acknowledged, is made known to the Yes Groups and through them, to
the people. In short, YES UNITED aims to be a conduit through which much
that is being done now, but not getting through to people in their homes, does
get to them.
YES UNITED: Why we have been created. Who we are
It is an unhappy fact, that the independence movement is currently split and
splintered. Various groups are engaged in activities and doing great work, but
regaining the unity of 2014 is a task not yet accomplished, and unlikely until
after the election in 2026.
The condition of the movement means there is no co-ordinated flow of
independence information going to the people. As a consequence, there is no
sense of direction given to the movement. Frustration is the condition at
present.
It is vital therefore to act at present on one matter that all can agree on – the
need to build and consolidate support for Independence. The building blocks
of that action are the Yes groups anchored in the localities where the people
live.
YES UNITED does not seek to duplicate or replace any other organisation within
the movement. We seek to bring YES groups together as one co-ordinated
National YES organisation, in which the central committee of Trustees will act
as a facilitator, provider of service (not control), offering a programme of
action and sharing of information, events and materials, for YES groups who
wish to participate. The autonomy of YES groups will remain. YES UNITED is a
voluntary organisation with no affiliation strings attached.We are at present locked in a state that is “a poor country pretending to be
rich” as The Daily Telegraph has admitted. Scots need to escape from debt
ridden, broken, nothing works, UK asap. Building and consolidating upon
existing levels of support will be important for every part of the movement in
2026, and for 2028-29 when the Westminster first-past-the-post system will
offer the opportunity of confirming a decisive unquestionable majority.
YES UNITED Trustees:
Jim Sillars, Alex Neil, Sheena Jardine, Simon Forrest, Calum Miller, Jim Eadie
Agenda
10.30 13.00
1 Trustees introduce themselves
2 Jim Sillars – There has never been a greater opportunity to achieve
independence. The reasons why the matters inherent in our debate with
unionists has shifted in our favour.
3 Alex Neil: the role of YES UNITED
4 Sheena Jardine: the need for unity and a sense of direction
5 Open to meeting for discussion
Lunch Break
13.00-14.00
6 Continued discussion
7 Simon Forrest: reply to points raised in the discussion periods