No-one predicted how Scotland looks today. Our country is not the same as it was a year ago.
In many ways the No campaign lost too. Labour has been electorally obliterated as a result of getting into bed with the Tories. The Tories and Liberals in turn remain largely irrelevant here. And a majority of Scots now consider Independence to be likely in their lifetime.
‘Yes Scotland’ may have lost the vote but our campaign changed our nation forever. The energy we brought to the 2014 Referendum is alive and well in the political activism of thousands of Scots today.
Now is the time, not to call for another referendum, but to begin to plan for it. We agreed with Jim Sillars and former SNP leader Gordon Wilson who have both called in effect for a new YES Campaign to be established, albeit at a different intensity from last year, that again involves parties and groups who support Independence.
The Scottish Socialist Party believe the strength of ‘Yes Scotland’ lay in the mass base of mutual support for self-determination that shared an inspiring new vision of 21st century Scotland. And we reiterate that supporting Scotland’s democratic right to self-determination does not make you a Scottish Nationalist, it makes you a democrat.
We call on our Yes partners in the SNP and Greens and the pro independence RISE Scotland’s left alliance to come together on this the first anniversary of the vote to establish a new YES Convention to discuss the lessons to be learned from our defeat last time and to prepare for victory next time.
