It’s been ten years since the referendum and on the 18th September, I did some reflecting on my own journey with Women for Indy as we marked the anniversary of the vote that many of us hoped would herald a better fairer society for an Independent Scotland and for women. It wasn’t to be of course, and as we move on I think it is worth thinking about where Women for Independence is going over the next ten years.
Women for Indy is something that I am hugely proud of being part of. After the referendum I thought it was over if I am honest. I thought that would be it. After all, we were a pro-independence group and Scotland had voted No to grasping that Independence we had been campaigning for. I had no experience of “next”. I hadn’t been involved in political activism before WFI and I wasn’t expecting to continue as we moved forward post referendum so I was stunned when women in Aviemore demanded a space to talk about what just happened and I met with around 30 women, angry, agitated, sad, disappointed but determined women. This was quickly followed by a meeting at Perth on the 4th October in a Church where 1000 women turned up to hear what WFI had to say and more importantly, to tell WFI what they wanted us to do, what they wanted us to be.
The energy in that room was amazing. Women came together from right across Scotland for a healing space. To lick our wounds and reflect on the loss of something we wanted so badly. In addition, we also wanted to think about what was coming next. We had demanded to be heard, demanded our voices were included and demanded our right to imagine an independent Scotland which included women and here we were, 19 year olds to 90 year olds and we were not going away.
Women for Indy had set out to be the opposite of political parties. There was no need to predefine ourselves in terms of feminism or other ideological or political positions. We offered a space for women to ask questions, air ideas and voice opinions – there were no daft questions and it was precisely this that created a safe space for women from all backgrounds, of all ages to get involved. Women like me who had no notion of themselves as feminists, as activists outside of their own heads. We actively countered the idea that politics and the discussions about Independence were for politicians, other people, smarter people, shoutier people – men, and not for us. It all came together in that church with those women. I can still remember that overwhelming feeling of being part of something that had shifted. This wasn’t over, we were not going to disappear and go back to the kitchen. We had things to do.
It feels like a long time ago and bizarrely like yesterday as seminal memories sometimes do. In the ten years since that meeting WFI has been involved in local and national campaigns, baby boxes, prison and justice campaigns, local matters of importance to our own communities, hospital closures, maternity service changes, anti-poverty campaigning. Many WFI members have taken an elected role, MPs, MSPs, local councillors – many more have put themselves forward for selection as I did, and weren’t successful, and in those early days following the referendum, WFI supported those women and others to take a front seat role in politics. That was exciting and impressive but there are a myriad of other women sitting on Community councils, boards of small charities, school parent associations, village trusts and hall committees who are there because they were enthused by WFI.
For many women, their communities are where their activism took them. Women for Indy is rightfully proud of those women who have helped to shape our parliaments help make decisions about policy and strategy at a national level. But my goodness, those women who help to hold up our communities, support families, tackle poverty on the front line, improve lives across Scotland, are the real legacy of WFI. They did not go back to the sofa, they took their disappointment, their fire, and they have gone on to build on that and change lives of people in small ways every day. They have worked as if in the early days of a new nation.
Politics with a capital P may have slipped from the front and centre of many of our lives. The last ten years has been brutal. Social media has turned into a battle ground. the social media onslaughts we have seen around gender have been divisive and Brexit, the pandemic and appalling UK Government policies have seen the lives of women become harder.
Health, maternity care, Social security, poverty, violence against women – we are at the sharp end, negatively affected and bearing the brunt of punitive policies that leave women behind.
The heady days of imagining a better nation seem far behind us.
WFI are also battered, struggling for committee members and for direction. The theft of our funds and the subsequent investigation and long drawn out trial was painful and caused huge anguish, local groups are dwindling and membership is falling, elections for the National Committee have not taken place for a long time, and there is the feeling that Independence is no nearer. It feels a long way from Perth and 2014.
So what do we do? Well, in 2014, we carried out a listening exercise, we surveyed our members, we listened to women, we thought about what they told us and we came up with a plan.
So that is what we are going to do again.
We need to hear from Independence supporting women about what matters to us. We need to hear what WFI can do for the women of Scotland. We need to hear from you about what you want WFI to look like. Is there even a place, a space, a need for a women’s organisationthat is not affiliated to a political party but is focused on campaigning for an Independent Scotland? Can Women for Indy be that organisation and should it be?
Looking back, reflecting, is useful and gives us a warm fuzzy feeling. Looking forward is what leads to action. As we face up to the next 10 years we need to think hard about the role of Women for Independence. A new listening exercise is being planned, engaging through paper based surveys, online and face to face. You’ll see some old faces and some new faces, some cafe conversations, some coffee morning meetings, some evening get togethers, some one to one chats. Let’s work out together where we go next, because looking back can’t be all we do.
Susan Lyons