Radical Independence Campaign

A special Radical Independence Conference to discuss, debate and plan action to put people powered solutions at the centre of the crisis of the British state and Europe.

This event will put the democratic deficit and the radical decline of the British State in context, with speakers from across Europe, England, Scotland, the workers movement and youth.

We’ll be talking about the failure of British politics to change the lives of ordinary people, and how we can do things differently.

In addition we will discuss and debate the changing terrain on which we must build a new grassroots movement for independence. With a combination of plenaries, workshops, debates and facilitated sessions to organise practical activity, this really is not to be missed!

Tickets are £10, £4 or £2 and the event takes place in the Glasgow Marriot. We advise booking in advance. We also have the Hallmark Hotel across the road which will host group work and activist meetings. Full timetable and workshop/session details to be released soon.

Tickets available to book here.

  

Eulàlia Reguant, Member of the Catalan Parliament
Eulàlia is a member of the Catalan parliament for the pro-independence left party the CUP. The road to democracy is international, and we are delighted to welcome our Catalan partners back to the RIC conference.

Stella Rooney
Stella is a youth activist and an organiser with Better Than Zero.

Patrick Harvie MSP
Patrick is a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Scottish Green Party.

Faizah Shahee
Anti-racism is a key theme at our Special Conference. We are therefore pleased that Faizah Shaheen will be speaking. Faizah’s story was broadcast internationally after she was detained at a UK airport and questioned under terror laws after a cabin crew member saw her reading a book on Syrian culture on board her honeymoon flight. Faizah works with vulnerable young people as part of the Children & Adolescent Mental Health Service in the NHS. We warmly welcome her to our conference – as we redouble our efforts to build a movement that ends Islamophobia, and a builds a Scotland free from racism.

Adam Ramsay
Adam Ramsay is the Co-Editor of openDemocracyUK and also works with Bright Green. Before, he was a full time campaigner with People & Planet.

Mike Small
Mike Small is the Editor of Bella Caledonia. Bella and Mike have played a central role in facilitating the broadest possible platform for debate and discussion on all things independence. Running articles on strategy and culture, with a range of comment and analysis, it is the place to go for some of the very best writing and coverage that our movement has to offer.

Hilary Wainwright
Hilary is a leading researcher and writer on the emergence of new forms of democratic accountability within parties, movements and the state. She is the driving force and editor behind Red Pepper, a popular left wing magazine, and has documented countless examples of resurgent democratic movements from Brazil to Britain and the lessons they provide for progressive politics. Hillary is a fellow at the transnational institute in Amsterdam, she is also Senior Research Associate at the International Centre for Participation Studies at the Department for Peace Studies, University of Bradford, UK and Senior Research Associate at International Centre for Participation Studies’, Bradford University. She has also been a visiting Professor and Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles; Havens Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison and Todai University, Tokyo.

Angela Haggerty (chair)
Angela is editor of Common Space and a columnist for the Sunday Herald.

George Kerevan MP
George is a Member of Parliament for the SNP.

Gordon Martin
Gordon is the RMT organiser for Scotland

Angela O’Hagan
Dr Angela O’Hagan is a Lecturer in Social and Public Policy in the Department of Social Sciences, Media and Journalism in the Glasgow School for Business and Society. Angela leads modules on human rights, gender, development, and equality across a number of postgraduate programmes, including the MSc in Citizenship and Human Rights, within GSBS and other GCU Schools.

Katherine Trebeck
Katherine is Senior Researcher in Oxfam’s Research Team where she is exploring an economy that delivers social justice, good lives, vibrant communities and which protects the planet.

Gerry Hassan (chair)
Gerry Hassan is a writer, commentator and thinker about Scotland, the UK, politics and ideas and Research Fellow in cultural policy at the University of the West of Scotland. Gerry has written and edited numerous books on Scotland and the wider world: from the setting up of the Parliament, to its record, policy, in-depth studies of the Labour Party and SNP, and looking at how we imagine the future. His upcoming book is Scotland The Bold.

Pete Cannell
Pete Cannell is co-secretary of Edinburgh Stop the War and secretary of Stop the War Scotland. Stop the War was founded in September 2001 in the weeks following 9/11, when George W. Bush announced the “war on terror” and is committed to supporting Palestinian rights, opposing racism and Islamophobia, and to the defence of civil liberties.

Anne Scott
Anne Scott is Secretary of the Scottish Branch WILPF. The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) with National Sections covering every continent, an International Secretariat based in Geneva, and a New York office focused on the work of the United Nations (UN).

Neil Davidson
Neil Davidson is a lecturer at Glasgow University. He is the author of a number of books including Nation-States published in 2016 by Haymarket Press and winner of the Isaac Deutscher Memorial Award.

Pinar Aksu
Pinar is a human rights activists and works with numerous organisations including the Glasgow Campaign To Welcome Refugees. She is an ex-Dungavel detainee.

Chittibabu Padavala
Chittibabu is an Indian activist fighting for equal rights in opposition to the caste system and is involved in a variety of campaigns. He will be talking about the recent mass strike – the largest in human history – that took place some weeks ago.

Aamer Anwar
Aamer Anwar is a human rights lawyer and anti-racist campaigner.

Grainne Griffin
Grainne will be speaking on behalf of Abortion Rights Ireland in relation to the new Repeal the 8th movement.

Charlie Clarke
Charlie is an organiser for Momentum based in London.

Malika Salaun
Malika Saluan is a French anti-racist from the new PIR movement who will reflect on the rise of racism and the strike movement in the country.

Jenni Gunn
Jenni is a member of the Scottish Socialist Party and is on the Executive Committee of the party. She is a feminist activist, writer and independence campaigner. She has a Masters in historical research in revolution and counterrevolution and graduated from Stirling university in 2014.

Neil Gray
Neil Gray is an independent urban researcher and activist, currently employed by the Urban Studies Foundation, University of Glasgow. He was a co-founder of the Glasgow Games Monitor 2014 and has written widely on the privatisation and contestation of land and property in Glasgow, especially with Variant magazine. Current interests include: the urbanisation of capital, the rentier economy, territorial stigmatisation, housing struggles, and critiques of gentrification, mega-events and cultural regeneration. He is also co-editing a book on the 1915 Rent Strikes that seeks to draw out their relevance for current urban struggles.

Liz Ely
Liz is an activist, campaigner and founding member of the Living Rent Campaign.

Lincoln Richford
Lincoln is from the Wanlockhead Community Trust. Wanlockhead – Scotland’s Highest Village, nestled in the beautiful Lowther Hills, is working towards a community buyout. Wanlockhead has a rich history of its community always enabling progress. There has been a long stagnation in opportunities, resulting in a declining population in the last 50 years. But they believe that by local endeavour there can be a turn around for a brighter future for their community. Wanlockhead Community Trust was formed after a successful Public Meeting, to introduce the idea of the community taking advantage of the Scottish Government’s Land Reform Act 2016 and registering an interest in a community buyout of land around Wanlockhead.

Lindsay Conn
Lindsay is an activist with the Radical Independence Campaign and specialises in urban land use and community engagement

Rory Scothorne
Rory is a member of the Scottish Labour Party, Momentum and the Roch Winds collective. Their book, Roch Winds: A Treacherous Guide to the State of Scotland, was published in May 2016. ‘Roch Winds’ comes from the famous song by Hamish Henderson, Freedom Come Aa Ye.

Kirsteen Fraser
Kirsteen is a member of the SNP and ex-Convenor of the SNP Trade Union Group from which she is speaking at the conference.

Cat Boyd
Cat is a co-founder of the Radical Independence Campaign, a columnist for The National and author of Independence: A Feminist Response. She is a member of RISE, and stood in the 2016 Scottish Parliamentary elections.

Aaron Bastani
Aaron, who has been covering the pro-Corbyn Momentum movement, is the co-founder of Novara Media and Silke Digital. He is an expert on digital media, protest and political communications and has published with, among others, the Guardian, Vice and the LRB.

Frances Curran
Frances is a founding member of the Scottish Socialist Party and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the party. She has a long track record of left wing activism and campaigning and was an MSP for the SSP. She is involved in Women For Independence.

Robin McAlpine
Robin McAlpine is founder and director of Common Weal. During the referendum campaign Robin spoke at hundreds of meetings across Scotland and set up the Common Weal think tank and a media outlet CommonSpace. Robin has continued to attend pro-independence meetings to advocate the case for Scottish independence. Most recently Common Weal has launched its drive for a new independence white paper.

Ross Greer MSP
Ross is a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Scottish Green Party.

Joan McAlpine MSP
Joan McAlpine MSP is a Scottish journalist and Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for the South Scotland region. She convenes the European Committee.

Sarah Collins
Sarah Collins is a trade union organiser and is involved in a range of campaigns including Better Than Zero. She is currently doing a PhD in labour employment law.

Sean Baillie
Sean is a community activist involved in North Lanarkshire Fights Back. He is a member of the Scottish Socialist Party.

Jonathon Shafi
Jonathon is co-founder of the Radical Independence Campaign.

Lesley Riddoch
Lesley is a writer and broadcaster. She is author of Blossom.

Myshele Haywood
Myshele is an Aberdeen-based writer, activist and recovering academic, who has been involved with RIC since early 2013. She currently works for the Scottish Green Party. Her website is myshelehaywood.com.

North Dakota Pipeline Protesters
We will be showing a special short film made for our conference sent from North Dakota in relation to the pipeline protests.

Tickets available to book here.

 

 

More speakers to be announced.