Disagreement and hostility: what’s the answer?

Rory Hamilton, September 23rd 2021

So, after 18 months of nothing, finally on Saturday, Believe in Scotland’s national ‘Day of Action’ saw 112 groups out and about plugging the independence cause. I couldn’t make any of the activities myself, although it would appear it was a success. However, considering the article I wrote last week, I must beg the question: where are all the young people?

While it was great to see plenty of pictures from the day, I’ve had several people say to me that the movement looks old. So, this inevitably leads me to ask, firstly, why aren’t more young activists out campaigning – we’ve got plenty of them – so where are they? And secondly, what can we do to get more people engaged?

The answer to my first question, I believe, is a relatively simple, if brutal, one: young people have better things to do. Whether they’re studying for school/university/college, engaging in recreational activity such as playing sport, or being involved in music, or if they are old enough to have a family to look after and a mortgage to think about, their priority on a Saturday is not going to be standing behind a trestle table handing out leaflets and stickers, and getting into in-depth policy conversations. Furthermore, our young adult activists would rather meet their friends, with whom they haven’t been able to properly socialise for a while, at the pubs which are now open.

Aside from alternative activities that may be pulling people away from campaigning, the motivation to get out and get heard may be missing from many of our younger comrades because of the pandemic. The easy excuse to stay home and stay away from the sometimes draining, constant campaigning may have had a lingering effect, just as the drive indoors turned many to social media where debate and discussion could often get away from us all and turn to anger and vitriol. 

The visible splits in the independence movement highlighted online have created a sense of awkwardness among activists and perhaps is one of the reasons people are less willing to come out and campaign alongside each other again.

Of course, social media is not necessarily entirely to blame for these splits, but I do feel that it makes things worse. Not only does it amplify the voices of many who already have a platform, and thus marginalises those already marginalised, but it is also easier be nasty and hateful behind anonymous accounts than it is when discussing policy and issues in person.

The overriding issue producing these splits is undoubtedly GRA reform. The ‘toxic debate’ over trans rights is alienating to many and not only puts young people off from joining campaigns but also because of its ‘toxic’ label means people stay away from the topic entirely and thus lack a proper understanding of the issues at hand. Solving splits like this will be key to uniting the movement ahead of any independence referendum.

So that leads me to my second question: what can we do to get more people engaged?

Firstly, a similar question was asked at Tuesday’s ‘Big Indy Debate’, held at Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh. Of course, I thought Robin gave some fantastic answers and there was a lot of great discussion among the panel, however a couple things that Mike Small, editor of Bella Caledonia, said stuck out to me.

He said, “we need to speak to society and the wider electorate and not just speak to ourselves,” in doing so, he argued that we have to “maturely reflect on the differences within the independence movement.”

On this, he is spot on. We are not going to get a positive message across to convince people to vote YES if we are spending most of our time infighting and disagreeing over a range of issues that we already know there will be disagreements over. 

Of course, there are going to be differences within the movement, that’s why it is made up of multiple political parties, independent bloggers, journalists, and activists, and that’s why we are ultimately trying to win over a diverse majority of the Scottish people. Accepting a difference of opinion is vital to creating a united front and presenting an organised case for an independent Scotland. 

Secondly, whilst accepting a diversity of opinion, we need to reduce the hostility between groups and within our debates if we are to attract young people back to our campaigns. Returning, briefly, to GRA reform and trans rights, Ash Sarkar of Novara Media neatly summarises this,

Whatever you might think of gender and its relationship to biological sex, the right to free expression does not override the rights of trans and non-binary people to live free of harassment or discrimination. Genuine mistakes are one thing, but deliberate deadnaming and misgendering (i.e., calling someone their pre-transition name, or referring to them by anything other than the gender they identify as) is a way of asserting your control over someone. It’s saying that ‘I have more power to determine who you are than you do; I can curtail your freedom to live authentically at any time.’

As I am not here to discuss the issue of GRA reform, the article my reference is drawn from is an excellent read and makes a great case for why trans issues are important in addressing wider issues of social justice.

Finally, the best people to represent the views and issues of young people are young people, therefore involving local young activists in the organisation and planning of our events is key to engaging more young people in our campaigns.

It sounds obvious but it’s the point I made in my article last week. Representation is important, and if there are no young people involved in planning and organising events how are the event organisers to know how to spread the message to young people? How will they understand the issues young people face in getting to and being involved in the day of campaigning itself? 

We know we have an abundance of talent among our young ranks, and we are not short in numbers in many cases, so let’s utilise those people and trust them to take the lead.