From Independence to where?

The Text ordering the massacre of Glencoe.

Ballacholis
Feb. 12, 1692
Sir:
You are hereby ordered to fall upon the Rebels, the MacDonalds of Glencoe, and put all to the sword under 70. You are to have especial care, that the Old Fox and his Sons do upon no account escape your Hands, you are to secure all the avenues that no man can escape: this you are to put in Execution at five a Clock in the Morning precisely, and by that time or very shortly after it, I’ll strive to be at you with a stronger party. If I do not come at five, you are not to tarry for me but fall on. This is by the King’s Special command, for the good and safety of the country, that these miscreants may be cut off root and branch. See that this be put in execution without Feud or Favor, else you may expect to be treated as not true to the King or Government nor a man fit to carry Commission in the King’s Service. Expecting you will not fail in the fulfilling hereof as you love yourself, I subscribed these with my hand.
Signed Robert Duncanson
For Their Majesties Service
To Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon

On February 14, 1692 it was you at Glencoe being slaughtered.

When the clansmen were being slaughtered it wasn't just a violent attack on people, it was violation of rights, laws, customs and history that echoes down to us to this very day. Today, atrocities carried out by Westminster remain the mainstay of it's actions to solve problems in the way it was back then. That is why were are here.

Getting Independence isn't just a matter of getting one vote, it's the matter of surviving every vote until that final YES comes. Can we build an Independence landslide mass movement that survives it's own Glencoe?

Look at the poor and innocent, shackled and trapped inside Guantanamo Bay and tell me the atrocity at Glencoe is a thing of the past. How can we call ourselves civilised when we accept such an appalling travesty of human rights?

Whether it be a silent malevolent press or a spiteful government, every big gun against Independence is being polished and we have to start planning for the unthinkable as well as the unbelievable.

Should we win the vote, we need to start planning what’s next. Jacobites will have to plan how to bring about their chosen successors ascention. Republicans will have to plan to give the people back their power. Socialists will have to plan in Red and get the workers to rise.

But what if there is another Unionist Coalition (maybe expanded with Greens or reduced in number)? I’ve been here before. This is my own Groundhog day: living to believe again and again and again until Independence Day. But that’s my point. On the basis of what I’ve seen before: Independence parties don’t gain power and then shed members by the trainload because they honestly believed that once, just once…

We need to pace ourselves because with or without Independence the fight continues. If you’re planning on getting a life after the election in 2007 you might as well quit now and stop wasting the rest of our collective time.

If we win before the end of the Iraq / Afghanistan quagmire we’ll need to make sure that we get our boys back from the slaughterhouse we created and back to doing supporting the people rather than building up the revenues of Haliburton or whatever company George Dubya and Tony Blair is going to be on the board of when they’re out of the oval office.

If we have to wait another four more years for a chance to get a government, we need to maintain the pressure between the start and finish so that it’s THE ONLY ISSUE worth talking about. And that means multiple rallys, over multiple years. This is because this is the only chance our fellow Scots have of raising our political lives to the point where it exploits Scotland for the benefit of those who live here rather than feeding a monster in a host of old school ties with old world lies.

That is the difference between a tragedy and an atrocity. An atrocity can be avoided by the actions of good people. Look at the mobilisation of the Serbians against Milosevic, or by the South Africans against Apartheid. It took time, it took willpower and it took ordinary people looking defeat in the eye time after time after time.

To hell with tradition, damn how pretty the queen looks and how “it’s always been this way and it’s how it works.” I want to free the common man or woman of my country and raise from the subjects they are to the citizens they crave but don’t believe they can be.

We only need to win once. Westminster has to win always to avoid independence.