Week 1 Report from your Yes Alliance Action group Apologies for this being a couple of days late. Could people Like it or comment briefly or whatever it takes to bump it up Timelines? It’s important that as many group members as possible see it. Here are the main projects we started or joined in our first week, beginning with the most ambitious and requiring the most work/dedication/obsession. At this stage we see no point in limiting our ambitions, but we’re almost certainly overshooting with a few of these. So be it. Obviously there’s plenty of overlap among them. 1. The Hive Pan-movement cooperation, cohesion, momentum, networking in general, while still allowing those thousand flowers to bloom. At a time of new competing groups and egos, ourselves included, this is pretty demanding work, but the heavy hitters like Alan J Whyte are doing great stuff on this behind the scenes, even if some of us don’t fully understand it. Basically, we’re just happy to help out these guys any way we can. Jock Campbell’s Channel 45, for instance, is an effective voicechat tool for speeding everything up, networking included, while maintaining everyone’s security, so we’ll be moving things over there asap. Christina Maguire and Moritz Kraft are working on a website where indy volunteers list their skills and areas of interest, so that others with ideas and projects can find people with the skills they need. This is in the early stages, but those two are ideas-machines, so this one will probably happen [EDIT: this one is happening. The website’s still private but it’s impressive]. Christina will also be contacting group members to find out their skills and interests, with a view to developing a directory for this group, which would let it develop in a more organised fashion. No new group volunteers required as yet for this one. 2. “Facepalm Unionism” and “Make my gift this Christmas an SNP membership for yourself” Maximising SNP, Green and SSP membership, by 1. Christmas and 2. The TV debates and the GE, aiming to first reach 100000 for the SNP and then if possible to become the UK’s biggest party, for reasons of domestic and international PR, leverage, party radicalism, activism, finances and to scare the bejesus out of North British Labour. As with interparty cooperation, some of this is on hold until it becomes clearer which direction Nicola Sturgeon wants to take, and also until more post-referendum cohesion has been achieved, as the membership project will obviously require a concerted effort across the movement. But we’d like to talk to this group’s memesters and video artists about a viral campaign to make party membership THE Christmas gift of 2014. But in the meantime we have “Facepalm Unionism.” A collection has begun of the most idiotic and mendacious Unionist justifications and refutations (“I voted No because I met a US Marine on holiday who told me the Yes campaign was being funded by the same Yanks who funded the IRA” – that kind of thing). It was intended just for private laughs initially, and maybe we’ll just sending the final collection out to group members as a Christmas gift, but maybe not. If the final collection is funny enough it may be issued as an ebook via Amazon in time for purchase as a Christmas gift, with all proceeds to provide pro-indy memberships for those who can’t afford them. The financial aspects of this would be handed over to those with suitable experience and reputation, perhaps even the parties themselves. Yes Alliance Action is keen to avoid financial entanglements of any kind, especially considering the suspicion aroused about the “We Are the 45” group. “Facepalm Unionism” is the kind of thing I’m personally keen keen to focus on: beneath all the Yesser fun we are serious activists and want tangible results above all else. If this project appeals to you please let me know and/or send your contributions to seanmcnulty2 (at) gmail and ask others to do the same. We’re also keen to establish something like a Yes Social Network with the most civilised, sharpest, hardest-working groups, sites, blogs, Twitterers, Instagrammers, Pinterests, Redditors and others whenever cooperation across the movement is required, the membership drive included. We’d also like to use this Network as a platform for a civilised, welcoming PR campaign to attract soft Noes. If this idea appeals to you, please let us know. Feedback on this from our cross-group networkers would be appreciated. 3. Project Hari Krishna Reaching out to Nos and waverers and converting them, and also making sure soft Yesses stay engaged. This one’s developing well under the coordination of the amazing Fiona Robertson, who will be posting soon with details and she doesn’t seem that desperate for more volunteers at present. As with everything else, it’s likely that further discussions for this will move over to the YAA voice chat room at Channel 45. Invitations went out today, but if you didn’t get one then please Friend me (long story) and I’ll sort that out. 4. Graphics After a shaky start, ears were clipped (ouch) and quality has now improved. Ideas are always welcome, even if you yourself don’t have the graphics skills. Just contact me and I’ll liaise with our graphics artists, some of whom are doing indy work on agency time and so want to remain anonymous. As with everything else here, we already have a reasonably high quality threshold, and we aim to get it higher, so please don’t take offence if your idea isn’t used. We’ll need more graphics people soon, so if that’s a skill of yours please tell us asap, ideally with links to your work. If anybody knows the Indie Poster Boy people, could you invite them here? Their standard is pretty high, that Yes Alliance logo in particular. Graphics have an essential role to play in converting Undecideds and Noes, especially the politically agnostic and the fingers-in-ears “La la la, I’m not listening” types. The danger of the Facebook Indy Hive is of course the echo-chamber effect in which we find all these articles and memes and videos fascinating, while the Undecideds and Noes barely know of them. Plus of course in the GE campaign they’ll be bombarded by anti-SNP imagery by the MSM. But there’s real potential in stuff like that lorry driving about with the big BOYCOTT THE DAILY RECORD graphic. It’s ballsy, attention-grabbing, grassrootsy, not at all dry, and Noes and Undecideds are forced to see it. If this kind of approach interests you do let us know, especially if you’re the owner of a fleet of lorries or buses. 5. Responses to hardline Unionists It should be emphasised that we keep things civil in this group, but of course the hardliners do need to be dealt with, so we have comedy projects ridiculing astroturfers, memes and takedown videos planned. Anyone still simmering about Britnasties should feel free to join in. There was also a proposal to ramp up Yes Scotland’s Yes Answers and make it far more comprehensive, varied and evolving, a database of every single Unionist argument going and an even bigger database of the best Yesser responses – long, short, factual, funny, charming, cutting -- for people to choose from and link to when debating Britnats. A project whose ambition has perhaps scared people off, so volunteers are definitely needed for this one. The members who make this one happen officially become the coolest in the group. ------------------- So those were the main projects in the first week. Not yet firing on all cylinders, but overall not too bad. But that’s only the start. If you have a project you’re bursting to make happen, then do please submit a post about it and let us know. E.g. Several members here are experts on Sovereignty. Might anybody be of a mind to coordinate a group approach to this, even if it’s just to spread the word about its importance? The group directory of members’ skills and interests will help people find like-minded people with which to collaborate. Yes Alliance founder Rod Macfarlane will be posting soon on some legal matters that sound intriguing, to say the least. Onwards. Yes Alliance Action: https://facebook/groups/1483699908559134/1488038418125283 #yesallianceaction #viscacatalunya
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 15:49:12 +0000
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