Cat Boyd RIC 2014

Cat Boyd of the Radical Independence Campaign gave the closing speech in the final plenary session at the RIC conference 2014 entitled Towards a Radical Scotland and the 3000 strong audience gave a standing ovation and thunderous applause at this historic conference, the third in the RIC's history. (The standing ovation at the packed venue can also be seen at the end of this video.) There were 900 to 1000 delegates at the first radical independence conference in 2012 which showed the desire for radical change for the better via an independent Scotland, there were over a thousand participants the second year in 2013 and more than 3000 people sought tickets for this year's Radical Independence conference which were quickly sold out. There were workshops on opposing austerity, stop fracking, end feudalism, gender equality, LGBT liberation, more powers for radical change, no to NATO, the role of the SNP, new media, our voice in the mainstream, currency complexities, racism and divide & rule, a people's history, community organising, linking up progressive movements across these islands, a people's parliament, trade unions, class and the crisis of Scottish Labour, the Commonweal, building infrastructure for the movement, an international strategy to stop TTIP and there were 3 mass forums so there was a balance between a rally type event and opportunities for everyone to discuss issues they were particularly interested in in the workshops. The rallies and most of the workshops were held in the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow on 22nd November just across from where the SNP were also having a conference the same day. Both pro-independence events had thousands of delegates in attendance but the BBC practising their usual censorship ignored the pro-independence rallies and chose instead to report on the LibDem conference which only had a fraction of the delegates of the other two events. This year is a historic year as far as support for independence goes with a post-referendum surge in support for Scottish independence as even no-voters are now outraged at being lied to by the Westminster government and their organ of propaganda the British Broadcasting Corporation.