!

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This weekend (5 / 6 July) 450 people attended Yestival on Glasgows
Southside, with at least as many again at the Commonweal Festival at The
Arches. Both pro-independence events brought together political talks by
diverse speakers with comedy, music, visual arts, food and spaces for
discussion.

Nicola Sturgeon SNP MSP (Yestival), Patrick Harvie Green MSP and Richard
Walker, Editor of The Sunday Herald (all at the Commonweal event) spoke.
Organisations ranged from Friends of the Earth and the Radical
Independence Campaign (RIC) to the Jimmy Reid foundation.

My reflections? At the panel discussion hosted by Friends of the Earth,
Banking for Planet and People in a New Scotland, I felt like a tiny fish in a
big stream. All swimming in the same direction, but not all the same. Not all
revolutionaries, marxists, whatever. It felt great! I learned lots. Students and
staff at Edinburgh University are campaigning for their establishment to stop
investing in fossil fuels - and stop investing in Climate Change, reported
Rector Peter McColl. Patrick Harvie emphasised the role of banks as a
service, not an industry. He quoted Adam Smith on their job, It is not by
augmenting the capital of the country, but by rendering a greater part of that
capital active and productive... that the most judicious operations of banking
can increase the industry of the country. Gemma Bone of the Finance
Innovation Lab painted a picture of sustainable banking, with legal
requirements to invest locally and create value for the common good, with
inspiring examples of where this is already working.

I might mention in passing that, being in sole possession of a bored 5 year-
old, I was unable to attend the rest of the talks and discussions at The Arches.
If you are left wondering what the rest of the talks were like, I invite you to
share my frustration! This is no particular criticism of this event, more a
reflection on the fact theres a way to go before All Of Us Come First at left-
wing events or in society in general.

Perhaps the greatest significance of the weekends events is that it represents
the hope of a new wave of left reformism. In years gone by, you could imagine
such optimistic calls for for change emitting from the Labour Party. Now that
seems barely imaginable.

We dont live in Russia in 1917, France May 68 or Venezuela under Chavez.
Todays demands for reform, here in Scotland, come from Greens,
environmental campaigners, charities, community and religious groups and
voluntary organisations - as well as trade-unionists, Labour Party / SNP
lefties, anarchists and revolutionary socialists.

Working class people have been battered in recent years, with zero-hour
contracts, low pay and unaffordable housing. Not to mention ATOS,
seemingly endless foreign wars and a rise in Ukip-style popular nationalism
and racism. If were ever to turn the tide back in our direction, it wont be done
by splitting theoretical hairs about reform vs revolution. We cant get too hung
up, for example, on whether reforming the banks under capitalism can ever go
far enough. We should instead back put our weight behind reformist demands
where we find them. After so many years of defeat, lets not underestimate the
potential power of a taste of victory. And it might just begin with a Yes!