IN 1965, there was a hit pop song called the Eve of Destruction in which there was a line “marches alone won’t bring integration”. It was in reference to the main organisation of the civil rights movement in the USA at the time.
Integration was achieved, but it was not solely by that organisation, but also by the actions of individuals and other organisations.
In today’s Scotland, replace integration with the word independence and the same is true but All Under One Banner, who are a valuable part of the movement, adopt the position that if you are not supporting their events, then you are being divisive and undermining the movement.
READ MORE: SNP holding its convention on Bannockburn rally day is provocative
Their main target, of course, is the SNP and its leadership. AUOB have a belief that other activities held on the same day as their event damage the unity of the Yes cause.
Unity is not something that is achieved by throwing insults and innuendo (Website comments, May 22) at the organisation (the SNP) that spearheads the struggle, because its event clashes with the AUOB march, especially as it is also the government of our nation.
Having been an activist all my adult life, I have learned that other organisations with a similar aim but which are distinct are a necessary element in any campaign, because from them there arise ideas which other organisations may not have thought of. It is in practice that their ideas are shown to be valid or not.
No one organisation has a monopoly of tactics, strategy or ideas in any campaign.
Bobby Brennan
Glasgow
DESPICABLE though the new anti-strike laws may be, in Scotland we have good reason to look on the bright side.
Because we currently have a sensible government that negotiates – and agrees! – fair pay rises with its workers, we will have far fewer instances of strike action going on for months and months as is currently the case in England.
READ MORE: Tories won't go willingly to political slaughter at the next election
I bet railway workers, teachers and educational support staff, junior doctors, and nurses south of the Border are looking enviously at their Scottish counterparts and asking themselves, “If the Scottish Government can do it in Scotland, why can’t the ‘UK’ government do it in England?”.
The answer is simple. Pig-headed right-wing ideology.
David Patrick
Edinburgh
JUDITH Duffy should brush up on her political history (Poll suggests the SNP face big losses to Labour, May 24). Red Clydeside is not a reference to the Labour Party, but to the Communist Party. Labour in this context refers to the workforce, not the Labour Party and the movement, led largely by Wullie Gallagher, was opposed to the First World War.
The title was conferred by the popular press in an attempt to denigrate and ridicule the workers, who at the time did not even enjoy the British farce of the universal franchise.
READ MORE: Election battle begins for Labour Branch Office boss Anas Sarwar
As for the “redness” of the current Labour Party, it is in fact so true blue that it can’t even be described as slightly purple!
Not much has changed in the press. The “golden age” of truth in journalism didn’t exist then either.
Les Hunter
Lanark
ALISTER Jack at the Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster states that even if he did talk to ministers about Scotland, he would not share the details with Scotland’s MPs.
Does this mean he is having secret meetings, and does this mean that questioning him in this committee is useless? I thought the whole idea was that as Scottish Secretary he was there to be questioned about Scotlands affairs in Westminster.
Of course D Ross would prefer to snipe at SNP MPs rather than ask anything substantial of Alister Jack.
Is there anyone in this Tory government who is not breaking the rules?
Winifred McCartney
Paisley
THURSDAY’S National reports, “Stirling scientist to lead investigation into climate change”. Many of the public may say “not before time.”
Well done a Scottish university professor leading his team to northern Sweden to check whether or not the rapid growth of vegetation in formally barren areas may affect carbon emissions.
We have enough problems of remaining in a Union where a major nuclear leak would be one too many. On two counts it’s long past time our Tory climate sceptics in Westminster understood what all humanity and our wildlife now faces. In due course, will they even read this report?
READ MORE: University of Stirling professor leads climate change investigation
The changes I’ve witnessed in a lifetime on the land have been dramatic. Winters with snow and frost for months. As an Aberdeen-shire “orraloon” I’ve seen me ploughing it in, now there’s barely any truly hard frost.
CO2 levels in the atmosphere rightly make headlines but aren’t resulting in the action needed, political and personal. Look out, we may be releasing a gas which could render the planet unbearably hot. It lies waiting in vast amounts under both the seabed and the Artic tundra. Methane.
Iain R Thomson
Strathglass
I AM with Joanna Cherry MP in her call in the House of Commons for immigration laws to be devolved to Scotland.
Ms Cherry highlighted that first we have Brexit, now the target is overseas students and their families, policies that are damaging Scotland’s reputation and economy monumentally.
Will the Conservatives stop at nothing in their efforts to close the door to overseas investment and workers to the UK?
Catriona C Clark
Falkirk
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