SINCE joining the SNP ten years ago, it was immediately obvious that the members who stuffed the envelopes, knocked the doors, and entered the data were the backbone of the party.

But it wasn’t just activists' labour that was invaluable, it was our ideas too.

From then on, I've worked in elections and internal policy campaigns from increasing the armed forces recruitment age, creating a Scottish National Infrastructure Company, and securing Scotland's financial independence with an independent currency — free from the constraints of London.

Over these years, there has been a noticeable shift in how our party is governed. The SNP wasn't afraid of a debate amongst ourselves confident that members would reach the right decision. 

But members have been increasingly acclimatised to empty, self-congratulatory motions where "equality" becomes an eight letter word and the most radical call to action is for a "review". The latest unruly, composite agenda epitomises this.

Members are now rarely trusted with discussing the ideas that will build the independent Scotland we want. Where our livelihoods are dictated by our abilities, not gambling city bankers; where our land and resources are used for the benefit of all, not landlords and shareholders; where our country acts for peace, not allied with invaders or used as a nuclear warehouse.

The SNP has quickly changed from a party where power was rooted in our local branches to one that is managerial, bureaucratic, top-down. These are traits from Blair's New Labour and centralised Westminster rule. If this isn’t how we want to run our country, then why would we run our party like this?

I’ve heard calls for "unity" from senior members. I accept that. No national movement for independence has ever benefited from being fractured.

But we must never accept grassroots members' ideas being portrayed as a disruption, or worse, a betrayal. Telling members to get to the back of the bus, sit doon, shut up and dae as your telt is as harmful to our movement as it is disrespectful.

Nor should we accept the belief that the SNP belongs to one person or a small group of people. We are all the members of the Scottish National Party, we symbolise the people of Scotland, and we know what we want for our country.

The SNP membership that exists today is the embodiment of the 2014 independence campaign. Ordinary folk took control of their local campaigns to persuade their communities to take control of their lives and government. Power rested in our hands and it still does.

From today, every SNP delegate has a ballot to vote for key office bearers that can radically change how our party is run and the action we take. Candidates who have signed the SNP Common Weal Group's "Manifesto for Democracy" are standing to reform our party and drive us forward to independence. Not for the benefit of having power for ourselves, but to put power back in your hands so we can build the independent Scotland of our making.

You have the power to put all of us first. You have the power to make change happen. You have the power to build our independent Scotland. Use it.

Rory Steel is secretary of the SNP Common Weal Group and a candidate for Glasgow NEC rep, Conference Committee, and Policy Development Committee