WHEN it comes to my Scottish identity, I’ve never been a romantic nationalist. I’ve never felt that sense of solidarity that comes with shared birthplace or ancestry alone. Rather, when I think of Scotland, I see a nation built on conflicting, clashing forces: a country founded on confrontation between rich and poor, landlords and tenants, reactionaries and rebels, trade unionists and Tories.

The Radical Independence Campaign (RIC) was founded to tell this story about Scotland, and I am proud of my role in establishing it. But social movements evolve in particular historical circumstances, and on Sunday the RIC AGM decided that the coalition’s time had reached its conclusion. For all my happy memories, I’m pleased to have moved on.

RIC started because the official Yes Scotland campaign simply could not tell the story that needed to be told. Independence, we argued, was a class issue and it would be won in Scotland’s working-class communities; not among business lobbies or boardrooms.

There was a real boldness in our project, and for that reason we took a lot of flak. Some diehard nationalists called us a front for Labour, funded by MI5; Labour Leftists said we were funded by the SNP or even Brian Souter (in truth, unlike many of the campaign groups on either side we were entirely self-funded).

So, RIC confronted a Scotland divided on class and on the national question. But we also confronted a Scottish left that was disorganised and disunited; battle-scarred from bitter splits. Indeed, as we saw it, our hardest task was to bring the left together – and we did that. Our coalition included Scottish Greens, the SSP, others who’d split from the SSP, trade unionists, and former Labour voters.

It also included a handful of dissidents who left the SNP over Nato. Jean Urquhart and John Finnie risked their political careers, friendships and livelihoods to take a stand for their anti-imperialist principles. When they spoke at our 2012 conference in Glasgow, it was a risk for us, but a much bigger risk for them.

It mattered to me because my own political journey began with opposition to the war in Iraq in 2003. For that reason, I’ve always opposed Trident and Nato, which is a project for American military power in Europe. For this reason, Radical Independence has always been unabashedly and determinedly anti-imperialist. John and Jean helped us to draw that line in the sand.

But all good things come to an end. As with so many leftist coalitions, the decline of a mass movement meant disagreements over organisational matters came to the fore. Beneath that were deeper ideological differences about popular sovereignty, economics and the European Union.

The material situation in Scottish politics has changed dramatically since 2011, when the groundwork of RIC began. Since then we’ve had Sturgeon becoming First Minister; the SNP’s membership soar; Labour’s wipe-out in Scotland; Brexit; Corbyn’s rise and fall; another Tory majority. And that’s all before a pandemic which has ravaged families, communities and the economy.

To return to the original RIC alliance, I knew it wasn’t going to be enough to get those who were convinced of a left-wing independence together in a room talking. To demonstrate our key message, that another Scotland is possible, we had to break out of small meeting rooms, leftist message boards and conference halls inhabited by like-minded souls.

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The real power, impact and legacy of the RIC came from making an unashamedly left-wing message resonate in Scotland’s working-class heartlands, in poor rural communities and in cities like Aberdeen and Edinburgh where grotesque wealth and obscene poverty exist side by side.

I have met some of my closest friends through RIC. We brought our workmates, our pals, our neighbours to meetings. But RIC is no longer the broad social movement it was. The saddest thing now is that the decline of membership had returned us to the sort of leftist quarrels that RIC was designed to overcome. I’m not disheartened at that conclusion: all social movements are destined to suffer this fate, and there’s strength in knowing when to admit it.

I’ve always had the utmost respect for the work that’s gone in to keeping RIC going since 2014. The reality is that the campaign has waned whilst conditions have changed; as disunity has grown and as our message has been lost.

I still believe in an independent Scotland for the millions, not the millionaires. But like my vision of Scotland itself, I believe that we will have to fight forces at home too to win a true independence. Free from Nato, free from Brussels and free from any interference in our economy from the Bank of England: real independence means popular sovereignty.

Radical Independence won’t be the vehicle to fight for that, but history abhors a vacuum, and there’s a world of opportunity for new political alliances.