Parents Isabelle Boyd | ||
Books Scottish Independence: A Feminist Response Profiles | ||
Motherwell 3 5 cat boyd should scotland be an independent country
Cat Boyd (born 15 March 1985) is a Scottish trade union activist who was a co-founder of the Radical Independence Campaign and the Scottish Left Project. She was a prominent figure during the Scottish independence referendum, 2014.
Contents
- Motherwell 3 5 cat boyd should scotland be an independent country
- Cat boyd
- Background
- Activist
- RISE
- Writer
- References
She is one of the people credited with bringing together RISE – Scotland's Left Alliance, a left-wing electoral alliance created ahead of the 2016 Scottish Parliament general election. She stood, unsuccessfully, as a RISE candidate for the 2016 Scottish Parliament election on the Glasgow regional list. RISE did not gain any seats in the 2016 election.
Boyd co-authored a book that was published in 2014 and writes a weekly column for the The National newspaper.
Cat boyd
Background
Boyd studied International Politics at the University of Strathclyde, and is a member of the Public and Commercial Services Union. She was a member of the International Socialist Group (Scotland), although unlike many people in that group she did not come from a background in the Socialist Workers Party. Her mother, Isabelle Boyd, is a former headteacher and has a CBE.
Activist
It was during the campaign ahead of the Scottish independence referendum that Boyd emerged as a prominent activist. In November 2012 she co-founded the Radical Independence Campaign, which supported a left-wing vision of an independent Scotland. Boyd also sat on the editorial board of the Scottish Left Review.
While the outcome of the referendum was "No" to independence, analysis of voting patterns suggested that this new coalition in Scottish politics had led to a significant change in political opinion in many of Scotland's more deprived communities. In the months that followed, a new coalition was forming, called the Scottish Left Project. Boyd described the project not as a party but a way to link up with other socialists, community activists, trade unions, social justice campaigners and activists.
On 17 November 2016, Boyd made her first appearance on BBC Question Time where she condemned the 2016 vote for Brexit, then divulged that she herself had not voted in the EU referendum, which was met by jeers from the audience.
RISE
Boyd was seen as a spokesperson as speculation grew around a socialist challenge being formed for the Scottish Parliament elections in 2016, having been involved with protests against austerity and appearing at The Left Field at the 2015 Glastonbury Festival. She had cited the need for a new left-wing force on the basis that she considered the Labour party to have collapsed.
She also spoke against involving figures like Tommy Sheridan who had been seen as divisive. She was hopeful about momentum of the project in reviving a socialist movement in Scotland. After the alliance was launched at the end of August, with support from the Scottish Socialist Party, Boyd said she thought RISE would appeal to ex-Labour voters.
In January 2016, RISE announced that they had selected Boyd as a candidate for the Scottish Parliament election in 2016 and that she would top their regional list for Glasgow. She lost the election and RISE did not gain any seats nationally, polling just 1% in Glasgow and coming eighth (behind Sheridan's Solidarity movement).
Writer
Boyd co-wrote Scottish Independence: A Feminist Response with Jenny Morrison, a book published in 2014, exploring the contemporary relevance of Scottish feminist history. On the 2015 International Women's Day she spoke about women and the referendum at a meeting at Sinn Féin's Ard Fheis.
She has also been an advocate of social justice and internationalism.
Boyd writes a weekly column that is published in The National, a Scottish daily compact newspaper.