Cat Boyd

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.

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. She writes a weekly column for the The National newspaper.

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.^[1]

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.^[2] Boyd also sat on the editorial board of the Scottish Left Review.^[3]

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.^[4] 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.^[3]

Boyd was jeered on BBC Question Time (17 Nov 2016) when, after condemning the 2016 vote for Brexit, she admitted that she herself had not voted in the EU referendum.^[5][6]

RISE

Boyd was seen as a spokesperson as speculation grew around a socialist challenge being formed for the Scottish Parliament elections in 2016,^[7] having been involved with protests against austerity^[8] and appearing at The Left Field at the 2015 Glastonbury Festival.^[9] She had cited the need for a new left-wing force on the basis that she considered the Labour party to have collapsed.^[10]

She also spoke against involving figures like Tommy Sheridan who had been seen as divisive.^[11] She was hopeful about momentum of the project in reviving a socialist movement in Scotland.^[12] After the alliance was launched at the end of August, with support from the Scottish Socialist Party,^[13][14] Boyd said she thought RISE would appeal to ex-Labour voters.^[15]

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.^[16][17] 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.^[18][19] On the 2015 International Women's Day she spoke about women and the referendum at a meeting at Sinn Féin's Ard Fheis.^[20]

She has also been an advocate of social justice and internationalism.^[21]

Boyd writes a weekly column that is published in The National, a Scottish daily compact newspaper.^[22]

References