Tuesday 22 October 2013

The outrage of Welsh Water being supplied to Seven Trent Water for 5p a year for 999 years.




Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr praises Plaid Cymru and in particular Jonathan Edwards MP when they do things right like exposing the insult to democracy posed by the West Brechfa Windfarm.

Jonathan Edward is on form again exposing the scandal surrounding how Welsh Water was lent water to Severn Trent Water at a scandalously low rate of 5p a year for 999 years.

This outrage illustrates  the colonial relationship between England and Wales is alive in 21st century and all the pseudo left denial of this colonial relationship cannot hide these facts of Welsh water at 5p a year for 999 years to Seven Trent Water.

Here are the comments of Jonathan Edwards

"The water of Wales may not match Scotland’s oil in terms of wealth, but it is a resource with value and the people of Wales should receive a fair return.

Although the upcoming Water Bill intends to leave Dwr Cymru—or Welsh Water—intact, Severn Trent Water cuts a swathe into Welsh territory, and could mean that the water of Wales is extracted for vast profit in future.

With Gulf state sovereign wealth funds looking to buy Severn Trent Water and clearly seeing it as an investment opportunity for the future, Wales and its people should not be left at a disadvantage.

Full territorial integrity should be recognised, and it should be for the people of Wales to decide what happens to the water of Wales through our democratic institution, the National Assembly for Wales.

It is therefore crucial that full control of water is devolved to Wales. It is a continuing disgrace that the Labour Government cynically blocked full devolution of water policy in the Government of Wales Act 2006, leaving the power of veto with London Ministers.

Full control over water would finally end the grossly unfair system enshrined in the Water Act 1973, and perpetuated by the 2006 Act, in which water was lent to Severn Trent Water at a scandalously low rate of 5p a year for 999 years and the Secretary of State for Wales was empowered to overrule the National Assembly for Wales on matters of Welsh water supplies to England"

Source: http://www.jonathanedwards.org.uk/araith-dadl-natural-capital-wales-england?lang=en

Sunday 20 October 2013

Remembering when 120 Sons of Wales fought Fascists in Spain

When these sons of Wales went off to fight Fascism we should remember what the British Establishment was doing read :

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/dismembering-traitor-class-british.html


 

At 9.15am on Friday October 21st 1966 - Aberfan - Remembering with Gwyn Thomas




At 9.15am on Friday October 21st 1966, after several days of heavy rain, a huge slag tip above the town of Aberfan in South Wales suddenly liquified and poured down the mountain. The black tidal wave demolished properties in its path and engulfed the Pantglas Junior School in seconds.

Of the 144 people who lost their lives that day, 116 were children. The tragedy was totally preventable.

The National Coal Board had been warned time and time again of the dangers of dumping slag in such a geologically unstable area above towns.

They chose to ignore the warnings claiming it wan't profitable for them to move the slag tips to safer locations.

After the disaster, donations from all over the world poured in for the shattered community. However, most of the money never reached Aberfan. Instead the Government gave it to the National Coal Boad so that they could move other slag tips overlooking other towns in South Wales.

The great Welsh writer and broadcaster Gwyn Thomas delivered his own moving tribute to the victims of the tragedy on the BBC the morning of the mass funeral. This is an excerpt from his eulogy

Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr says  forty five years ago Aberfan impacted the political and social landscape of Wales and reminded many of us who had forgotten we were Welsh - to be reminded of the consequences of British Coalboard Rule in the Mining Valleys, just has Tryweryn some years earlier had shown who ruled Wales and it wasn't the Welsh.



Thursday 17 October 2013

Merthyr Chartism in 1840's by Huw Williams



As part of the Dic Penderyn Society's talks the Annual Chartist Lecture took place at Dowlais Library on 16th October 2013.

Given by local historian Huw Williams entitled 'Local Chartism in the 1840s: The Merthyr Tydfil Endurance'. © Edwyn ap Harri

Newport Council Don't Work for Us




In his letter to yesterday's Argus, Jonathan T Clark writes:
 
 "The destruction of the Chartist mural in Newport is symptomatic of the contempt with which the inhabitants of the city are held by the Labour-run city council. Few people are against redevelopment but it should be sustainable and sympathetic to the needs of the city.
 
The failure to work with local small businesses in Newport over the years has done great damage to the local economy.
 
There is a need to do something different, yet another shopping centre, which promises much but may deliver little of lasting benefit, to sit alongside the as yet to be filled Kingsway Shopping Centre will not help matters much.
 
Any shopping development should contain retail opportunities for small local businesses as money spent in local businesses circulates three times longer than money spent in UK national chains.
 
Simply filling the development with chains means that what local money is spent will get hoovered up and vanish out of the local economy as rapidly as possible.
 
Redevelopment should not be something that is done to a town, rather it should be something that is done for a town."



"Plundered is my country, violated, raped" Alexander Cordell

Read :

 Yr Aflonddwch Mawr/Great Unrest 10 Point Emergency Programme for Wales

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/10-point-programme-of-great-unrest.html


Saturday 12 October 2013

100 years ago - Remembering the Senghenydd Colliery Disaster 14th Ocober 1913

The Senghenydd Colliery Disaster, also known as the Senghenydd Explosion, occurred in Senghenydd,[1] near Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales on 14 October 1913, killing 439 miners. It is the worst mining accident in the United Kingdom, and one of the most serious globally in terms of loss of life.

The Miners Song - For The Senghenydd Miners Memorial



The National Coal Mining Memorial will be unveiled  at Senghenydd on the 14th October 2013 in memory of the 440 miners of Senghenydd who died on 14th October 1913 and the over 8,000 Welsh Miners who died in pit accidents in the Welsh Coalfield.

Voices from the Newport Protest Against Destruction of Chartists Mural




Video made by some local supporters of Newport Chartist Protest on 5th October with our Aflonyddwch Mawr /Great Unrest Flags and banners in the background

See Also:
http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/vibrant-demonstration-against-chartist.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/vandals-insulters-of-our-history.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/dramatisation-of-trial-of-chartists-at.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/chartist-uprising-over-councils-use-of_28.html



Thursday 10 October 2013

New Video on Newport Chartist Mural destruction : Words fail me so some letters for Bob Bright and Will Godfrey R.E.S.I.G.N



You can clearly see from the video that the Mural is only attached to wall by a thin skin and could have easily been removed.

The infamous report that Newport Council says is the "intellectual" property of the consultants and hence protestors and press cannot see it, priced the job at an outrageous 600,000 pounds.

Also why did the council ignore the offer of the artists son to take it down for a fraction of the consultants price.

Clearly something is wrong here and needs investigation and the consultants report should be put in the public domain for scrutiny.

The men responsible are clearly Will Godfrey and Bob Bright and they cannot investigate themselves and should therefore should step down while the citizens of Newport scrutinise their Council activities.

Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr/The Great Unrest

10th October 2013

Pictures from Great Unrest Group from October 5th Protest Against Chartist Mural Destruction.
.



Wednesday 9 October 2013

The Promise of John Frost Chartist Leader to the People of Newport




In 1856 John Frost the leader of the Newport Chartists was allowed to return to Britain.

Several thousand people gave him a hero's welcome when he arrived in Newport and he told them:

"That one day not only would they have the Charter but they would also have 'something more'--a better world where those who make the wealth would enjoy it to the full".

Democracy and Class Struggle says we are still far removed from the direct democracy envisaged in Chartist Annual Parliaments and Representative Democracy has long been subverted by the British Capitalist State..

Concerning those who make the wealth enjoying it to the full - those that work hardest are usually paid the least and certainly do not enjoy the full fruits of their labours, inequality is increasing with the demolition of the Welfare State. and Wales and the World have seen a resurgence of capitalist neo liberalism.

The Class Struggle for Democracy is returning to the streets of Newport its birthplace.- has evidenced by the protest over the destruction of the Chartist Mural by Capitalist Developers .




See Also:

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/vibrant-demonstration-against-chartist.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/vandals-insulters-of-our-history.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/dramatisation-of-trial-of-chartists-at.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/chartist-uprising-over-councils-use-of_28.html

Newports Biggest Public Relations Disaster in living memory and Will Godfrey and Bob Bright cannot recognise the decent thing to do.

 
Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr/ The Great Unrest says how do you ask Will Godfrey and Bob Bright  to do the decent thing when they have done an indecent thing like destroying the Newport Chartist Mural - the Biggest Newport Public Relations disaster in living memory.
 
Maybe the sign behind Bob Bright might give him a clue.
 
Clearly people who show more respect for Newport's history and people should run the City of Newport - the disrespectful way the campaigners who tried to save the Chartist Mural  have been treated by the Council is a disgrace.
 
Those that have disgraced Newport should pay the price.
 
 
 

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Newport City Council - Democracy or Bureaucracy ? The Truth will Out




Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr says that Newport Council is continuing to obstruct people getting to the truth of the demolition of the Chartist Mural see interview below in the South Wales Argus.This public statement already contradicts the statement of Councillor Charles Ferris on Saturday.

Newport Council is making things get worse for themselves and the people of Newport .

TheTruth will out and no prevarication or Lies or half truths will prevent that.

Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr - The Great Unrest Group 10th October 2013


The  South Wales Argus mural questions

NEWPORT council yesterday answered five questions that remained from the ten we put to them on Friday. We present them here with the questions and their answers.

Argus: Was there a link between the date of the demolition and the protest on Saturday?
Council: No.

Argus: Has the demolition contract to prepare for Friars Walk been awarded?
Council: No.

Argus: Can we see the report that priced moving the mural at £600,000 but warned moving the artwork will damage it?

Council: No – it is the intellectual property of the consultants.

Argus: Were cabinet members informed of the demolition work taking place last Thursday?

Council: All councillors have been informed of the timetable for the major demolition works. The works that started last week are part of the preparation works ready for the main contract.

Argus: Who took the decision to go ahead with demolition last Thursday?

Council: The council took the decision.

Monday 7 October 2013

Wales: The People's Art that the Capitalist Developer Smashes - The Newport Chartist Mural - A rallying call to renew the fighting spirit of Zephaniah Williams - Poem by Nickglais



                     Part of the destroyed Newport Chartist Mural the attack on the Westgate Hotel Newport in 1839


Here is a poem I wrote some years ago about how the 3rd/4th November 1839 uprising in Newport inspired the Blaina "Rioters" of 1935 in their battle against cuts in National, Assistance.

Today Newport has a new battle for democracy and the calling to account of the destroyers of the Chartist Mural and I call for a renewal of the  spirit of Zephaniah Williams in Newport and the Eastern valleys once again.

Nickglais






Zephaniah Williams

Argoed gave you life

It's where our class was born

But its in Blaina that you spent your eary life 

You were a Publican

And the People you did entrall

You told them of the Charter

And of the Rights of Man

But just words was not your vocation

You wanted democracy for your generation

If action it was needed 

You would not be hesitate to meet the call

For you were Chartists all.

For leading them with Jones and Frost

In '39 they sentenced you to a hanging

- and to be quartered as well 

- for Treason they did say

- for having organised a rising in Newport Town that fateful day

Zephaniah Williams you were a democrat so true

That not only Wales but all this whole Island misses you !

There was a Appeal to Reason by the People and the execution they did stay

But they shipped you off to Australia without farewells they say

Transportation for Life was then the true democrats pay

But you were irrepressible - they could not keep you down

Your escapes they were legend

Until a pardon it was found

Then you became a Tasmanian Man 

To the Public Bar you did return

Just like back in Blaina the Launceston people you did enthrall

Your memory today still makes Launceston people in Tasmania walk tall 

Your spirit it did return to Wales and muster back in Blaina in '35 

At the UAB when the unemployment assistance they did cut

The spirit of Zephaniah Williams was enthused with fighting strength 

By then Communist Phil Abrahams and the Blaina "Rioters" who were hell bent

For the Peoples strength knows no limit when its for right that they do fight.

There were 200 walking wounded on the hills that night !

They halted the unemployment cuts and the government they did cow 

What a fighting spirit - but who knows it now ?

The country that gave us Zephaniah Williams

Needs that spirit in the Valleys once again !

The men of 39 and 35 are really Wales's hidden treasure

The people of today up to the men of 1839 and 1935 must measure .


If Zephaniah Williams be our meaure

There is no reason to doubt that the people of the Valleys have the will to fight 

Someone said they had heard the spirit of Zephaniah Williams in a pub in Blaina just the other night.

You have heard the call - are you ready for the fight.

Darn' right said Zephaniah Williams 

People they must learn they have to fight for their rights

Sunday 6 October 2013

Newport Insurrection: Call for Bob Bright Leader of Newport Council to Step Down



Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr says the disrespect of Newport Council towards the protestors who wanted to save the Mural continues only one brave councillor on his own initiative met the protestors to take the more than 4000 strong petition to save the mural.

The spirit of democracy must return to Newport and the people who destroyed the Mural be held to account.

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/vibrant-demonstration-against-chartist.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/vandals-insulters-of-our-history.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/dramatisation-of-trial-of-chartists-at.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/chartist-uprising-over-councils-use-of_28.html



Wales: Newport Protest against the destruction of Chartist Mural

 
Protest in Newport against the destruction of the Newport Chartist Mural - the Aflonyddwch Mawr /Great Unrest Spokesperson is the man in black with a top hat in the video
 
See Also:

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/vibrant-demonstration-against-chartist.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/vandals-insulters-of-our-history.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/dramatisation-of-trial-of-chartists-at.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/chartist-uprising-over-councils-use-of_28.html


Saturday 5 October 2013

Vibrant Demonstration against Chartist Mural Destruction - Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr at Newport Mural Destruction Protest


 
 

 
 
In the last two pictures you can see our wall of Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr - The Great Unrest banners more photos and video will follow.

Thursday 3 October 2013

Vandals - Insulters of our History - A Council of Cretins ordering the smashing of Newports Chartist Mural before the major Saturday protest to Save it




Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr is raging with anger at the insult delivered to the people of Newport and Wales by the destruction of the Newport Chartist Mural today.

The destruction of our past is for us to lose confidence in our future - it is a wake up call to the whole of Wales, how Councils to well funded bodies like CADW they spit on our our past of struggle unless it conforms to their subservient interests.

If this insult leads to a rewakening that is long overdue then we will salvage something from this shameful act of Vandalism in Newport.

Shame on Newport Council and their treason against the people.

Statement from the Aflonyddwch Mawr - The Great Unrest Group on 3rd October 2013










The Aflonyddwch Mawr condemns the arrest of 18 members of HERRIRA by the Spanish Guardia Civil on 30 September 2013.




The Aflonyddwch Mawr condemns the arrest of 18 members of HERRIRA by the Spanish Guardia Civil on 30 September 2013.

HERRIRA is the Basque organization defending the rights of 600 Basque revolutionary political prisoners in the jails of the Spanish and French states.

We express our firm support for the national protest demonstration in Bilbao this Saturday, October 5th.

The Aflondyddwch Mawr expresses strong solidarity with the heroic Basque people in their continuing struggle for freedom and independence.

Statement issued by the The Aflonyddwch Mawr - The Great Unrest Group on 3rd October 2013

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Dismembering the Traitor Class - The British Establishment and Fascism 1920- 1940


 

                                      King Edward the 8th/Duke of Windsor shares a joke
                                                                     with Hitler


The first avowedly fascist organisation in Britain was the 'British Fascisti' (later just plain old 'British Fascists') formed in 1923. Largely comprised of military officers it was little more than a strong arm squad for the Conservative Party, stewarding Conservative meetings and calling for votes for the Conservative Party. One of their few policies was, as a means of reducing unemployment, a demand for a reduction in income tax so that rich people could hire more servants.

During the General Strike of 1926 they served as scabs, through this they acquired a martyr when one of their members scabbing on the railways lent too far out a window and was decapitated by a bridge. They also worked as agents for Special Branch and M.I.5. However in 1920's Britain admiration for Fascism mostly meant admiration for the Italian Government rather than agitating for Fascism in Britain.

As Sir Winston Churchill put it:
"If I had been an Italian, I am sure that I should have been wholeheartedly with you [Mussolini] from start to finish in your triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism" (Churchill's misnomer for working class resistance)
"But in England we have not had to fight this danger in the same deadly form. We have our way of doing things"(1)
According to historian A.J.P. Taylor:
"Every politician extolled the virtues of democracy, especially at the expense of Soviet Russia. Despite this rhetoric, MacDonald wrote friendly personal letters to the Fascist dictator Mussolini; Austen Chamberlain exchanged photographs with him and joined him in family holidays; Churchill sang his praises in newspaper articles" (2)
It was in the 1930's that British Fascism had it's first and so far only flowering in the form of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists formed on the first of October 1932. Mosley who had moved from the Tory Party to the Labour left to Fascism, formed the 'January Club' a sort of discussion group/ front organisation to attract Establishment types to his Blackshirt movement.

Devotees of the January Club included Wing-Commander Sir Louis Greig, Lord Erskine a Conservative-Unionist M.P. and assistant Government whip, Lord William Scott brother of the 8th Duke of Buccleuch and Conservative-Unionist M.P., Lord William Scott who was Secretary of State for War from 1900 to 1903 and Secretary of State for India from 1903 to 1905 and Lord and Lady Russell of Liverpool.

The B.U.F. began to receive support from the influential Conservative press in the form of Media Baron Lord Rothermore, who's paper the 'Daily Mail' backed Mosley enthusiastically, beginning with the infamous 'Hurrah for the Blackshirts' headline of the 8th of January 1934. Lady Houstons 'Saturday Review' was also outspoken in its endorsement of England's would be Fuehrer.
According to the 'Daily Mail' of the 15th of January 1934, the British Union of Fascists was:
"a well organised party of the right ready to take over responsibility for national affairs with the same directness of purpose and energy of method as Hitler and Mussolini have displayed"(3)
Writing in the 'Daily Mail' of the 25th of April 1934, Colonel Thomas Moore, a Conservative M.P. pointed out that:
"Surely there cannot be any fundamental difference of outlook between the Blackshirts and their parents, the Conservatives"(4)
Rothermore also expressed support for Germany's Nazi movement. Consider the following from the 'Daily Mail' of September 24th 1930:
"These young Germans have discovered, as I am glad to note the young men and women of England are discovering, that it is no good trusting to the old politicians. Accordingly they have formed, as I would like to see our British youth form, a Parliamentary party of their own. . . We can do nothing to check this movement [the Nazi's] and I believe it would be a blunder for the British people to take up an attitude of hostility towards it. . . We must change our conception of Germany. . .The older generation of Germans were our enemies. Must we make enemies of this younger generation too?" (5)
In November 1933 he wrote that:
"The sturdy young Nazi's are Europe's guardians against the Communist danger"(6)
Similar sentiments were voiced in the House of Commons, on the 24th of July 1934
William P.C. Greene, Conservative party M.P. for Worchester and a landowner in Australia asked:
"Is it not a fact that ninety per cent of those accused of attacking Fascists rejoice in fine old British names such as Ziff, Kernstein and Minsky" (7)
F.A. Macquisten Conservative M.P. with business interests in Rhodesia replied:

"Were some of them called Feigenbaum, Goldstein and Rigotsky and other good old Highland names" (8)

Nor was this the only display of parliamentary anti-semitism at the time, following Hitler's rise to power Edward Doran Conservative-Unionist M.P. for
Tottenham North had this to say:
"in view of the present situation in Germany would the Home Secretary take steps to prevent any alien Jews entering this country from Germany"(9)
On the 14th of June 1934 during the parliamentary debate following the anti-fascist disruption of the B.U.F. rally at the Olympia, Micheal Beaumont

Conservative M.P. for Aylesbury who described himself as
"an avowed anti-democrat"
said of the B.U.F. that there was a lot of
"respectable, reasonable and intelligent people" [in it] (10)
H.K. Hayles Conservative M.P. for Hanley said that the B.U.F. contained:
"some of the most cultured members of our society" (11)
Admiration for Germany's Nationalist Socialist totalititarian dictatorship continued throughout the 1930's. Lord Londonderry, Secretary of State for Air from 1931 to 1935 became from early 1936 onwards an outspoken supporter of the Hitler regime.

As was Britain's last Liberal Party Prime Minister Lloyd George.
"Lloyd George had an undisguised admiration for the German leader which was gradually transformed as the months went by into an intense admiration. 'Hitler' he continually remarked in private 'is a great man'" (12)
The most notorious episode of British Establishment Nazi loving was that of King Edward the 8th/Duke of Windsor. This execrable piece of royal vermin:
  • Paid a personal visit to Hitler in 1937.
  • Conspired with Nazi agents during, before and after the Second World War.
  • Deserted his post in France in 1940 and fled to Franco's Spain where he lived at the Ritz in Madrid.
  • Suggested to the Nazi Government that prolonged bombing of Britain would bring about peace by negotiation.
In fact Hitler had planned to reinstate Edward on the British throne as a puppet ruler following a German victory. According to a recent Channel 4 documentary, when Edward was interviewed in 1941 while he was governor of the Bahamas he said that:
"Hitler was the right and logical leader for the German people, it would be a tragedy if he was overthrown"
This line of thinking was still alive on the Home Front too, in 1940 M.I.5. investigated the 'Right Club' a crypto-Nazi outfit headed by Conservative M.P. Captain Maule Ramsay.


                                                 Royal British Legion visiting Hitler

Indeed early in 1940/late in 1939 prominent member of the British establishment Lord Lloyd of Dolobrian , later a minister in Churchill's war cabinet , wrote a pamphlet entitled 'The British Case' , which explicitly rejected the notion of a war against Fascism ( a concept which later became a necessary part of mobilising the population for Total War after the fall of France ) and this rather than just reflecting Lord Lloyd's viewpoint , had a preface written by the aforementioned Lord Halifax, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In 'The British Case' Lord Lloyd writes:

"Our most ancient and faithful ally , Portugal , enjoys today greater prosperity than ever before in the modern world under the wise but authoritarian government of senhor Salazar. The government of Poland itself was definitely authoritarian . Above all , the Italian genius has developed , in characteristic Fascist institutions, a highly authoritarian regime which , however , threatens neither religious nor economic freedom , or the security of other European nations." (12a) This was of course before the Italian state entered the war.

1a) Quoted in Labour and Trade Union Review No.84

(1) Quoted in 'Fellow Travellers of the Right' by Richard Griffiths page 14 and 15.
(2) Ibid. page 14.
(3) Ibid.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Quoted in 'Who Financed Hitler' by James and Suzanne Pool page 315.
(6) Quoted in 'Fellow Travellers of the Right" by Richard Griffiths page 164.
(7) Ibid. page 88.
(8) Ibid. page 88.
(9) Ibid. page 81.
(10) Ibid. page 54.
(11) Ibid. page 54.
(12) Ibid.
(12a) Quoted in 'The Chamberlain-Hitler Collusion' by Alvin Finkel and Clement Leibovitz

Source: http://struggle.ws/freeearth/fe1_britain.html

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr will be at Newport protest against destruction of Chartist Mural



Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr - The Great Unrest will be at the Protest on Saturday 5th October in Newport against the destruction of the Chartist mural.

We will be in John Frost Square at 11.30 with our flags. The event starts at 12.00pm.