Dafydd Iwan and "Edwards Project" - Wylit Wylit Llywelyn by Sian Ifan

As a long term committed Cymric patriot, activist and nationalist, it was most encouraging to see such a large crowd marching for Cymric Independence in Caernarfon last Saturday and the organizers of the march are to be commended for organizing and stewarding such a large event so successfully so, well done AUOB/YES CYMRU.

However, what was very sad and disturbing as far as I'm concerned was to see one of the speakers, Dafydd Iwan, stating his love for Caernarfon castle - our Welsh Bastille. 

His reasoning was that he loved the castle because it symbolized that "Edward 1's project" had failed! Really? 

As far as I'm aware, we, as a nation have been under occupation for over 700yrs! Edward 1 and his forces destroyed the Royal dynasty of Gwynedd, murdered both Princes Llywelyn and Dafydd AP Gruffydd, imprisoned their wives and children and left them to rot in English dungeons or nunneries, and stole the Cymric royal treasures including the sacred Croes Naid.

He then used the sweat and blood of Cymric prisoners of war and serfs as slaves to build Caernarfon castle as a symbol of conquest along with a walled town which he swiftly filled with English settlers.

Since then and over the centuries, other brave patriot princes such as Madog ap Llywelyn and Owain Glyndŵr have risen in challenge to that castle and English rule in Cymru and many brave patriots have perished for their efforts, 

If it were not for the sacrifices of brave warrior patriots of the past,  Cymru and Cymric speakers would not have survived to this day.

That castle is dripping in Cymric blood and Mr Iwan knows this as well as I do but now has the audacity to openly declare that he loves it!

 Yes, Mr Iwan "we are still here"  but as a colony of England, and as for the castle now being ours, really! then, why do we, "the owners", are expected to pay an exorbitant entrance fee  to go into it and why is there an exhibition of the 'English Princes of Wales' within rather than an exhibition of the Princes of the Royal House of Gwynedd along with the truth as to what happened to them and their families?

Maybe Mr Iwan can tell us why the 1969 Investiture throne is kept in the castle along with the Investiture slate dais which has pride of place on the castle green? Would it have anything to do with an imminent 3rd Investiture in the castle I wonder? and when the proposed Investiture is announced, will Mr Iwan then be delivering speeches stating that we must not protest.

I ask the above question as It had come as a shock to myself and many others when Mr Iwan, a patriot I had always had great respect for,  accepted an invitation to visit Charles Windsor at his holiday home in Sir Caerfyrddin, and I,  amongst others pondered over why the invitation was extended. Mr Iwan may be well known in Cymru but, is he that important that he gets an invitation to visit the Heir to the English throne for a pow wow - and why now? 

The English State would only extend such an invitation if they wanted something out of it, did they want Mr Iwan's assistance in ensuring that there were no re-occurrences of the 1969 protests when the next investiture takes place? 

Mr Iwan has had a number of platforms on recent TV programmes where he has already stated that he will not protest at the next Investiture - which is fair enough, he  faced hostility from royalists during the last one, is now elderly and, no doubt, just wants a  quiet life in his well feathered nest in Caeathro but, seeing as he has already tried to hoodwink us all into accepting and embracing that 'symbol of conquest' in Caernarfon,  betraying thousands of our patriot dead in doing so, 

 I  do hope now that he is not going to try and hoodwink us into accepting another Investiture of yet another English Prince as "Prince of Wales" with no protest. If he does, my advice to all now embracing the dream of Cymric Independence and who are actively campaigning hard to achieve it  is,  please do not be hoodwinked!  

The "Prince of Wales" role is the strongest tool that the English State have to keep us forged to the British State, so they have to keep it going,  and the moment the next Investiture takes place, the dream of Cymric Independence is well and truly over.

Siân Ifan

"O Bydded I’r Hen Iaith Barhau by David Shinn - for discussion at 2nd Welsh Socialist Republican Congress

                                                         Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg

As someone who is far from fluent in Cymraeg (I’m barely even able to hold a conversation in my mother tongue) I almost feel unqualified to be writing an article about the Welsh language. But then, that’s probably the exact reason why I should be writing this.

My mam’s first language is Cymraeg, but as my dad (who is English) doesn’t speak the language it was never spoken at home, other than when mam was speaking to Nain or Taid.

Growing up in north east Wales, I never really saw the importance of it nor did I appreciate it. Don’t get me wrong, I have always loved hearing it and seeing it on our road signs etc – I always knew 

I was home when I could see the Clwydian mountains and Cymraeg road signs and even though I didn’t understand a lot of the words, I have always found comfort in seeing it around me.

However, as I have gotten older I’ve become acutely aware of how much culture and history I have missed out on by being unable to speak Cymraeg and have recently started learning again, spurred on by the fact that my daughter is being educated in a Welsh language school (as will my son come September) and that aged 5 she is far more confident and proficient in using the language than I am, although I converse with her yn Cymraeg as much as I can and learn from her on a daily basis.

Two things to note here; firstly that I stated I have recently started learning again, and secondly, that I believe confidence in ability is a big problem, not just for me, but many learners of the language.

I did my GCSEs in 2000, and I was among the last secondary school pupils in Cymru to have had the choice to opt out of studying Welsh at GCSE level. Foolishly I opted out, thinking that I would be able to learn from my mam (although that never came to fruition, for a multitude of reasons) and instead studied French and German.

As I grew older and became more involved with politics, especially the struggle for independence, and learnt more about our history and the suppression of Cymraeg, I started wanting to learn again, and about 10 years ago I enrolled on to a beginner’s course at Glyndwr University.

Although I was doing well, circumstances changed; I became homeless and had to choose between going to an evening class or finding somewhere warm and dry to sleep. Learning Cymraeg had to be shelved.

Since then I have developed a fierce love of the language, and although I am a long way away from being fluent (although thanks to my daughter, the “Say Something In Welsh” app, the help of good comrades and the recent story of Geordan Burress, I am more determined than ever to get there) I will always defend our language from those who belittle or mock it.

I have also begun to look at what can be done to promote the language and encourage people like myself to not only learn it, but also use it in daily life. I use it on a daily basis, although it’s only in small ways; I always say “nos dawch” to my children at bed time as opposed to “good night”, I try to say “diolch” to bus drivers and customers in work instead of “thank you”, I say “dwi’n caru ti” to my partner rather than “I love you”. Although only small, they are things I feel confident in saying, even though I know so much more than that.

As I have already said, confidence is a major contributing factor, especially for someone who is a perfectionist to a fault. But there’s a lot more to the state of the Welsh language than the confidence of individual learners.

It seems an almost weekly, if not daily occurrence now that the language is attacked and ridiculed by all manner of people. From the Sun’s scathing headline after it emerged that Geordan Burress, a woman from the USA had taught herself the language, Omid Djalili’s pathetic attempts at “humour” and KFC workers in Bangor being told they can’t communicate in their own language.

If only there was some sort of legislation in place to protect our language.

Oh, that’s right, I forgot. There is.

On the face of it, the Welsh Language Act 1993 is a good thing, and admittedly the protections it affords have gone some way to preserving the language, but it’s clearly not enough.

As I previously stated, I opted out of doing Welsh at GCSE level. After 2000, it became mandatory for all pupils in Cymru to study Welsh at GCSE level. On paper, this sounds brilliant, but the reality is that someone who studies Welsh as a second language at GCSE level will leave secondary education with the conversational ability of a 5 year old who has Welsh as their first language.

It is tokenistic at best, put in place simply to try and placate the likes of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, who fought and protested for language rights, leading to the formation of the first Welsh Language Act in 1967.

While the current language act has given Cymraeg “equal status”, the attitude to the language by the British state, and even some “Welsh” people, is one of derision and mockery.

"It is blindingly obvious that in order for Cymraeg to not only survive, but flourish once again we need to be an independent nation and implement radical changes that will actively put the language at the forefront of everyday life. To quote Tolkien; 

"Welsh is of this soil, this island, the senior language of the men of Britain; and Welsh is beautiful". 

It is time it was treated with the respect it deserves.

Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr calls for a new Welsh Language Act that does just this; not a tokenistic piece of legislation to keep us quiet, but an Act that will actually, tangibly see the language being not only equal, but becoming the official first language of the Welsh state and promoted as such."

Gethin ap Gruffydd Interview

Tynged yr Iaith / The Fate of the Language Saunders Lewis

This video was posted on Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr and was REMOVED not by the editor but by someone who has access to blogger - it shows that any posts can be removed at any time without informing us.It also means FAKE POSTS can be inserted anytime BE ALERT to strange posts

"I would never campaign against something like the investiture again when there are more important things to do , like building a new Wales".Dafydd Iwan

Prince Charles PR Campaign: "They will not have Dominion over us" - we will have Independence from British State

    Caernarfon Anti Investiture Protests 1969

Plaid Cymru 1925. 

"To secure independence for Wales in Europe. To ensure economic prosperity, social justice and the health of the natural environment, based on decentralist socialism. To build a national community based on equal citizenship, respect for different traditions and cultures and the equal worth of all individuals, whatever their race, nationality, gender, colour, creed, sexuality, age, ability or social background. 

We demand that Wales be an equal, free and self-governing member of the Association of British Nations.  

This is the status that is, in political terms, generally called Dominion Status which is enjoyed by the Dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa and that was recently granted to the Irish Free State"

Plaid Cymru since its inception has never really stood for a Independent Wales.

That is a Wales Independent of the British State and its Monarchy they have been Dominion Status or Confederalism advocates - a Federalism is currently promoted by Dafydd Ellis Thomas they are all the British State in new form and the British Monarch at the centre.

In the latest British State Prince Charles PR campaign for Investiture 3 to undermine the 50th Anniversary of antInvestiture protests Dafydd Iwan has said while affirming his republicanism

"I would never campaign against something like the investiture again when there are more important things to do , like building a new Wales".

What is more important than taking Wales out of the British State and preventing its reintegration under the false banner of Federalism and Monarchism - the British State in yet another form.

Opposing Investiture 3 and promoting Republicanism is part of our differentiation from the British State but Dafydd Iwan either fails to see this or has simply given up the ghost.

Of Course Dafydd Elis Thomas who serves the British State just like Lloyd George goes even further he wants to legitimize Prince Charles and the Monarchy in Wales.

We have not made enough of him in my view because of opposition in certain quarters.

I do not think he (Prince Charles) feels as well that enough has been made of the opportunity of marketing Wales through the Prince of Wales.

Part of my job is promote the culture of Wales and if we had a more determined drive to work with the  Prince of Wales in promoting Wales throughout the period of his Principality - I think we could have achieved a lot more.

Lord Dafydd Elis Thomas

                                     Liam Mellows

Let the Voice of a True Socialist Republican speak to us from the past - not the siren songs calling us to  the death of our ideals by Dafydd Iwan and Lord Dafydd Elis Thomas


Under this Treaty the Irish people are going to be committed within the British Empire. We have always in this country protested against being included within the British Empire. Now we are told that we are going into it with our heads up. 

The British Empire stands to me in the same relationship as the devil stands to religion. 

The British Empire represents to me nothing but the concentrated tyranny of ages. You may talk about your constitution in Canada, your united South Africa or Commonwealth of Australia, but the British Empire to me does not mean that. It means to me that terrible thing that has spread its tentacles all over the earth, that has crushed the lives out of people and exploited its own when it could not exploit anybody else. 

That British Empire is the thing that has crushed this country; yet we are told that we are going into it now with our heads up. We are going into the British Empire now to participate in the Empire's shame even though we do not actually commit the act, to participate in the shame and the erucifixion of India and the degradation of Egypt. 

Is that what the Irish people fought for freedom for? 

We are told damn principles. Aye, if Ireland was fighting for nothing only to become as most of the other rich countries of the world have become, this fight should never have been entered upon. 

We hoped to make this country something the world should be proud on and we did not enter into the fight to make this country as the other countries, where its word was not its bond, and where a treaty was something to be struggled for. 

That was not the ideal that inspired men in this cause in every age, and it is not the ideal which inspires us to-day. 

We do not seek to make this country a materially great country at the expense of its honour in any way whatsoever. 

We would rather have this country poor and indigent, we would rather have the people of Ireland eking out a poor existence on the soil; as long as they possessed their souls, their minds, and their honour. 

This fight has been for something more than the fleshpots of Empire

SEE ALSO:

https://greatunrest2012.blogspot.com/2017/10/liam-mellows-socialist-republican.html

The Welsh Road to Ecosocialism by Martin J Shrewsbury - for Discussion at 2nd Welsh Socialist Republican Congress

 Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr has always been a deep real green organisation but opposes superficial ideas like the Green Market Economy which are ill thought through in Plaid Cymru and have the opposite effects from those intended.

This is a particularly relevant to the scams around the windmilling of Wales and the anti democratic processes involved in aiding corporates against the people of Wales even by the Welsh Assembly riding roughshod over democratic rights.

See also :

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.com/2012/08/real-green-solution-to-climate-change.html

Monday musings and some thoughts on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1969 Investiture...Some fifty years ago I was a child of 11 at an English Prep School. I knew that as the staff and pupils at the school waxed lyrically and sycophantically of the House of Saxe-Coberg-Gotha.

I asked my teacher why this had no real meaning either to Wales or of history. I was mocked by Miss Seranck for that question. I told her I had read of the Edwardian conquest of 1282 and of the great lie of Edward the First. She told me not to be a silly little boy. 

Yet she sat me on the road that led to my Welsh Republican Socialism. Fifty years later the shy little boy of 1969 is looking back over fifty years and reflecting on the possible routes to a Welsh EcoSocialist Republic. 

My thoughts have changed and developed over those fifty years and I have during that time been the Leader of the Welsh Green Party, and for the last few years an activist within the Labour Party and branch Secretary of Ystradgynlais Labour Party. 

As I glance at the Welsh Green Party I observe that it's claim to have a Welsh identity was done to death when it voted two to one against becoming a separate party.

I had long argued that for a vibrant Green Party to turn it's back on the Welsh National Movement was a profound error. 

The principle of an independent Green Party in an independent Wales would have been a powerful tool in critiquing both Plaid and the Welsh Labour Party and of providing a treasury of ideas that would have enriched the Welsh political tradition and added a significant Welsh dimension.. 

As it is the Greens now do nothing but feed the socially conservative and reactionary rants of Jac o the North and the growing nature of a Welsh home grown far right that is populist and best illustrated in the confused males of groups like Ein Gwlad. 

The Welsh Greens at best seem to be little more and rather unfairly as incomers telling the Welsh people what to do.

Within Plaid we have a tension. While there are perfectly competent Ecosocialist here and a long honourable tradition of community activity in individuals such as Leanne Wood and Bethan Sayeed there is within Plaid a long tradition of Social Conservatism. 

This can be essentially seen in what I would call the Neil MeEvoy Syndrome. Here we see an essentially unreconstructed masculinity that is essentially tolerant and in support of a Welsh masculinity and outlook that dislikes "Greenies, wimmin and lefties" . 

The men around him are often worse and I saw during the Plaid leadership campaign a vile misogyny from many of them. I saw the trashing of transgender rights by social conservative supporters of Neil McEvoy arguing that the main issue was an independent Wales and that social diversity was not an essentially important part of a new Wales. 

Adam Price must decide soon if he allows Prince Neil back into the party. If he does the pressures against Eco Socialism within Plaid will increase dramatically as Prince Neil and his followers will seek to change Plaid into a Welsh UKIP lite party far removed from ecosocialism and a tolerant and diverse Welsh identity. 

As it is I hear that the Plaid group within the Assembly will not allow him back. Indeed I suspect that if he returns it is highly possible that Leanne Wood and Bethan Sayeed would probably leave Plaid and form a Welsh Republican Socialist faction.. 

I note also with interest that Cardiff West Plaid have renamed itself 'Plaid and independent" you can clearly see the trajectory and possibilities considered by the social conservatism of Prince Neil and his allies. 

And so I conclude my observations on Plaid by noting the opposition to a Welsh Ecosocialism clearly emerging here. 

Plaids inner demons over opposition to renewables and it's schizoid attitude to Nuclear power also provides serious problems to it's emergence as an Eco Socialist party.

I joined Labour some years ago largely because it seems to me the best party to develop an Ecosocialist teach in an Eco Socialist Wales. Mark Drakefords commitment to Socialism. 

The role of Momentum and Welsh Labour Grass roots make this transformation possible. I feel at home within this tradition and have found many former Green Party and Plaid Ecosocialists there. 

There is a commitment to diversity and multiple identities there . 

The emergence of Jeremy Corbyn and alternative non capitalist policies all create the circumstances and policies to make Labour the best means for creating a Welsh Ecosocialist tradition,. 

This would involve new models of ownership, and an open tolerant and diverse Wales. 

It may well be that Ecosocialists from within Plaid like Leanne Wood and Bethan Sayeed would feed radical ideas into an Ecosocialust Welsh Labour. 

It would also offer the capacity of those Ecosocialist  from the Green Party to influence and provide ideas for the future. 

The road to Welsh Ecosocialism is near but the road is still a long and winding one. 

These thoughts run through my mind and I am a committed Welsh Republican Socialist of some 61 years of age. 

I look forward to the future of the Welsh people and the Welsh nation. There is much to do and the dogs of reaction are barking and yet my mind is clear as is the method and direction of a new Wales that is socialist, tolerant, green and diverse...

Remembering Raymond Williams

What has become of Dafydd Elis Thomas  ?  he has not kept the faith despite warning from Raymond Williams.

Raymond Williams was one of Wales key thinkers who lectured at many Plaid Cymru Summer schools.

It is to shame of today that ignorance of his thinking abounds and proto Fascism has emerged in Wales based on that ignorance.

We have come from literally the same school as Raymond Williams and know his family and will never forget his contribution to our understanding of Socialism and what it means to be Welsh.

The Welsh Language in numbers

Follow the link watch on You Tube

Fy Ngwlad - My Country

John Jenkins the Reluctant Revolutionary

Welsh Water article in Spanish

SPANISH

https://victoriaoprimidos.wordpress.com/2019/06/11/el-saqueo-del-agua-por-parte-de-inglaterra-a-gales/?fbclid=IwAR2nmZddKAy40w3nXTaZJIPt_rQvyKYBCLLzIeMRekFbEwmgjMr6JA89zY4

ENGLISH
https://greatunrest2012.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-welsh-water-question-by-david-shinn.html

On reading `Liberation` June - 2019, Thoughts, reflections and Musingss....by Martyn John Shrewsbury

Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr previously published a review of Liberation 4 of TeifiDancer he is a non party person who identifies with the ideas of Welsh Socialist Republicanism - Martin John Shrewsbury is in the  Labour Party but also identifies as a Welsh Socialist Republican.

It confirms our view that Welsh Socialist Republicanism cuts across the political divisions in Wales and that it will never be a populist movement which appeals to the lowest common denominator but Welsh Socialist Republicanism is an exponent of raising people up via the mass line - and Liberation Magazine is the Educator.

In 1969 as a boarder at an English Prep School I first encountered the horrors of the British Sate. I was force fed a diet of the Monarchy and Imperialism. 

My reaction to the events of July 1989 were the origin of my commitment to an Independent Welsh Socialist Republic. 

Some fifty years later as July 2019 approaches I find myself a Welsh Republican Socialist fully aware of my beliefs and outlook. 

The Welsh Socialist Republican tradition is spread between many parties in Wales . I find it articulated clearly and forcefully in this Julys copy of `Liberation`. The magazine brings together all of the necessary themes. 

The sheer size of the castle in Caernarvon brings home the reality of military occupation. It was 750 years ago yet you still realize how the domination of the town and the port shows how thoroughly the area was garrisoned. The castles of Edward 1 at Harlech, Caernarvon Beaumaris, Conway show the iron heel of the Anglo Norman state across north Wales.

It was this Anglo Norman state that learnt the model that made Wales the first colony, the model that would be used in Ireland and in Sicily. In the castle of Caernarvon on a gigantic Chess board are the figures of the conquest. 

The largest is Edward Longshanks himself brooding, in control and dominating all the others. I saw further evidence the line of the princes of Wales from imagination, through Vortigen created, constructed, the mysterious gap from the last Welsh ruler to the present Saxe-Coberg- Gothas claiming the title. 

There were films of previous Investitures from 1911 and 1969. Each gave lip service to the Welsh identity but each slammed the boot of the English state both consciously and consciously on the Welsh identity. culture.

It was a military occupation first and foremost and brought home to me even more powerfully than before of this process. One branch of my family comes from North Wales and I have always been aware of how the Arthurian legends come from Wales, from Brittany and of how the Imagination form the base of so much of the borrowed, purloined culture of the Anglo Norman state. A returning Arthur would have by definition opposed them, and would have created an Celtic faith far different from the patriarchal war processing state that the Anglo Normans imposed. Yet this was something I realized much later.

In Carnarvon some years ago passed a book shop where I see in the window a book by Gideon Brough called” The rise and Fall of Owain Glyn Dwr. The book is very important. It stresses the Welsh revolt here as an important part of the Hundreds Year war. 

For too long this revolt was seen as a sub plot of a rebellion by an obscure Welshman against the King. Brough sees this campaign as part of a wider European war. He stresses the role of Glyn Dwr not only as a soldier but also as a thinker and as an administrator. He stresses the role of a separate rebel state in terms of law and administration and recognizes its value to a sense of Welsh identity.

Glyn Dwr brought down the Edwardian state in Wales, he had real roots in the Welsh population. We cannot claim him as the founder of a modern Welsh nationalist identity but we can rescue him from obscurity and denial. They never told me about him at Prep School I just heard of the Edwardian conquest. They never told me of Hywell Dda, of Gruffudd Ap Llywelyn, and of the knowledge, culture and learning within Wales prior to the building of Caernarvon and the Anglo Norman occupation.

I notice that now liberated from the leadership of Plaid Leanne Wood has returned to her roots. She describes herself once more as a Welsh Republican Socialist. That is to be welcomed ..it's often a truism that when Socialists are elected to lead Social Democratic parties they are often imprisoned by the entrenched "moderates". Unlike Corbyn Leanne Wood had no Momentum like organization to reform the party. 

Leanne is a street fighter who understands the issue that it is policies that count and not personalities. However, that the Left in Plaid are organizing and will push for a resistance to the drift to the right. It was interesting how Leanne in her interview this week pointed out that Adam Price had effectively written the last two Plaid manifestos. 

It's also interesting that Adam Price has created massive expectations for progress. I suspect that many who supported his campaign may well reflect upon this. I cannot really see how things will be any different in the run up till 2021. 

The Left in Wales is now spread between Momentum and the Eco Socialist wing of Plaid.

As Welsh Labour renews and Momentum grows both Plaid and the Welsh Green Party should fear making dramatic and tactical errors. A vibrant Ecosocialist Plaid and an Independent Welsh Green Party could form a powerful coalition with a Socialist Welsh Labour Party. Momentum, the Welsh Greens and an Ecosocialist Plaid have many points of intersection and of political shared goals of outlook and aims. It was a major tactical and strategic error that the Welsh Green party failed to appreciate a need for an independent role from the English party. 

As the Tory Party implodes and the drama of Brexit widens a little known historical period comes to an end in Wales. Neil McEvoy's suspension from Plaid Cymru comes to an end today. Prince Neil has said that he intends to reapply to Plaid. A year ago Plaid had another leader now it has Adam Price. The question is quite clear what will Adam Price do now?

It's been an open secret that Neil McEvoy was the architect of Plaids victory in the Cardiff council ward of Ely last month. In 2016 Neil McEvoy ran Labor close in Cardiff West. The next Assembly election in 2021 is three years away. What thoughts must run through Adam Price's mind. ? What is the price of ambition? What is the price Adam would pay? It was quite clear that last year none of the Plaid Assembly group would work with Prince Neil. But that was a year ago. The British state is cracking under the pressure of Brexit and as the constitutional crisis deepens who knows what Plaid will decide?

Those men around Prince Neil are unreconstructed males who 'fear" strong women and regard identity and sexuality issues as a fringe matter. For many of them an independent Wales is essentially a UKIP lite state mediated through Welsh culture. 

Those in this masculinist Praetorian guard around the Augustus of Ely are a light year from many of the excellent Eco socialists that can be found within Plaid. With their dislike of feminism Neil's boys are a strange mix of ontological insecurity and fear of the other. They use the lexicon and jargon of the alt right, raging against social justice warriors and those who practice virtue signaling.

Neil's men have a quaint outlook but the next stage will be more to do with the decision of Plaids governing body and the Mab Darogan himself. King Arthur fell because of Mordred's entry into Camelot. 

In many ancient texts Carmarthen was long associated with the Arthurian cycle of legends. Will King Adam experience this cycle of betrayal and destruction?

All of the above themes are mention within the magazine. The challenge for the conventional view of the Brit Left  is clearly stated yet so many  of this group still fail to understand the difference between national self-determination and the right wing nationalism of the British state so encapsulated in the Tory Party, the Brexit Party and UKIP. 

An indigenous Welsh Right and crypto fascism is suggested as coming into existence.  

Liberation forms an essential link to appreciating where Wales stands in relation to the problems of late capitalism and in particular to the British state.  

`Liberation` has provoked within me many questions and speculation about that fate of  Wales and its political structure.

It asks deep searching question of the Welsh national Movement that cannot be avoided. 

It provokes uncomfortable but essential challenge to the Left and its tools of analysis and action.

Review of Liberation Issue 4

REVIEW BY TEIFIDANCER

https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2019/05/wales-liberation-magazine-voice-of.html

Liberation 4 Magazine Coming Soon

"Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game"

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The reason for Liberation Magazine is that we take the view you cannot win a game where the rules are made by your opponent.

In the case of Wales, the British State determines the rules and Welsh people are supposed to play the Welsh Assembly game according to its rules.

It is arrogant imperial intellectual and practical colonialism where very important decisions on Welsh Life are taken in London and not Wales.

The Welsh are closetly seen has unfit to govern their own country.

Liberation Magazine unashamedly stands for a Welsh Socialist Republic an idea that has been maturing in Wales for over a century.

The Labour Party and Plaid Cymru in Wales have never really embraced the idea of Welsh Socialist Republic.

Sometimes Plaid Cymru flirts with the idea but quickly backtracks under pressure.

Monarchism has not only infected the Labour Party but also sections of Plaid Cymru.

We launched Liberation Magazine a few years ago because we want a journal where the Welsh, the Socialist and the Republican cases can be argued and discussed.

A new strategy and new tactics needs to be developed for the social and national liberation of Wales in the 21st Century if Wales is to arrest its current trajectory of economic and social decline.

Liberation Magazine is about ideas, the precursor of events and the inspirer of people.

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people".

Eleanor Roosevelt.

Our ambition is to create new ideas and start a winning game for Wales.

CONTACT: 

nickglais@yahoo.co.uk about obtaining copies

Adam Price Speech at Cardiff AUOB Rally on 11th May 2019

THE RISING TIDE - A NATION RISES

12th May 1916 - James Connolly - Last Visit

What is a Free Nation ? by James Connolly - Thoughts for Today

Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr and the Welsh Socialist Republican Congress abhors Populism because it make the idea of Independence mean many different things to many different people and is perfect ideology for Judas Goats to mislead us.

Therefore the clearer of vision of what Independence means the more clearly can any national leadership be held to account.

These are the thoughts of James Connolly over a 100 years ago trying to give clarity to that question for Ireland just as our Welsh Socialist Republican Congress in 2016 and in 2019 is trying to give clarity to that question today.

This is also the anniversary of his execution a reminder of the price that has also be be paid for freedom from the British State.




First published in Workers' Republic, 12 February 1916 
Transcribed by the James Connolly Society - IRSM/IRSP 
Formatted and indexed by Workers' Web ASCII Pamphlet project 

We are moved to ask this question because of the extraordinary confusion of thought upon the subject which prevails in this country, due principally to the pernicious and misleading newspaper garbage upon which the Irish public has been fed for the past twenty-five years.

Our Irish daily newspapers have done all that human agencies could do to confuse the public mind upon the question of what the essentials of a free nation are, what a free nation must be, and what a nation cannot submit to lose without losing its title to be free. 

It is because of this extraordinary newspaper-created ignorance that we find so many people enlisting in the British army under the belief that Ireland has at long last attained to the status of a free nation, and that therefore the relations between Ireland and England have at last been placed upon the satisfactory basis of freedom. 

Ireland and England, they have been told, are now sister nations, joined in the bond of Empire, but each enjoying equal liberties - the equal liberties of nations equally free. How many recruits this idea sent into the British army in the first flush of the war it would be difficult to estimate, but they were assuredly numbered by the thousand.

The Irish Parliamentary Party, which at every stage of the Home Rule game has been outwitted and bulldozed by Carson and the Unionists, which had surrendered every point and yielded every advantage to the skilful campaign of the aristocratic Orange military clique in times of peace, behaved in equally as cowardly and treacherous a manner in the crisis of war.

There are few men in whom the blast of the bugles of war do not arouse the fighting instinct, do not excite to some chivalrous impulses if only for a moment. But the Irish Parliamentary Party must be reckoned amongst that few. In them the bugles of war only awakened the impulse to sell the bodies of their countrymen as cannon fodder in exchange for the gracious smiles of the rulers of England. In them the call of war sounded only as a call to emulate in prostitution. They heard the call of war - and set out to prove that the nationalists of Ireland were more slavish than the Orangemen of Ireland, would more readily kill and be killed at the bidding of an Empire that despised them both.

The Orangemen had at least the satisfaction that they were called upon to fight abroad in order to save an Empire they had been prepared to fight to retain unaltered at home; but the nationalists were called upon to fight abroad to save an Empire whose rulers in their most generous moments had refused to grant their country the essentials of freedom in nationhood.

Fighting abroad the Orangeman knows that he fights to preserve the power of the aristocratic rulers whom he followed at home; fighting abroad the nationalist soldier is fighting to maintain unimpaired the power of those who conspired to shoot him down at home when he asked for a small instalment of freedom.

The Orangeman says: "We will fight for the Empire abroad if its rulers will promise not to force us to submit to Home Rule." And the rulers say heartily: "It is unthinkable that we should coerce Ulster for any such purpose."

The Irish Parliamentary Party and its press said: "We will prove ourselves fit to be in the British Empire by fighting for it, in the hopes that after the war is over we will get Home Rule." And the rulers of the British Empire say: "Well, you know what we have promised Carson, but send out the Irish rabble to fight for us, and we will, ahem, consider your application after the war." Whereat, all the Parliamentary leaders and their press call the world to witness that they have won a wonderful victory!

James Fintan Lalor spoke and conceived of Ireland as a "discrowned queen, taking back her own with an armed hand". Our Parliamentarians treat Ireland, their country, as an old prostitute selling her soul for the promise of favours to come, and in the spirit of that conception of their country they are conducting their political campaign.

That they should be able to do so with even the partial success that for a while attended their apostasy was possible only because so few in Ireland really understood the answer to the question that stands at the head of this article.

What is a free nation? A free nation is one which possesses absolute control over all its own internal resources and powers, and which has no restriction upon its intercourse with all other nations similarly circumstanced except the restrictions placed upon it by nature. 

Is that the case of Ireland? If the Home Rule Bill were in operation would that be the case of Ireland? To both questions the answer is: no, most emphatically, NO!

A free nation must have complete control over its own harbours, to open them or close them at will, or shut out any commodity, or allow it to enter in, just as it seemed best to suit the well-being of its own people, and in obedience to their wishes, and entirely free of the interference of any other nation, and in complete disregard of the wishes of any other nation. Short of that power no nation possesses the first essentials of freedom.

Does Ireland possess such control? No. Will the Home Rule Bill give such control over Irish harbours in Ireland? It will not. Ireland must open its harbours when it suits the interests of another nation, England, and must shut its harbours when it suits the interests of another nation, England; and the Home Rule Bill pledges Ireland to accept this loss of national control for ever.

How would you like to live in a house if the keys of all the doors of that house were in the pockets of a rival of yours who had often robbed you in the past? Would you be satisfied if he told you that he and you were going to be friends for ever more, but insisted upon you signing an agreement to leave him control of all your doors, and custody of all your keys? 

This is the condition of Ireland today, and will be the condition of Ireland under Redmond and Devlin's precious Home Rule Bill.

That is worth dying for in Flanders, the Balkans, Egypt or India, is it not?

A free nation must have full power to nurse industries to health, either by government encouragement or by government prohibition of the sale of goods of foreign rivals. It may be foolish to do either, but a nation is not free unless it has that power, as all free nations in the world have today. Ireland has no such power, will have no such power under Home Rule. The nourishing of industries in Ireland hurts capitalists in England, therefore this power is expressly withheld from Ireland.

A free nation must have full power to alter, amend, or abolish or modify the laws under which the property of its citizens is held in obedience to the demand of its own citizens for any such alteration, amendment, abolition, or modification. Every free nation has that power; Ireland does not have it, and is not allowed it by the Home Rule Bill.

It is recognized today that it is upon the wise treatment of economic power and resources, and upon the wise ordering of social activities that the future of nations depends. That nation will be the richest and happiest which has the foresight to marshal the most carefully its natural resources to national ends. 

But Ireland is denied this power, and will be denied it under Home Rule. Ireland's rich natural resources, and the kindly genius of its children, are not to be allowed to combine for the satisfaction of Irish wants, save in so far as their combination can operate on lines approved of by the rulers of England.

Her postal service, her telegraphs, her wireless, her customs and excise, her coinage, her fighting forces, her relations with other nations, her merchant commerce, her property relations, her national activities, her legislative sovereignty - all the things that are essential to a nation's freedom are denied to Ireland now, and are denied to her under the provisions of the Home Rule Bill. And Irish soldiers in the English Army are fighting in Flanders to win for Belgium, we are told, all those things which the British Empire, now as in the past, denies to Ireland.

There is not a Belgian patriot who would not prefer to see his country devastated by war a hundred times rather than accept as a settlement for Belgium what Redmond and Devlin have accepted for Ireland. Have we Irish been fashioned in meaner clay than the Belgians?

There is not a pacifist in England who would wish to end the war without Belgium being restored to full possession of all those national rights and powers which Ireland does not possess, and which the Home Rule Bill denies to her. 

But these same pacifists never mention Ireland when discussing or suggesting terms of settlement. Why should they? Belgium is fighting for her independence, but Irishmen are fighting for the Empire that denies Ireland every right that Belgians think worth fighting for.

And yet Belgium as a nation is, so to speak, but a creation of yesterday - an artificial product of the schemes of statesmen. Whereas, the frontiers of Ireland, the ineffaceable marks of the separate existence of Ireland, are as old as Europe itself, the handiwork of the Almighty, not of politicians. And as the marks of Ireland's separate nationality were not made by politicians so they cannot be unmade by them.

As the separate individual is to the family, so the separate nation is to humanity. The perfect family is that which best draws out the inner powers of the individual, the most perfect world is that in which the separate existence of nations is held most sacred. 

There can be no perfect Europe in which Ireland is denied even the least of its national rights; there can be no worthy Ireland whose children brook tamely such denial. If such denial has been accepted by soulless slaves of politicians then it must be repudiated by Irish men and women whose souls are still their own.

The peaceful progress of the future requires the possession by Ireland of all the national rights now denied to her. Only in such possession can the workers of Ireland see stability and security for the fruits of their toil and organization. A destiny not of our fashioning has chosen this generation as the one called upon for the supreme act of self-sacrifice - to die if need be that our race might live in freedom.

Are we worthy of the choice? Only by our response to the call can that question be answered.

Independence Rally in Cardiff 11th May 2019

Independence Rally in Cardiff - too many Green and White Tudor Rags need more Glyndwr Flags the real Independence Flag - shows limited understanding of Welsh History to carry a Tudor Taff Collaborator Flag especially when you talk about INDEPENDENCE

New Stickers for Caernarfon 50th Anniversary of Anti Investiture Protests

The Basque Country Protests U.S. Interference In Venezuela

Real Welsh Protest 1969 Against Royal Investiture - will this picture trigger a fighting memory and clear away the Judas Goats in Welsh National Leadership ?

                                           March 1969

It is with a degree of sadness that we note the Welsh National Movement is under the control of the British State who has never been shy about creating fake national movements in its period of Empire or Today  -  and the last few years has seen their proliferation of these organisations in Wales in preparation of a new Royal Investiture Ceremony in Wales.

The battle between fake nationalists and real nationalists is about to begin - the future of Wales is at stake.

JUDAS GOAT:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_goat

May Day 2019 Declaration of Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr

Welsh Socialist Republicans rejects the fake "independence" of Plaid Cymru which replaces capitalist Britain with capitalist Europe.

We will not be party to utilizing Plaid Cymru's Welsh Bourgeois Nationalism to put a new set of bureaucrat capitalists in power in Wales to better serve the Eurocrats of Brussels rather than London

The Welsh Socialist Republicans believes the only class in Wales which is capable of leading Wales to the new democracy of autonomous self government in Wales is the working class. 

That is true Welsh Independence !

Our Welsh national struggle is ultimately a class struggle an insight developed by John Maclean  for Scotland and James Connolly for Ireland but eludes the Welsh National Movement.

In the struggle for national and social liberation in Wales we need to enlist the support of English, Scottish and the Irish working class and other national minorities.

Organizationally we seek to strengthen ties with working class organizations throughout the British Isles to support working class power in Wales, as this will also give a base area for their class struggles against the British State.

We are Welsh Socialist Republicans with the working class spirit of the Miners Next Step of 1912 we believe in the power of our class the working class to change Wales and the world.

Long live the spirit of the Great Unrest of 1910-12 - Long Live the Welsh Socialist Republican Congress –  Long Live Welsh Socialist Republicanism.