Solidarity with Kurdish Struggle : Welsh Language version

Mae'r Aflonyddwch Mawr yn galw ar Lywodraeth Prydain a'r Undeb Ewropiaidd i alw am Dwrci i atal ei ddefnydd o awyrennau ymladd a bomio pobl Cwrdaidd yn Ne Ddwyrain Twrci - Gogledd Cwrdistan.

Rydym hefyd yn galw ar Lywodraeth Prydain a'r Undeb Ewropeaidd i gondemnio'r ymosodiad Twrcaidd Gogledd Syria a'i ymosodiad ar Bobl Cwrdaidd Gogledd Syria - Gorllewin Cwrdistan.

Mae'r bobl Cwrdaidd wedi gwahaniaethu eu hunain o flaen y... byd fel y rhai gorau yn erbyn y ffwndamentaliaeth Islamaidd a patriarchaeth y Wladwriaeth Islamaidd (ISIL).

Mae'r pobl Cwrdaidd wedi marw gan ymladd y Wladwriaeth Islamaidd i gynnal gwerthoedd dyneiddiol seciwlar cyffredinol.

Maent bellach yn cael eu bradychu ac aberthu gan Washington a Moscow ar allor gwleidyddiaeth geo imperialaeth. Mae Washington a Moscow yn dawnsio gyda'r Erdogan unbenaethol.

Rydym yn galw ar Lywodraeth Prydain a'r Undeb Ewropeaidd i godi'r gwaharddiad terfysgaeth ar gynrychiolwyr y Bobl Cwrdeg y PKK y Plaid Gweithwyr Cwrdeg ac i gydnabod y dyheadau cenedlaethol dilys y Bobl Cwrdeg ar gyfer hunan benderfyniad.

Mae'r Aflonyddwch Mawr yn talu teyrnged i gamp y cyfeillgarwch hanesyddol rhwng pobloedd Cwrdeg Cymraeg ac rydym yn apelio at Lywodraeth Prydain a'r Undeb Ewropeaidd i atal yr ymosodiadau mileinig Twrcaidd ar y bobl Cwrdaidd.

Beth bynnag bu weithredoedd y Llywodraeth Prydain a'r Undeb Ewropeaidd mae bond cadarn o gyfeillgarwch rhwng Cwrdeg a'r Cymraeg.

Mae Cymru yn talu teyrnged i'r bobl Cwrdaidd arwrol. Dyma frwydr Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr ar gyfer annibyniaeth a sosialaeth sydd wedi cael ei ysbrydoli gan Straen y Bobl Cwrdeg.

SEE ALSO: http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/solidarity-with-kurdish-struggle-from.html

Saunders Lewis : Etifeddiaeth llygredig - Also English version Saunders Lewis Tainted Legacy by David Rendle

Saunders Lewis : Etifeddiaeth llygredig y bardd, nofelydd, dramodydd, beirniad, gwleidydd ac un o sylfaenwyr Plaid [Genedlaethol] Cymru, mae Saunders Lewis yn cael ei ystyried yn un o'r eiconau llenyddol a gwleidyddol amlycaf Cymru, ac yn cael ei ystyried gan rai yn arwr genedlaethol. Cafodd John Saunders Lewis ei eni i deulu a oedd yn siarad Cymraeg yn Wallasey, Swydd Gaer yn 1893, a magwyd ymhlith y gymuned Gymreig yng Nglannau Merswy.

Astudiodd Lewis Saesneg a Ffrangeg ym Mhrifysgol Lerpwl tan y Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf, ac wedi hynny bu'n gwasanaethu yn y 'South Wales Borderers'. Ar ôl diwedd y rhyfel, dychwelodd Lewis i brifysgol a graddiodd yn Saesneg .

Yn 1922 ymunodd Lewis Prifysgol Abertawe, Cymru fel darlithydd yn y Gymraeg. Roedd cenedlaetholdeb Lewis wedi dwysáu gan ei brofiadau yn ystod y rhyfel, ac yn ymladd gyda milwyr Gwyddelig yn benodol oedd ymddangos i lunio ei syniadau am bwysigrwydd adnabod .

Yng Nghymru, 1925, ymunodd cenedlaetholwyr eraill mewn cyfarfod 1925 Eisteddfod Genedlaethol gyda'r nod o sefydlu plaid genedlaethol ar gyfer Cymru. Roedd Plaid [Genedlaethol] Cymru wedi cael ei sefydlu, o'r rhain oedd Lewis Llywydd 1926-1939. Yn 1936 mewn protest i ysgol, cafodd fomio ei sefydlu ym Mhenyberth ar Benrhyn Llŷn, Lewis ynghyd â Parch Lewis Edward Valentine, gweinidog Eglwys y Bedyddwyr Llandudno Cymraeg a David John Williams, uwch ysgolfeistr yn ysgol Sir Abergwaun yn setio protest i danio strwythur ar sylfaen y Llu Awyr ym Mhwllheli, Sir Gaernarfon, Cymru. Roeddent yn teimlo y sylfaen RAF a adeiladwyd yn ddiweddar "yn anfoesol o'r siwr a yn naturio hawliau pobl Cymru", Roedd Lewis yn dweud bod "y llywodraeth y DU yn benderfynol ar droi un o'r 'tai hanfodol o ddiwylliant Cymru, idiom, a llenyddiaeth' mewn lle i hyrwyddo dull barbaraidd o ryfela ".

Ar ôl gosod y tân, hysbysodd y triawd yr heddlu beth yr oeddent wedi'i wneud ac yn troi eu hunain mewn ac hawlio cyfrifoldeb am y weithred o danio. Cafodd Lewis ei ddiswyddo o'i swydd ym Mhrifysgol Abertawe yn dilyn y trosedd. Roedd Penyberth wedi carcharu'r tri am naw mis yn Wormwood Scrubs ar gyfer y weithred, digwyddiad a oedd ôl-effeithiau pwysig yn y cyfnod yn arwain at yr Ail Ryfel Byd ac ennyn adwaith yn erbyn Cymru a'r Cymry yn Lloegr.

Fodd bynnag, ar ôl cael ei ryddhau o'r carchar yn cael y dynion roeddent yn cael eu groesawu fel arwr gan 15,000 o bobl yn Caernarfon. Roedden nhw wedi ennill calonnau pobl Cymru pan oeddent yn gwrthwynebu adeiladu ysgol fomio yng Nghymru. Roedd sympathi ar gyfer yr achos hwn yn dibynnu ar deimladau gyfer y achos genedlaetholwr. Fodd bynnag, roedd yr hyn sy'n drawiadol yw bod diffyg y llywodraeth o barodrwydd i ymgysylltu a cyfaddawd gyda'r protestwyr yn arwain at ychydig o bobl yn cymryd ffurf eithafol o weithredu.

Efallai na fydd wedi gweithio cyn belled â Benrhyn Llŷn yn y cwestiwn, ond mae'n fwy na thebyg wedi helpu ysgogi teimlad cenedlaetholgar yng Nghymru am flynyddoedd lawer i ddod. Ar ôl cael ei ryddhau o'r carchar yn hydref 1937, symudodd Lewis i Lanfarian ar gyrion Aberystwyth, a threuliodd y pymtheng mlynedd nesaf ennill bywoliaeth ansicr rhwng addysgu, ffermio a newyddiaduraeth. Ym 1939 ymddiswyddodd o lywyddiaeth y Blaid Genedlaethol. Gwelodd yn 1941 i gyhoeddi'r gyfrol denau o farddoniaeth, Byd a Betws, lle roedd y gerdd agoriadol, 'Y Dilyw 1939' ( 'The Deluge 1939'), yn cyfeirio at lowyr di-waith y de diwydiannol fel 'y demos dimai' ( ' y demos dimai ') ac i Wall Street arianwyr' [a] 'u ffroenau Hebreig in ystadegau'r cwarter' ( 'gyda'u ffroenau Hebraeg yn ystadegau'r chwarter').

Fe'i dyfynnwyd dro ar ôl tro o hynny ymlaen gan feirniaid adain-chwith yn ymosod ei snobyddiaeth a'i gwrth-semitiaeth. Mae ei golofn 'Cwrs y Byd' ( 'The Cwrs y Byd') yn Y Faner yn fwy sylweddol. Rhwng 1939 a 1951 cyfrannodd fwy na 560 o erthyglau wythnosol ar fywyd yng Nghymru, Ewrop a'r byd gan ei fod yn wynebu natur anochel rhyfel, y gwrthdaro ei hun, a'r byd newydd a ddaeth i'r amlwg o'r heddwch dilynol. Mae'r colofnau yn dangos Lewis ar ei orau a'i waethaf.

Proffwydo gofid a argyhoeddedig na fyddai unrhyw da yn dod o fuddugoliaeth ar gyfer y naill ochr, dywedodd y dylai Cymru aros uwchben y frwydr. Roedd ei golofn wedi ei hatal fwy nag unwaith ac yn aml yn torri gan pensil glas y sensro yn. Lewis, a oedd yn ystod y Rhyfel Byd Cyntaf gwasanaethodd fel swyddog gyda'r South Wales Borderers, daeth hanner-halo rhaid canslo gan un corn gythreulig. Cefnogaeth Lewis i'r unbenaethau yn gyntaf gan Salazar Portiwgal ac yna daeth yn Sbaen Franco yn destun pryder i'r aelodau Plaid a dylanwadu pleleiswyr.

Yn bosib gan ei cofleidio o Babyddiaeth - yn ei cyn Fatican 2 darllen y stori Crist mae'n deg i ddweud y gwnaeth yr Iddewon a nid yw yn ymddangos ag unrhyw glod mawr - ac yn sicr mae'n cael ei ddylanwadu gan Maurice Barres, mae'r farchnad-arweinydd yn yr hyn wedi cael ei alw'n 'y don gyntaf o Ffasgaeth Ffrangeg' ac yn offeiriad uchel o Ffrangeg gwrth-semitiaeth (ohonynt unwaith ysgrifennodd Lewis, gan gydnabod ei ddyled , fod 'yr oedd drwy wrtho fy mod yn darganfod Cymru'), roedd Lewis yn sicr yn wleidyddol ac yn llenyddol gwrth-semite. oedd ei safle yn ystod yr Ail Ryfel Byd hefyd yn ddadleuol gan y teimlai y dylai Cymru gymryd safbwynt hollol niwtral ac yn cefnogi'r ymgyrch dros y Gymraeg i fod yn wrthwynebwyr cydwybodol.

Dadleuodd gyda ochr chwith y mudiad cenedlaethol Cymreig a chafodd ei gweld gan rai fel un dull elitaidd. Efallai ei ddatganiad mwyaf dadleuol, fodd bynnag, oedd pan ymddangosodd i ddangos edmygedd am Adolf Hitler - mor ddiweddar â 1936, y flwyddyn yr ymosodiad llosgi bwriadol, pan ysgrifennodd: "Ar hyn ar ôl iddo gyflawni ei addewid - addewid a gafodd ei mocio'n llawer gan y papurau misoedd Llundain cyn hynny -. i ddiddymu'n llwyr y cryfder ariannol yr Iddewon ym mywyd economaidd yr Almaen "Er ei fod yn cael ei ystyried yn un o'r ffigyrau gwleidyddol Cymreig blaenllaw yr Ugeinfed Ganrif, dylai Lewis cael enw da yn awr yn cael ei gynnal am byth i mewn i gwestiwn tebyg o T. Eliot ac Ezra Pound y mae eu gwaith yn dal i amharu ar yr un staen sy'n aros dros Saunders Lewis.

Byddai'n adfeiliedig os byddaf yn gwyngalchu y mater dyrys o stori Lewis. Roedd Saunders Lewis yn, unigolyn cymhleth arteithio, bardd a dramodydd, a ddisgrifiwyd gan Gwyn A Williams fel "geidwadol ddwfn, yn frenhinwr, yn gredwr mewn arweinyddiaeth". Dano, a elwir Plaid am "cenedl o 'cyfalafwyr bach', cydweithredu, y dad-ddiwydiannu De Cymru ac adfer amaethyddiaeth wrth i'r diwydiant sylfaenol". o'r enw Lewis hefyd ar gyfer y Dechrau o Saesneg fel iaith genedlaethol: "Rhaid iddo gael ei ddileu oddi ar y tir a elwir Cymru".

Bu'n llywydd Plaid am 13 mlynedd a daeth ei wyneb cyhoeddus. Yn ystod yr Ail Ryfel Byd symudodd y blaid tua'r dde, ac mae ei goddefgarwch o wrth-Semitiaeth a gwrthod i wrthwynebu Hitler, Mussolini neu Franco yn dieithrio llawer sy'n credu eu bod wedi ymuno â, hyd yn oed adain chwith, plaid genedlaethol rhyddfrydol.

Erbyn diwedd yr Ail Ryfel Byd cafodd Lewis ei ddadrithio gan y duedd 'sosialydd cymunedol' a heddychwr Plaid Cymru (fel y'i gelwid erbyn hynny), gan ei diffyg pwyslais ar yr iaith, ac yn ddiweddarach gan yr hyn y mae'n ei ystyried yn y safiad hanner-galonnog o'i llywydd heddychwr rhyddfrydol, Gwynfor Evans, ar gynlluniau gan Gorfforaeth Lerpwl i foddi pentref Cwm Celyn er mwyn creu cronfa ddŵr Tryweryn. https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/cofiwch-dryweryn-remember-tryweryn.html

Dros y 15 mlynedd nesaf symudodd y blaid o fod yn fudiad cenedlaetholgar adain dde i fod yn blaid o blaid masnach undebau a diwygio cymdeithasol. Teimlai'r Cenedlaetholwr ei ddwysáu yn y 1950au hwyr a'r 1960au gyda achos Cwm Tryweryn, lle, er gwaethaf protestiadau Cymreig ledled y wlad, pentref Capel Celyn ei foddi i adeiladu cronfa ddŵr i Lerpwl.

Cyfran Plaid Cymru o'r bleidlais aeth i fyny o 0.7 y cant yn 1951 i 3.1 y cant yn 1955 a 5.2 y cant yn 1959. Mae'n debyg y bydd Lewis yn heddiw cofir am ei etifeddiaeth lenyddol. Ei ddrama gyntaf, "Blodeuwedd" ( "Y wraig o flodau") agorwyd yn 1923. Mae ei ddrama "Buchedd Garmon" ( "Mae bywyd Germanus") yn darlledu ar y BBC yn 1937. Yn ddiweddarach yn chwarae fel "Siwan" (1956) , byddai "Brad" ( "Brad") (1958) a "Esther" (1960) yn sefydlu ei enw da fel bardd ac athronydd. Ysgrifennodd Lewis ddwy nofel, "Monica" yn 1930 a "Merch Gwern Hywel" ( "The merch Gwern Hywel") yn 1964. Mae'r gweithiau ynghyd â llawer o bobl eraill a addurnodd ef enwebiad ar gyfer Gwobr Nobel 1970 ar gyfer Llenyddiaeth.

Dychwelodd i ddarlithio yn 1952 yng Nghaerdydd ac arhosodd yno hyd ei ymddeoliad bum mlynedd yn ddiweddarach. Ym 1962 rhoddodd Lewis ddarlith ar enw radio BBC Tynged yr Iaith (The Tynged yr Iaith). Yn yr araith hon a ragwelir Lewis diflaniad yr iaith Gymraeg a datgan y byddai'r iaith yn marw oni bai bod dulliau chwyldroadol yn cael eu defnyddio i'w hamddiffyn. Roedd yn herfeiddiol canlyniad cry.

A ralio glir o'r ddarlith arwain at sylfaen y Gymraeg Iaith Cymdeithas / Cymdeithas Y Iaith - mudiad protest sydd wedyn yn gorfodi mabwysiadu dilysrwydd cyfreithiol cyfartal i'r iaith Gymraeg ym maes cyfathrebu swyddogol ac arwyddion ffyrdd - ac yn eu gorfodi Llywodraeth yn arwain at sefydlu S4C U-dro - Sianel Pedwar Cymru a gweld adfywiad yn y defnydd o Gymraeg llafar.

Dyma linc i drawsgrifiad llawn o ddarlith hanesyddol hwn; -https://morris.cymru/testun/saunders-lewis-fate-of-the-language.html Byddai'n cael effaith, ac aeth y mudiad iaith trwy symudiad pwysig, peidio â bod yn unig yn bryder ceidwadol a dechrau tynnu mewn llawer o fyfyrwyr a phobl ifanc.

Mae'r camau gweithredu yn canolbwyntio ar ymgyrchu ar gyfer defnyddio'r Gymraeg mewn dogfennau swyddogol, yn y cyfryngau ac ar arwyddion ffyrdd. Mae nifer o aelodau o Gymdeithas yn cymryd rhan mewn ymgyrch uchel-gwelededd o weithredu uniongyrchol yn 1969, lle mae arwyddion ffyrdd Saesneg yn cael eu fandaleiddio a'u paentio allan.

Gwelodd y cyfnod hwn nifer o streiciau newyn, dedfrydau carchar a galwedigaethau o stiwdios teledu. Mae'r ymgyrch yn erbyn Arwisgo Tywysog Cymru yng Nghaernarfon, hefyd yn 1969, gwelodd ymgyrch fomio ar wahân, lle mae dau ddyn ifanc wedi marw ar ôl bomiau aeth i ffwrdd lleferydd prematurely.

This hefyd wneud yn eironig yr hen ddyn i mewn i eilun ar gyfer cenhedlaeth newydd magu ar y delfrydau o'r symudiadau hawliau sifil yn y deheuol Unol Daleithiau a De Affrica. Mae'r arch-geidwadol wedi dod yn symbol o chwyldro.

Bu farw Saunders Lewis ar 1 Medi 1985 yn yn oed o 91.Yes safodd i fyny ar gyfer yr iaith Gymraeg, ond er gwaethaf ymdrechion i glanweithio ei stori gan aelodau o'r sefydliad Cymreig, byddai'n anghywir i brwsh aer y sawr hyll ffasgaeth sy'n aros ynghlwm wrth ef today.

We Ni ddylai anghofio naill ai ffaith, ymosodwyd arno yng Nghymru yn ystod y tridegau yn erthygl ar ôl erthygl yn yr iaith Gymraeg gan bobl y rhai a dynnodd sylw at ei gefnogaeth i'r achos Ffasgaidd yn Ewrop. Mae hyn yn ddyn sy'n llygru mywyd cyhoeddus Cymru am genedlaethau oherwydd ei bwyntiau unpalpable o farn, ac oherwydd hyn mae ei waith, bydd bob amser yn aros contentious.

Lewis parhau i fod yn ffigwr dadleuol, ac i ba raddau y mae'n coleddu agweddau gwrth-Semitaidd a mae cydymdeimlad ffasgwyr Ewropeaidd yn parhau i fod yn destun trafodaeth ddwys.

Saunders Lewis - A tainted legacy

Poet, novelist, dramatist, critic, politician and one of the founders of Plaid [Genedlaethol] Cymru, Saunders Lewis is considered one of Wales' leading literary and political icons, and is considered by some a nationalist hero.

He was born John Saunders Lewis, into a Welsh-speaking family in Wallasey, Chesire in 1893, and grew up among the Welsh community in Merseyside. Lewis studied English and French at Liverpool University until the breakout of World War One, after which he served in the South Wales Borderers.

After the end of the war Lewis returned to university and graduated in English.In 1922 Lewis joined the University of Wales, Swansea as a lecturer in Welsh.

Lewis' nationalism was heightened by his wartime experiences, and fighting with Irish soldiers in particular seemed to shape his ideas on the importance of Welsh identity.In 1925 he joined other nationalists at a 1925 National Eisteddfod meeting with an aim to establishing a national party for Wales. Plaid [Genedlaethol] Cymru was established, of which Lewis was President from 1926 to 1939. In 1936 in protest to a bombing school being established at Penyberth on the Llŷn Peninsula,

Lewis along with along with Rev. Lewis Edward Valentine, pastor of the Llandudno Welsh Baptist Church and David John Williams, senior schoolmaster at Fishguard County School had in protest set fire to a structure on a RAF base at Pwllheli, Caernarfonshire, Wales. They felt the recently built RAF base "was an immoral violation of the sure and natural rights of the Welsh people", Lewis saying that “the UK government was intent upon turning one of the ‘essential homes of Welsh culture, idiom, and literature’ into a place for promoting a barbaric method of warfare”.

After setting the blaze, the trio informed the police what they had done and turned themselves in and claimed responsibility for the act of arson.Lewis was dismissed from his post at Swansea University following the crime.

The Penyberth Three were jailed for nine months at Wormwood Scrubs for the act, an event which had major repercussions in the run-up to the Second World War and provoked a backlash against Wales and the Welsh in England.

However after being released from prison the men were given a hero's welcome by 15,000 people in Caernarfon.They had won the hearts of the Welsh people when they opposed the building of a bombing school in Wales .

Sympathy for this case will depend upon feelings for the nationalist cause.

However, what is striking is that the government’s lack of willingness to engage and compromise with the protestors led to a few people taking an extreme form of action.

It may not have worked as far as the Llyn Peninsula was concerned but it probably helped galvanise nationalist feeling in Wales for many years to come.

After being released from prison in autumn 1937, Lewis moved to Llanfarian on the outskirts of Aberystwyth, and spent the following fifteen years earning an uncertain living between teaching, farming and journalism.

In 1939 he resigned from the presidency of the National Party. 1941 saw the publication of the slim volume of poetry, Byd a Betws, in which the opening poem, ‘Y Dilyw 1939’ (‘The Deluge 1939’), refers to unemployed miners of the industrial south as ‘y demos dimai’ (‘the halfpenny demos’) and to Wall Street financiers ‘[a]'u ffroenau Hebreig yn ystadegau'r chwarter’ (‘with their Hebrew nostrils in the quarter's statistics’). It was repeatedly quoted from then on by left-wing critics attacking his snobbery and his anti-semitism. His column ‘Cwrs y Byd’ (‘The Course of the World’) in Y Faner was more substantial.

Between 1939 and 1951 he contributed more than 560 weekly articles on life in Wales, Europe and the world as it faced the inevitability of war, the conflict itself, and the new world which emerged from the subsequent peace. These columns show Lewis at his best and his worst.

Prophesying doom and convinced that no good would come of victory for either side, he said that Wales should remain above the fray.

His column was withheld more than once and often cut by the censor's blue pencil. Lewis, who during the First World War served as an officer with the South Wales Borderers, half-halo came to be cancelled out by one diabolical horn.

Lewis’s support for the dictatorships inaugurated first by Portugal’s Salazar and then Spain’s Franco became a subject of concern to Plaid members and voters.

Possibly influenced by his embrace of Catholicism – in whose pre Vatican 2 reading of the Christ story it’s fair to say the Jews did not emerge with any great credit – and certainly influenced by Maurice Barres, the market-leader in what has been called ‘the first wave of French Fascism’ and a high priest of French anti-semitism (of whom Lewis once wrote, acknowledging his debt, that ‘it was through him that I discovered Wales’), Lewis was certainly a political and literary anti-semite.

His position during the Second World War was also controversial as he felt that Wales should take a completely neutral position and supported the campaign for the Welsh to become conscientious objectors.

He argued with the left of the Welsh nationalist movement and was seen by some as having an elitist approach. Perhaps his most controversial statement, though, was when he appeared to show admiration for Adolf Hitler – as late as 1936, the year of the arson attack, when he wrote: “At once he fulfilled his promise — a promise which was greatly mocked by the London papers months before that — to completely abolish the financial strength of the Jews in the economic life of Germany.”

Though he is considered one of the leading Welsh political figures of the Twentieth Century, Lewis reputation should now be forever held into question like his contempraries T.Eliot and Ezra Pound whose work is still marred by the same stain that lingers over Saunder Lewis.

It would be a dereliction if I whitewashed this thorny issue from Lewis's story.

Saunders Lewis was a complex, tortured individual, a poet and dramatist, described by Gwyn A Williams as “deeply conservative, a monarchist, a believer in leadership by a responsible elite”.

Under him, Plaid called for “a nation of ‘small capitalists’, cooperation, the deindustrialisation of South Wales and the restoration of agriculture as the basic industry”. Lewis also called for the annihilation of English as a national language: “It must be deleted from the land called Wales”.

He served as president of Plaid for 13 years and became its public face. During the Second World War the party moved rightwards, and its toleration of anti-Semitism and refusal to oppose Hitler, Mussolini or Franco alienated many who believed they had joined a liberal, even left wing, nationalist party.

By the end of the Second World War Lewis was disillusioned by the ‘communal socialist’ and pacifist tendency of Plaid Cymru (as it was called by then), by its lack of emphasis on the language, and later by what he regarded as the half-hearted stance of its liberal pacifist president, Gwynfor Evans, on plans by Liverpool Corporation to drown the village of Cwm Celyn in order to create the Tryweryn reservoir. https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/cofiwch-dryweryn-remember-tryweryn.html

Over the next 15 years the party moved from being a right wing nationalist movement to being a party in favour of trade unions and social reform. Nationalist sentiment was heightened in the late 1950s and 1960s with the case of the Tryweryn Valley, where, despite nationwide Welsh protests, the village of Capel Celyn was flooded to build a reservoir for Liverpool. Plaid’s share of the vote went up from 0.7 percent in 1951 to 3.1 percent in 1955 and 5.2 percent in 1959.

Lewis will probably be best today remembered for his literary legacy. His first play, "Blodeuwedd" ("The woman of flowers") opened in 1923. His play "Buchedd Garmon" ("The life of Germanus") was broadcast on the BBC in 1937. Later plays like "Siwan" (1956), "Brad" ("Treachery") (1958) and "Esther "(1960) would establish his reputation as a poet and a philosopher.

Lewis wrote two novels, "Monica" in 1930 and "Merch Gwern Hywel" ("The daughter of Gwern Hywel") in 1964. These works along with many others garnished him a nomination for the 1970 Nobel Prize for Literature.

He returned to lecturing in 1952 at Cardiff and remained there until his retirement five years later. In 1962 Lewis gave a lecture on BBC radio entitled Tynged Yr Iaith (The Fate of the Language). In this speech Lewis predicted the extinction of the Welsh language and declared that the language would die unless revolutionary methods were used to defend it. It was a clear defiant rallying cry

.A result of the lecture led to the foundation of the Welsh Language Society/ Cymdeithas Y Iaith – a protest organisation which subsequently forced the adoption of equal legal validity for the Welsh-language in official communications and road signs – and forced a Government U-turn leading to the establishment of S4C – the Welsh Fourth Channel and saw a revival in the use of spoken Welsh. Here is a link to full transcript of this historical lecture;- https://morris.cymru/testun/saunders-lewis-fate-of-the-language.html

It would have an impact, and the language movement went through an important shift, ceasing to be just a conservative concern and beginning to draw in many students and young people.

The action focused on campaigning for the use of Welsh in official documents, in the media and on road signs. Many members of Cymdeithas were involved in a high-visibility campaign of direct action in 1969, in which English road signs were vandalised and painted out.

This period saw numerous hunger strikes, prison sentences and occupations of TV studios. The campaign against the Investiture of the Prince of Wales at Caernarfon, also in 1969, saw a separate bombing campaign, in which two young men died after bombs went off prematurely.

This speech also ironically made the old man into an idol for a new generation bred on the ideals of the civil rights movements in the southern United States and South Africa. The arch-conservative had become a symbol of revolution. Saunders Lewis died on September 1st 1985 at the age of 91.

Yes he stood up for the Welsh language but despite efforts to sanitise his story by members of the Welsh establishment, it would be wrong to airbrush the ugly whiff of fascism that stays attached to him today.

We should not forget either the fact, he was attacked in Wales during the Thirties in article after article in the Welsh language by those people who drew attention to his support for the Fascist cause in Europe.

This is a man who polluted the public life of Wales for generations because of his unpalpable points of view, and because of this his work will always remain contentious.

Lewis remains a controversial figure, and the extent to which he harboured anti-Semitic attitudes and a sympathy for European fascists remains a subject of intense debate

SEE ALSO:

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/gwlad-beirdd-niclas-y-glais.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/remembering-niclas-y-glais-heart-and.html

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/george-galloways-shame-in-defence-of.html

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

The BNG Reiterates its Opposition the EU, Calling for a Social and Truly Democratic Europe of the Peoples

Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr salutes position of BNG in Galizia opposition to EU it being similar to CUP in Catalonia and our Irish Comrades in Eirigi


Following the results of the BREXIT referendum held in the UK on 23 June, the National
Executive of the BNG released a detailed statement stating that the results
reopen the debate on the way the EU functions and essentially stemmed from a
profound democratic criticism of EU policy which has effectively destroyed social
cohesion, favouring the interests of financial capital and large corporations with the
EU working in the dark and in a highly undemocratic way.

The BNG recalled that it has always maintained a critical stance regarding the economic
and social model defended by the European Union, from its opposition to
Spanish membership of the European Economic Community and the Maastricht
Treaty to supporting a No vote in the referendum on the European Constitution

which was also defeated in the referendum in France, another State central to the
European Union.

The thread running through European construction is the fact that it serves the economic
interests of big corporations and oligopolies with negative results for the majority
of society.

It has had dire consequences for Galiza, ranging from the dismantling
of our key productive sectors and the loss of jobs to making it impossible for
us to take full advantage of our economic potential, effectively stunting any kind of
economic development geared to the real needs and possibilities of the country.

As an alternative to the EU which has been clearly damaging for Galiza, preventing
us from achieving improved levels of development and welfare, the BNG has always
supported a Europa based on the democratic will of the nations and peoples which
comprise it: a social and truly democratic Europe. And we believe that this position
is gaining ground today and is more relevant than ever.

Regardless of the reasons behind individual votes, the Executive of the BNG believe
that the BREXIT result will reopen a vital debate on several key issues today, such as
the desire for national sovereignty and the response to political and humanitarian
crises, e.g. refugees.

See Also

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-internationalist-case-against-eu.html

Solidarity with Kurdish Struggle from Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr/The Great Unrest

Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr calls on the British Government and the European Union to call for Turkey to halt its use of fighter planes and the bombing  the Kurdish people in South Eastern Turkey - Northern Kurdistan.

We also call on The British Government and European Union to condemn the Turkish invasion of Northern Syria and its attack on Kurdish People of Northern Syria - West Kurdistan.

We also demand the Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan being produced by Turkish government to confirm that he is safe and well.

The Kurdish people have distinguished themselves before the world as the best fighters against the Islamic fundamentalism and  patriarchy of the Islamic State (ISIL)

Kurdish people have done the fighting and the dying  fighting the Islamic State to uphold universal secular humanistic values.

They are now being betrayed and sacrificed by Washington and Moscow on the altar of geo politics of imperialism.

Washington and Moscow  are dancing with the despot Erdogan.

We call on the British Government and European Union to lift the terrorism ban on the representatives  of the Kurdish People the PKK the Kurdish Workers Party and to recognise the legitimate national aspirations of the Kurdish People for self determination.

The Aflonyddwch Mawr salutes the historic friendship between Welsh and Kurdish peoples while we appeal to the British Government and European Union to stop the Turkish murderous attacks on the Kurdish people.

Whatever the actions of the British Government and the European Union there is an unbreakable bond of friendship between Kurdish and Welsh People.

Wales salutes the heroic Kurdish people.

Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr's struggle for Welsh independence and socialism is inspired by the Kurdish People's Struggle.

Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr will be handing out his statement to the people of Carmarthen on the 17th September at 12.00 pm and the People of  Merthyr at 12.00 pm on the 24th September and Wrexham at 12.00pm on the 1st October 2016.

SEE ALSO:

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/is-pyd-collaborating-with-imperialism.html

From Nefyn in North West Wales to Tredegar in South East Wales - The Welsh Socialist Republican Congress is on the road to its October 29th /30th Congress

NEFYN

TREDEGAR

The Welsh Socialist Republican Congress Promotion in September reaches Nefyn in the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd in North Wales and Tredegar in South Wales - forward to the October Congress on 29th/30th October.

There are pre Congress meetings in Wrexham on 1st October and in Carmarthen on the 17th September and Merthyr on 24th September

Contact us if you wish to attend pre Congress meetings at

info@greatunrest.org

Remembering Christopher John Smith of Abertillery - Workers Freedom Group opposition to First World War

The Welsh coal miner Christopher John Smith, very active in Abertillery in the Workers Freedom Group there, had his house visited by a police inspector whilst he was at work on March 22nd 1916, and anarchist literature there was confiscated.

As Freedom noted on his trial “our militant comrade at Abertillery, Chris Smith, has now been singled out for distinction for thinking aloud”.

In court he described himself as an Anarchist Communist. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment on 12th April 1916 for advocating a down-tools policy to the prejudice of the national interest, translated by Freedom as “the heinous crime of distributing leaflets among the miners”.

He was also charged with sending a letter to a newspaper calculated to prejudice recruiting. Judgement was reserved on the latter charge.

Smith told the court he had been a soldier in the Boer War but had since changed his mind about militarism.

On August 5th, 1916 the socialist paper The Merthyr Pioneer reported:

"The case of Chris Smith, about four months ago sentenced at Abertillery to six months' imprisonment under the Defence of the Realm Act, will be well remembered by many Pioneer readers.

A week last Monday his wife and other relatives and friends visited him at Usk Prison, where he is confined. They found him in good health and spirits, and also looking well and strong.

He was by no means down-hearted, but rather his optimism was marked. Prison life has not modified his opinions, neither lessened his determination to continue service in the people's cause. The cell does not suppress a man's spirit nor his mentality it only strengthens the revolutionary."

Source: https://libcom.org/history/anarchists-against-world-war-one-two-little-known-events-abertillery-stockport

See Also;

http://greatunrest2012.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/wales-and-first-world-war-by-nickglais.html

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/wales-and-first-world-war-by-nickglais_2.html

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/wales-and-first-world-war-by-nickglais_3.html


http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/wales-february-3rd-1935-day-burned-into_3.html

In Defence of Rojava by Memed Aksoy

The Turkish army, together with a rag-tag team of jihadist Free Syrian Army militants, has invaded areas of Rojava and continues its incursion further into territory that had already been liberated from Islamic State.

Turkey backed FSA militants, made up of Nour al-Din al-Zenki Battalions, Faylaq al-Sham (Sham Legion), Sultan Murad Brigade and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly al-Nusra) among others -all Salafist/Islamist groups responsible for countless human rights crimes- have already declared they will march onto Manbij, which had rejoiced with joy recently after being liberated from Islamic State by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Images of women taking off their enforced niqabs and smoking, and men shaving off their beards is still fresh in the memory of those following events in Syria.

After taking Jarablus in agreement with the Islamic State without firing a single bullet, the Turkish army has engaged in airstrikes and shelling of civilian areas, killing at least 45 in two villages south of Jarablus. Dozens of local fighters from the Jarablus Military Council, affiliated with the SDF, have been taken prisoner and tortured in front of cameras; most of them Arabs.

With its latest military foray Turkey, which has tried to camouflage its regional war on Kurds by using the Islamic State as a pretext, is trying to prevent the conjoining of Rojava’s three cantons. Furthermore this is also an attempt to strengthen Sunni/Muslim Brotherhood forces, which are ideologically aligned with the Turkish AKP government. Through these proxies Erdogan hopes to revive his neo-Ottoman aspirations to have a say in Syria’s future and a longer-term influence in the Middle East and North Africa.

What is at stake though, as much as Kurds’ gains, is the possibility of a progressive, secular and democratic political line and system in the region. This is what Rojava represents and this is why the Syrian regime, Iran, Russia and the USA have agreed to Turkey’s invasion.

Rojava’s existence in this regard is a threat to the status quo and interests of all the nation-states and governments in the Middle East and by extension those pillaging the region.

As an alternative model of governance Rojava has proven that people from different ethnicities and religious groups can organise at the local level, live, produce and struggle together without a centralised state, even during times of sectarian war. The unity between Kurdish, Arab and Turkmens against Turkey’s invasion is proof of this.

For this reason Rojava’s expansion and the conjoining of the three cantons -Cezire, Kobane and Afrin- is being prevented by all powers involved in the Syrian war. Furthermore and for the same reason, Rojava’s expansion cannot be viewed in the same light as areas being captured by Turkey backed jihadi groups or the regime. These two political systems -Islamist and Baathist- have nothing to give to the people in terms of a humane, progressive and participatory democracy. Indeed they do not even make any such claims.

Although Rojava, with its anti-nationalist rhetoric has already nullified accusations from some quarters that Kurds are trying to capture Arab lands it is also worth noting that the area between Kobanê and Afrin, which is under attack by Turkey and FSA jihadists, was systematically Arabized by the Syrian regime in the 1970s.

Even if this were not the case, the Kurds, as a distinct group living in a contiguous piece of land across Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, would still have a right to self-determination and international recognition. To argue otherwise would mean that the states above, which have large Kurdish populations whose rights have been denied for decades, should be deemed illegitimate from the moment they were declared.

In short, Rojava has become a light, a beacon of hope for all the progressive people of the world; against inequality, despotic regimes and systems of hierarchy and patriarchy, Rojava has raised the flag for humanity against barbarism.

This is why the Rojava Revolution must be defended against Turkish and jihadi aggression once again. Once again revolutionaries, democrats, feminists, secularists and all progressive forces must come together, like they did in Kobanê, to make the Rojava Revolution victorious again.

SOURCE: http://www.kurdishquestion.com/article/3397-in-defence-of-rojava