Category Archives: Articles

Mass civil disobedience breaks out in Catalunya

Cymraeg | català Undod / solidarity with Catalunya Yesterday the Spanish Supreme Court finally gave their verdicts against the nine Catalan political prisoners on charges, including ‘rebellion’ and ‘sedition’, associated with the October 1st 2017 referendum on independence for Catalunya. All were prominent politicians or cultural leaders and Catalunya has been anxiously awaiting the expected […]

Plaid Cymru and nukes – meltdown mentality

Plaid Cymru meets for its annual conference at Swansea over the weekend, and no doubt we’ll hear all sorts of promises about the independent Wales which seems to be closer than it has been for ages. But can we rely on Plaid to lead us to the promised land? Or will the party lead us […]

Does Wales even need a capital city?

Wales’ independence is an opportunity to rethink everything. In his widely praised speech delivered at the independence march in Merthyr Tudful, Eddie Butler called independence a blank canvas. A referendum will no doubt be the means by which we become independent but we shouldn’t let our vision be limited by that horizon. After the march, […]

Wales rising

Liminal 1, relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process 2, occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold *** Merthyr Tudfil; that crucible of the Welsh imaginary where industrial Wales began. Merthyr; that legendary name where the forces of Dissent first mustered in Wales; Merthyr; the word […]

You can’t fix Britain

There was no coup d’etat. Nothing illegal happened. The British state is doing exactly what it was designed to do. In Britain’s unwritten constitution, there are no rules, only conventions. What Boris Johnson did certainly feels wrong. A Prime Minister from a party that hasn’t won an election in Wales since 1885, winner of an […]

Boris Johnson can be defeated in Wales with radical democracy

You’ve heard it by now: some posh wanker has asked the Queen to suspend the Westminster parliament to push through a no deal Brexit. Even Philip Hammond is calling Boris’ move undemocratic. The UK is on fire, once again. Or rather it continues to be on fire but some Etonian has pissed petrol onto the […]

Why we in Wales should be defending the Rojava revolution

Wales’ independence movement offers hope for a different kind of politics. Those of us interested in Wales’ autonomy and freedom don’t want a carbon copy of the colonial British state. The hope is that with true independence we can lift our people out of poverty in the abolition of the class system, heal our environment […]

Arms licences for Saudi Arabia illegal says the Court of Appeal – what’s this got to do with Wales?

What’s the story? Undod welcomes the news that the Court of Appeal has ruled that the licensing of arms exports to Saudi Arabia is illegal. The judges said it was “illogical and therefore unlawful” that the UK Government’s Secretary for International Trade had authorised weapons export licenses, without an assessment of whether Saudi Arabia had […]

Bridgend Ford is a catastrophe. Wales must learn the economic lessons

Last week in Wales should, in years to come, be considered a few days that defined an epoch. After years of prevarication, the M4 relief road was finally scrapped for what must surely be the final time. Within days, Ford had announced they were shutting their factory in Bridgend, with the loss of around 2000 […]

Wales, the climate emergency, and the M4

Statement Undod is a movement established to secure independence for Wales. An independence worthy of the name follows several essential principles including, but not limited to: climate justice protecting our natural environment an ethical economy for all of Wales’ people, and all of the peoples of the world. Undod strongly opposes the idea to build […]

Interview with Jean-François Joubert, Québec Solidaire activist

Adam Johannes from Cardiff People’s Assembly talks to Jean-François Joubert, a Québec Solidaire activist. In October 2018 Québec saw a historic election with the two parties that have traded power for generations both hammered at the polls by voters hungry for change. The main beneficiary was the right wing Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), but the […]

A Brexit escape route for Wales?

A few weeks ago a most unusual occurrence came to pass. The Guardian ran a piece that focused some of its attention on Wales. Whatsmore, despite Brexit being its focus, it did not involve another of those narratives about a journey into the Heart of Darkness – the latest attempt to find out why the […]

Democratising the Welsh alternative media

This is an adaptation of an article which originally appeared in Welsh in the magazine O’r Pedwar Gwynt. Thank you to the author and the magazine for giving Undod permission to republish it. Before we start, let us accept a basic truth: there is nothing inherently Welsh about the Welsh media, and there is no […]

The night IndyWales became the best gig in town

“Something’s Happening” were the words that summed up the occasion. An ineffable feeling that could not be expressed in any specific terms, but only sensed in the moment. Well over a thousand people crammed into the Tramshed to listen to a veritable feast of artists singing under the banners #yesismore and #gellirgwell – urging people […]

US imperialism in Venezuela, and the legacy of colonialism

For too long, solidarity with the oppressed, the working class and the “wretched of the earth” has been an afterthought for those on the left of the Welsh independence movement. Solidarity with socialists abroad shouldn’t be an adjunct, a caveat to the “real” struggle of Welsh independence; it is part of one organic whole, our […]

No royalty: defining and growing a truly democratic Wales

What kind of Wales should we have? Let’s establish a foundational principle right now: the people of Wales must have the powers to decide their own future. Wales must be a democratic country, in the fullest sense. If we as a people value our democracy then this has implications. We cannot sustain, endorse, or even […]

We have to share a picture of the independent Wales we want

Occasionally, I get asked how it was that I became involved in the Welsh national movement. The answer is that I had what you might call an epiphany – like the flicking of a switch – one evening in 2016. I saw a flyer advertising a meeting that Leanne Wood was hosting in my local […]

Socialism and independence for Wales

Discussion about the relationship between socialism and the national question is fundamental to the future of the movement for independence, Undod. In these notes it is argued that a belief in the creation of socialism in one country is a dangerous foolishness. Outlined below are twelve considerations pertinent to the debate about the relationship between […]