At some point late in the day yesterday, Vaughan Roderick apparently commented that Welsh Labour are one of the few social democratic governments left in Europe. At face value this comment may appear to be true, given the Labour Party’s pedigree, and the fact that the leader was a Corbyn supporter who came to power …
Category archives: Articles
A Problem called Abolish
The most depressing incident of the election campaign for me was receiving a piece of Abolish the Assembly ‘literature’ through our post box. It was a leaflet calling for the abolishment of the Senedd on the basis that it has legislated for sex education in schools. As well as illuminating a little of the elasticity …
In conversation with Sioned Williams – “I don’t come from a family of politicians, but I do come from a political family”
“It is key that the Left explains to its supporters that a vote for Labour is effectively a wasted one when it comes to the second vote.” With the election approaching, we’ve taken the opportunity to speak to some of the candidates. First here’s Sioned Williams, an Undod member and candidate for Plaid Cymru. Shwmae …
The Rhondda’s Next Step by Leanne Wood – a review
“The Welsh make and remake Wales day by day and year after year. If they want to. ” – Gwyn Alf Williams Where stands socialism in turbulent present-day Wales? A timely question on the threshold of elections to the Senedd. Are there still politicians who are unrepentant socialists? If so, what kind of platform do …
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Criminal Legal Aid in Wales
Dan Newman and Roxanna Dehaghani The criminal justice system of England and Wales is broken, according to the best-selling Secret Barrister. Decades of underfunding, exacerbated by the UK government’s austerity programme from 2010, have gutted the system posing great threat to access to justice. To date, the debate on the problems of criminal justice have …
Undod stands in solidarity with Gypsy Roma and Traveller communities
Undod stands in solidarity with Gypsy Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities, and with the protestors in Bristol who have this past week been brutalised by police whilst resisting the Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. If passed, this legislation will take away the right to trespass, with devastating effect on the lives of nomadic Gypsy Roma …
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The Fight for the Northern Meadows: A Salutary Tale for Today’s Wales
On the 3rd of March there will be a debate in the Senedd on the demand for an independent inquiry into the site for a Velindre Cancer Centre. Here Tessa Marshall, a campaigner with Save the Northern Meadows, provides a detailed account of the recent history around the development, highlighting the need for such an …
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Radical independence cause makes gains in Catalonia
Radical independence forces made significant gains in last week’s parliamentary elections in Catalonia, as the pro-independence vote shifted measurably to the left. Turnout declined because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but reached 51%. A majority of voters opted for pro-independence parties for the first time, and those parties increased their majority by 4 seats. Leftist gains …
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Militarism in Wales
An article that first appeared in Welsh on the Cymdeithas y Cymod website in January 2021 to note that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has come into force, and that there was a day of campaigning against the War in Yemen. Militarism. A crucial subject, but one that is barely discussed in …
A Social Wage for Parents and Carers, a National Carers Pension, and a National Care Service For Wales
If ever there was a time when childcare, and care work more generally, has been thrown into the spotlight then the current pandemic is definitely it. In addition to unexpected and last-minute school closures due to COVID-19, many working families have had the difficult task of caring for their unwell or isolating children sent home …
The Land that Lost its Values
For those who grew up in Aberystwyth and the surrounding area, the National Library is a building and institution that is integral to the landscape and the memory it shaped. As a school child this is a place you visited in awe and hushed silence, to take a look at William Morgan’s Bible, the embodiment …
Save the Paddle Steamer – letter to the press
Tomorrow, Cardiff Council’s Planning Committee will consider an application to demolish the Paddle Steamer, a historic establishment in Butetown, for social housing. Campaigners have made a simple ask to engage with them to find a way to keep space for the cafe on the site as part of the development. We’re calling on Council Leader …
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Back to Thatcher for the National Library: Shredding our Heritage
Prospect Trade Union, National Library of Wales Thirty years ago, in the days of Margaret Thatcher, the Welsh Office conducted a review of the National Library of Wales and concluded that the Library required additional funding. A Whitehall-based Civil Servant quipped at the time to a member of management ‘You do like your National Library …
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Summer dwellings and village schools: the ambivalence of the national movement
Angharad Dafis Cymru’s rural communities are under siege. Holiday dwellings on the one hand, and the annhiliation of social hubs of all kinds on the other, are having a detrimental effect on the viability of Cymraeg, let alone the quality of life and standard of living of the inhabitants of these communities. But the official …
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A Name for a Place
With the Senedd discussing the names of homes on Wednesday, this is an article by Elin Hywel first published on the Llafar Bro Blog. When walking familiar ground, I often consider how different each time was when I travelled this way; what thought consumed me then? I’m sure I remember standing in this same spot …
Abolish and replace South Wales Police – and every other police force
Our society has many problems. The police aren’t the institution to solve them. In fact, they’re just another problem. We should abolish the police, overhaul our justice system, and use the money and resources we free up to pursue actual, evidence-based solutions – writes Harry Waveney. **** Regarding police violence, many of us over here …
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Black Lives Matter – A Restatement
On the first of June last year, Undod issued the first version of this statement in solidarity with those demanding justice for George Floyd, and all those who fight against racism and state violence everywhere. As we noted at that time, the violent suppression of protests across the US, from casual brutality to rubber bullets …
First, Do No Harm
Staging a post-pandemic ‘recovery narrative’ in Wales – by way of a celebratory event born of a ‘culture war’ – is a contradiction in terms, argues Frances Williams. Instead of international cooperation, 2020 was a year which saw the pandemic prompt aggressive nationalist narratives. Projections of the virus as foreign body gave rise to a …
Growing our movement in 2021
There’s been a big focus on membership numbers in the Welsh independence movement as of late. YesCymru have been diligently tracking their swelling ranks on social media recently, and it makes for incredible reading: membership has risen from around 2,500 at the start of this year to over 16,000, which by most metrics makes it …
A criminal system
The expanding industry If you want to understand modern Wales – how it is governed, its political culture, the level of respect for basic human rights – begin with the facts about imprisonment. By every measure, the Welsh prison complex is expanding. There are now five prisons in Wales: Usk (and Prescoed), Cardiff, Parc, Swansea, …
The true meaning of Christmas
We do not know when Jesus of Nazareth was born. The earliest Christians mention days in March, April, May and November. December 25th was adopted in the fourth century as part of the process of making Christianity the official religion of the Empire. Up until the reign of Constantine in the early fourth century, being …
The fight against the Military Medicine Museum goes on
On 16 December, Cardiff’s Planning Committee approved the building of a Museum of Military Medicine on Britannia Park in Cardiff Bay, despite local and wider opposition. The Museum was created in 1952 to tell “the story of army medicine and healthcare, human and animal, from the English Civil War to the current day”. It is …
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Putting work in its place
People will have their own view about the extent to which the Covid-19 pandemic will continue to existentially threaten our economic order, lifestyles, aspirations and opportunities, but one thing that has attempted to hasten our sense that ‘normality’ is returning has been the ‘Let’s get back to work’ mantra. It’s a sign of how central …
Why the time is right for universal free school meals
Covid-19 has both exposed the extent of poverty in Wales and deepened it. Even before the pandemic, 700,000 people, more than one in five people already lived in poverty. With a quarter of Welsh households seeing their incomes fall since March, and with living costs rising, many of our poorest families are struggling to keep their …
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The Welsh Government is to blame for the second wave, not working class people: resist their tactic of divide and rule!
Over the last few weeks, as Wales has become the only part of the UK where COVID-19 cases continue to rise, there seems to have been a conscious decision made by the Welsh Government to attempt to shift the blame away from themselves and onto the general public. On Tuesday, Vaughan Gething appeared on various …
We should be optimistic for our future
These are difficult times in Wales. The never ending economic misery continues, our environment is suffering from climate change and biodiversity loss, young people can’t find affordable housing in their communities, inward migration and second homes have pushed up prices and is threatening our language in the north and west. People are feeling disillusioned, isolated …
We must Reclaim Cardiff
Those of you familiar with this blog will know that we’ve drawn previous attention to the slow but sure desecration of our capital city by the current Labour-run council. The threat to Grangetown’s Tramshed and the welcoming of a British Military Museum on the doorstep of our Senedd are just two parables of the calamity …
Statement demanding that no more babies die in prison
End the imprisonment of pregnant people and the avoidable deaths of babies in prison We are prisoners, ex-prisoners, academics, health workers, local councillors and social justice groups who were outraged and broken-hearted to hear the news that two babies have needlessly died in prison in the last year. We call on the Ministry of Justice …
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Steps towards sustainable transportation in Cymru
Barriers to inevitable and urgent change The cancellation of the new M4 relief road in 2019 marked an opportunity for Cymru to break with the unsustainable transportation policies of the past, especially our chronic over-reliance on cars1. But there are barriers to be overcome before we can even begin seeking appropriate solutions. The first barrier …
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Review: Llyfr Du
“The basis for revolution is to dissolve hierarchy, class rule and coercion; it is to build a New Wales as a true participative democracy, built around a sense of fairness and community, where citizens can lead happy, fulfilling lives.” Months ago a comrade asked what writing existed on what an independent Wales would actually look …