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 […]
Category Archives: Articles
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Westminster’s plans will devastate our rural communities – we must oppose them
Note: This speech at the XR Cardiff Rising Tide event was delivered on 2nd September 2020 before the publication of the Internal Market Bill, which only underscores everything said below, whilst adding a deliberate attack on devolution and the right of Welsh people to self-government to the Westminster government’s aims. My name’s Siwan and I’m […]
A tribute to David Graeber
David Graeber, one of the most influential leftist intellectuals of recent times, sadly passed away on the 2nd of September. I won’t be alone in feeling a deep sense of loss with this news—he was a voice of clarity and hope for many of us on the left, someone that we often turned to during […]
Undod statement: The threat to security here has never been from migrants
Undod stands in solidarity with all people seeking passage to Britain’s shores, who are forced to face dangerous routes and exploitative brokers by the UK and the EU’s brutal immigration systems. We join in mourning the 16-year-old child who lost their life in the English Channel and in condemning the assault on another 20-year-old migrant […]
Undod statement on exam results in Wales
Undod condemns the decision by the Welsh Government not to trust in our teachers and to assign grades instead on the basis of an algorithm endorsed by a Tory Government in Westminster. This action has thrown into stark relief the structural inequalities that operate in our education system, and has further entrenched the biases that […]
Climate justice is social justice
The following sets the case for a radical approach to tackling the climate crisis in Wales and invites contributions from Undod members to explore related topics in further detail. The real crisis looms… Viewed from the midst of a global pandemic, it might be tempting to forget that we are also in the grip of […]
Hiroshima-Nagasaki 75: working towards a nuclear-free Wales
75 years have passed since the Americans, with British agreement, dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is the first time, and so far the only time nuclear weapons of mass destruction have been used. It is commonly thought that this led to the end of World War II, but Japan was already on […]
Mental health in Wales: the gap between rhetoric and reality
Content warning: this article discusses suicide and neglect within mental inpatient settings. Introduction Late in the afternoon of Friday January 24th 2020, the Welsh Government published the third and final delivery plan for their ten year strategy on mental health. Following a six week consultation the previous summer, Ministers spent five months sitting on responses […]
The arithmetic of populism
Some months ago Angharad Dafis wrote about the closure of Ysgol Felindre. Here she reflects on subsequent events, and how the story of a village school in Wales exposes the chimera of a caring, communitarian Wales, illustrating how deeply enmeshed we are in the fraudulent neoliberal practices of the British state. I never really relished […]
Solving the housing crisis in Wales
As long as capitalism prevails, housing will always be a commodity or investment for some whilst others live in misery Engels, The Housing Question The coronavirus crisis has been defined by class. The last few months have seen working-class people forced out to work in dangerous conditions to keep us safe whilst the rest of […]
Solving the spectre of food poverty in Wales through Universal Basic Income
Food banks have stepped up to the plate in the austerity years, and throughout the corona-crisis they are proving to be more necessary than ever with queues for emergency food parcels increasing by the week. In March, the Trussell Trust, one of many UK food bank charities, experienced an 81% increase in demand. It’s an example of […]
Cofiwch Epynt… Is it not high time that the army left the area?
This is the slogan on the side of a bus stop shelter on the road from Cwm y Glo to Llanrug, four miles outside Caernarfon. One is used to seeing ‘Cofiwch Dryweryn’, but this is a new twist. I do not know who the artist is, but they’ve chosen the same colour – red text […]
Solidarity with Kongreya Star and the women of Northeast Syria
A few days ago, we lost three friends in an attack on a gathering of women activists in Northeast Syria. Though we had never met them, and they lived in a region far away from ours, we were united by our common struggle for women’s lives. For devoting their lives to the fight against patriarchal […]
The land of Wales
Introduction The agricultural industry has always been deeply embedded in Wales’ land. As one of the series Wales’ next step this article aims to introduce some of the background to agriculture in Wales to an urban audience, and to ask some questions about the industry itself. We will look at ways in which farmers and […]
Why the flooding in the Rhondda is a political failure
We stand in solidarity with people in the Rhondda whose homes have been flooded for the third time this year, and we support Leanne Wood’s call for an independent inquiry into this repeated flooding. Wood, Member of the Senedd for the Rhondda, claims that urgent assistance is required to stop this happening again, saying that […]
The British Virus
Images by youtookthatwell 1. The Capitalist Virus When the full scale of the Coronavirus crisis first became apparent in the UK, one could have been forgiven for presuming that it signalled an existential blow to the global economic order as we know it. As the country began to comprehend the struggles we were about to face, […]
Flushed away? Penygroes factory workers need an alternative
Originally published by Dolan Northwood Hygiene’s threatened closure of the paper products factory in Penygroes should surprise no-one. The facilities have been under threat before, but have survived. But it looks like that COVID-19 will finally kill off the factory according to its owners. But is this true? This is what the company had to […]
Undod urgent appeal: 24 hours to save Tramshed
“We want Cardiff Council to feel the outrage that its people feel over the idea of another Gwdihŵ and over the umpteenth time their interests have been steamrolled in favour of some corporate development.” Cardiff Council, infamous for their short-sighted approach to preserving culture in a city as historic as Cardiff, are yet again on […]
The military museum is an insult. Let’s work together to stop it.
Plans for the building of a Museum of Military Medicine at Britannia Park, down Cardiff Bay, have met fierce criticism over the past week. There is a widespread feeling that, once again, Cardiff is being developed outside of the influence of its residents. This proposed development is one story among many in Cardiff. We have […]
The end of Welsh farming?
As the world faces a global pandemic that originated with unsafe food production, you might think that food safety would be high on the political agenda. Similarly, as many countries brace for food shortages arising from Covid-19’s disruption to the global supply chains of both produce and labour, you might think that food security and […]
No going back to normal – the left must seize the moment and dominate the crisis
Originally published by the author on 26 Ebrill 2020 The Italian Marxist revolutionary Antonio Gramsci dedicated much of his thought to the concept of crises. This was the result of him coming of age and then living through a series of crises on the world scale (WW1, the 1929 stock market crash), and a domestic crisis which […]
Buying local: sustainable communities, the Caernarfon way
Part of the series Wales’ next step A year ago, everyone took great delight in the colourful umbrellas on Stryd y Plas, not because it was raining cats and dogs, but because it was a pleasant, sunny day. This was the latest idea on the street to make it more attractive. Indeed, on the weekend […]
Why would I be interested in something political like Undod?
Part of the series Wales’ next step I’m not going to pretend that I’m not a political person – I am. I always have been. As are my family and as my children will grow up to be. So, it is easy for me to say that everyone should be actively interested in politics – […]
A national movement for political change is possible – and it is necessary.
Part of the series Wales’ next step You may be among those that have asked, so what’s the story? Or reflected on a question that is asked fairly often, namely: ‘Why?’ What follows sets out some considerations on the purpose of Undod, at this time. The starting point is the need for a group that […]
Wales’ next step: Solving street homelessness
Part of the series Wales’ next step “The previous homelessness system was not appropriate or fair, and the bold actions taken during this crisis demonstrate this clearly. There must be no going back to the old system. The crisis must be the catalyst to finally solve homelessness.” In Cardiff, a city which has embarrassingly become […]
Wales’ next step: a new series
No more top-down politics: a one-way track to more poverty, more inequality, and a deepening of the ecological crisis. We need to take the initiative. Over the coming weeks we will set out the possibilities that present themselves to the country as it emerges from the crisis. The coronavirus represents the most drastic manifestation of […]
VE Day – and the other realities of war
May 1st was International Workers ‘ day. A Bank Holiday, as usual, but back in 2019 the Westminster government announced that it would be moved to May 8th in 2020, in order to celebrate 75 years since VE Day – the day when the Second World War ended in Europe. The intention was to hold […]
Community, society, and economy: response to Covid in Penygroes
This is a translation of the original article in Welsh. On Sunday evening, March 15th, 2020, Yr Orsaf community café in Penygroes was comfortably full. Local poet Karen Owen was hosting an evening with Aled Jones Williams, and the café had just celebrated its first year in existence. “Things were progressing really well” said one […]
Gordon the Big Engine: a political appointment
In a recent series of blogs, Undod has been forthcoming in its criticism of Welsh Government for its handling of the Covid-19 crisis from the very beginning, when a rugby match between Wales and Scotland was not cancelled until the last minute – and when it was too late to stop thousands of fans from […]
Building a better Wales: beyond incarceration
Today should have been a celebration of Welsh culture, identity and independence in one of Wales’ most iconic towns, Wrexham: home of Welsh football, excellent lager, Gŵyl Twm Sbaen, Saith Seren, and pioneer of Welsh nonconformism, Morgan Llwyd. Instead, we are holed up during a period of self-isolation in a desperate crisis that few would […]
Vaughan Gething should go
The world will change utterly, even for those of us who make it through alive… But the people who led us into the disaster are still there. * In our recent round-up of the crisis, we drew attention to a litany of errors from the Welsh Government. We expressed the hope that their handling of […]
Now is not the time to “get behind” the dear leaders.
October 21st, 1966 We are in a schoolroom; on the eve of the half-term holidays. In a few seconds the vast mound of dirt and coal waste and mud on the hillside above us will start to slide downhill. Most of us will die, and those who live will live forever with the unspeakable guilt […]
Welsh Government has the powers to reduce crisis poverty – now
Attention has rightly turned to basic income as a way of ensuring financial security for everyone during the pandemic and resulting deep economic recession. Facing the prospect of shattered livelihoods and disappearing incomes, we have seen the UK Treasury make guarantees to business in the form of an 80% wage subsidy, rate relief and various […]
Welsh Government: always one step behind
More than two weeks into the COVID-19 crisis and the signs are not good in Wales. The NHS Health Board bearing the name of its founder is currently recording higher levels of infection per 100,000 people than London, while the state of Wales as a whole is comparable to the English West Midlands – one […]
The politics of mutual aid during the COVID-19 crisis
Crisis and community There has been endless talk about the politics surrounding the COVID-19 crisis—including important critiques of the disastrous response by the UK and the Welsh governments. This is an important place to start, because we need to recognise this as a political crisis, especially during a time when some are condemning others for […]
In a pandemic scenario, Welsh Government must offer decisive political leadership
Following last night’s announcement by the UK Government, echoed by the First Minister, Wales is now entering a soft version of the lock-downs that have been enacted in Italy, Spain and France. Yet there should be no doubt, immediate further action is needed here in Wales as outlined in Undod’s statement two days ago. Our […]
Responding to the coronavirus pandemic: our demands of Welsh Government
By initially following a strategy opposed to the guidance of the World Health Organisation and evidence of what has worked in other countries, the UK government has lost weeks in the fight against COVID-19 — a mistake that is likely to cost lives without urgent and radical steps to tackle the spread of the virus […]