A communist perspective on Welsh Labour and Mark Drakeford
Welsh Labour recently celebrated 100 years of electoral victory and hailed themselves “the most successful political party in the democratic world”. It is worth taking a look at the nation’s dominant political party under Mark Drakeford from the perspective of Welsh Communists.
Welsh Communists mark 85th anniversary of Spanish Civil War and legacy of International Brigaders
A range of speakers contributed to the event at at the Welsh International Brigades Memorial earlier this month (21 July 2021) in Cathays Park Cardiff including Will Barton, secretary of the Cardiff branch of the Communist Party (whose speech is published in full below), Robert Griffiths General Secretary of Communist Party and Marc Bilbao Asensio from the Communist Party of Spain. There were revolutionary songs from Cor Cochian Caerdydd and a poem and reading from International Brigades Cymru. Keeping alive the memory of the Welsh international brigaders: Yn cadw’r cof am y brigadwyr rhyngwladol o gymru yn fyw.
The left should oppose Johnson’s Internal Market Bill – but not for the reasons you might expect
The government’s new Bill withdraws economic decision-making powers from devolved administrations just as they are set to escape EU ‘competition’ regulation, explains Communist Party International Secretary, John Foster.
Llanelli 1911 Railway Strike Commemoration – 13 to 22 August
Over a hundred years ago, during the first national railway stoppage in Britain, the military were called out in force to quell the strike. They were deployed in Llanelli where mass picketing had stopped all rail traffic. Troops from the Worcestershire Regiment shot dead two unarmed men and wounded two others, sparking the Llanelli Rising of 1911.
Poetry Corner: ‘Du Ydwyf, ond Prydferth’/‘Black am I, but Beautiful’ by TE Nicholas/’Niclas y Glais’
‘Du Ydwyf, ond Prydferth’ (Negro a fu’n cydweithio â ni am wythnos yn y carchar) ‘Niclas y Glais’ (1879-1971)
‘Black am I, but Beautiful’ (A Negro who worked with us in prison for a week) by TE Nicholas (1879-1971).
TE Nicholas ‘Niclas y Glais’, congregational minister, pacifist, champion of the disadvantaged, initially a member of the Independent Labour Party and then a founder member of the Communist Party, remaining in it till his death. Niclas was an internationalist who loved the Welsh language and the culture of the Welsh people. Writing almost entirely in Welsh, he won 17 eisteddfod chairs. In July 1940, during the Second World War, he and his son Islwyn were arrested on trumped-up charges of fascism during his 4-month imprisonment in Brixton, he wrote 150 sonnets, from which the following are selected. aWe present here the original Welsh and the English translation of his work side by side; the latter of course cannot capture the full expression of the former.
Wales: Who cares for carers?
Claudia Cannon discusses the dire need for increased support for carers in Wales and across Britain and the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
An examination of the national question in Wales
Nathan James makes the case for progressive federalism for the people of Wales – and the other nations of Britain – as the basis for democratic empowerment and the radical redistribution of wealth
YCL Wales: building the movement
Comrades of the growing Young Communist League Wales highlight the importance of education in building the YCL and the need to combine theory and practice.
Democratic Federalism, the Welsh Economy & Economic Justice
Nathan James makes the case for radical economic planning and redistribution in Wales to reverse a decade of austerity and invigorate democratic rights.
Democratic federalism emphasises the symbiotic relationship between public sector intervention and economic democracy at a local, federal and national level. It requires a significant level of income redistribution at federal level combined with the development of economic democracy at the local and national level. This vision stands in contrast to the type of economic devolution mandated for English regions by the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act (2016).
