WHITHER PLAID GLYNDŴR - A New National Independence Party?
Despite the occasional technical hitch which derives from working with computers and which can drive one to a state of furious frustration at times, I must concede that access to the World Wide Web is a wondrous and incredible phenomenon that allows each and every one with access the ability to seek out any information on any topic in the world. For those of us interested in histories and politics, we can, in no time at all, learn about the history and politics of other countries and can compare and seek out the similarities in the historical and political background of those countries with the historical and political background of our own. We can, likewise, keep up to date with the news in regards to current political strategies in other countries and small nation states and compare those with the current political strategies as they stand in Cymru and, as I see it, Cymru has much to learn from other small nations if we are to be totally serious about a national campaign for an Independent Cymru - and 'National' is the key word because, at this present time, we are a nation of people that are at the mercy of 60 "so called" Welsh politicians operating from a glass extravagance in Bae Caerdydd and, out of those, we have a Labour Cabinet who are totally deluded (or are they?) in their belief that they are the "Government of Cymru" when, in reality, they are a 'puppet government' of the English Westminster Government, allowed to exist to carry out their dirty work of exploitation of our Cymric resources.
They know our colonial history as well as anyone, they know about the occupation of Cymru since 1282, they know about the annexation of Cymru via the 1536 Act of Union . They know about the land enclosures, the exploitation of our coal, slate, lead, copper and water resources and they know only too well that whilst all our nationalised industries have been allowed to demise, 100's of thousands, at the least, four generations of our Cymric people have never had an opportunity to work and, as a result have lost the work ethos and have been left in a nightmarish 'no hope' situation. They have been stripped of any dignity and far too many of our youth have turned to a life of crime, drugs and alcohol as a way of life.
Whilst our National Health Service is being grossly underfunded and our hospitals and schools closed one after the other, our 'puppet government' in Bae Caerdydd is thrown a measly few crumbs off the Westminster table to spend on twenty devolved areas including health, education and economic development and then, the English Government has the audacity to even cut that "so called" budget to the bare bones ensuring that the most vulnerable and poorest in our nation is doomed to suffer even further as health, education and economic development is hit hard by these cuts in the so called "Development Budget".
Let us not be under any illusion in regards to what this present "Welsh Government" really is. They are a 'middle management puppet quisling administration of an English and European Unionist rule and will never ever be supportive of full Independence for our nation. It views the Welsh Assembly as merely a 'Wales ally' in the Labour anti Tory platform and if a time comes when Labour gets back into the Westminster Government and Labour is in control in Bae Caerdydd, then, obviously, the ties between the London and "Welsh Government" will be stronger than ever with the Welsh Assembly Government being even more of a 'puppet administration' in Cymru for their London masters - who will continue to control the purse strings and will continue to deny Cymru full power over our natural resources and energy, which could, if we had our own independent government, provide us with the necessary trilions in revenue needed to get our nation back on its feet and thriving.
So when I read such aims as to become a "one planet nation" in the present "Welsh Government's" manifesto, I know that what is really meant is "one corporate planet colony" Simple to understand really. England, who is already helping itself to our water and forestries/wood resources - and has done so for a long time, now needs cheap energy and have come up with new policies (such as TAN 8) to get it. In their stupidity, they have turned to wind and wind farms as the cheapest option of producing this energy (although it isn't of course, as they still need power stations to back up this wind energy) and our beautiful landscape and sacred mountains as just the place to plant as much of these monstrous windmills as they can fit into Cymru. Much better than to plant too many of them in England and destroy England 's green and pleasant lands!
The "Welsh Government" is, of course, happy to collaborate to implement such policies in Cymru and yes, we would not expect any better from the other British parties in the glass emporium in Bae Caerdydd but what about Plaid Cymru or the 'Party of Shame' as I now call them? They were leading in a Coalition Government with the Labour party for 5 years (until they lost members in the last election) and were, therefore, complacent in the administration of the TAN 8 policy during that period as well as the 'One Wales' policy which included the building of large scale housing developments along the North Wales corridor. They are also known to be in favour of windmills and are just as happy to receive their 'undeserving' large wage and ridiculously high expenses and live the good life of travel and champagne breakfasts as the other British parties without any pangs of conscience in regards to the desperate economic situation that their fellow Cymry are in!
The time has come to face reality and be truthful, If we allow the status quo to continue, we will not survive as a people. Whatever developments takes place in Bae Caerdydd in the coming years in regards to devolved powers, any government based there will always be a puppet quisling administration - aided by an old 'Taffia and the 'Crachach Newydd' colonial collaborators. The London government will never give Cymru power over her natural resources and whilst they control our natural resources, they will forever control our country. Our "so called" nationalist party has been in existence since 1925; they have collaborated as part of a coalition government in Bae Caerdydd for five years and have failed miserably to deliver to better the lives of the Cymric people. Our nation and its people are suffering greatly because of their continuous reluctance to truly fight for Welsh Independence as a 'true' nationalist party should. The leadership is strutting around like a group of headless chickens and its time they stepped into the shadows to make way for the dawning of a strong and uncompromising Independence party.
Recently, I suggested in an article that I had written, in Cymraeg, for 'Y Cymro' newspaper that maybe the time had come for the birth of a new nationalist party and that this new party should be called Plaid Glyndŵr, and following my recent viewing of the Plaid Cymru conference where, once again, I witnessed some members of the Plaid leadership stating that they were in favour of Independence for Cymru whilst others of the leadership made it clear they were not! I feel, more than ever, that we can no longer afford the time to place our faith in the Plaid/Party of Shame leadership and that the time has come for Plaid Glyndŵr to be born for 'real' to continue the struggle that he started over 600 years ago and sacrificed so much for. I can see it as the only way forward to re-establishing our Sovereignty and winning true Cymric Independence . We certainly will not win it through a Britannic Confederation nor a European Empire, nor through the Green Eco Colony that the Lord Protector, Dafydd Elis Thomas has in mind for Cymru. We will only win our independence through a serious renewed Cymric struggle to restore Senedd Glyndŵr and the re-establishment of the Cenedl Glyndŵr - Cenedl Cymru Rydd that was brought into existence on and about 21 Mehefin 1404.
A serious Plaid Glyndŵr will, at the least, need a sincerely patriotic steering council that's made up of experienced and seasoned politicians, lawyers, accountants, economists, clerics, linguists, fundraisers, organisers, press attache and researchers. This council must be totally dedicated to the cause of fighting for the return of power over our resources so that they can make full use of them to renew the Cymric economy and bettering the lives of every citizen in the Cymric nation. Plaid Glyndŵr would be proactive in the building up of a strong and dedicated nationalist membership base, would formulate a strong manifesto, fight local and county elections but abstain from Assembly and British elections. The aim will be to win as many seats as possible within communities throughout Cymru and make our country ungovernable from London and Cardiff . It will be recognised from the start that re-instating our Sovereignty and winning our Independence will not be achieved by constitutional politics alone and that unconstitutional action will need to be carried out when needed and Plaid Glyndŵr will need to be ready to be at the vanguard of campaigns that need to be fought on all fronts in Cymru.
Plaid Glyndŵr - and Cymru cannot afford the cost of failure - and it won't fail if the Party is constructed carefully and intelligently by the right assemblage of experienced and seasoned people in their fields of expertise. Whilst such is of paramount importance, it is also equally important for those voices of experience to have formulated a full programme of training for younger members of Plaid Glyndŵr. Part of this programme will be for the younger members to shadow each member of the council and also to send them to shadow and learn from ministers in other small nations that have fought or are still fighting for their Sovereignty and independence so that they can return and contribute their new found knowledge to the work of Plaid Glyndŵr for the benefit of the nation.
The above suggestions are merely that, "suggestions" but, being aware as I am, that our nation is being "sold off" on a massive scale to a new age of global capitalists and wind mill robber barons by an ever growing legion of consultants and lobbyists that are latching onto ministers in the Assembly of Appeasement with English Imperialism, I honestly cannot see any other option for our nation if we are to survive and prosper. But, and I cannot stress this enough, Plaid Glyndŵr will only work if the aforementioned experienced and dedicated people get together to form it. I realise, such people are thin on the ground but they are out there - a very few of them are still members of Plaid Cymru - Party of Shame, others have left that Party in disgust but they are now seriously needed by our nation to give birth to Plaid Glyndŵr.
I have been told (or was it a nightmare?) that Royston Jones has stated on his blog that he intends to start a new Nationalist Party at Cilmeri this year. Be very wary, we have been here before. This will be just another Cymdeithas Cyfamod or Welsh Independence Party, both of which Royston Jones became a leading member of and both failed, in disarray, with accusations flying all over the place in regards to spies, informers etc. Despite the fact that I'm very aware of the now established tradition of going to Cilmeri annually to remember the death of Llywelyn 11, I would not consider it to be a suitable venue to launch a serious political party. I, myself, do not go to Cilmeri anymore as I'm very aware of the fact that the Cilmeri rali, unfortunately, has been of more service to WECTU as a "jam pot" than to the cause of Cymric freedom in recent years.
Apart from all that, I am pretty sure that the people needed to start a serious political party such as Plaid Glyndŵr will not be found at Cilmeri. I am happy to admit that I do not have the youth nor the necessary experience to be involved at a top level and neither has Royston Jones, we cannot afford to waste time, energy and resources yet again. A new Plaid President will be in office by the 15th March next year (2012) and there's a serious danger that the new president will be none other than the 'Brit' Lord Protector Dafydd Elis Thomas who is far more interested in towing his cap and licking the asses of English royalty and in being the President of a Green Renewables Republic - serving nothing but Global Corporate Capitalists interests, than in our Sovereignty! And our Independence as a nation is the last thing he wants. Surely, no true Cymric nationalist could remain in Plaid Cymru if this Lord Protector does become President and I can but plead with the very few truly dedicated leading figures in Plaid Cymru, the ones who sincerely care about our nation and its people, and who are not in this cause to feather their own pockets and the pockets of a Taffia/Crachach minority, to rally the right assemblage of dedicated and experienced patriots together to establish the much needed Plaid Glyndŵr.
I would like to suggest the following programme as a means of establishing Plaid Glyndŵr and Efyrnwy as the ideal location to launch the Party. This site, more than any other in Cymru, at this present time, is a stark example of the "selling off" of our nation. The estate, as you all know, is in the process of being sold to an English utility company and a global capitalist renewables company against the wishes of the community so, undoubtedly, it would be the ideal location symbolically to see the dawning of the new Plaid Glyndŵr Independence Party.
I suggest that the first move towards launching the new Plaid Glyndŵr Independence Party should come from within Plaid Cymru and that all the above and below is considered within their membership over the coming months. Then as and when Dafydd Elis Thomas is elected as Plaid President, there is a mass resignation by true nationalists within the Party led by a 'Plaid Glyndŵr Party Collective' who will announce the intention to establish a Plaid Glyndŵr. My reason for suggesting this course of action is due to the fact that I recognise that within and around Plaid Cymru there are true Nationalists who are also politically educated and experienced and I recognise that a new party has a better chance of being founded and will have a better chance of success if it is based on this Nationalist rank and file rather than a disparate collection of a Patriotic Fringe as found at the Cilmeri rali.
I therefore suggest the following programme/time table for the launching and development of the Plaid Glyndŵr Party:
The first task should be the formulating of a Plaid Glyndŵr Constitution and Manifesto. A draft provisional copy of this Constitution and Manifesto can then be put before all those that would be likely members of Plaid Glyndŵr for discussion, additions and adjustments (prior to being finally voted on) at the Community Centre in Llanwddyn on May 28th (Glyndwr’s birthday) 2012.
Those present will then commit to go back to their communities to hold meetings and recruit members, encouraging they to attend a gathering at Y Plas in Machynlleth on 21 Mehefin 2012 'Dydd y Senedd' at which Plaid Glyndŵr will be established.
I suggest that the official launch be on about 16 Medi 2012 in Corwen with a press launch to publicise the establishment of Plaid Glyndŵr, it's purpose and main Manifesto points.
I further suggest that Plaid Glyndŵr holds its first annual Party Rally on 24th Medi with the theme of the ‘launching of an all Cymru/Wales and international campaign to Save Our Sovereignty’.
The suggested above programme will allow the time for many considerations along with opportunities for the widest involvement of all who sympathise and wish to join and actively contribute time and effort to Plaid Glyndŵr. Such will be transparent and open to all who, in good faith, commit to the success of the Party for the sake of our nation and our people.
The time table above allows for a measured and steady approach to the advance of Plaid Glyndwr. Lets do it now or, the alternative is that our nation dies as a result of being pillaged and plundered into resourceless poverty. As for the name Plaid Glyndŵr, as was the case with the 'Sandistas' and 'Zapatistas', taking the name of a National Hero is not just a matter of 'Iconic' appeal but makes a point in no uncertain terms. In our case, what better as a means of inspiration for our new Independence party than the name of the most heroic of Warrior Princes that we’ve ever produced, the father of Welsh Nationalism and the founder of Senedd Cenedl Glyndŵr Cymru Rydd.
Siân Ifan.