South Wales Meeting (11/6)

In 1925 was formed Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party. Today Plaid Cymru has become a real challenge to the Labour Party. Plaid Cymru claims that English domination is the cause of the social ills, such as bad housing, old age poverty, unemployment and rural depopulation from which the people of Wales suffer. It is a delusion which socialists seek to dispel.

What is the attitude of the Socialist Party to Welsh nationalism?  The Socialist Party and Plaid Cymru see society from different points of view. For the Socialist Party present-day society is divided into two classes: a capitalist class who own the means of production, and a working class who, having no property, are forced to work for the capitalists. The interests of these two classes are opposed and between them, there is a class struggle. This transcends national boundaries. For the Socialist Party, the propertyless working class have no country. The Welsh nationalists, on the other hand, sees the inhabitants of one particular geographic region as having a common interest. They ignore the class division of society and the class struggle. For them the nation is all-important. They encourage the worker to believe he or she has a country. Thus socialism and nationalism are opposed. They are irreconcilable.

Nationalism is, in fact, one of the means which capitalism uses to blind the workers to class society. The nationalists claim to stand in the interest of the workers in Wales. It is not concerned with the fact that because of the international nature of capitalism, workers are exploited everywhere and therefore the attack against exploitation must be on a broad front recognising no national barriers. For this reason, the Socialist Party is opposed to Welsh nationalism and does not support the demand for Welsh independence. Plaid Cymru is a parochial organisation, not recognising exploitation as being synonymous with capitalism.

The Socialist Party, therefore, urges the workers of Wales to unite with workers elsewhere to set up a world socialist system where the peoples of the world will co-operate to produce for their needs on the basis of the common ownership and democratic control of the means of life. This will be a society without frontiers, without nations, and without war.  Wales can achieve, along with the workers of all countries, the victory which will end for all time the exploitation of man by man. The history of the future will tell of the final assault and triumph of humanity over slavery and humiliation and the world will be the inheritance of the people as a whole. The voice of the Socialist Party in Wales is a small but a constant one. It will continue to expose those who, under the guise of liberators, continue to mislead the working class.

The land of Wales could raise its voice in a mighty chorus which would reverberate through the hills and valleys and beyond. “Workers of all lands, Unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains, you have a world to gain.” This is the real message of freedom: these words spell freedom in any language.

BRANCH MEETING

Monday, 11 June - 7:30pm - 9:00pm

Unitarian Church,

High Street,

Swansea SA1 1NZ