Nationalist Nonsense

The leader of Plaid Cymru, Adam Price, speaking at the nationalist party’s campaign launch, Price put the idea of Wales breaking away from the UK and remaining in the EU as an independent country front and centre of the Plaid campaign with its slogan is “Wales, it’s us”. Price said: “It’s us, the people of Wales, that hold the key to the nation’s future…an independent Wales.  He said the general election could signal the start of a movement towards “a new Welsh spirit of independence and optimism”.

In the context of reform politics Plaid Cymru is having a degree of success, and why not? Look at the trivial explanations offered for working class problems by the rival parties. The Tories say it is because Labour is doctrinaire and incompetent. Labour says it’s Tory callousness and misrule. So why cannot Plaid Cymru get on by blaming “English government” and the “English parties”? Plaid Cymru promises that if it forms the government it will introduce various social reforms designed to improve the lot of the people of Wales. We say that such reforms will fail. For it is the social system, and not the political regime, which will determine how people will live in an independent Wales. 

Whether workers in Wales vote for the Plaid because they really believe in independence for Wales or because they fed that this is the best way to air their grievances is debatable. The question that workers in Wales should put to the nationalists is—if Wales succeeds in obtaining independence what will be the political outlook of the new sovereign Welsh Government? Will industry be carried on for profit? Will monetary considerations rule the field of planning and production? The answer is clear—all the machinery of capitalism will be in operation; nothing will have changed basically. Independence will not give the people of Wales more control over their own affairs. The only change that will do that is a change in the whole social system, replacing competitive production for profit and minority ownership by co-operative production. An independent Wales cannot achieve this. It is only feasible in a money-free, frontier-free society which, for those with vision, is the next stage in human social evolution.

A “free” Wales would find that do matter how sincere or radical their intentions would have to face the fact that capitalism runs on profit and cannot be made to work in the interests of all. They would find that the problems they promised to solve did not arise, as they claimed, from the link, with England or from a conservative England holding back a radical Wales. At least that would be a useful lesson. But how much better would it be were workers to heed what the Socialist Party says now and so avoid finding out the hard way. And independent Wales would not help solve their problems. What we must do for this is to take joint action with workers of other lands to make the means of life the property of a world community, with an end to frontiers and national states. For the Socialist Party the propertyless working class have no country.  For this reason the Socialist Party is opposed to Welsh nationalism and does not support the demand for Welsh independence. 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 of the means of life. 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 voice of the Socialist Party in Wales is a small but a constant one. All parties are in opposition to it but it persists. It will continue to expose those who, under the guise of liberators, continue to mislead the working class. 

At the General Election on the 12th of December our Welsh fellow-workers in Cardiff will have the opportunity to cast their votes for Brian Johnson who is the Socialist Party candidate.