Red Pepper » Wales

Cwtch: What Occupy did next in Wales

admin — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 11:00:07 +0000

Photo: Sync Speed Photography
In January, a fledgling community group opened the first in a series of squatted social centres in Swansea. Naming themselves Cwtch, the Welsh word for cuddle, most of the group met during Swansea’s Occupy protests, but from day one they were a movement in their own right.
‘Not everyone in Occupy Swansea wanted to do a social centre,’ recalls 57-year-old activist D Murphy. ‘So we kind of split our meetings into two: we would have an Occupy meeting and then people would drift away and talk about the social centre.’
They began by squatting the abandoned Dolphin hotel in the city centre, after gaining access through an open window. Just one day later they’d transformed the 66-room hotel into the Cwtch Community Centre. There was a donations-optional café, a freeshop and room to relax and hold workshops.
Cwtch has found strength in the variety of people involved. ‘There’s one local businessman who was there from the beginning. There’s a university lecturer and I’m an office manager . . . I’ve made a wonderful new friend who’s 17; it’s cut across all kinds of boundaries,’ says D.
Cwtch has keenly promoted the centre via its own videos, on Facebook and in the mainstream media too. Its transparency has helped attract a diverse range of Swansea residents. At the Dolphin hotel many different people could be found enjoying a cup of tea, or browsing the library, including young families and homeless people.
Homelessness is a serious problem in Swansea. More than 15,000 people sought council help for homelessness in Wales during 2011, up 11 per cent on the previous year. The highest number of homeless as a percentage of the population is in Swansea.
Cwtch’s aim has been not just to provide shelter for the homeless but to highlight the lack of provision for homeless people. ‘Considering the wealth of finance we’re supposedly stopping by running a free arts café, you’d think they could provide more than a single emergency bed for the homeless of Swansea,’ comments Rev, another member of the organising group.
The hotel’s leaseholder, UBS, acted quickly and an interim possession order was obtained, bringing the group to court on Valentine’s Day. D says the courts were surprisingly sympathetic: ‘When he [the judge] was handing down [the verdict] he said if he had any discretion in the matter he might have come to a different decision.’
The group had 24 hours to clear the building. ‘We were standing on the steps and it was so beautiful, we put a thank you sign on the window and we were out and moved into another building,’ says D.
This other building was the JT Morgan department store. But on entering it became clear there was no electricity as the copper wiring had been ripped out, so it was used as an arts space for students from Swansea Metropolitan University.
Cwtch was swiftly evicted, but had already found another large city centre space. This time they’d been invited to join an already-squatted former old people’s home, which they named Surfsmor. ‘It was a place called Earlsmoor which is due for demolition,’ explains D.
Cwtch does not have a clear set of political aims. As with the Occupy movement, the emphasis is on process, bringing people together and providing a space for them to talk and think. ‘I think what makes us so successful is that we build community, and it’s something people are starved of these days,’ says Rev. ‘Whether it’s chilling in a café or doing some graft, people like other people.’
Despite being popular with the Swansea public and attracting considerable press interest, the Cwtch activists again found themselves being served with eviction notices. After three evictions they have decided to take a break to plan for the months ahead and consider their tactics, although they briefly established a community garden.
D says the group has different views on the importance of the squatting aspect of Cwtch. For half of the group establishing the social centre was key but for the others the act of squatting was just as crucial. Cwtch’s persistence in squatting large city centre buildings has placed pressure on the council to justify why so many buildings are lying empty.
‘I very much believe in squatting,’ D says. ‘I think it’s a really fundamental right. It’s interesting that we’ve moved into buildings and suddenly they’re about to be used imminently. I think it’s shaken people up.’
A new law is due to ban squatting in residential buildings, but Cwtch’s tactic of squatting large, non-residential properties will be unaffected.0
D says the future looks exciting. ‘The spirit of Cwtch is very strong still, so I think that come summer Swansea is in for a few surprises.’
Keep updated on Cwtch at www.facebook.com/CwtchCommunityCentre

A new Cymru – Leanne Wood interviewed

admin — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 10:00:50 +0000

Leanne Wood is on the move, travelling by car to Aberystwyth. She’ll spend the morning meeting Plaid Cymru local election candidates before driving down the Welsh coast to Aberteifi (Cardigan, as it’s called in English) to visit a community co-operative. The day is typical for Plaid’s newly elected leader. In the leadership campaign she was appearing at meetings all over Wales, and since her victory she’s been on the road again visiting hopeful candidates. Her enthusiasm for meeting people and talking face to face partly accounts for how she came from behind to win the leadership. It also helps explain why Plaid’s membership increased by 23 per cent during the leadership race.
She didn’t manage to repeat the success in the local elections. Plaid lost councillors instead of gaining them, including in Caerphilly, the one Welsh authority where they’d been in control. Labour tapped into concerns about public sector job losses and Plaid’s vote suffered as a result. The party isn’t going to be turning on its new star just yet though: Wood was only elected six weeks ago and Plaid has barely begun its process of renewal.
As Wood told party activists after the results: ‘We know from the findings of our internal review, Camu ’Mlaen, what we need to do to turn Plaid Cymru into a successful party capable of making inroads into new territory. Plaid Cymru activists must now be ready to roll up their sleeves to carry out the hard work needed to rebuild our internal party structures.’
Camu ’Mlaen (Moving Forward) was an internal review carried out after the 2011 Welsh Assembly elections. Plaid had just lost seats they won from Labour in 2007 and dropped from being the second to the third party in the assembly (after Labour and the Conservatives). The election results were particularly poor as Plaid had been in coalition with Labour during the previous term. Camu ’Mlaen argued that Plaid had not succeeded in distinguishing itself from the Welsh Labour party, and called on the party to define and articulate a vision of decentralised community socialism to contrast with Labour’s centralist approach.
In many ways Leanne Wood’s election fulfils the recommendations of this review: there can be no doubt that she offers a vision of decentralised socialism. Her Twitter feed sums up her position: ‘Plaid Cymru. Welsh Socialist and Republican. Environmentalist. Anti-racist. Feminist. Valleys.’
In South Wales she is known as a woman who lives by her politics. She has supported activists and striking workers, spoken out about police brutality and attended many a demonstration. Her actions have caused controversy on occasion, most famously when she was expelled from the assembly for refusing to retract a statement calling the queen ‘Mrs Windsor’. She lives in (and represents) the former coal mining valley where she was born: the Rhondda. She recently turned down the extra £23,000 she was entitled to as party leader (which would have put her annual wage at £77,000). Her continued connection to Welsh social movements ensured her election as leader was greeted with delight, especially on her home turf of South Wales, where anarchists and local SWP members alike described her success as the victory of a comrade.
Left expectations
Wood spends her journey to Aberystwyth talking to me. We begin by discussing the Welsh left’s expectations for her leadership. She is clear that her first priority is to represent the members of Plaid: ‘The Plaid Cymru leadership have appeared distant and I think that’s why the membership now have opted for me. I’ve said that I will honour and respect conference decisions and take the views of the membership very seriously. That’s the basis of democracy and that’s what I intend to do. But if Plaid members are up for going down the route of a more radical politics, and I think that’s what my vote reflected, then we’re in for a really interesting time in Wales.’
Wood’s victory does indeed mark a departure from the traditional party leadership. Not only is she the first female Plaid leader, she is the first not to be fluent in Welsh and the first, at least since Dafydd Elis Thomas in the 1980s, to so clearly define herself as socialist. Plaid remains a broad coalition that includes conservative cultural nationalists, but it is clear that the left of the party is now setting the agenda.
For Wood the key policy area is the economy: ‘We’d focus on a long-term job creation plan to enable people to earn an income because without jobs you can’t have anything. So I think addressing Wales’ economic problems and the inequalities both between Wales and other parts of the UK and the EU and also inequality within Wales is key. What we need is a US-style “new deal”, like they did in the Thirties in the United States, but for us it should be around renewable energy and food production.’
Economic greenprint
Decentralisation is crucial to Wood’s economic vision. Last year she wrote A Greenprint for the Valleys, in which she set out why credit unions and co-operatives are central to financial renewal in the upper part of the valleys. It’s an idea she’s keen to expand on.
‘Co-operatives have a great potential at this time. If the workforce have more of a say in the way their industry is run, that creates a more successful organisation. I think people need to have a say in the work they do. In the past the answer for the Welsh economy was attracting companies on the basis that we can provide cheaper labour than elsewhere – and so in recent years where labour has become cheaper in other places those companies have up and left. If we can encourage more indigenous, worker-controlled businesses they’re more likely to stay.’
Wood cites the Mondragon Co-operative as an attractive example because of the number of people it employs, but she argues such a model might not be suitable for Wales: ‘I would rather see smaller units of people connected up instead of one big company. I think Wales lends itself to that kind of organisation because we’re quite a small country. But there’s a vast rural area within Wales as well, so you could have small co-operatives in towns and villages that would have a huge impact in terms of unemployment because we’re talking about small numbers of people living in those places anyway. And it would help to secure the viability of those communities over the long term, because without jobs those communities can’t be viable.’
Wood doesn’t just want worker involvement – community participation is also important. ‘If you look at Denmark,’ she says, ‘wind farms can only get planning permission if the community owns a certain percentage, so the money is plied back into community facilities like youth clubs, libraries – that’s the sort of model I favour. Public services are being run down in many areas and removed from some places. So where these big gaps start appearing in the welfare net people need to come together to fill these gaps.
‘There’s obviously the danger of the “big society” agenda here, which I think is a massive con because that is about trying to reduce the state, so we have to be wary not to fall into the traps set for us by the Conservatives. But with, for example, the closing of the Remploy factories [a state‑owned firm that employs mostly disabled workers], we’re losing seven factories – what’s going to happen to the workers in those factories? Who’s going to keep an eye on them? How can we ensure that the communities they live in are supportive communities? Maybe by developing cooperatives in the community we could have a diversity of people in work because they’re supported.’
Community control
Community involvement means people having control over basic resources. Decentralised food and energy production is particularly important, Wood says: ‘At the moment the assembly only has powers to determine energy consents up to 50 megawatts, so we want full power over all energy consents for Wales. But I’d like to go further and give responsibility to communities for generating their own energy and becoming self-sufficient in renewable energy as far as they possibly can. For example, [we could say] to community X (however you define it), if you can produce 50 per cent of your own energy renewably then all of the people living in that area can have 10 per cent off their council tax. But we can only do that if we have all of the powers.’
‘Food production is the other issue,’ she continues. ‘We’re at the end of many supply chains in Wales, so if the price of oil continues to go up then that’s going to have an impact on food. We should be growing our own food for the population in Wales.’
During her tours of Wales, Wood has visited some of the growing number of co-operatives that already exist. She argues these examples should be replicated throughout the country: ‘Last week I went to visit a social enterprise on Caia Park council estate, a very large sprawling council estate in Wrexham. It began when a group of women came together, single parents from the estate, and they set up the creche first. There are now various operations: a community cafe, a wood workshop, a plant nursery, a toddlers’ creche. They’re employing 70 people, all from the local estate. If that sort of model could be replicated it could make a serious dent in our employment problem.’
Wood says her commitment to worker and community cooperatives is something she’s inherited from her predecessors in Plaid Cymru and the Welsh people in general: ‘It does go back a long way. Some of the early thinkers in Plaid Cymru on the economy were DJ and Noelle Davies and they very much came at the question from an anti-big state perspective. So we talk about decentralist socialism. We want power devolved down to communities and people to take decisions as much as possible at a local level, but that has to balanced, for example, by things like the NHS, which should be run nationally.
‘We only need to look back in our history in Wales . . . all of our communities were built by people coming together, putting their money, time and labour together and creating the institutions we have today – miners’ institutions, working men’s halls, libraries, they were built by people coming together. That is Welsh society. We’ve had our own version of it for decades, maybe even centuries.’
Nuclear division
Wood’s Greenprint document presents a manifesto for how Valley communities could mobilise this tradition to reverse the structural neglect that has created decades of economic decline. It’s a vision that has inspired Plaid, uniting it around this plan.
In other policy areas, though, the party is divided. Nuclear power proved particularly contentious in the leadership race, with candidates fighting over whether a new power station on Ynys Môn (Anglesey) should be given Plaid support. Although Plaid is officially anti-nuclear, the promise of new jobs saw rival candidate Dafydd Elis-Thomas supporting the power station. Wood remained vehemently opposed and when she won the election she shifted the former leader from environment spokesperson to food, fisheries and rural affairs, removing him from responsibility for the power station decision.
‘Some members have promoted the building of a new power station because of the dire situation with jobs on Ynys Môn,’ says Wood. ‘If you look at the GDP figures they are horrendous; there’s about 58 per cent of [average per capita] UK GDP on Anglesey. So the jobs question is the big driver. But my argument has always been “yes, jobs, but not at any cost”. So the Real Independent Energy paper I wrote was an attempt to provide alternative solutions for jobs in Anglesey that didn’t involve nuclear. We could create an energy island on Anglesey, really pushing on the marine renewable energy sector like they have in Scotland, and there could be more jobs created than there would from a nuclear power station.’
Another question that plagues Plaid is how to increase support for an independent Wales. Wood’s commitment to socialism is matched by her belief in liberation nationalism, but it’s a belief much less fervently held by the country at large. Support for Welsh independence currently stands at only 10 per cent.
Wood says Plaid’s success will hinge on the economic case for independence: ‘People fear that we would be much worse off economically if we were independent and so we have to address that. I would argue that Wales can’t prosper unless we become independent, unless we have the lever of control in our hands. Our poverty isn’t inevitable – we don’t have to have a weak economy – but our effort needs to go into making that case.’
Voting for cuts
Despite arguing against the cuts, Plaid Cymru councillors have voted for reduced budgets. While the Socialist Party of Wales and others, including some trade unions, have pushed the Welsh government to set a needs-based budget, Plaid refused to support the campaign. Wood says it was a pragmatic decision.
‘There’s no mechanism for voting down the settlement as it comes from Westminster,’ she says. ‘So [regarding] the idea of setting the needs-based budget, I just don’t see how it could practically be done. There’s no independent means of raising income through the assembly, no tax-raising powers, and that’s why we’re pushing for fiscal powers now so that we can raise money to plug the gap. And that’s the difference between [us and], say, Liverpool council in the 1980s, who tried to stand against cuts – they could independently raise their own revenue.’
Like the Green Party in Brighton, Plaid is struggling to put clear ground between its choices in power and Labour’s ‘management of the cuts’. Wood says the key issue is where the cuts fall: ‘What I’m seeing is that the people on the lowest income are bearing the brunt, whereas the people at the top of the tree aren’t taking a hit. If you had a maximum pay policy for the public sector you could then save money at the top end. So I wouldn’t take a position of absolutely no cuts.
‘The Wales Audit Office paid a package to one of their senior officers of £750,000 and those sorts of fat cat pay deals do need to be addressed. We’ve also got a situation in the Rhondda Cynon Taf council where the Labour leader of the council has got four jobs, earning more than £100,000. The same authority has ripped up the contracts of their lowest paid workers and imposed a wage cut of 40 per cent on some of them. It’s that sort of inequality that needs to be addressed.’
Tax and business
Cannily perhaps, Wood refuses to commit herself on tax levels. ‘We want power over all taxes in Wales so we can determine the best way to stimulate the economy,’ she says. ‘I don’t want to get into a debate about what levels of tax would be set, that’s a matter for discussion when we have those powers. It will depend on the particular problem we were trying to tackle.’
Nor does she want to come across as hostile to business. For example, although the Greenprint document strongly argues in favour of co-operatives, Plaid also supports giving Welsh brands financial assistance. ‘I do support government support for business,’ says Wood. ‘But it’s the type of support and business we need to look at. I would like to see support linked to ethical businesses, businesses that treat their workers well, as well as being Welsh businesses. I would prefer the loans approach rather than grants, so that that money can be put back into the system and recycled.’
To argue this case convincingly, Plaid will need to closely define the size, organisational structure and remit of an ‘ethical company’. If the party is serious about supporting co-operatives, then the criteria should surely include some elements of worker control.
Plaid’s socialist credentials are yet to be proved, but Leanne Wood’s victory marks a significant step in establishing Plaid as a party of the left. It also ensures there won’t be a repeat of 2007, when Plaid entered into coalition talks with the Conservatives – a move that horrified many Plaid voters and members. Wood’s success will also put pressure on Welsh Labour to maintain its policy of keeping ‘clear red water’ between Welsh and Westminster Labour.
Wood is unequivocal that her role is to represent the views of Plaid members. Although she favours a more radical direction for the party, she will not head that way without grassroots support. When I ask Wood how she’d suggest the people of Wales should spend their jubilee holiday, the woman who has rejected an invitation to take part in ‘Mrs Windsor’s’ jubilee visit laughingly reminds me that Plaid does not have a policy on republicanism.
‘People should spend it in the way they feel most comfortable. If you want to participate in the celebrations that’s okay, but if you don’t that’s fine too.’ She pauses, before adding, ‘Personally, I won’t be hanging the bunting out.’

Leanne Wood: Why I’m standing for the Plaid Cymru leadership

Michael — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:13:20 +0000

If ever there were a need for a strong, radical government of the left in Wales, it is now. Despite Plaid’s success in delivering and winning a referendum on law-making powers for the National Assembly last year, Wales is still bearing the brunt of savage cuts to public services and already-meagre benefits, all being carried out by a government the people of Wales didn’t vote for.

Labour has a minority government in the Welsh Assembly. It fought last year’s Assembly election on a claim that it would ‘stand up for Wales’. As the SNP government in Scotland stands up for its people and fights Cameron’s attempts to deny them self-determination, Labour in Wales is happy to simply sit and wait, hoping for another Labour government in London that will solve their problems, rather than set out a vision for Wales. Labour in Wales are a party happier with Tory rule than home rule. When its masters in London support the cuts, ‘Welsh Labour’ remains silent.

There is a clear need for a strong, socialist alternative to the Tory/Labour cuts agenda in Wales. Plaid Cymru is in a great position to provide that alternative. Plaid Cymru can and should speak for those who face a daily struggle to make ends meet, such as those who face a choice between heating their home and putting food on the table. The majority in Wales who reject the cuts agenda deserve a voice. In the longer term, we must tackle the root problems in Welsh society and seek to transform our nation, not simply manage it, as the British parties have done.

After a disappointing election result last year and an internal review, Plaid Cymru now has an opportunity to reinvigorate itself. Members will soon elect a new leader. I have decided to put my name forward.

Our party has much of which it can be proud, including standing firm against Trident and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, delivering more devolved powers for Wales and providing an alternative to the privatisation agenda.

However, we still have much to do. I believe the time has now come to build the case for independence – not for its own sake, but in order to break the cycle of poverty and a weak economy which has left our nation as one of the poorest parts of Western Europe. In the current economic climate, this need is clearer than ever.

Plaid Cymru is the only party that seeks independence for Wales. We know that there is a powerful economic argument for it, but we have not always communicated that case effectively. Only Plaid Cymru works to see Wales break out of its poverty and develop the inherent skills of our people in order to thrive and achieve our true potential. That ambition sets us distinctly apart from the British parties. I believe in our people, and am determined to offer leadership which fosters a sense of national confidence and ambition that is a precursor to renewed prosperity.

The next step towards independence means placing Wales in a better position economically. In the short term, we must insist on financial fairness; in the long term, we need to put in place a robust economic infrastructure that can shelter us from future economic storms.

Models from across the world show that we can create a thriving decentralised economy that is inherently Welsh, serving our people rather than the market; an economy in which co-operative and green ventures can thrive creating jobs for local people; an economy in which we can foster the enterprise of small businesses, community organisations and our workforce. Most importantly, a social economy that will distribute wealth fairly and combat crippling inequality. Devolving power and prosperity to our local communities is essential to ensuring true social justice.

There has never been a better time for progressives in Wales to be in Plaid Cymru. For those who believe in economic justice, ecological resilience, true democracy, a bilingual Wales and independence, Plaid Cymru should be your home. By standing for the leadership I hope to lead and inspire a chorus of thousands of voices articulating a vision for our country. A vision of our Welsh nation speaking out confidently for our unique values, as an independent country, playing a constructive role in a family of nations across Europe and the world.

Achub S4C: ‘We want to show there is a place for Welsh’

admin — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 21:13:46 +0000

The creation of a Welsh language television channel has been one of the major achievements in the campaign for protection of the Welsh language over the past 40 years. S4C or Sianel Pedwar Cymru (Channel 4 Wales) was eventually established after a long campaign with Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) – often the younger and more radical side of Welsh language activism – at the forefront. Before S4C was established, Welsh language television was catered for by BBC Wales, but programmes were sporadic and generally on the fringes of the schedule.
The solution for many came during discussions over a new fourth channel in the UK in the late 1970s. Both the Conservatives and Labour promised a fourth channel broadcast in Wales and dedicated to the Welsh language. But when the Conservatives were elected in 1979 they changed their minds, outraging campaigners, many of whom refused to pay TV licences.
Others engaged in direct action, scaling and sometimes deliberately damaging television masts; a number of campaigners went to prison. Former MP Gwynfor Evans threatened to go on hunger strike in 1980 if the decision wasn’t reversed. In 1982 it was and Welsh language campaigners won their own television channel: S4C.
One of the aims of S4C was to reflect the variety of Welsh culture and experiences in a channel relevant to the people of Wales. In reality coverage hasn’t always lived up to the aspirations of campaigners, focusing on a fairly narrow range of Welsh life. As well as providing Welsh language news and sports coverage, entertainment and children’s programmes, it features offerings like Fferm Ffactor: an ‘X Factor’ for farming with one unlucky person eliminated each episode in the battle for Farmer of the Year.
Bilingualism in Wales has grown rapidly in recent years with approximately 22 per cent of the population now speaking Welsh. Yet just as the Welsh language audience is growing the channel for Welsh speakers is being threatened. Current government proposals will shift funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to the BBC, which campaigners fear will threaten S4C as the BBC suffers cuts of its own and has to look at its priorities.
Heledd Melangell Williams is a student from Nant Peris who has been heavily involved in recent campaigning around S4C: ‘The most frustrating thing for me is that there was such a big and successful campaign to get S4C and so many people went to prison, then they can just take it all away – I’m shocked people can do that.’
She is clear that the BBC will not prioritise Welsh language television: ‘If the BBC had to make a choice between funding an episode of Doctor Who and funding a Welsh language music programme then it would be Doctor Who. A minority language can’t compete with those viewing figures.’
The threat to S4C has led Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg to start a new campaign in its defence. Its first protest, in Cardiff, attracted over 2,000 people. Other actions have included two protesters climbing a television relay building near Caernarfon, a camp outside the BBC in Bangor and occupations of BBC offices in Cardiff and Carmarthen. Some people are also refusing to pay their TV licences in an echo of the past campaign.
The first court cases have now taken place as people return to direct action. Cymdeithas activist Jamie Bevan is refusing to pay his court fine or stick to the limits of a curfew imposed on him for breaking into Conservative MP Jonathan Evans’ office. He argues that Welsh judges send a clear message to London by not imposing penalties on Welsh language activists. He now faces a custodial sentence. There have also been arrests after Cymdeithas activists painted ‘Achub S4C’ (Save S4C) on BBC buildings in London.
Heledd Williams explains why young people like her care so much about the channel: ‘My generation has grown up with Welsh being around as a normal language, in school and on the television, and we want to show that there is a place for it in the modern world.’
The channel has been criticised for recent low viewing figures and a lack of willingness to work with new talent, but Williams says what it needs is a new direction, not a slashing of funding: ‘Since this campaign has been going it has raised awareness about S4C and the viewing figures have gone up slightly. They are also producing more imaginative programming.’
Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg says it will keep battling until S4C is truly secure and independent. With more than 60 towns and cities currently bidding to host the UK’s first local television services, Cymdeithas also wants provision for Welsh language broadcasting to be written into the licences in Welsh speaking areas from the beginning.
Campaigners argue that the threat to S4C shows that Westminster is not interested in protecting the language. They are calling for the devolution of Welsh broadcasting to Wales to allow Welsh speakers to control their own television channel and develop S4C into a broadcaster that represents the diversity of Wales’ rapidly growing number of Welsh speakers.

Is England up for it?

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:08:41 +0000

Politics in Wales has changed dramatically in the past decade. We won the Yes vote in the referendum to set up the Welsh Assembly in 1997 by just 6,721 votes, but now it’s difficult to imagine now how devolution could be rolled back.

Tom Nairn has been arguing for more than 30 years (see Further reading, opposite) that the break-up of Britain is inevitable. He argues that devolution will gather its own, unstoppable momentum, and that the end of the United Kingdom as a unitary state will follow. The first, as yet unanswerable, question is: how long will the break up take? The second is: are the English left ready for it?

Devolution and the left

In Wales and Scotland, the left has grasped the opportunities offered by devolution. We have worked to develop a progressive civic nationalism. Our desire for social justice and equality forms an intrinsic part of our demand for further devolution. And by electing progressive civic nationalists, people in Scotland and Wales have shown that there is a growing recognition that the British union is not working for them.

So what are we doing in Wales? A year ago, Plaid Cymru entered into government for the first time in our history as part of a centre-left coalition with Labour. A key plank of that agreement was a commitment from Labour to deliver and campaign for a successful outcome in a referendum for a law-making parliament within this Assembly term. A date for this referendum has not yet been fixed but the commitment is that it should take place before 2011.

Opinion polls indicate that a majority of Welsh voters are in favour of a parliament with powers to make its own laws. If we get that Yes vote, we’ll still have only a fraction of the powers currently enjoyed by the Scottish Parliament. We will be able to legislate freely on matters currently devolved, which would be an improvement on the current situation where Westminster can veto Welsh laws. But we would still have no powers over criminal justice or any real macro-economic muscle. And we would still have no means to raise our own revenue. Nevertheless it would be an important step towards a becoming an independent nation within Europe.

Wales is at the bottom of the UK’s economic performance table. While Westminster continues to skew its economic policy to benefit the areas in its immediate vicinity, the periphery loses out. With a history of significant industrial production, Wales should now be rich, but the areas that produced the wealth for Britain are today among some of the most economically disadvantaged in the whole of the European Union. These are the areas that were targeted by Thatcher in her obsession to crush union power, then forgotten. And these are the areas that now face further decline from New Labour’s regional pay plans and purge of those on sickness benefits. It doesn’t have to be this way. An autonomous government responsible for two and a quarter million people could do a much better job of gearing macro-economic policy to meet the needs of people in the former industrial areas of Wales. It’s clear that those needs have not been considered by successive Westminster governments.

In Wales, the Plaid Cymru-Labour coalition government has firmly rejected privatisation in the NHS or the organisation of such services on market models. The ‘One Wales’ programme of government states: ‘We will guarantee public ownership, public funding and public control of this vital public service.’ In both Scotland and Wales foundation hospitals, school league tables, beacon councils, selective schools and elite academies have all been rejected. In Wales, NHS prescription charges and hospital car parking charges have been abolished.

Plaid Cymru and the SNP are introducing social policies that are clearly to the left of New Labour. Both parties are opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the removal of civil liberties in the name of security (including the introduction of ID cards) and Trident. Both parties have more progressive attitudes towards criminality and substance dependants and both are pro-council housing. Of course there is always more to be done – but what we are seeing are the beginnings of an alternative politics. Our civic nationalism is anti-imperialist, anti-racist and pro-social justice.

What will England do?

Meanwhile, the left in England has largely failed to respond to the challenges of devolution. Labour and many of the left parties have argued that Scottish and Welsh nationalism is regressive – a diversion that undermines British working class unity, which should be opposed. They refuse to acknowledge the inevitability of both countries becoming, at some point in the future, independent.

And when we leave the union, what will England then do? The loudest expressions of English national identity have until recently come from the far right. Often confusing Britishness and Englishness, theirs has been an imperialist, exclusive and racist nationalism, one that progressives rightly abhor.

But there are growing signs of progressive voices in England who are seriously addressing the issue of post-devolution English identity. Billy Bragg has been talking for some time about the need to develop a new identity in tandem with progressive social politics, while Mark Perryman has recently brought some interesting views together in his book Imagined Nation, which explores the possibilities for England after Britain.

Perryman’s book offers an alternative to British nationalism and the far right’s version of English nationalism. The contributors agree with Nairn about the inevitability of the break up of Britain, at the same time as being acutely aware of the danger posed by far-right solutions to the question. One contributor, Andy Newman, argues that the English left could learn a lot from the centre-left, pro-devolution politics that now dominates in Wales and Scotland. In those countries, he argues, the left has succeeded in combining ‘the democratic aspiration for national independence with the campaign for greater social equity and emancipation’. Newman draws the conclusion that for progressives in England ‘the most appropriate lesson to learn is that national identity, and even patriotism, can co-exist with working-class solidarity.’

Is the left up for it?

All too often, nationalism in Wales and Scotland has been dismissed by many on the left as narrow minded, inward-looking and exclusive. Those of us who have worked in the anti-war and the anti-fascist movements find it frustrating to be viewed in this way. Our work in those movements is enhanced by our understanding of the national question and by our internationalist outlook.

Our demand to be equal nations within the European Union (with acceptance of the limitations and problems of the EU, and a recognition of the need to build an alternative, pro-worker EU), is outward-looking. It’s no accident that the first non-white members of both the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly represent the SNP and Plaid, and that our appeal to minorities is growing.

In the abstract, many British left groups support the right to self determination, but they oppose actively campaigning for Welsh, Scottish and English independence. As Newman argues: ‘It is precisely this rising English and Scottish national consciousness that promises to actually subvert the power of the British Empire state, and open up new political possibilities for significant social change.’

There is a great deal of potential to develop a much-needed new anti-imperialist, left political culture in England. Yet there is a very real danger that the far right will fill the vacuum as long as the left maintains its mental block.

Newman, Perryman and others are among many whose work is challenging long-held assumptions that counterpose national identity and working class solidarity. The end of Britain could signal a new beginning for socialist and green politics in England. The question is: is the left in England up for it?