Learning about Indy. And Unity. And party building.

Asked to write something about us in Cymru for the Indy Left in Scotland, started me off again…

Has the Scots’ left got anything to learn from Wales? Not much. There are lessons of course, the first being recognition of similarities and differences. Most of all, we all must learn from the Scottish Indy experience (amongst many things of course). First, accept that they are way ahead of the game, warts’n’all.

A few words on the Indy movement in Wales

There is no unified Indy movement, although, in recent years, Yes Cymru, formally launched in 2016 and doubling in size during the pandemic, due, in part, to Tory antagonism to devolution and Mark Drakeford’s ability to better manage the country and its health – topics which devolution’s critics now rail against.

YC quickly became a popular focus for the Indy movement and sustains a programme of visible activism – a series of rallies round Welsh cities and towns, winning the support of thousands, tens of thousands when aggregated. YC is a difficult amalgam to define, self-identifying as ‘non party-political’, seeking to bring together a populist campaign for independence, including Tories, business, right wing campaigns, and some even more dubious elements. Their recent conference saw fit to publicly attack the left’s caution over invitations to a platform for some of them. Nonetheless, the call for independence is very popular and the left struggles to come to terms with an organisation that argues that independence is the aim; ‘what for’ can be resolved later. Populism, well founded, is always tricky. The lack of programmatic clarity has seen, even in its short life, some destructive and disheartening divisions.

Inside and out of YC, a plethora of Indy (and nationalist) groupings abound – the ‘official’ Party of Wales, Plaid Cymru, through to Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society), historically, the most historically consistent force in the movement. Several left groupings join the fray – Left Unity Wales, Undod (Unity), Peoples Assembly as well as rightist nationalists. New formations complement – Melin Drafod (rather in the mould of Scotland’s Common Weal), Siarter Cartrefi (Housing Charter) and the Independence Convention commit to their tasks.

Divided movements

The main feature of the Independence and nationalist movements Cymraeg, unlike in Scotland (yr Alban), is that language and culture tend to divide Cymru between the first-language Welsh speaking Welsh of the west and north, and the anglicised Welsh (cymry seisnigaidd) of the east and south, nicely described by the cymros as Hwntus – them over there!

Language is big in Wales – not as big as we’d like, but is the first and living language of many.

Language (Cymraeg), a vibrant culture, and social issues (not least housing and rural life) are relatively isolated from the majority population, yet are securely installed in the country’s social and political life, including the Senedd. We are unified for sport – against the English!, enjoying beer with the Scots and Irish, and our culture reaches over into western Europe, but there is a tendency for the non-welsh-speaking population to be oblivious to diwylliant Cymreig (Cymru Culture), leaving it in the language basket. There are some brilliant exceptions Cymraeg, from the Gorkys and Super Furry Animals to Gwenno, that force themselves into the urban east and even onto the popular English and world stages.

Scotland is quite different. Cross the border and Scots’ culture hits you in the face. Scots hardly notice, but it is everywhere, from Celtic Connections to the recent World Cycling Championships. All visitors know they are in Scotland. What a strength that is – a strength we must work on in Cymru, one of our main tasks in seeking to unify the Indy movement.

Scotland has crosses to bear too, not least the working class unionists of the organised Orange, doffing their caps to their ‘superiors’ and, following the referendum vote of 2014, expressing their extreme right wing inclinations with violent attacks on the Saltire (Scottish flag) and Indy supporters. The social undercurrent of protestant bigotry feeds unionism.

Indy Movement

After the referendum defeat, SNP grew exponentially. In 2013 the party’s membership stood at just 20,000, swelling to over 100,000 by 2015. By the end of 2021, the party reported 103,884 members. Since then, not unlike British Labour, membership has fallen to 85,000 at the end of 2022, and to 72,186 in March 2023.

The left also appears to have been stymied by the collapse of the supposedly SNP-led Indy campaign.

For me, the main lesson of the hugely effective united left Indy campaign (of 2013/14), largely brought together by the Radical Independence Campaign (RIC) and the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), was failure to drive onwards to build a new party.

The mainstream parties (SNP, and later Alba, not to mention the Greens, who have joined with the SNP in government, by being ‘realistic’ in their betrayals), filled their ranks only to split asunder, as much by internal squabbles as by politics – in general, an inability to pursue their mission. The radical left, RIC, Conter, the unforgivable Sheridan lot, and others, divided back into more trad Brit left boxes.    

The Corbyn dilemma

The destruction of Corbyn’s hugely popular Labour leadership has left him (and social democracy) with a problem. It is clear that a new party needs to be formed. The same applies for the Indy movement. The dilemma is that any new party will undermine the established opposition of the SNP in Scotland and Labour in the rest of Britland, the two-party alternatives to the Tories. There is no avoiding it.

Unification is a major objective, not just of the Indy movement. In Scotland, post 2014 unity found expression in the SNP. Membership boomed. The thoroughly discredited Labour, having topped its decades of betrayal by uniting with the Tories and Liberals with ‘Better Together’ (for neo-liberalism and austerity), were replaced by an SNP that embraced much of the programme of social democracy abandoned by Labour, plus, it transpires, a commitment to Westminster democracy sufficient to bury independence, other than in rhetoric.

Of course, Corbyn’s social democracy won’t have much shrift with the Indy movement. From Gordon Brown to Mark Drakeford, and no doubt tempting the Saes, a dabble with some form of federalism is their current best shot. But we are ahead of them   

As the Scottish electorate, more sophisticated than any are given credit for, begins to ditch the SNP (membership declining), the media reckons Labour will benefit. Rubbish! Of course there will be some drift back to Labour, and some to the Greens (who have also seriously muddied their patch, Scots have learned), but many will abstain or seek other alternatives. It is a mess. The mainstream voter door is left wide open.

Building a Party

In Wales, serious attempts to unify the Indy left are underway, but that rift between culture and language on the one hand and ‘traditional’ (anglicised) socialist values (perhaps it is the self-destructive Brit left, visible to many) on the other, is an obstacle to be overcome.

The lesson is to move towards an alternative party based on the fantastic campaigning and programmatic unity built by RIC, SSP, Women for .., Asians for .., Labour for …, virtually the whole of Scotland’s left for … Even much of the SNP was actively for it back then, if reluctant to formally support the RIC campaign and conferences.

Despite the obvious downsides, the party building task is upon us. For me, the time is to bring our unifying strengths to jointly form a united Indy Party, bridging the Celtic Nations. Here in Wales, that will give incentive to the Cymros and Saes to come together. In Scotland, it will reinvigorate the united indy movement of 2014, not least with an appeal to ALBA and disaffected SNPers. The English Corbynistas will find it difficult to handle but it will give them plenty to think about, especially when we start to formulate a programme, much of which was assembled in the RIC conferences. We in Celyn began to formulate it too after the referendum.

1. A clear stance, with our allies, against Tory austerity; for alternatives.
2. Stand up for our NHS, for National Insurance, for Social Security and a rights based welfare culture.
3. Challenge the war-mongering culture, not least the ease with which vast funding is found for wars.
4. Build Homes
5. Promote a programme of child-care, social care and pensions.
6. Make Wales a beacon of sustainability, a green investment bank, green energy and re-usables industries
7. Rail and other public transport back into coordinated public ownership
8. Instead of faffing about local government reorganisation and who goes where, first consider, with the people of Wales, the question, “How do we best deliver these policies?”
9. Build, certainly with young people, our communications networks and social media.

To build our collective strength, let’s jointly call on our devolved governments to enact policies that demonstrate our common interests against Westminster austerity: Green energy v oil and nuclear; v war, weapons and military bases; a green economy and industry; social welfare; workers rights; affordable accessible housing; a welcome for refugees; common international liaisons; shared bus passes (you can tell my age!).  

There are omissions and much more to the programme; many other issues to pursue, such as English nationalism and fascism, but let’s jointly get moving to a new party, an Eco-socialist party of United Celtic Nations. Plaid Eco-sosialaidd y Cenhedloedd Celtaidd Unedig. It may even ring true in the languages of Eire, Manx, Kernow, Britanny, Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias.  

GLG August 2023

Post script

In subsequent discussions amongst the left in Wales, via ‘Transform‘, Undod, Left Unity, Celyn, Melin Drafod and ‘The Dialogue Starts Here’ (contact me), it has been pointed out (thanks Craig Lewis) that I omitted reference to the post-RIC attempt to launch a party, RISE, better known for its optimistic acronym than its achievements. Although registering with me here in Wales, it never made the headlines, gained limited resonance in the 2016 election, slowly declined, becoming the ‘Conter’ grouping in the divided Indy left in Scotland. The Scottish Socialist Party, also followed with interest and enthusiasm, until the trash red-tops joyously fielded the tacky Sheridan story, later fully expoited by the anti-socialist British media (ie all of it) to bring an end to that first and otherwise successful leftist party-building exercise. Formed in 1998, the SSP gained 6 seats in the Scottish Parliament in 2003, all lost now. The party maintains an Indy and class oriented platform to this day.

I do look to Scottish comrades to bring forward analysis and experience of the successes and failures of RIC and the early work of the SSP, they being the best campaigning socialist party-building currents that have tested themseves in front of the class. Parties do not form out of a desire to form a party; they arise from engagement with our class. RIC and the SSP are the best we have had so far. And by far.

GLG September 2023