Sunday, December 29, 2013

Meanwhile in Wales- The Welsh Republican Manifesto of 1950

Important sentiments for all:

http://www.llgc.org.uk/ymgyrchu/Pleidleisio/lleiafrifol/WRM/PLLLWR05-eTEXT.htm


WELSH REPUBLICAN MANIFESTO

STATEMENT OF POLICY FOR THE WELSH REPUBLICAN MOVEMENT

No movement that seeks to assert the fundamental historic and moral right of the Welsh Nation to freedom and independence can acknowledge any ties whether real or formal which tend directly or indirectly to bind Wales and her people in subjection to English or any external sovereign institutions. Wales is a nation and her loyalty is to herself, as her sovereignty is in herself and in her historic and undivided nationhood. We cannot, consequently, accept allegiance to the English Crown as a condition imposed upon or attached to our freedom and independence. Furthermore, the Welsh nation is essentially a community of the common people (y werin bobl). Therefore the movement that is to enshrine the spirit of our liberation and express and conduct the struggle for freedom must aim at establishing a Republic of Wales, which will be the symbol of our independence as a nation and of the democratic community of our people.

The people, that is, the so called common people, everywhere are striving towards a fuller and more fundamental democratic order based upon the recognition of the political, social and economic equality of all men, an order in which men and women shall enjoy a larger freedom and in which nations and national life will be fully recognised. The Welsh national movement must not only accept this as its basic outlook, but must become its interpreter and guiding spirit. To succeed in this mission the Welsh national movement must renounce the political forms, social canons and economic precepts associated with the decaying and discredited aristocratic-imperialist civilization, of which the English Empire is one of the best examples, and of which the English Crown is its classic emblem and protector. That civilization all over the world is under challenge from two directions, namely, from nations which are becoming conscious of their nationhood, and at the same time from men and women who are becoming increasingly conscious of the commonalty of all humanity. In a real democratic society, as distinguished from the formal democracy of our time, there are no gradations of rights, with larger rights for some and lesser right for others, either as between men in their society and work, or as between nations and peoples. The doctrine of social stratification with its superior and inferior classes, with its privileged and unprivileged and with its higher and lower orders must be renounced and its institutions abolished. The Welsh national movement of liberation must, therefore, of necessity be a revolutionary movement aiming at the overthrow of all those powers which hold men and nations in political or social or economic servitude. In our progress towards the goal of our freedom as a nation and a people a new social and moral synthesis will be created which will at once be the assurance and the expression of a new civilization. We feel that an acceptance of the forms and symbols of the old will effectively defeat the reality and substance of the new civilization.

We would, consequently, set forth as our aims and objectives for a free and independent Wales and declare as follows:

I. That Wales must be a sovereign democratic Republic subject only to such authority as it may accept or subscribe to as a member of the community of free nations.

2. That the King of England whether in person as liege lord or through any constitutional agency as monarch shall have no jurisdiction in or dominion over Wales or any person in Wales.

3. That no Welshman or Welsh woman shall owe allegiance to or be the subject of any liege lord or any other person.

4. That there shall be in Wales no hereditary or other titles or any other form of political or social or economic prerogatives or distinctions nor any privileges which are not shared or capable of being shared by all.

5. The people of Wales shall be a free people in a free country and not subject to any servitudes whether political, social or economic and shall enjoy in their society a status of unqualified equality. All class distinctions whether based on claims of birth or property shall be abolished.

6. The Republic of Wales shall be founded upon the unreserved recognition of the dignity and worth of the human personality and shall guarantee to the people of Wales without distinction the unrestricted rights of the moral person in order to secure and promote the fullest development of the individual person and of the national life.

7. It shall be the aim of the Republic of Wales to bring to consummation the idea of the democratic society in all fields of human activity and interest and establish the principle of co-operation as the democratic basis of our economy in the form of co-operative organisations or guilds in which the work, the responsibilities and the fruits shall be shared by all who work.

8. To the same end ownership shall be by and for use only. All the archaic forms of land tenure shall be abolished and land, houses and all other properties shall vest in those who for living purposes or for work use them either individually or in co-operation as co-owners.

9. The Welsh language as the native language of the Welsh people shall be the first and official language of the Republic of Wales but in the circumstances which have resulted in Wales through English rule the English language shall be used as a second language and as such shall be officially recognised.

10. It shall be a primary aim of the Republic of Wales to increase the acreage of Welsh land under food production and to establish a balanced Welsh economy by means of a vigorous policy of land settlement and development of rural trades and industries.

11. The Republic of Wales shall live in close association with all the other Celtic peoples and shall endeavour in every way to co-operate fully with all other nations and particularly with its near neighbours in the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and England.

12. The Republic of Wales must have and take its place and play its part in the international community of nations.

Published by The Welsh Republican Movement at Glaslwyn, Cwmoernant, Carmarthen, and printed by Gee & Son, Ltd., Denbigh.Price 2d.

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