The Welsh language and capitalism
BRITAIN ession but going directly against her pol cies. But it's her policies that are unde mining the communities, and the only way we're going to tackle it is by taking that approach.
Cert. It's these years of Thatcherisn that have created the economic condi tions, whereby local people are being forced to move out, and if they do stay finding themselves homeless. As Helen has said, this campaign has gained the
IN SWANSEA/ABERTAWE in southwest Wales, at the office of the Welsh Language Society (Cymdeithas yr laith Gymraeg)
the following interview was given to Gerry Foley. Helen
Prosser is a teacher of the Welsh language and a leader of
Cymdeithas. Ceri Evans is the southern organizer for
Cymdeithas for the campaign against Thatcher's poll tax.
Cymdeithas yr laith Gymraeg is a direct action organization that fights for the rights of Welsh speakers and participates in other social struggles considered relevant to its aim of maintaining Welsh as a living language in Wales. Welsh was still the majority language in the country at the end of the nineteenth century. Now only about a fifth of the population speak it. In the north and west of the country it is still generally the language of the community, but threatened by an influx of English Yuppies seeking second homes and business opportunities. The discussion that follows took place in December 1989.
OW does Cymdeithas yr
H laith Gymraeg propose to deal with the problem of
English immigration into north Wales?
Helen. The immigration is not just into north Wales. It is into the entire western band from north to south. Having said that, it's going further east all the time.
It's an economic problem basically. Some years ago, many people were worried about rural depopulation. What we've got now is an influx of people who are not
Welsh
Welsh and are not speaking, because they're selling their houses in the southeast of England for a terrific price and then moving in, and putting the house prices up here, which makes it impossible for local people to remain in their communities.
Our slogan for the campaign is that
Wales is not for sale. What we emphasize is not being anti-English as such.
But what we do want is the right of the local people to remain in their community, and to be able to have work and housing in their communities. We started campaigning in this area about three years ago. The first thing we did was to make people aware of the situation, to target estate agents. They exploit the local people. So, we targeted them to draw attention to the problem. We had several protests outside agents' offices. We took "for sale" signs and dumped them there and so on.
We've moved on now to the second part of the campaign, which is with the local councils. We feel that we have to work democratically. What we believe is that local councils should be able to buy houses that go on the market, and then rent them for a fair price to local people. We got 12 of the 13 local councils in Wales to come to a conference organized by Cymdeithas yr laith, and each spokesperson said one after the other that they were in favor of having hundreds of millions of pounds to be able to buy these houses to then rent to local people. Obviously, that money has got to come from the Welsh Office [the local authority for Wales], and it isn't coming.
The third step, which we have just started on, is to ask for a new property act, where there would be a point system, and local people would be at the top of that scale, so they would have the first chance of buying a house. So, there would be a sort of points system, which operates in local authorities now, in the free market. This is a terribly difficult campaign for Cymdeithas yr laith, because with Thatcherism in in the British Isles now, this is not asking for a consupport of the Welsh councils, and the council that didn't come to the conference said that it would support it to some extent.
Helen. It was quite an achievement, you know, to get the councils to back some thing started by Cymdeithas yr laith They obviously see the crisis in the communities.
Ceri. It's very much going against the direction of Thatcherism. The very idea of giving the councils money to buy hous es, at the moment councils are being obliged to sell all their housing stock. So, it's also a defense of public housing, of quality public housing being available to the local people. Because when you look at the wage levels in the north and west, they are extremely low, even for those people who are in work.
Helen. Obviously this is a general problem; but it's more acute here in Wales because it's changing the nature of the community completely. The problem is
Wales, because we've got this added linguistic factor, where these people are moving in and changing the nature of the community. We've mentioned houses, but we haven't mentioned businesses. Of course, these businesses are even more expensive than houses. You wouldn't believe the number of post offices and pubs that have been been bought up by English incomers. [Sub post offices are held privately in Britain] I know in Pen Llyn, which is probably the most Welsh part of north Wales, there are about two pubs in the hands of Welsh speakers now, because they have got so expensive. This is where people meet, in the post office, in the pub, and therefore the language is changing
Ceri. There is also the problem of the attitude of the people who move in. It does result in the imposition of English in these areas. It means that the speaking people are denied the right to use Welsh in their lives in dealing with state institutions such as post offices. And recreation facilities, which would have been Welsh speaking in the past, are now predominantly English.
HemalOne exaspe, abe sort of thine 23 very small, just to show the sort of thing April 9, 1990 • #182 International Viewpoint
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Interview with activists
BRITAIN ment for young people that would integrate the service far more, and would use young people.
There's a conference being held hoping to get together all the different youth organizations in Wales to stress the importance of this. Some ideas we got are that the people's schools are urged to set up their own unions, and that local coun cils set up special groups for young people so that they've got some say. • What role has Cymdeithas played in the Welsh rock-music move-
Ceri. Without exaggeration, you could say that it created it, not in a heavy handed way but by encouraging it, going back to the first protest songs sung by early leader of Cymdeithas, such as Dafydd Iwan. There was a conscious decision to promote this aspect of Welsh culture, which some of the more traditional Welsh organizations were slow to pick up on. Some people were totally opposed to it. They regarded it as not part of Welsh culture. Cymdeithas offered a space for the Welsh rock bands by organizing local concerts and doing posters and so on, giving their experience of organizing, doing a big week of concerts at every Eisteddfod [the national festival of Wales]. It has become a tradition.
Helen. Organizing these concerts has been a very positive thing for Welsh culture and for Cymdeithas. These rock groups also produce their own magazines, which are full of jokes and so on, but the political message is there also. One other thing we hope to draw attention to through this youth liberation movement is • There is a definite political attitude in this Welsh rock scene?
Ceri. Perhaps less so now than in the past, although it's a constant theme running through, if you read the lyrics. In my opinion, the fact that they chose to sing in Welsh is a political choice. It's certainly not the way you're going to make money. And a lot of the lyrics are very political.
Helen. I would agree totally with Ceri that the fact that a band plays in Welsh is a political decision. The pop scene is very healthy.
Ceri. It's professionalized a lot as well, without becoming a capitalist institution. People are taking it very much more seriously now. There's a national rock magazine that complements the local fanzines. There's things like distribution agencies being set up so that people are much more able to get hold of records. Previously, 26 up you just coupent gel dels wore set when a lot of independent labels were set International Viewpoint #182 • April 9, 1990 records. There is a sort of union for Welsh rock musicians being which meets regularly. With the development of the Welsh TV channel, you get into dealing with big companies and that sort of thing, and you have to look after yourself to make sure that you're not ripped off. • When you say professionalized, that implies that there is enough money in this for at least the best to become professional.
Ceri. Altogether, there are maybe 200 groups, of which maybe two or three are professional What I mean by professionalization is that a regular magazine is produced that sells 2,000 copies, a high circulation for a Welsh publication. There is a chance to appear on TV and an organized distribution network. While the bands are not professional, there are some agencies. And the companies themselves are on a bit more of a sound basis.
Helen. We organize concerts to raise money and to create the Welsh rock scene. It gives the bands a chance to play and the local people a chance to see them. • There was a similar thing in the US. There was big development of traditional music groups, and many of them were willing to offer free entertainment for H-Block affairs. They also built a milieu around themselves that provided a base for the H-Block committees.
Ceri. What's striking is the invisibility of all this activity. You could live in Wales and in Swansea, five or six miles away from a Welsh-speaking area, and existed. You wouldn't know their standard. Particularly, before we won these radio programs, you wouldn't hear them on Welsh radio. So, we're breaking out of that. • Only a mass movement can do that. Otherwise, commercial radio and TV would drown them out. Traditional music is big in Ireland, but it is still a minority thing.
Ceri. Its much the same thing here. All the currents of Welsh music are very much of a minority thing, but a significant minority, something that's broader than Cymdeithas yr laith. • There must also be a pressure of commercialism on these people. Because if the better ones wanted to make a career in music, they would have to change to singing in
Ceri. None of the bands has done that. I think that there would be such a reaction against it that they would lose any kind of
• They would be regarded as traitors.
Ceri. In a sense, I suppose they would. It simply hasn't happened. People haven't even considered it, I don't think, really. The commitment to the Welsh language is such that no band has done it. It's unheard of. • Do you find people who are not native Welsh speakers learning Welsh to participate in these
Helen. Oh yes. Lots of these bands come from the Welsh schools in Cardiff and Pontypridd, where I imagine 90% of them come from non-Welsh-speaking homes. It's people who have gone to bilingual schools who are starting up these bands. We've got more bands starting up in the east than in the west. • Does this cultural movement extend into other mediums, new writing or theater?
Helen. Theater. There are many theater groups in Wales. This started in the 1960s, and they are now all over the place. The problem there is finance. The arts are being cut back all the time and they're getting less money. The young writers have mainly been attracted to TV, since the Welsh TV channel was set up. • What is Cymdeithas's role in the campaign against the poll tax?
Ceri. Cymdeithas passed a resolution a few years ago saying that it was opposed to a poll tax when the Tories first mentioned it. At the last conference it passed a more detailed policy of identifying the poll tax as another attack on the working class communities in Britain and something that would further undermine the Welsh speaking communities. It declared its support for an active campaign of non-payment.
• Why would it undermine the Welsh speaking communities in particular?
Ceri. Given the economic conditions in Wales after ten years of Thatcherism, a further attack on poorer sections of society, a further transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich, would undermine the whole of the Welsh communities. But if we are looking at the communities where we would wish to retain Welsh as a living language, the poll tax would be more of a burden.
Following on from that, you have to decide how you're going to oppose the tax.
Cymdeithas adopted a policy of supporting mass nonpayment, refusing to pay and to collect the tax. It decided to participate in the existing campaigns rather than set up a separate one and ensure bilingualism in these campaigns, that Welsh is at the forefront. *
SAMPLES of the lyrics of Welsh rock songs are given below
They are literal translations of two songs from Y Trên Olat Adref
BRITAIN strong in English-speaking areas. What
Cymeithas is trying to do is to create the conditions so that when these people leave school, these people have an oppor-
["The Last Train Home"), a collection of Welsh rock lyrics published in 1984 by the Welsh publisher Y Lolfa. There are a number oi songs in this collection dedicated to Bobby Sands, the
Irish republican martyr who died on hunger strike against the
H-Blocks of Northern Ireland in 1981, In the introduction, it Is explained that the "last train home" means that Welsh rock is the last chance of the Welsh language. Despite the popular form of these songs, some also are based on ancient Welsh poems.
A worm in the wood by Gronw Edwards and Dafydd
Rhys
THE end of our soclety, the end, the and of everything good;
Thousands of them, a horde of
English,
Thousands of summer homes.
But Ive been on the dole loo long
I have no chance to get a job, the situation is bad
There Is a worm in the wood
Everything is finished,
There Is no more hope
To be able to stay in the parish,
You have to leave the place
A subculture is in flight. Wearlness in the eve
Oppression under the smile
The blood of men Is beginning to congeal,
The chains are too old.
norm rather than representing specific concessions. What we've got is what the
Welsh Office set up following the demand for a new Welsh language act, a Welsh
Language Board, who haven't recommended bilingualism. They've recommended "equal validity," which is very different.
In the summer, we held a referendum, and we gave everyone a chance to vote, a bilingual referendum, asking people to vote either in favor of a comprehensive
Welsh language act, and sufficient money for the teaching of Welsh as a first and second language, or to say that they were content with the Welsh Language Board and Peter Walker's initiative in Wales.
And we got a 99.2% majority. And yet neither Peter Walker nor the Welsh Language Board have changed their minds.
So, we have passed in our general meeting that we're going to the European
Court of Human Rights, saying this is what the people of Wales have voted for, can you do something about it?
• How do you propose to appeal to non-Welsh speakers?
Helen. That is very important. We do
Take, fake our lands
Take, take our jobs
Trample, trample on our culture,
Trample, trample on our language
The centuries with the rain by Gareth loan
Within the prison walls,
The oppression lof Ireland] continues.
But Bobby Sands did not yield to oppression and insult
Against unjust rulers
And the hard confines of his
He continued his fight for respect, for a better Ireland....
Bobby Sands died under the iron hand of the English:
His blood is on their hands.
because they denied his just demand..
Over his grave, the centuries weep with the rain. * insist in Cymdeithas that we Welsh are one nation. It's a matter of luck whether you speak Welsh in Wales these days. What we want is for everyone to have the chance to become bilingual. Firstly, we want enough resources so that Welsh is taught properly in schools, so that every young person leaving school at 16 is bilingual. We also hope to appeal to people in non-Welsh-speaking communities by solidarizing with them in their cam-
Ceri. It would be foolish to say that the effects of Thatcherism in Wales end. at the border of the Welsh-speaking area. Cymdeithas clearly identifies itself with other groups that are opposing the development of Yuppie housing in traditional working-class areas. One aspect is to follow up on the campaign against the Cardiff Bay Development, which aims to wipe out the Docks community, the only old Black community in Wales, replace it with a Yuppie-type marina development. It is important to overcome the divisions. But we are not outside the English-speaking communities. The Welsh-learning movement is extremely tunity to use Welsh in their lives.
Helen. In the predominantly anglicized areas, the schools that teach through Welsh are full. Here in Swansea, people are being turned away from the Welsh schools. The response has been terrific. We have had to double the courses in areas because the demand has been so great. I'm not talking about people who have decided to learn Welsh this year, after doing pottery the year before. I'm talking about people who are really dedicated, who are ready to give four evenings a week to learn. • Do they pursue the language to the point of fluency?
Yes. Not every single one, obviously. But people come on Welsh language courses today thinking that they're going to be Welsh speakers. That's an excellent thing to start with. Up until ten years ago, people came to Welsh-language classes to say one or two things. Now people come because they want to become fluent Welsh speakers. • Do you have any links with non-white groups trying to preserve their cultures?
Ceri. There is an indirect link with blacks through the anti-apartheid movement. This is not just solidarity with the struggle in South Africa, but a practical opposition to the Welsh Rugby Union, which openly collaborates with the apartheid regime.
Helen. Cymdeithas repassed its motions saying that we would not go back to Rugby matches until those players who went to South Africa stopped playing Wales. I think that we are the only people who took that stand. • Do you have special campaigns
Helen. Lots of our members are young. And we've targeted age groups. For five to seven year olds, we've got a slogan "Tai i saith i gadw yr iaith" ("Three to Seven to Keep the Language"), that the language has to be taught properly to this group, and the young between 14 and 25, people who are going through change in their lives, major decisions about how their lives are going to be set out after that.
We think that this is a terribly important age group, that we have to have a culture that is relevant to them. So, we've had campaigns against Radio Cymru, which is the Welsh radio station. And we've actually been successful in our campaign. We've got programs from 10:00 to 11:30 each night, specifically aimed at young 25 people. What we want is a special departApril 9, 1990 • #182 International Viewpoint
BRITAIN ment for young people that would integrate the service far more, and would use young people.
There's a conference being held hoping to get together all the different youth organizations in Wales to stress the importance of this. Some ideas we got are that the people's schools are urged to set up their own unions, and that local concils set up special groups for young people so that they've got some say. • What role has Cymdeithas played
Welsh rock-music move-
Ceri. Without exaggeration, you could say that it created it, not in a heavy handed way but by encouraging it, going back to the first protest songs sung by early leader of Cymdeithas, such as Dafydd Iwan. There was a conscious decision to promote this aspect of Welsh culture, which some of the more traditional Welsh organizations were slow to pick up on. Some people were totally opposed to it. They regarded it as not part of Welsh culture. Cymdeithas offered a space for the Welsh rock bands by organizing local concerts and doing posters and so on, giving their experience of organizing, doing a big week of concerts at every Eisteddfod [the national festival of Wales]. It has become a tradition.
Helen. Organizing these concerts has been a very positive thing for Welsh culture and for Cymdeithas. These rock groups also produce their own magazines, which are full of jokes and so on, but the political message is there also. One other thing we hope to draw attention to through this youth liberation movement is how people are exploited, especially now under Thatcherism, with all these Youth Training Schemes where young people are used as kind of slave labor. • There is a definite political attitude in this Welsh rock scene?
Ceri. Perhaps less so now than in the past, although it's a constant theme running through, if you read the lyrics. In my opinion, the fact that they chose to sing in Welsh is a political choice. It's certainly not the way you're going to make money. And a lot of the lyrics are very political.
Helen. I would agree totally with Ceri that the fact that a band plays in Welsh is a political decision. The pop scene is very healthy.
Ceri. It's professionalized a lot as well, without becoming a capitalist institution. People are taking it very much more seriously now. There's a national rock magazine that complements the local fanzines. There's things like distribution agencies being set up so that people are much more able to get hold of records. Previously, 26 up. you just coupent get hold or shet when a lot of independent labels were set International Viewpoint #182 • April 9, 1990 records. There is a sort of union for Welsh rock musicians being set up, which meets regularly. With the development of the Welsh TV channel, you get into dealing with big companies and that sort of thing, and you have to look after yourself to make sure that you're not • When you say professionalized, that implies that there is enough money in this for at least the best to become professional.
Ceri. Altogether, there are maybe 200 groups, of which maybe two or three are professiona.l What I mean by professionalization is that a regular magazine is produced that sells 2,000 copies, a high circulation for a Welsh publication. There is a chance to appear on TV and an organized distribution network. While the bands are not professional, there are some agencies. And the companies themselves are on a bit more of a sound basis.
Helen. We organize concerts to raise money and to create the Welsh rock scene. It gives the bands a chance to play and the local people a chance to see them. • There was a similar thing in the US. There was big development of traditional music groups, and many of them were willing to offer free entertainment for H-Block affairs. They also built a milieu around themselves that provided a base for the H-Block committees.
Ceri. What's striking is the invisibility of all this activity. You could live in Wales and in Swansea, five or six miles away from a Welsh-speaking area, and you wouldn't know that these bands existed. You wouldn't know their standard. Particularly, before we won these radio programs, you wouldn't hear them on Welsh radio. So, we're breaking out of • Only a mass movement can do that. Otherwise, commercial radio and TV would drown them out. Traditional music is big in Ireland, but it is still a minority thing.
Ceri. Its much the same thing here. All the currents of Welsh music are very much of a minority thing, but a significant minority, something that's broader than Cymdeithas yr laith. • There must also be a pressure of commercialism on these Because if the better ones wanted to make a career in music, they would have to change to singing in
Ceri. None of the bands has done that. I think that there would be such a reaction against it that they would lose any kind of
• They would be regarded as traitors.
Ceri. In a sense, I suppose they would. It simply hasn't happened. People haven't even considered it, I don't think, really. The commitment to the Welsh language is such that no band has done it. It's unheard of. • Do you find people who are not native Welsh speakers learning Welsh to participate in these bands?
Helen. Oh yes. Lots of these bands come from the Welsh schools in Cardiff and Pontypridd, where I imagine 90% of them come from non-Welsh-speaking homes. It's people who have gone to bilingual schools who are starting up these bands. We've got more bands starting up in the east than in the west. • Does this cultural movement extend. into other mediums, new writing or theater?
Helen. Theater. There are many theater groups in Wales. This started in the 1960s, and they are now all over the place. The problem there is finance. The arts are being cut back all the time and they're getting less money. The young writers have mainly been attracted to TV, since the Welsh TV channel was set up. • What is Cymdeithas's role in the campaign against the poll tax?
Ceri. Cymdeithas passed a resolution a few years ago saying that it was opposed to a poll tax when the Tories first mentioned it. At the last conference it passed a more detailed policy of identifying the poll tax as another attack on the working class communities in Britain and something that would further undermine the Welsh speaking communities. It declared its support for an active campaign of non-payment.
• Why would it undermine the Welsh speaking communities in par-
Ceri. Given the economic conditions in Wales after ten years of Thatcherism, a further attack on poorer sections of society, a further transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich, would undermine the whole of the Welsh communities. But if we are looking at the communities where we would wish to retain Welsh as a living language, the poll tax would be more of a
Following on from that, you have to decide how you're going to oppose the
Cymdeithas adopted a policy of supporting mass nonpayment, refusing to pay and to collect the tax. It decided to participate in the existing campaigns rather than set up a separate one and ensure bilingualism in these campaigns, that Welsh is at
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