By the Ysgriffenydd Cyfredinol of Plaid Gomiwnyddol Cymru

This week saw the release of Plaid Gomiwnyddol Cymru’s first pamphlet – ‘Only Socialism Will Liberate Wales’ but why is it important? Why have we written this? What do we hope to achieve?

Firstly, to fully understand our argument – read the pamphlet here (https://communists.wales/party-statements/). However if you want it in short form, we mean that independence via a capitalist system not only will not work, but is in fact impossible. 

Wales does not have a national capitalist class who will support independence – in fact, the largest businesses will outright oppose independence, why? Our largest businesses are owned by international corporations, who have financial hubs in places like London, New York, Paris and Berlin. These people are not only not interested in independence but any threat or potential threat to their investments in Wales will be met with utter rejection, they will use their financial might to attempt to prevent independence. There are, of course, the small business owners, the landlords, and some of those may well support independence. However, through the cold, hard, calculations of capitalism, or through treachery and bribery, many of this section of the capitalist class will side with the largest capitalists.

That leaves us with the working class – the largest section of the population by far. Independence will need to meet the needs of the working classes and to do that we need socialism – so only socialism will liberate Wales!

Why did we write this? Recent years have seen the national question¹ be well and truly opened up again, largely due to the campaigning of Yes Cymru – however they are incapable of answering the national question! Yes Cymru’s doctrine of ‘apolitical campaigning’ (a point covered in the pamphlet) means that through them, no political solution to a political question can be put forward. Simply put, if you want the mass of people to fight for national independence, you have to create a political will and consensus to solve the national question, and you can’t do this by avoiding the political question. We have embraced the political question, and have come to a consensus on the solution of it – socialism! 

Finally then, what do we hope to achieve? We hope to convince those who already convinced of independence that there is only one way to achieve it, we hope to build a movement around the national question that can truly deliver what we all crave and fight for – a true independence.

The Communist Party of Wales is a party of those who have always believed in independence, and have come to the conclusion that only socialism can achieve it.

¹ The ‘national question’ is a phrase used to describe the debate around nationalism, independence and the economic & cultural issues poised by it. ‘Marxism & The National Question’ by Joseph Stalin looks at the Marxist analysis of the national question.