{"id":17440,"date":"2021-02-16T16:47:49","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T16:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=17440"},"modified":"2021-02-18T23:44:41","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T23:44:41","slug":"beyond-leek-flavoured-ukism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2021\/02\/16\/beyond-leek-flavoured-ukism\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Leek-Flavoured UKism"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are posting this article first published by Red Pepper<\/cite>, which outlines the thinking of Undod (Unity). Undod\u00a0is the Welsh equivalent of the Radical Independence Campaign in Scotland. The article highlights the weaknesses of “radical federalism” (sometimes called ‘progressive federalism’ by its Left unionists supporters).\u00a0It makes the\u00a0case for a Welsh Republic.<\/h2>\n
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Undod banner at Welsh independence rally at Caernarfon in 2019 (Robat Idris)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Undod (Welsh for \u2018Unity\u2019) is a group of people from all over Wales campaigning for a radical form of independence. We believe that an independent Wales will not be worth having if it is merely a leek-flavoured imitation of the UK state. Therefore, we seek to challenge the status quo in Wales itself by proposing a different ethos to the paternalistic, top-down, neoliberal approach manifested by Welsh Labour over the past two decades. On our blog, we have consistently advocated an approach based on our\u00a0core values<\/a>, and been critical of the Welsh Government and Welsh Labour where necessary, for example over aspects of its handling of\u00a0Covid-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How, then, do we respond to Labour\u2019s ideas as presented in the paper\u00a0We, the People \u2013 The Case For Radical Federalism<\/a>? Commissioned and launched by Wales\u2019 First Minister Mark Drakeford, the report\u2019s clear aim is to salvage the UK through the idea of \u2018Radical Federalism\u2019. All of the Labour eminences it quotes are confirmed and dedicated Unionists \u2013 from Nye Bevan to\u00a0Gordon Brown<\/a>, Mark Drakeford and Andy Burnham. Conversely, the paper is prefaced with W. B. Yeats\u2019 line \u2018Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold\u2019 \u2013 a strange choice given Yeats\u2019 support for Irish independence!<\/p>\n

Between a rock and a hard place<\/h3>\n

Welsh Labour is caught between a rock and a hard place. The rock is a far-right Tory Government intent on rolling back devolution via its Internal Market Bill, while the hard place is the clear growth in\u00a0support for independence<\/a>\u00a0in Wales \u2013 with the evisceration of Scottish Labour by the pro-independence SNP being a recent memory. An even harder place might be the potential morphing of Wales into Western England should Scotland become independent and Ireland move towards unification.<\/p>\n

Despite the presence of a Welsh \u2018Labour for Indy<\/a>\u2019 Group within the party, and despite a recent\u00a0YouGov poll<\/a>\u00a0for YesCymru showing that a small majority of Welsh Labour voters would vote for independence, in We, the People the idea is dismissed outright. Labour in Wales continues to be a Unionist party \u2013 this paper is about rearranging the constitutional furniture within the UK house. It\u2019s also about decorating the walls with warm fluffy phrases like \u2018local citizens\u2019 assemblies\u2019, \u2018designing a better future\u2019, and \u2018inclusive, collaborative ethos\u2019.<\/p>\n

However, a number of positive things can be taken from the paper. First, the recognition that the UK is broken and not fit for purpose. Second, the argument that power should be devolved within England. Third, the idea of extending devolution downward to several layers \u2013 regions, cities, towns, villages, communities. Fourth, recognition of the threat posed by the Internal Market Bill, which the Welsh Government is planning to challenge legally. And fifth, the cornerstones of \u2018democracy, fairness, justice, climate stability and equality\u2019, which would be accepted by the vast majority of people in Wales.<\/p>\n

What We, the People doesn\u2019t say<\/h3>\n

The core question in this debate should be: what form of governance would be best suited to Wales? Instead of this, the paper\u2019s default position is that the UK as a concept is worth preserving. There is so much baggage associated with the UK, as currently shown in post-Empire angst and Brexit jingoism, that reform has to apply to the whole mindset of the ruling classes \u2013 and that includes the Labour Party establishment, as evidenced by Keir Starmer\u2019s recent public embrace of the Union Jack and \u2018British\u2019 values. It is characteristic of the UK left that \u2018British\u2019 and \u2018the country\u2019 are seen as one and the same. And the use of the term \u2018patriotism\u2019 in the UK context is all about flag waving, exploiting armed forces veterans as PR props, and couching the concept in terms of Blitz spirit. Whereas the \u2018nationalism\u2019 so derided in this paper is about shared civic values, based on equality and internationalist in its outlook. It couldn\u2019t be more different to UK-style patriotism.<\/p>\n

The paper\u2019s vision of a transformed future UK reads like a generic wish-list, and there is no real explanation as to how \u2018radical federalism\u2019 would deliver it, other than the hope that devolving power downwards would hasten the desired changes. Its ideas on workplace democracy, cooperative enterprises, and improving the lot of women, BAME, disabled and LGBT people, could be worked towards in an independent Wales equally as well as within the UK as currently configured.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, there is a marked contrast between the paper\u2019s socialist-sounding aspirations, and the neoliberal policies which have actually been pursued by the Welsh Government for many years. Reform of the UK would not make a bit of difference to this. The Welsh Labour Government\u2019s vision towards 2040, expressed in the draft legislation\u00a0Future Wales: the National Development Framework<\/a>, is based on a continuation of the current exploitative and failed inward investment model, and on tying in regions of Wales with regions of England, rather than having an unifying model for Wales. To this can be added the Welsh Government\u2019s full-blown backing for military-based industry, failed attempts at attracting the likes of Ineos, and fanatical support of nuclear power \u2013 all pandering to capital and vested interests rather than being of real lasting benefit to \u2018We, the People\u2019.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the very title of the paper suggests a Labour Party which is a model of how to operate in terms of citizen assemblies, listening to the grassroots, and having a bottom-up approach. However, the election and leadership of Jeremy Corbyn as the ultimate manifestation of such a policy was viscerally opposed by the Welsh Labour hierarchy. Corbynism in Wales was always fighting against the tide, and now it\u2019s back to business as usual.<\/p>\n

Reform means republicanism<\/h3>\n

The paper talks about a UK \u2018free from patronage and privilege\u2019, but it makes no attempt to deal with the major constitutional issue of the head of state. If radical reform of the UK is to be addressed, then the monarchy has to go. Not only because it is an anachronism with no place in any modern country, but because of the ongoing haemorrhaging of cash directly to the Queen\u2019s coffers via the Crown Estate. It\u2019s estimated, for example, that \u00a3879million annually for 10 years will be given to the Crown Estate after\u00a0a recent auction of seabed licences for energy projects<\/a>. It\u2019s also an anomaly that Senedd and Scottish Parliament members have to swear an oath of loyalty to the Crown, but members of the Northern Ireland Assembly don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The paper\u2019s statement that, after its radical reform, \u2018the UK state would perform only those strategic tasks which could not be performed at a more local level\u2019 begs the question \u2013 how can those tasks possibly be anything other than a continuation of the current England-dominated \u2018British\u2019 policies on defence, foreign policy, and infrastructure? There would presumably be no resolution of the nuclear arms issue, which is particularly pertinent to Scotland and its longstanding opposition to Trident submarines at Faslane.<\/p>\n

Debate on the future of the UK is essential, but the debate cannot be framed with the presupposition that the continuation of the UK state, albeit in a different form, is the only acceptable outcome. Welsh Labour\u2019s contribution in We, the People is a curate\u2019s egg, but better that than no egg at all!<\/p>\n

\u2018A terrible beauty is born\u2019 is the closing line of W. B. Yeats\u2019 poem \u2018Easter 1916\u2019. It may well come to apply after the traumatic convulsions of the UK\u2019s death rattle.<\/p>\n

Robat Idris<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0a member of Undod and founder of\u00a0<\/strong>SAIL<\/strong><\/a>, co-authoring its\u00a0<\/strong>vision<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for community development in Gwynedd and Ynys M\u00f4n.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article was first posted at Beyond Leek Flavoured UKism<\/a>
\n________<\/p>\n

also see:-
\nThe story of Edinburgh\u00a0RIC -written for Mabon ap Gwynfor<\/a><\/p>\n

The story of Edinburgh\u00a0RIC (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n

Report of RIC National Conference – A Welsh Perspective, Angharad Tomos, Cymdeithas yr Iath<\/a><\/p>\n

Message from Edinburgh RIC to the ‘Go For It’ Welsh rally in Cardiff, 6th Septempber 2014<\/a><\/p>\n

Wales and Scottish Independence \u2013 Leanne Wood, President of Plaid Cymru<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

After the UK: the future for 4 nations<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are posting this article first published by Red Pepper, which outlines the thinking of Undod (Unity). Undod\u00a0is the Welsh equivalent of the Radical Independence Campaign in Scotland. The article highlights the weaknesses of “radical federalism” (sometimes called ‘progressive federalism’ by its Left unionists supporters).\u00a0It makes the\u00a0case for a Welsh Republic. Undod (Welsh for \u2018Unity\u2019)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1873,1874,1877],"tags":[8869],"class_list":["post-17440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-against-unionism","category-republicanism","category-wales-against-unionism","tag-author-red-pepper"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"views":1626,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17440"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17580,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17440\/revisions\/17580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}