10 A miner cause?
-
Daryl Leeworthy
Abstract
If twentieth century politics in Wales has largely been defined by class, and therefore along the typical cleavage of Labour versus Conservative; it is nevertheless true that for a significant proportion of Welsh activists and voters, the cleavage is between nation and union (identifiable with the British state). Closely identified with Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, a political manifestation of the Welsh nation was a direct inheritance from nineteenth-century liberalism and its persistence for much of the postwar period was a result of the persistence of that form of politics. But there was an alternative form of left nationalism that emerged through the Communist Party of Great Britain, which this chapter focuses its attention on. Beginning in the 1930s, and spanning almost the entire life of the party thereafter, communists engaged with and developed ideas about nationalism, nationhood and national liberation. This chapter considers the development of these ideas and argues that rather than Plaid Cymru, it was the Communist Party of Great Britain that enabled the persistence of left-nationalist thought and action after 1945 and that it was, to a large extent, communist activists who were the most consistently nationalist in that period.
Abstract
If twentieth century politics in Wales has largely been defined by class, and therefore along the typical cleavage of Labour versus Conservative; it is nevertheless true that for a significant proportion of Welsh activists and voters, the cleavage is between nation and union (identifiable with the British state). Closely identified with Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalist party, a political manifestation of the Welsh nation was a direct inheritance from nineteenth-century liberalism and its persistence for much of the postwar period was a result of the persistence of that form of politics. But there was an alternative form of left nationalism that emerged through the Communist Party of Great Britain, which this chapter focuses its attention on. Beginning in the 1930s, and spanning almost the entire life of the party thereafter, communists engaged with and developed ideas about nationalism, nationhood and national liberation. This chapter considers the development of these ideas and argues that rather than Plaid Cymru, it was the Communist Party of Great Britain that enabled the persistence of left-nationalist thought and action after 1945 and that it was, to a large extent, communist activists who were the most consistently nationalist in that period.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Acknowledgements xi
- Introduction 1
- 1 Revolutionary vanguard or agent provocateur 11
- 2 Not that serious? 30
- 3 Protest and survive 48
- 4 Anti-apartheid solidarity in the perspectives and practices of the British far left in the 1970s and 1980s 66
- 5 ‘The merits of Brother Worth’ 88
- 6 Making miners militant? 107
- 7 Networks of solidarity 125
- 8 ‘You have to start where you’re at’ 144
- 9 Origins of the present crisis? 163
- 10 A miner cause? 182
- 11 The British radical left and Northern Ireland during the ‘Troubles’ 201
- 12 The point is to change it 218
- 13 The Militant Tendency and entrism in the Labour Party 238
- 14 Understanding the formation of the Communist Party of Britain 258
- Index 277
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Acknowledgements xi
- Introduction 1
- 1 Revolutionary vanguard or agent provocateur 11
- 2 Not that serious? 30
- 3 Protest and survive 48
- 4 Anti-apartheid solidarity in the perspectives and practices of the British far left in the 1970s and 1980s 66
- 5 ‘The merits of Brother Worth’ 88
- 6 Making miners militant? 107
- 7 Networks of solidarity 125
- 8 ‘You have to start where you’re at’ 144
- 9 Origins of the present crisis? 163
- 10 A miner cause? 182
- 11 The British radical left and Northern Ireland during the ‘Troubles’ 201
- 12 The point is to change it 218
- 13 The Militant Tendency and entrism in the Labour Party 238
- 14 Understanding the formation of the Communist Party of Britain 258
- Index 277
