{"id":46279,"date":"2025-09-02T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?p=46279"},"modified":"2025-09-01T16:42:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T15:42:53","slug":"cymunedoli-the-glue-that-binds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/economics-unions-work\/alternative-economies\/cymunedoli-the-glue-that-binds\/","title":{"rendered":"Cymunedoli: The glue that binds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the 2024 election, Reform got the third-largest<\/a> share of the vote in Cymru. That placed it second in 13 seats. A More in Common poll in January predicted it could become Cymru\u2019s largest party at Westminster with 12 seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The background to the rise of the far right is that while the forces of capitalism have ravaged the working class and communities across the UK, in Cymru the plunder is extreme. Our history is one of extraction and exploitation in which the vast wealth produced by our natural resources has been syphoned off for the benefit of a distant elite: a tiny few exploiting the many who generate that wealth. Reform exploits the general sense of abandonment and discontent this plunder produces with Westminster\u2019s and Cymru\u2019s establishment. In the past, Cymru\u2019s natural resources, labour and wealth were extracted through coal mining; now sources of renewable energy are privately owned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cymru\u2019s economy was destroyed by deindustrialisation. Port Talbot, the UK\u2019s largest steel works in Wales, was part of an industry that employed 320,000 workers<\/a> nationwide in 1971; now it only employs 33,700<\/a>. Half of the 4,000 workers remaining at Port Talbot are due to lose their jobs<\/a> over the next 18 months. Meanwhile, our natural resources such as wind energy have been contracted out to companies from outside Cymru, which extract millions of pounds of profit annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reform now talks up the possibility of forming a minority government in Cymru after next year\u2019s Senedd elections. But the party has no clear programme for Cymru and no policies that can serve the interests of the people of Cymru. Indeed, quite the opposite. From their vague privatisation plans<\/a> for the NHS to their dismissal<\/a> of Welsh language and culture, their messaging is at best confused. They have no substantive policy proposals, no manifesto, no programme and no leader here. Leaving Farage, a Clacton MP, in charge shows their contempt for Cymru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have always believed in the importance of grassroots, community politics. Now, however, it is urgent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cymunedoli<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cymunedoli<\/a><\/em>, or communitisation (collaborative local networks of social enterprises), is a movement that originated in the 1970s in North Cymru. Blaenau Ffestiniog is pioneering it with Ynni Ogwen, a locally owned energy cooperative. This is one of many projects. Blaenau Ffestiniog has the most social enterprises per capita in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communities in the north of Cymru have a glue that binds them \u2013 the Welsh language \u2013 which cymunedoli<\/em> can build upon. In the south there was once the glue of industry: mines, steelworks, working men\u2019s clubs and trade unions. We must rejuvenate these communities by finding that glue again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two former politicians from different political traditions, we recently came together for a series of community meetings to facilitate villages and towns in the valleys of South Wales to find that glue themselves. They are making cymunedoli<\/em> suit their locality \u2013 it must be built from bottom up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We began in the Three Valleys communities in South Wales \u2013 Merthyr Tydfil, Cynon Valley and the Rhondda \u2013 to talk with and listen to people\u2019s concerns and priorities, and work alongside them, drawing upon the cymunedoli<\/em> vision. This united community movement can enable us to take matters into our own hands; to transform our economy, communities and nation so that the wealth created in Cymru stays in our communities. This is the community control that we believe provides the necessary antidote to the appeal of Reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article first appeared in Issue #247\u00a0The Last Issue?<\/em> Subscribe<\/a> today to support independent socialist media and get your copy hot off the press!<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Economic power in the community \u2013 cymunedoli \u2013 is the antidote to the far right\u2019s growing appeal in Cymru, write Beth Winter and Leanne Wood<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":44905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2533,2269,515],"tags":[3023,3035],"class_list":["post-46279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alternative-economies","category-democracy","category-privatisation","tag-beth-winter","tag-leanne-wood"],"yoast_head":"\nCymunedoli: The glue that binds - Red Pepper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Economic power in the community \u2013 cymunedoli \u2013 is the antidote to the far right\u2019s growing appeal in Cymru, write Beth Winter and Leanne Wood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/economics-unions-work\/alternative-economies\/cymunedoli-the-glue-that-binds\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cymunedoli: The glue that binds - 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