I am absolutely disgusted to learn that crown owns our castles and the profits are sent to Westminster. Wales is struggling, our economy is struggling, our people are struggling, our health services are struggling, and that money could go to the betterment of our lives - instead it goes to England.
despite the fact we maintain the castles and land, we don't own them. they are in OUR country. ownership should belong to us, the people who built them. we maintain them. we work in them. theyre ours and we should be able to use the profits generated by them to help welsh people, not allow the money be funnelled into the monarchy.
the fact the crown owns so much of wales is such an outdated and medieval concept and has no place in modern society.
"Fascism and Welsh Nationalism", or "Stop Fawning over the FWA you cont"
This is inspired by things I've been noticing around Aberystwyth lately while out and about.
Some mfer is putting up Free Welsh Army (FWA) stickers and I have to keep on pulling them down. Why? You ask.
Fascism.
Because of the not so subtle links between the FWA and fascist movements (of which those links are quite frankly underdiscussed) this post is necessary.
So, starting with the stickers:
This is just one of three identical stickers I've pulled down this last week in Aberystwyth. They appear more to be car stickers than anything else and must have cost a pretty penny to print and/or purchase. They appear to have been bought directly from a website using FWA imagery and slogans - yet does not claim to be the FWA (that I can see, at least). I'm not going to link to it because they don't need any more web traffic. But we will get onto why this is significant in a bit.
Anyway, returning to the stickers - I pulled down the first one off of an electric box on North Road, opposite Vaynor St in late November. I pulled down the second (pictured) also in late November on Penglais Road off the bus stop near the hospital. And in early December I pulled down the third one off of a wall near the Spar at the end of Vaynor Street. Right off the bat we can assume the guy who wasted a lot of money on these stickers lives local to where the stickers I've found so far were. So they're lazy, for one - not venturing much further than their own front door by the looks of it.
Iconography:
I've written about the iconography of the FWA before here but it bears repeating that if fascists approve of your iconography, then that's a sign your movement is already overrun with fascists.
This is the sticker design which I've been noticing about town. Top to bottom we have "Cymru Rydd/Free Wales" which on its own is fine. No qualms with that. But between the Welsh and English text is a symbol. This one:
Now, this was the symbol of the Free Wales Army. Note that I say *was* because the FWA doesn't exist any more. Yet various actors have tried to resurrect its very unsuccessful corpse over the years. These stickers seem to belong to a new organisation which is the latest to try and capitalise on the ghost of the FWA. Now, if you're like me, you'll have already noticed this design is, for lack of a better word, a bit dogwhistley. The angled, blocky, swastika-like stylisation of what is supposedly an eagle, the black and white void of any other features and the very fact it *is* an eagle depicted all seem a bit *too* similar to the iconography of the Third Reich, don't you think?
Their design choice is no accident. It is a design which appeals to fascists while also has enough Welsh cultural reference for apologists to hide behind with a plausibly deniable reason for why their eagle Looks Like That. The white eagle is a reference to the 13th C. poem Mab Darogan, in which Myrddin prophesises that "a king shall come with heroism from among the Welsh people" and that "generous men shall be reborn of the lineage of the eagles of Snowdonia". The eagle could have literally been drawn in any way. But it rather specifically was drawn like this. That choice is not accidental.
Now this new organisation which is trying to reanimate the corpse of the FWA (we'll call them EW) has incorporated the FWA symbol into their sticker. An endorsement of the failed so-called 'paramilitary' organisation on their part, to be sure. EW also have included a different style of white eagle on their sticker as well - which is blatantly stolen from Wikipedia (the copyright is expired, but 0/10 artistic effort on their part even so). Also not to nitpick but the eagle on the sticker is grey not white so that's also a fail.
Artistic criticisms aside, the sticker is loaded with dogwhistley iconography all round. The Celtic knot border isn't necessarily problematic, however, fascists and/or neo-nazis love to slap Celtic knots onto things because they associate Celticity with whiteness. The colour scheme may also be a coincidence, but it does remind me of the fascist symbol which is the 'Flag of Kekistan" which uses the same colour scheme.
Why does this matter and who were the FWA?:
The FWA were a Welsh nationalist (supposedly 'paramilitary') outfit which formed in Lampeter in 1963 and disbanded in 1969 (just 6 years of activity). They took a lot of their cues from the IRA and were effectively fanboys of them. The group was never really considered a threat and mostly consisted of middle-aged men playing paramilitary dress-up. They did claim to be funded by the IRA and that they had dogs trained to carry explosives. Their claims remain unproven.
HOWEVER - and here's where things get sticky. A lot of the issues the FWA were publicly concerned with were and are actually valid issues (e.g. the drowning of Capel Celyn, the Aberfan Disaster etc.). The problem is that fascists or fanboys of fascists love to get their foot in the door by addressing genuine issues. But what happens is that invariably a minoritised group is blamed for the existence of said issue and naturally that leads to discrimination and violence.
The police started to get a bit antsy with the investiture of then-prince Charles as prince of Wales and the possibility of the FWA doing some terrorism. So some of the FWA's leaders were arrested just prior to this. The group officially ended in 1969.
The nationalism advocated for by the FWA was of the 'blood-and-soil' type. Not just your common or garden nationalism (which still has issues but given context is perfectly able to exist in a non-fashy way). And that's why the idolisation of the FWA in years since is sus. It appeals to romanticised nationalist notions of brave men in uniforms helping free Wales - when in reality they did little terrorism and little to actually further the Welsh nationalist cause. In fact, the leadership of the FWA fell apart after they started to disagree on whether their actions were damaging the cause rather than helping it.
Julian Cayo-Evans founded the FWA and ran it with Dennis Coslett and Gethin ap Gruffydd. Gruffydd went on to found other youth nationalist organisations after he left the FWA due to disagreements with its direction - e.g. he founded the Patriotic Front in 1964 which was later outlawed by Plaid Cymru in 1966. It goes without saying names like 'Patriotic Front' are deliberate nods to other, similarly named fascist organisations like National Front.
Legacy and The Present:
FWA's only legacy is the sycophantic fanclub which ressurects the corpse of the FWA every few years to parade it around and relive the 'glory days' of paramilitary cosplay. But aside from functionally being useless, their iconography and politics are still very much under the fash umbrella and that must be resisted at every opportunity (hence why I'm tearing down their stickers - I don't want fascists to feel welcome here). Part of why people may turn a blind eye to the FWA/sympathise is that they may not be aware of the history of the FWA or see the dogwhistles laden in their work and symbols. Some may even just assume without any other context that they're just another Welsh-language preservation group and may even support them without realising the deeper nature of the organisation beyond just preserving the Welsh language.
Which brings me back to EW. I'm going to put the rest of this under a cut, I do encourage reading the rest though and reblogging to get the word out that
It is always morally okay to tear down fascist propaganda
If you see some in your town, don't hesitate to let fash know they aren't welcome here.
EW:
So, onto the latest in a long line of paramilitary wannabes who idolise a long-dead organisation from the 60s.
The EW website seems... sketch. Lots of banners and sections asking to 'donate now' and 'take action' (with money). So right off the bat this looks like a cash-grab.
Secondly, from their own 'About' section they claim that the Welsh Independence movement has "become inundated with authoritarian Marxist entryists who regard Welsh independence as merely a vehicle for furthering their own political agendas". Which is pretty bold stuff coming from an organisation trying to do The Exact Same. There's also a LOT of emphasis on youth involvement and youth nationalism.
There's also a lot of ahistorical claims in the About section too. E.g. on the prophecy of Myrddin "From this legend derives the very name of Cymru’s greatest mountains, with ‘Eryri’ meaning the ‘Seat of the Eagles’ in Cymraeg." - this is contested as there is no one agreed upon etymology of Eryri. To claim that this is The Etymology suggests that they picked this one just because it conveniently fits the version of the mythology they're presenting. They also claim that "Owain ap Gruffydd, would adopt three such eagles as his royal coat of arms" - this is blatantly incorrect as Owain ap Gruffydd lived before the Age of Heraldry and the three eagles are actually later attributed arms.
In EW's FAQ there's a section on supporting their organisation - with one paragraph saying that you can buy stickers instead "If you aren’t eligible or willing to commit to becoming an activist". Lol at 'if you aren't willing to fully commit to our FWA fanboy club you can put up some stickers instead'. Also the button to buy stickers suggests you pay via paypal "We’ll accept quick payments using PayPal and will have them shipped to you First Class" - which *totally* sounds legit (what do you bet they ask people to pay via 'friends and family instead of through business means?).
And... that's it. There's very little else on their website. It *looks* like they're trying to be a movement, but appear to lack substance (and money, judging from how many different Donate Now buttons are plastered all over the site). A hollow organisation blatantly bending history and mythology to fit their narrative, proudly using symbols designed to appeal to fascists while asking people to trust them with the future of Wales?
Dim diolch.
For further reading on why we should guard against fascism in Welsh language revival and independence, see my other post here.
Reblogs welcome for an antifascist independent Wales.
O wow the new "prince of Wales" has decided to visit on Owain Glyndwr day (the day we celebrate and remember the last Welsh prince of Wales. He also led the sadly unsuccessful fight for our independence from the English)
They're not even being subtle about the fact they want to subjugate our people and erase our culture and history - if they really cared about us they'd relinquish the title and leave us the fuck alone
If you wanna know more then look up
King Henry VIII's Laws in Wales Act, abolishing our legal system and banning our language
All the anti-Welsh propaganda pushed particularly in the 17th century when there was a revival of our language (seriously look up Wallography it's really fucked up)
The English and Scots in the Industrial Revolution building their heavy industry pretty much exclusively in South Wales and channelling all the money from our work into England and large southern Scottish cities
The Welsh Not (an actual attempt to beat children so our language would die and we'd stop fighting against the English)
The focus of the English on the beauty and natural resources of Wales while degrading the people
The fact that until 1881 the Welsh weren't represented in politics (up until that point any politicians from Wales had to speak English and almost all of them were just English
The fact that in 1905!!! Prime minister H. H. Asquith literally said "I would sooner go to hell than to Wales"
Liverpool's creation of the Llyn Celyn reservoir in Wales without Welsh permission - to do this, they full on flooded a village which was a stronghold of Welsh culture and one of the last Welsh language only communities, Capel Celyn, and to make matters worse 35/36 Welsh MPs voted against the flooding and it still happened - This was in the 1960s
Also Liverpool didn't apologise for this blatant disregard of our rights and the forced eviction of an entire village until 2005
The Welsh language wasn't given equal footing to English until 1993 and even now English is compulsory in schools at GCSE level and Welsh isn't
The continued disdain shown by English cultural icons to the Welsh people and culture (seriously look up what Jeremy Clarkson has said about the Welsh before, particularly about abolishing the Welsh language)
How the English are killing our villages and towns by buying up our homes for "holiday homes" (really shouldn't be allowed at all but that's a different point) - this is killing business as these homes spend most of the year uninhabited (also it's not just a few, there's entire villages owned by the English which are now unlivable)
The mass strop the English media threw in 2019 when the Senedd was first allowed to refer to itself in Welsh officially, and as a parliament officially (instead of an Assembly)
Also the continued appropriation of our mythology (chiefly King Arthur but appropriation of Celtic history and mythology is a much wider issue perpetuated by a lot of people)
When discussing how the UK government has chosen to block the new trans rights laws in Scotland, lets not forget that they also essentially overwrote Wales’ rules around not being allowed to replace workers while they strike.
I’m all for outrage against the shitty English government, it’s well deserved. But this is not the first time they’ve decided to go against devolution and the rights of other members of the UK as their own, individual countries, and it will not be the fucking last.
now that Charlie boy has become king here are some things you may not know about him:
- he publicly humiliated and treated Diana the Princess of Wales like utter garbage countless times while they were married, in particular this situation in 1993
- tampongate (need I say more)
- his poor treatment of Princes William and Harry during their formative years (saw an opera while William was in surgery, A+ dad behaviour)
- in 2013 he accepted a £1m donation from the family of Osama Bin Laden for one of his charities
- continues to meddle in British politics which is a big fat no-no for royals (but he doesn’t care to listen or be reminded of history, i.e, see Charles I of England), he also really wanted helicopters and kept annoying the PM over it back in 2004-2005
- he was allegedly listed in the Paradise Papers back in 2017, but the royal family denies this
- he was allegedly the one who made racist comments about the potential skin colour of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s son back in 2017 after his youngest son’s engagement, but he continues to deny this
- he and the Duchess of Cornwall openly LAUGHED at Inuit throat singers during a visit to Iqaluit, Canada in 2017 (it’s so abhorrent, as a Canadian this enrages me)
- in 2021 he allegedly offered “cash for honours” in relation to The Prince’s Foundation, by bribing a Saudi billionaire with knighthood and UK citizenship if he donated to his charity
- he actively supports homeopathy treatments instead of researched and effective treatments, and is often criticized as being “anti-science”
- he has a minimum net worth of $27 billion USD as of 2022 from ONE royal estate (that’s right, just from one of their many properties)
Thinking about The Laws of Hywel Dda again, specifically the "if a hungry person passes through 3 towns without being fed, he cannot be charged with a crime if he steals food" part. This implies there is a societal obligation to feed the hungry that has to start at the most basic communal level.
For a modern Welsh state this is tantamount to suggesting that if the state has an obligation to uphold the law, it has an obligation to feed those in food poverty. From a legal standpoint it is unlawful and culturally offensive/insensitive for there to NOT be welfare systems in place that do this.
PLUS, it raises the question of waiving sentencing for shoplifting upon those who can prove they live in absolute poverty. A business or chain that attempts to prosecute or punish a shoplifter who specifically steals food to satisfy an immediate hunger need, is arguably practicing a culturally offensive/insensitive act.
If a company commits to punishing shoplifters like this, should they even be allowed to do business in the country, as it would be repeatedly failing to commit to both the law and the culture of the country?
Tá brón orm d'Albain. Neamhspleáchas ó Shasana! Alba gu bàth, agus Érinn go brách!
(I am sad for Scotland. Independence from England! Scotland forever, and Ireland forever!)
The UK government has now said Scotland cannot hold a referendum to gain independence without "approval" from Westminster. Did y'all get "approval" from Alba, Cymru, and Éire to forcefully occupy their lands, kill their people, and try to erase their culture and language? Did y'all get "approval" to steal the Crown Jewels from Dunnottar Castle? Did y'all get "approval" to displace thousands of Irish and cause one of the largest diasporas in the 19th century?
I have tried so, so bloody hard to not let the history between Ireland and England color my view of current day England, but when they pull shit like this it's hard to not take it personally. When Scots, Gaeilge, Gaelic, and Cymraeg are all dying languages that were forcefully beaten out of children, it's hard not to take it personally.
I hope one day i reach a point in my life where I never have to speak this disgusting language of my family's oppressors and that i can live in a whole, reunited Éire and speak the mother tongue my family spoke for generations.
I hate the UK government with a burning passion. If Alba wants independence, then trust me, she will get it. And so will Cymru and Éire and then what will you do? Póg mo thóin!
The second thing that stood out to me about The Way was referring to drowned towns in Wales. I am mildly obsessed with them so I decided to look up drowned towns in Wales and the first hit is one called Capel Celyn.
It was drowned in 1965, despite a nine year fight to keep it alive. After reading about it, I don't doubt this was included to really shove the point home the series is making. Wales has no political weight and England can do whatever they wish to them.
But, you might say, what do drowned towns have to do with the story of The Way? If we're looking at Capel Celyn specifically, this town was drowned to provide the people of Liverpool with water. The English government does not care about the Welsh and will happily stomp all over them.
i want to talk about union and English people’s attitude towards it..
So especially on TikTok, anything to do with Scottish independence and Scottish patriotism i always seem to see English people shitting on it, being incredibly disrespectful, thinking they are “in charge” of us and I just think it’s not talked about enough.
see what i mean.. In every single video there are comments just PROVING the point that they think they’re so righteous and high and mighty. THE CELTS WERE LITERALLY HERE BEFORE THEM! It is supposed to be an “equal” union so why on earth so do why they literally think they “own us” or thst we would be screwed on our own when in reality we would be absolutely fine. Proves that they never really change, it has been taught and drilled into them since through generations and they wonder why we don’t particularly like them. They claim to know their history until it comes to people finding out what they did to Scotland, Ireland and wales and what they still do. They’re so entitled and ignorant and living in England has really showed me more of that.
Dissolve the union, it is not fair at all and it never has been.
Just to add, when i say English people I don’t mean all obviously i just mean a lot of them and honestly it’s easier to say all of them :)