Welsh Underground Network

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The Welsh Underground Network is a Marxist-Leninist and Welsh nationalist organisation.

Organisational history

Valleys Underground (2019-2021)

The Valleys Underground was formed in Merthyr Tudful in 2019 with the intention of combining direct community action with socialist theory.

The first community project undertaken by the group was the clean-up of an abandoned synagogue in Merthyr Tudful. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the group set up CV writing sessions for workers who had been made redundant due to the pandemic, and after the lockdown, began running soup kitchens, community events and allotment clear ups.

Restructuting into the Welsh Underground Network (2022-present)

In 2021, the group expanded outside the South Wales Valleys, launching branches in Wrexham and Swansea. Over the course of the following year, the group would transition away from a community network into a more formalised organisation, renaming itself the Welsh Underground Network. That year, the group would participate in the George Floyd protests in the United Kingdom and the Kill the Bill protests. The group also hosted a delegation of Zapatistas undertaking their Journey for Life tour of Europe.

In its 2022 congress, the group officially adopted Marxism-Leninism at its ideology.

In 2023, the Welsh Underground Network decides at its 3rd Congress to form Plaid Gomiwnyddol Cymru (the Communist Party of Wales).

In April 2024, the group sparked controversy after organising a protest against a talk given by Conservative Party politician Jacob Rees-Mogg at Cardiff University for the university's Conservative and Unionist Association. While the talk took place as planned, the group blocked Rees-Mogg from leaving the building and then followed his car down the street after university security managed to clear a path. The protest was condemned by politicians from across the political spectrum, including Conservative Party chair Richard Holden, Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies, and Labour MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens. Rees-Mogg afterwards described it a "legitimate and peaceful if noisy protest."

Ideology

In a 2022 interview, the group compared itself to Irish revolutionary James Connolly, saying that it advocated "Welsh independence based on socialism," while rejecting "independence for the sake of it."

Community campaigns

'The Dragon Has Two Tongues'

The Dragon Has Two Tongues is a Welsh history show, broadcast in the 1980s, where two Welsh historians debate what the history of Wales is. On one side was Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, a Welsh journalist and historian, educated at Oxford, and on the other was Gwyn Alf Williams, a Marxist historian who studied at Aberystwyth University. The show is known for its fiery debates, with Wynford presenting a romantic view of Welsh history, and Williams presenting a more Marxist, materialist conception of Welsh history.

In 2020, Valleys Underground decided to upload the show onto their website for free, in a protest against how the show was not freely available to the people of Wales as an important telling of Welsh history.

Cefn Fforest Miners Institute rebuilding project

In 2021, the Valleys Underground also joined the Cefn Fforest Miners Institute 'Save Our Stute' campaign.

In 2024, the Welsh Underground Network continued to engage in the Cefn Fforest Miners Institute rebuilding project, with a member saying to BBC Sounds "usually I bring a big group of us, about 5-6 of us, it makes the production go so much quicker having young people in here doing stuff.".

Political campaigns

Pro-Palestinian activism

In November 2021, three members of the Wrexham branch of the Welsh Underground Network occupied the roof of a chemical factory in Wrexham in a joint action with Palestine Action. The protesters occupied the rooftop to disrupt their day-to-day business, as Solvay works with Elbit Systems, a supplier of military equipment for the Israeli armed forces.

Following the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent Gaza War, the organisation has campaigned for Welsh politicians to adopt a pro-ceasefire position and to reject Zionism in the Senedd. Welsh Labour Party MS Hefin David accused the group of antisemitism and of perpetrating social media abuse against Members of the Senedd, claiming that the members of the group "cowardly hide behind social media accounts.".

The organisation also organised the first 'Palestine Solidarity Bloc' to march in the annual 'All Under One Banner' March for Independence.

Anti-fascist activism

In early 2023, the Welsh Underground Network co-organised a counter-demonstration against a rally by far-right group Patriotic Alternative in the South Wales town of Llantwit Major. The Patriotic Alternative had called the rally to protest the building of a refugee centre for Ukrainian war refugees in the town. The counter-demonstration outnumbered the rally..

In summer 2024, the Welsh Underground Network organised a counter-demonstration against a planned rally outside the Senedd by far-right Voice of Wales followng the 2024 Southport stabbings. The planned rally had been advertised as a vigil opposing the Welsh government's 2019 declaration that Wales was a "Nation of Sanctuary" and had advertised disinformation about the origins of the perpetrator of the stabbings. Following the announcement of the WUN's counter-demonstration, the planned rally was called off by its organisers.

References

This article "Welsh Underground Network" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Welsh Underground Network. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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