# Welsh Anarchist History?



## Dic Penderyn (Jul 22, 2006)

Does anybody know any? 

The most you get from internet searches is 

The syndicalist pampflet "The Miner's Next Step - Being a suggested scheme for the Reorganisation of the Federation." Was issued by the Unofficial Reform Committee in  Tonypandy in 1912

That Emma Goldman spoke in wales several times and even married a coal miner from the Amman Valley called James Colton in order to obtain British citizenship. 

That Welsh anarchist Sam Mainwaring was one of the original members of the Socialist League, a personal friend of William Morris & was a propagandist, speaker and activist.

That Captain Jack White rushing to South Wales to try to bring the miners out on strike in protest at James Connolly's death sentance (which he did three months imprisonment for)

That Class War, had origins in Swansea,  developing from the group  who produced "The Alarm" which focussed on local government corruption.

That theres a few essay's on welsh anarchist fiction, no sign of what the welsh anarchist fiction itself is...


----------



## Stanley Edwards (Jul 22, 2006)

Lots of Andalucian Anarchist history from the same period listed early in your post. Andalucian miners and agricultural workers mostly. Eventually formed and coalition with the Liberals and held office for a very short time. Industrial connections with Andalucia and Wales are well documented from around that time.

I'm searching for links with Wales. You never know it may turn up something.


----------



## nwnm (Jul 22, 2006)

well roland the anarchist tried to petrol bomb the army recruitment office <where a posh hotel now stands> in the 1980's. Apparently the bootle bounced off a window and rolled back; setting fire to rolands trousers. Thats the closest you get to anarchist insurrection in Wales. <roland last seen serving pints in the Queens Vault pub, mid 90's>


----------



## Udo Erasmus (Jul 23, 2006)

IT's highly debatable whether the "Miners next step" was an anarchist document, most of the critique of the trade union bureaucracy is found in marxist, socialist and anarchist writings.  Many of the authors had links with the marxist influenced Plebs League and Central Labour College and were more likely to have identified with the Marxist tradition than the Anarchist tradition


----------



## neprimerimye (Jul 23, 2006)

Udo Erasmus said:
			
		

> IT's highly debatable whether the "Miners next step" was an anarchist document, most of the critique of the trade union bureaucracy is found in marxist, socialist and anarchist writings.  Many of the authors had links with the marxist influenced Plebs League and Central Labour College and were more likely to have identified with the Marxist tradition than the Anarchist tradition



Reluctant though I am to agree with Udo I have to say that there is nothing anarchist about The Miners Next Step. Should you read the papers and other materials produced by the people around The Next Step the ideas put forward in it are clearly industrial unionist and influenced by the then considerable syndicalist movement. But not a trace of anarchism can be found.

The comrades around the URC it should be noted evolved in a variety of directions. Most went into the Labour Party and became reformist socialists gradually moving right while others joined the CPGB.

How the people around the URC thought of themselves is debatable. But most I suspect would have seen themselves as first and foremost as union men and would not have been much taken with the petty sectism so prevelant today of labelling one another. The Fed of course being utterly ehegmonic in thier region meant that anything beyond or outside the union was thought of as a little alien.


----------



## Bristolian (Jul 24, 2006)

*Swansea anarchists*

Apparently theres  lots of stuff about Swansea Anarchists from 1965-1982 and Cardiff Anarchists 1982-83 along with stuff on the Free Wales Army and the WSRM in Ian Bone's autobiography 'Bash The Rich' which is out sometime in October. There a good article on Alarm in an issue of Smash Hits....No. 2 I think.


----------



## Dic Penderyn (Jul 26, 2006)

Bristolian said:
			
		

> Apparently theres  lots of stuff about Swansea Anarchists from 1965-1982 and Cardiff Anarchists 1982-83 along with stuff on the Free Wales Army and the WSRM in Ian Bone's autobiography 'Bash The Rich' which is out sometime in October.



I'll look forward to that!


----------



## Belushi (Jul 26, 2006)

Good thread, if I ever get round to doing my dissertation to finally complete my MA I was thinking of doing it on this subject or more specifically anarchists in the South Wales coalfield.  My Grandad was right old CPGB/Fed warhorse but apparently was involved in some anarchist leaning groups back in the 30s and 40s, with a chap called Nun Nicholls. If anyone has any suggestion for useful info relating to this period I'd be very grateful


----------



## nwnm (Jul 27, 2006)

Belushi said:
			
		

> Good thread, if I ever get round to doing my dissertation to finally complete my MA I was thinking of doing it on this subject or more specifically anarchists in the South Wales coalfield.  My Grandad was right old CPGB/Fed warhorse but apparently was involved in some anarchist leaning groups back in the 30s and 40s, with a chap called Nun Nicholls. If anyone has any suggestion for useful info relating to this period I'd be very grateful




If you did that It would be worth taking it back to the beginning of the 20th century up to the 1930's. Then you could go through some of the debates as they developed through the syndicalist movement and the anti parliamentary and council communist movements. This would allow you to look at the S Wales coalfield through the prism of the debates within the revolutionary movements when things were a bit more fluid. They had ossified by the 1930's


----------



## Belushi (Jul 28, 2006)

Thanks Nwmn, good advice.


----------



## neprimerimye (Jul 29, 2006)

Belushi said:
			
		

> Good thread, if I ever get round to doing my dissertation to finally complete my MA I was thinking of doing it on this subject or more specifically anarchists in the South Wales coalfield.  My Grandad was right old CPGB/Fed warhorse but apparently was involved in some anarchist leaning groups back in the 30s and 40s, with a chap called Nun Nicholls. If anyone has any suggestion for useful info relating to this period I'd be very grateful



Emma Goldman gave 3 lectures in the valleys in 1936 under the auspices of the NCCL. Although they left nary a trace.

CLR James was also active in the same area about the same time. Similarly his lectures left no discernable trace.

Fact is the area was solidly behind the Labour and Stalinist parties to the almost total exclusion of anything else.

However if you want to research anarchists in South Wales in the 1930's I would suggest that your first stop might be an institution with a file of Freedom. A study of its pages should provide any leads there might be.


----------



## llantwit (Jul 29, 2006)

Is there anywhere with a complete (or completish) run of freedom around here, nep?


----------



## neprimerimye (Jul 29, 2006)

llantwit said:
			
		

> Is there anywhere with a complete (or completish) run of freedom around here, nep?



No idea. I always thought it an insipid reformist publication.

I'm fairly sure that none of the major public libraries has files of Freedom. Try the university but I'm not hopeful


----------



## Udo Erasmus (Jul 30, 2006)

llantwit said:
			
		

> Is there anywhere with a complete (or completish) run of freedom around here, nep?



You could try the bookshop in London - though obviously not in this area.


----------



## neprimerimye (Jul 30, 2006)

Udo Erasmus said:
			
		

> You could try the bookshop in London - though obviously not in this area.



Do you serously think that the bookshop in Whitechapel carries back copies of Freedom dating from the 1930's Udo?


----------



## neprimerimye (Aug 2, 2006)

llantwit said:
			
		

> Is there anywhere with a complete (or completish) run of freedom around here, nep?



The Kate Sharley Library in Northampton does have a complete(ish) file.


----------



## llantwit (Aug 2, 2006)

thanks


----------



## Dic Penderyn (Dec 14, 2006)

So do you fancy hassling the KSL for a ruffle through their back copies of Freedom for cuttings (photocopys these days) on Anarchism in Wales then Llantwit butt?


----------



## llantwit (Dec 14, 2006)

I'd love to. Can the next Gagged benefit pay my wages? I don't come cheap y'know. I'm postdoctoral now.


----------



## Dic Penderyn (Dec 14, 2006)

You'll get double the pay everyone else gets! ;-)


----------



## llantwit (Dec 15, 2006)

:d


----------



## Dic Penderyn (Dec 18, 2006)

llantwit said:
			
		

> :d



okay TEN TIMES what everyone else gets! Howzaboutthatthen?


----------



## llantwit (Dec 19, 2006)

I'm not greedy, y'know.


----------



## UncleRoly (Mar 15, 2007)

Try the British Library. This cut down link _should_ work:
http://catalogue.bl.uk/F/?func=full-set-set&set_number=035829&set_entry=000006&format=999


```
'System number  	005316686
Title           	Freedom : A journal of anarchist socialism (Communism).
Dates of pub.   	no.1-446; New series.no.1-74; [New series.] no.1 = Oct.1886 - Nov./Dec.1927; May 1930 - July/Sept.1936; Aug.1936.
General note    	Incorporated with "Fighting Call".'
```


----------



## Dic Penderyn (Mar 16, 2007)

cheers for that roly, Looks like I should do a visit to the british libary 

Do you know anybody with back issues of welsh anarchist publications? I'd love to see copies of them.


----------



## Brockway (Mar 20, 2007)

Dic Penderyn said:
			
		

> Does anybody know any?
> 
> The most you get from internet searches is
> 
> ...



What about Dafydd Ladd? I was looking at _The Times _reports of his trial the other day back in 1983, (he got 9 nine years!) and they kept referring to him as "a self-confessed anarchist." Didn't he at one point try to blow up the Portuguese consulate on Cathedral Road? Is he any relation to Edie Ladd that performance artist/dancer woman?


----------



## rhys gethin (Mar 20, 2007)

'That Captain Jack White rushing to South Wales to try to bring the miners out on strike in protest at James Connolly's death sentance (which he did three months imprisonment for)'

You'll find a very contemptuous treatment of this man in D.H. Lawrence, by the way.   I'm trying to remember which novel, think it's probably Women in Love.


----------



## Dic Penderyn (Mar 20, 2007)

Brockway said:
			
		

> What about Dafydd Ladd? I was looking at _The Times _reports of his trial the other day back in 1983, (he got 9 nine years!) and they kept referring to him as "a self-confessed anarchist." Didn't he at one point try to blow up the Portuguese consulate on Cathedral Road? Is he any relation to Edie Ladd that performance artist/dancer woman?




He's a new one (to me anyway) found this:

_"1973 -- Dafydd Ladd and Michael Tristram arrested in Bristol on 14 September and charged with three attacks on Portuguese vice-consulates in Bristol and Cardiff, and outside the British Army Officers Club at Aldershot, claimed by a group calling itself "Freedom Fighters for All" but manifestly part of the same spontaneous wave."_


----------

