The Communists' best voting performance came in the large Town ward of Merthyr Tydfil, where local trades union council secretary Tommy Roberts won 13 per cent of the poll, based on the percentage of the ballots issued.

The other Welsh Communist Party candidates in Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenafon in Torfaen all scored around 6 per cent, in two cases finishing ahead of a Liberal Democrat candidate.

In Cardiff, the four Communists received between 2 and 4 per cent of the vote, about the same as in the local elections four years ago. In Adamsdown, Fran Rawlings beat one of the Tory candidates.

'In the Welsh capital, all the parties were squeezed by the sharp polarisation between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, and in most cases the Communist vote was not far behind those for Plaid Cymru, the Greens and the Tories', Mr Newnham explained.

'The key question now is whether the new ruling Labour group, which includes some campaigning socialists, will put the highest priority on protecting jobs and services, providing more public sector housing and stopping the plans to build a giant polluting incinerator next to working class communities', Mr Newnham insisted.

FULL RESULTS & PERCENTAGES

Name Seat Vote Percentage (of ballots issued)

Tommy Roberts Town (Merthyr Tydfil) 261 (13.1%)

Catrin Ashton Bedlinog (Merthyr Tydfil) 56 (6.4%)

Roy Evans Vaynor (Merthyr Tydfil) 66 (5.7%)

Dave Brown Blaenavon (Torfaen) 95 (6%)

Rob Griffiths Splott (Cardiff) 117 (4%)

Fran Rawlings Adamsdown (Cardiff) 50 (3%)

Rick Newnham Grangetown (Cardiff) 77 (1.8%)

Steve Williams Pentwyn (Cardiff) 91 (2.5%)

TOTAL VOTES 813
AVERAGE PERCENTAGE 5.3%

General secretary of the Communist Party of Britain Robert Griffiths, who is also the Welsh Communist candidate for Splott, said the party’s candidates would be prepared to stand up and represent residents on the big issues.

Mr Griffiths said: “We are going through the biggest cuts in public services for 60 years, the biggest drop in living standards for 60 years, and yet Labour’s top election pledges are we oppose litter, dog mess and pot holes. Tory pledges are the same.

“We oppose dog mess, litter and pots holes – I can’t imagine there is any candidate standing who is in favour of them – but there’s nothing about public spending cuts, a huge need for affordable housing, nothing about Cardiff’s unemployment rate. “

Grangetown candidate Rick Newnham said the Welsh Communists want to see more democracy at street and community level in Cardiff, and the party believe Cardiff Council should campaign for a Welsh parliament with “full economic and fund-raising powers”.

The party also outlined 10 specific policies for Wales:

- More public sector housing at affordable rents.
- A compulsory take-over of empty office accommodation
- An integrated public transport system linking buses, rail and Cardiff airport.
- Oppose polluting incinerators – use safer, cleaner technology and increase recycling
- A council-led drive for jobs and facilities for disabled workers
- More funding for domestic violence refuges
- Higher council tax rates for top-band properties
- No more outsourcing or privatisation of council services
- Careful use of council reserves to protect jobs and services
- A tight cap on councillors’ allowances and expenses.

Read the Welsh Communist Party’s full election manifesto http://yourcardiff.walesonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Welsh_manifesto_2012_Local_low_res.pdf

The main focus was local elections due on May 3 which the party will contesting on a platform of total opposition to cuts in public services and jobs.

Mr Griffiths said: “The Tory-Lib Dem regime at Westminster and its New Labour predecessors have pledged £1,400 billion to bail out the banks and financial markets.

“Yet they claim we cannot afford £213bn for vital public services and benefits over the next four years.”

Mr Griffiths, who is standing in his local community of Splott, Cardiff, claimed that Wales will be hit disproportionately hard by the cuts, which he estimated would amount to at least £16 bn.

He poured scorn on the “Tweedledee, Tweedledum” election campaigns of Labour, the Lib Dems and the Tories in the capital city.

“They have no policies for public services, jobs, housing or public transport — but are unanimous in their opposition to litter and dog droppings,” he said.

Catrin Ashton, who is standing in her home village of Bedlinog, Merthyr Tydfil, highlighted the plight of beleaguered Remploy workers “devastated by the penny-pinching closure of Remploy factories in Merthyr and across south Wales.”

Candidate David Brown raised the issue of the problems face by valley communities such as Blaenafon.

(First published in the Morning Star 14.4.12)

'The Tory-LibDem regime at Westminster and its New Labour predecessors have pledged £1,400 billion to bail out the banks and financial markets', Communist Party general secretary Robert Griffiths remarked, 'yet they claim we cannot afford £213 billion for vital public services and benefits over the next four years'.

Mr Griffiths, who is standing in his local community of Splott, Cardiff, claimed that Wales will be hit disproportionately hard by the cuts, which he estimated would amount to at least £16 billion.

But he poured scorn on the 'Tweedledee, Tweedledum' election campaigns of Labour, the LibDems and the Tories in the capital city.
'They have no policies for public services, jobs, housing or public transport - but are unanimous in their opposition to litter and dog droppings', he commented.

Catrin Ashton, who is standing in her home village of Bedlinog, Merthyr Tydfil, welcomed the scrapping of plans to build a giant waste incinerator at Brig y Cwm and called for a council-led drive to invest in more recycling and alternative waste disposal technology.

She also urged the Welsh government and local authorities to help workers with disabilities who, she said, were 'devastated by the penny-pinching closure of Remploy factories in Merthyr and across south Wales, to be carried out after a financial report from KPMG, one of the City of London firms floating on an ocean of public money'.

Candidate David Brown highlighted the plight of valley communities such as Blaenafon.

'Our local hospital has closed, Torfaen Borough Council bulldozed the leisure centre and swimming pool and the world's so-called "local bank", HSBC, is shutting, leaving the town with no local bank and just one cash-point', Mr Brown pointed out.

The Communists call for 'broad-based community campaigns' against the public spending cuts, making no secret of their support for a 'wider, more generalised wave of popular action, including strikes, to stop the Tory-LibDem government in its tracks'. The party's manifesto, 'Real Power for the People and Communities of Wales', also demands more fund-raising powers for local government and the National Assembly of Wales.

COMMUNIST PARTY MEDIA CONFERENCE

Friday, April 13, 10.30pm
Cayo Arms, 36 Cathedral Rd., Cardiff CF11 9LL

Copies of the manifesto will be circulated at the conference.

Welsh Communist Party officials and candidates will be present at the media conference and available for questions and interviews, in both English and Welsh.

CARDIFF CITY COUNCIL

FRAN RAWLINGS (Adamsdown) lives in Diamond St. She is a former local government worker for people with learning disabilities and a UNISON shop steward. Fran is a campaigner with local community and voluntary bodies.

RICK NEWNHAM (Grangetown) lives in Hafod St. and is a youth and community worker and trainer. He is a UCU delegate to the Cardiff Trades Union Council.

STEVE WILLIAMS (Pentwyn) lives in Springwood. He is an ex-dock worker and shop steward, who now teaches social policy. Many Cardiffians will remember his dad, former boxing manager Mac Williams.

ROB GRIFFITHS (Splott) lives in Janet St. He chairs the all-party Cardiff Against the Incinerator (CATI) campaign and is general secretary of the Communist Party in Britain.

MERTHYR COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL

CATRIN ASHTON (Bedlinog) is from a longstanding Bedlinog family, she is an executive committee member of the Welsh Communist Party, a cultural worker and founding member of Cymdaithas Niclas.

TOMMY ROBERTS (Town) a former bricklayer, is a leading activist in the building workers union UCATT and is the secretary of Merthyr Tydfil Trades Union Council.

ROY EVANS (Vaynor) is a leading activist in 'Keep Our NHS Public' and was a prominent member of the Anti-Open Cast Mining campaign, a former engineering union convener and President of Merthyr Tydfil Trades Union Council.

TORFAEN COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL

DAVID LLYWELYN BROWN (Blaenavon) is currently working as an Information Assistant at Newport University, he was the first winner of the Gwyn Alf Williams Award and his research work has been featured in television documentaries including: ‘Cut Me Loose’; ‘How Red Was My Valley’ and ‘Gwalia Dda’. David is also a poet and presenter of the community radio show ‘Red Red Radio’.

The aim from the outset was to bring together a range of labour movement and anti-cuts activists in a display of unity. A key objective was to promote the role of Morning Star readers in building an anti-monopoly alliance.

The session, `Against a bankers’ Britain’, saw top-notch speakers forcefully agree the need to give direction in the fight against the Con-Dem government. It was understood that campaigning organisations and the labour movement are key allies in the fight to develop alternatives to the ruling class strategy of cuts and austerity.

Vital questions

The point of the conference can be summed up in a single phrase – how do we answer the key questions that face the working class today? Ensuring that, as we do that, we banish any sectarianism that divides us from the mass of working people, or each other. For many, this government is just as much an unelected bankers’ dictatorship as those imposed by the EU in Greece and Italy. The voters of Bradford have grasped this. So, too, did the energetic and lively crowd at Bishopsgate.

Maybe the answers are still all out there? But a start was made on many a problem at the Bishopsgate Conference. We will need to find means to force the Labour Party leadership to be part of the solution, not part of the problem by siding with the class enemy, or even adopting its policies wholesale. We will need to unify all those unions in struggle as well as forging an alliance between organised labour and the mass of the people.

Sixteen workshops ran back-to-back in four locations. Stories of steps to strengthen relations between the Morning Star and the wider left and progressive movements were heard. Enthusiastic workshops considered the future of the paper, how to build a movement around mass unemployment, to understand the impact on women of the cuts, fighting for rights in retirement, uniting workers with disabilities, campaigning against the arms trade, fighting for LGBTQ rights, and launching civil disobedience campaigns.

Anger at the need to end forced unpaid work for benefits mixed with eager debates about how to set up a Morning Star readers and supporters group, the role of the media, attacks on health and safety, new shackles for unions, and the fight against NHS privatisation.

The final plenary, `For a People's Britain: the way ahead’, with its mix of views was a powerful expression of how strong the 21st century awkward squad is.

Unity in diversity

Delegates came from local Trades Union Councils such as Cambridge, Chelmsford, Halton, Harlow, Peterborough, Westminster, and Wolverhampton.

As well as from Wales, Morning Star activists came from Birmingham, Cambridge, Coventry, East London, Leicester, Manchester, Richmond, Sheffield, Southend, Tyneside - in some cases in force! There was formal representation from union branches of BECTU, GMB, the Musicians Union, NUT, PCS, Prospect, RMT, UNISON, Unite, and USDAW.

We even had welcome visitors from the Communist Party of Ireland and the Tudeh Party of Iran, Lambeth Save Our Services, the Labour Land Campaign, Lewisham People Before Profit, along with Epping Forest Green & Democratic Left.

For those who wanted to stock up on T-shirts, books and badges, there were stalls galore.

Both the Red Flag and the Internationale were sung with gusto and a bumper collection was taken for the Morning Star, producing the astounding sum of £2,285.22.

NEXT STEPS

There is no bad news – only good news for those that missed what was described in a cheered contribution from the floor as an `uplifting’ event. The conference was filmed throughout and a campaign DVD will be made that should convey the mood of confidence for all –including history – to observe and also provide funds for the paper.

But also that we will continue the fight and unite in national action in defence of our class! Readers’ and Supporters’ Groups will be issuing calls in every nook and cranny of Britain to start a united fightback now. Unite around the Morning Star as the beacon for struggle!

Its GDP was not just less than that of the rest of the UK but less than many eastern European regions, despite having received "billions of pounds" of European cash.

Figures from 2009 showed that its GDP per capita was just 68.4 per cent of the EU average, compared with 99.3 per cent for East Wales or a UK average of 110.7 per cent.

Who's to blame? Well, Labour has ruled either alone or together with the Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru for years so it is a prime suspect.

Welsh Conservative shadow minister Nick Ramsay has no doubt: "After a decade of Labour governments in the assembly Wales remains the poorest part of the UK." But other parties were more circumspect.

A clue to the blame game lies in Wales remaining the "poor relation" of the rest of Britain.

It has been unable to shake off the results of hundreds of years of exploitation and trying to right this through distributing EU funding has failed as an economic instrument.

The charge of wasting EU funding is not peculiar to Wales - Merseyside and other regions have been similarly castigated by the media.

European criteria determining who gets the money and how much need to be questioned.

The system is about as unsophisticated as can be - for instance towns and cities in east Wales contain some of the most deprived areas of the country but get nowt.

European grants require administrators to jump through hoops of some complexity. Bureaucracy insists on the need to find "match funding" in money or in kind - that is, grants can only be paid if certain other funds can be raised too. A tall order for regions picked out because they are so poor - and Wales's "business community" has failed miserably to step up.

As someone involved with an environmental group I was aware of pleas from the Welsh Assembly to voluntary bodies and local councils to advance projects as soon as possible or lots of money would be lost.

The result? Rushed and poor-quality projects, mostly with little lasting value, especially when it comes to providing jobs.

The lesson is that for Britain to fund the EU so the EU can parcel money out to British regions is wasteful in itself.

The money should come from in-house, from our own taxes in Wales. We should make the rules for distributing it ourselves and administer the process ourselves.

Then if it all goes wrong and we need someone to blame, we can vote whoever it is out.

The election of Leanne Wood to lead Plaid Cymru is significant on a number of levels.

The most important is that she had clearly entered the contest with socialism emblazoned on her banner - an avowal plainly avoided by many on the left when seeking office these days.

It takes Plaid back to its roots after years seeking the Welsh centre ground, concerned more with power than principle - a signal to all on the left.

Leanne's victory, no matter what comes after, will help to produce a more rugged political scene on the left and could have a positive impact on the Labour Party and trade unions too.

They will be better placed to put Wales where it should be - fighting the good fight for its citizens without fear.

A well-known columnist recently pondered the mysteries of hunger in a national broadsheet, concluding "How food-obsessed we are" and musing that on high streets every other shop was selling hot food - chicken 'n' ribs, kebabs, and take-out stir-fry outlets on the one hand and upmarket chains like Pret a Manger on the other.

Cinemas were full of food, railway stations had become "shopping malls with trains attached" and everywhere you looked people were eating.

Not in Colwyn Bay! Every other shop is of the charity kind and cinemas sell popcorn only.

On the streets people eat pies and on railway stations a cup of tea is a luxury - the trains themselves are pretty scarce.

But we can always dream.

By Roy Jones

(First published in the Morning Star 20.3.12)

He highlighted the new Plaid Cymru leader's 'courageous and principled stance' against Britain's nuclear weapons and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr Newnham also pointed out that she has consistently opposed what he called 'the pro-big business European Union', contrary to official Plaid Cymru policy.

'Leanne will breathe fresh air into political life in Wales and Britain, as long as she remains true to her socialist and internationalist principles', he insisted.

Mr Newnham also expressed his hope that Plaid Cymru would now play a more prominent role in battles against cuts in public services and jobs, 'especially in Cardiff where their councillors have joined the Liberal Democrats in carrying out policies dictated by City of London bankers and the Tory Party'.

Earlier in the Plaid Cymru leadership contest, the Communist Party's general secretary Robert Griffiths had caused a stir when asked on the BBC Radio Cymru current affairs programme 'Dau o'r Bae' who his party would like to see win.

'The contestants might not be helped by receiving the open support of the Communist Party', Mr Griffiths joked, 'but I think the best candidate would be someone who prefers forming a Labour-Plaid coalition government in the National Assembly to getting into bed with the Tories'.

At that point, Plaid Cymru MEP Jill Evans helpfully pointed out that only Leanne Wood had taken this stance after the inconclusive National Assembly election in 2007.

Welsh Communists now hope that Leanne Wood's victory today will 'strengthen the voices for unity on the left' in Wales across the Labour, Communist and Green parties and Plaid Cymru.

The Communist Party will be campaigning on the issues of opposition to cuts in local services and opposition to cuts in the pay and terms and conditions of those that provide these valuable service; for increasing local democracy, for investment in public services; for greener communities and against ‘rip-off’ Britain under the slogan ‘For People’s Councils Not Cutting Councils’.

Rick Newnham, Welsh Communist Party leader and local election candidate for Cardiff’s Grangetown Ward stated “As the contradictions of capitalism become more acute with the Banks and Hedge Funds continuing making multi billions of pounds for the super rich and the ordinary worker picking up the tab in higher taxes, pay freezes, cuts to the welfare state, people are again considering the alternative way of organising society – socialism.”

Mr Newnham went on to say, “The Communist Party has the local and national policies to begin the process of redressing the balance of power in favour of working people at the expense of big business and the super rich. More and more people are now realising that communist policies are their policies”

The Welsh Communist Party will be launching its revised Programme for Wales at an election press conference on Friday 6th April 2012 commencing at 10.30 am in the Cayo Arms, Cathedral Road, Cardiff.

There is still time, to join our campaign and, to put yourself forward as a communist candidate in this year's election. All you need to do is e-mail your details to office@welshcommunists.org

The election also takes place against the backdrop of the party's internal review Camu 'Mlaen, or Moving Forward. It calls for the party to more properly define its approach to decentralised community socialism to contrast with Labour's centralist and statist approach to society.

In many ways, it is South Wales Central AM Leanne Wood who has made the early running in the contest - thanks in part to a highly vocal and organised support on social media.

The 40-year old from the Rhondda, who has been an AM since 2003, has received support from groups such as Socialist Resistance and Socialist Unity as well as endorsements from Mark Serwotka of PCS and the FBU in Wales.

This, of course, in addition to internal backing from current Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathan Edwards and his predecessor Adam Price, who might be best known for his attempts to impeach Tony Blair over the Iraq war.

A back-bench AM while the party was in government, Wood is perhaps best known for her exclusion from the Assembly for referring to the Queen as "Mrs Windsor" and being one of four Plaid AMs who refused to attend the Assembly's official opening last May by HRH.

Describing herself as socialist, republican, environmentalist, anti-racist and feminist, Wood is seen by some as the key to the party winning popular support in the south Wales valleys area which has remained a bedrock of support for Labour despite their period in Westminster government from 1997 to 2010.

In many people's eyes, the favourite for Plaid's leadership remains 45-year-old Elin Jones, the AM for Ceredigion on the west Wales coast and rural affairs minister when Plaid Cymru was in coalition with Labour in the 2007-11 One Wales government.

Regarded as a safe pair of hands who will maintain party support in rural Wales, Jones has wide respect from her fellow AMs after her time as a minister and having been an AM since the Assembly's beginning in 1999.

Announcing her candidature last September, she describes herself as a republican and a socialist but also a Welsh nationalist.

Her campaign received a boost as hustings began with the announcement of fresh support from a majority of the party's AMs - one of whom, Simon Thomas, stood down from his own leadership candidacy to back Elin, hoping to become deputy if she wins.

She also has support from her fellow former ministers Alun Ffred Jones, Rhodri Glyn Thomas and Jocelyn Davies, as well as Hywel Williams MP.

While the two women are considered favourites there is a wildcard entry in the form of Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, a former party leader and for 12 years the llywydd (president) of the Assembly.

AM for Dwyfor Meirionydd in north-west Wales, Elis-Thomas was first elected as an MP in 1974 and was party leader from 1984 until 1991, becoming an AM in 1999.

A Marxist-Leninist in the 1980s who helped to shift Plaid further to the left, Elis-Thomas has what many would consider an idiosyncratic journey through a political career which has included laying the writ for the by-election after Bobby Sands's death and accepting a peerage in 1992 when it was against party policy to do so, moving closer to the British political Establishment than many people in Plaid may feel comfortable.

However, that is not to rule him out of winning the election - his constituency is among the largest in terms of Plaid membership and his 40 years of front-line politics makes him a "big beast" in Welsh political circles and a recognisable brand name.

Politically, Elis-Thomas has argued during the campaign that Plaid should be working with Labour to ensure a strong Welsh government based on similar green-red environmental-left principles to those which made One Wales successful.

With an alternative vote system, the winner may depend upon which of the three candidates is least capable of mobilising support for first preferences.

Elin Jones is often seen as the compromise candidate while the others are "Marmites" - loved or loathed.

But to win, Jones would still need to ensure enough first-round support to get through in order to benefit from later transfers from either side. This may be a very close battle.

Whoever wins the contest, it will be exciting to see how Plaid meets the challenge of redefining itself against the austerity cuts of the Con-Dem government in Westminster and the centralist, statist approach of the Labour government in Cardiff Bay.

By Ian Johnson is a Plaid Cymru activist who is the party's head of research at Westminster

(First published in the Morning Star 12.3.12)