WELSH COMMUNISTS RALLY FOR LEFT UNITY TO FIGHT REACTION

Monday 30. November 2009

Welsh communists, meeting at their bi-ennial congress in Pontypridd over the weekend, called for extra measures to create jobs and housing as part of their main resolution - LEFT UNITY TO FIGHT REACTION AND WIN A PEOPLE'S PARLIAMENT FOR WALES

Welsh Secretary Rick Newnham argued that ‘The shortage of jobs and housing is a government policy because it helps big business to push down wages and increase mortgage lending. For the majority of people this is bad news but for the incredibly rich this is called economic sense. It is time the British government started looking after the majority.’ FULL STATEMENT AND REPORT OF CONGRESS BELOW.

The newly elected Welsh Executive Committee called for a sustained campaign to address the record levels of inequality in society today. Rick Newnham emphasised that ‘Part of this campaign is to protect public services from the greed of the market. These services exist not as a choice for the few but as a right for all’

CONGRESS REPORT

Credentials report
Welsh congress (2009)

Full delegates 17
Consultative delegates 2
Gender
Male 14
Female 5
Age profile
Under 21 1
21 – 30 4
31 – 40 2
41 – 50 3
51 – 60 3
Over 60 6

LEFT UNITY TO FIGHT REACTION AND WIN A PEOPLE'S PARLIAMENT FOR WALES

Resolution can be read in full at: http://www.welshcommunists.org/index.php?id=285

Resolution Amendments

Delete bullet points at line 85 and 88 and replace with:

* more rigorous contracts between public funding bodies and recipients of public money to include binding clauses to include: job creation, statutory and equal pay, provision of a living wage, health and safety, equal opportunities, parental leave, training and trade union recognition.
* a training levy on large employers to fund education and apprenticeship schemes, with living wage linked pay, for young workers.
(Pontypridd)
(Carried)

Line 116 after ‘technology’ add ‘when genuinely available’
(Swansea)
(Carried)

Line 142 after ‘citizenship’ add ‘everywhere in Wales’
(Swansea)
(Carried)

Line 152 delete ‘and private’
(Pontypridd)
(Carried)

Line 203 at the end of line add ‘and the re-ballot of any previous decisions against’
(Swansea)
(Carried)

Line 211 after ‘mass activity’ insert new sentence:

‘As well as confronting the BNP, all anti fascist work should challenge the anti immigration policies and rhetoric of New Labour, the Tories and the right-wing capitalist press.’
(Monmouthshire & Borders)
(Carried)

Line 213 after ‘popular support’ insert new sentence:

‘The “clear red water” distinction between Welsh Labour and the New Labour government should also be highlighted and encouraged as part of the process of developing a progressive Left consensus in Wales.’
(Monmouthshire & Borders)
(Carried)

Line 218 insert:

‘All Communist Party branches should join the Morning Star 501 club’
(Merthyr & Cynon)
(Carried)

Line 221 delete ‘particularly’
(Pontypridd)
(Lost)

Branch Motions

1. Cymdeithas Niclas

Congress instructs the Welsh committee to co-ordinate Welsh-speaking comrades to establish an organisation to promote discussion of the arts, especially literature, through the medium of the Welsh language and in a Marxist, internationalist and anti-imperialist context. This organisation would be called 'Cymdeithas Niclas' in honour of Wales's leading communist poet.
(Pontypridd)
(Carried)

2. YCL

This congress reaffirms its support for the Welsh Young Communist League and commits to:

(i) Offer political and financial assistance to develop the Welsh YCL
(ii) Support the campaigning initiatives of the Welsh YCL that seek to challenge the negative portrayal of young people and re-engage and empower young people to actively participate in the defence of their communities.
(Monmouthshire & Borders)
(Carried)

3. Morning Star

Congress agrees that the Morning Star needs to be available where working people congregate.
To this end, areas such as clubs, institutes and local libraries should be approached to take the Morning Star. Clubs are a great area of working class debate, where news of the day or week is scruitinised.
Much of this debate revolves around what is written in the press, in particular in newspapers like the Sun and Daily Mail which attack the very people who read them.
therefore congress agrees that throughout 2010 a concerted effort should be made, by the Party and readers and supporters, to get the Morning Star into these places.
(Merthyr & Cynon)
(Remitted to incoming Welsh Committee)

4. Party structures

Congress agrees that Party structures need to be reviewed and improved to ensure that members have access to Marxist study groups and classes and that there is local activity including local fundraising.
(Merthyr & Cynon)
(Carried)

5. Anti Fascism co-ordinator
This Welsh Congress notes the election of two BNP members to the European Parliament and the emergence of organisations such as the so- called WDL. It therefore calls on the incoming WC to appoint a comrade to take specific responsibility for our anti fascist and anti racist work.
(Swansea)
(Carried)

6. Trade Union work

Congress recognises the priority which Communists must give to working within the organised labour movement in Wales. The impact of systemic economic crisis on the working people of Wales is illustrated in an alarming haemorrhage in trade union membership.
Congress further recognises that a potential Tory administration in Westminster is likely to bring about swingeing attacks on organised labour. Communists must be in the forefront of building resistance to those attacks within their own workplaces and unions.
Congress therefore instructs the Welsh Committee to:

i. conduct an audit of trade union membership and activity among Comrades in Wales;
ii. produce an annual booklet of model resolutions from a Wales-specific perspective for distribution among trade unionists prior to Wales TUC Cymru Conference each year;
iii. convene a bi-annual industrial aggregate to take place in September and March to ensure the timely production of model resolutions and to co-ordinate responses to the Conference Agenda;
iv. examine how active communist trades unionists can best be supported in their work;
v. review its industrial work in Wales and report back to the next Welsh Congress
(Cardiff)
(Carried)

7. The People’s Charter

This congress calls on the Welsh Committee to initiate a co-ordinated campaign for the People’s Charter.
The campaign needs to involve the broadest possible alliance and be exposed to the greatest number of working class people manageable.
The campaign should be conducted through regional groups that include trades councils and trade unions but also seek to draw in unaffiliated sections of working class people through door to door petitioning.
The party in Wales should raise the Charter or its constituent elements in all its work as a medium term, strategic requirement which will resonate well beyond the next election.
(Cardiff)
(Carried)

WELSH COMMITTEE ELECTIONS
E = ELECTED

Nominations

Catrin A E
Roger B E
Dave B
Matt B E
Sian H E
Dan C
Glyn D
Robert G E
John L E
Dominic M E
Gareth M
Rick N E
Lorrette P E
Niclas P
Fran R
Brian W E

New Welsh Committee (2009 – 11)
Gender
Male 7
Female 3
Age profile
Under 31 2
31 – 40 1
41 – 50 3
51 – 60 3
Above 60 1

OTHER BUSINESS:

MORNING STAR FIGHTING FUND COLLECTION RAISED £115.92

FINANCIAL REPORTS WERE ACCEPTED