You are here

Home

I.1. Welsh Nationalism

The long campaign for the public use of the Welsh language – including Welsh language radio and TV stations, and for Welsh political autonomy or independence – has used a mix of constitutional tactics and more dramatic protest. Plaid Cymru has contested local, British and European elections in Wales, but Welsh language campaigners have also refused to pay BBC radio licences and prominent activist Gwynfor Evans engaged in public fasts. The movement has included some acts of sabotage, such as burning down English second homes in Wales, and a guerrilla style attack on a reservoir built in a Welsh valley to provide water for Liverpool, but the Welsh campaign has made varied use of nonviolent direct action tactics.

Dafis, Cynog, Cymdeithas yr Iaith – the Manifesto, Translated by Harry Web, Planet Magazine: The Welsh Internationalist, issue 26/27 (Winter), 1974

Earnshaw, Helena ; Jones, Angharad Penrhyn, Here we Stand, Aberystwyth, Honno, 2014, pp. 450

Anthology of accounts by 17 British women campaigners, engaged in a range of militant direct action, including one by Welsh Language Society (Cymdeithas yr laith) activist, Angharad Thomas.
Evans, Gwynfor, The Fight for Welsh Freedom, Caernarfon, Y Lolfa, 2000, pp. 176

Covers Plaid Cymru, history and Welsh politics and government. An earlier book by Evans from the same publisher is: Evans, Gwynfor , Fighting for Wales Talybont, Y Lolfa, , 1992, pp. 221

Evans, Gwynfor, For the Sake of Wales: The Memoirs of Gwynfor Evans, [1986], Updated edition, with Foreword by Dafydd Elis Thomas, and epilogue by Steve Dubè, Caernarfon, Welsh Academic Press, 2001, pp. 281

Memoirs of this key figure in the nationalist movement and committed advocate of nonviolence.
Howys, Sian, Breaking the law to make change, In Bierley, John , Gathering Visions, Gathering Strength Bradford and London, GVGS Publishing Group and Peace News, , 1998, pp. 13-15

Madgwick, P.J., Linguistic conflict in Wales: A problem in the design of government, In Williams, Glyn , Social and Cultural Change in Contemporary Wales London, Routledge, Kegan and Paul, , 1978, pp. 227-241

McAllister, Laura, Plaid Cymru – The Emergence of a Political Party, With a foreword by Gwynfor Evans, Bridgend, Seren, 2001, pp. 224

Covers the period 1945-99 when Plaid was developing from a pressure group to established party with MPS and MEPs.
Morgan, Gerald, The Dragon’s Tongue: The Fortunes of the Welsh Language, Cardiff, The Triskel Press, 1966, pp. 144

Osmond, John, Creative Conflict: The Politics of Welsh Devolution, Llandysul and London, Gome Press and Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978, pp. 314

States the case for devolution, criticizes British regional policy, and traces the emergence and development of a distinctive Welsh politics.
Thomas, Ned, The Welsh Extremist, [1971], Talybont, Y Lolfa, 1991, pp. 144

Chronicles the Welsh cultural and national revival in the 20th century, including the nonviolent direct action campaign of the 1970s. Chapters on several of the leading figures in the movement. Critical assessment of the response of English socialists to the movement.
Tomos, Angharad, Realising a Dream, In Blanchard, Simon ; Morley, David , What’s This Channel Four? An Alternative Report London, Comedia Publishing Group, , 1982,