Labour hits at Plaid Chartists claim

Mar 31 2008 by Martin Shipton, Western Mail

COALITION partners Plaid Cymru and Labour were last night embroiled in a row over which party can lay claim to one of Welsh history’s most potent political movements.

Plaid MP Adam Price sparked the wrangle by claiming the Chartists were forerunners of today’s Welsh nationalists.

In laying claim to the radical heritage of the Chartists – who in 1839 staged an uprising in Newport in pursuit of their demands for a democratically elected parliament – Mr Price said he was seeking to reposition the campaign for an independent Wales.

But Labour quickly rejected Plaid’s attempt to take possession of the Chartists as “a forlorn hope”, suggesting they were the inheritors of the Chartist tradition.

On November 3, 1839, several thousand armed miners marched on Newport, planning to free political prisoners held in the Westgate Hotel and proclaim a republic. Victory at Newport would be the signal for a nationwide uprising.

However, after a battle lasting 25 minutes the Chartists were driven off. More than 20 Chartists were killed by troops guarding the hotel and in the aftermath 200 people were arrested for participating in the rising. Three leaders – John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones – were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, though because of public pressure they were transported for life.

During his speech at Plaid’s Spring conference in Newport, Mr Price unfurled the green, red and white tricolour flag carried by the Chartists.

“It’s fitting that we should be here in Newport where the idea of a democratic government answerable to the people of Wales was first mooted in modern times in the Great Newport Rising,” he said.

“It was the arrest of Henry Vincent, the Chartist leader, for seditious speeches made only a few minutes from this hall that was the catalyst for the events of 1839. This is what he said on March 26 that year as he addressed packed meetings throughout the Gwent Valleys: ‘I regret my ignorance of Welsh.

‘It appears to be a powerfully impressive language, and the people are passionately fond of their mother tongue... I showed the people how they would be bettered in circumstances were they possessed of lawmaking powers... Wales would make an excellent republic.’ The Chartists marched under the colours of this flag – red for the people, green for the land and white as symbol of peace. Let this banner then be the symbol of the Welsh democracy we are pledged to create.

“Let it remind us of a rendezvous with history that we in this generation are determined to keep.

“And when you are delivering leaflets in the wind and the rain, remember those that gave their lives for our Welsh democracy.

“Remember the spirit of 19-year-old George Shell, a carpenter from Pontypool left to bleed to death, who had written these words to his parents the night before: ‘I shall this night be engaged in a struggle for freedom and should it please God to spare my life, I shall see you soon; but if not, grieve not for me, I shall fall in a noble cause.’

“And fighting for the liberty and the dignity of the people and the land that you love is the noblest cause of all. In Newport then, in Lhasa today, bullets may kill a marcher, but they cannot kill the forward march of a nation.

“We will build that Welsh democracy – even if we have to dig down deep into the bedrock of our soul. We owe it to those who lost their lives outside the Westgate a few yards from where you sit.”

Mr Price later added, “By laying claim to the Chartist legacy, Plaid is recasting Welsh nationalism firmly in the democratic tradition. We are taking the campaign for Welsh self-determination beyond purely cultural nationalism – which still has a place – firmly into the area of citizenship and democratic rights.”

But Newport East Labour AM John Griffiths said, “Obviously Plaid are trying to appropriate the Chartist tradition for their own purposes, but I think it’s a pretty forlorn hope that they will succeed in fusing it with their own party’s history. For many years the Labour and trade union movement have celebrated and commemorated the Chartists and the Newport uprising. It’s very much part of our tradition that has been about empowering people with democratic rights and shaping working-class consciousness.”