By Dave Reid Welsh politics is in a state of flux with a very uncertain situation developing. The disillusionment with the political establishment was reflected in the 53% vote to leave the EU in 2016 and the current rising support for independence. All the Westminster-based parties that have implemented austerity have lost support in Wales. The main pro-capitalist political parties ...

By Dave Reid The dissatisfaction with the British capitalist establishment, first manifested in the Scottish Indyref in 2014 and in the Brexit vote in 2016, was further developed in the Euro elections. The two main parties that between them got 80% of the vote in Wales in 2017 got just 22% on Thursday, representing the rejection of Westminster politicians by ...

By Dave Reid “Today is OUR day, May Day is the day for the working class across the world” declared Dave Bartlett, secretary of Cardiff Trades Council to hundreds of trade unionists gathered in Cardiff city centre as he opened the Trades Council’s annual May Day celebration. Led by the Ynyshir brass band they marched through Cardiff in glorious sunshine ...

By Dave Reid   It’s a cloudy Monday March morning in Merthyr and on the streets there are a steady flow of people going about their Monday morning business. Merthyr has received a bad press as the “benefit capital of Britain” and The Mirror pointed out the average male life expectancy on one of the estates is lower than Haiti’s, ...

A battle is raging inside and outside the Labour Party in Caerphilly county borough (mainly covering Islwyn and Caerphilly constituencies) against the cuts that the Labour-run council is inflicting on public services in the borough. In particular there has been outrage that the meals on wheels service is being effectively abolished while another quarter of a million pounds is being ...

By Dave Reid Mark Drakeford, a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, has been elected as leader of Welsh Labour and will be elected as First Minister next week. Of the three candidates for First Minister Mark would be considered the most left wing – he supported Jeremy Corbyn in the first ballot for Labour leader. The other two candidates, Baroness Eluned ...

By Dave Reid Islwyn Constituency Labour Party (CLP) has passed a motion calling on Labour-led Caerphilly Borough Council to pass a no-cuts budget. The motion from Maesycymmer ward calls for “all its serving Caerphilly Councillors to plan for a 2019/20 Council budget that will protect services and employment, not cut them.” The motion was passed shortly after a march of ...

By Dave Reid Hundreds of people from Blackwood and Pontllanfraith marched to keep open their local leisure centre and swimming pool. Labour-controlled Caerphilly Borough Council want to close Pontllanfraith Leisure Centre and Cefn Fforest swimming pool to ‘rationalise’ leisure facilities in the borough. Twice attempts to close the centre have been beaten off by a determined campaign. But now the council ...

By Dave Reid In 2003 Rhodri Morgan Welsh Labour First Minister proclaimed that his government was creating “clear red water” between it and Blair’s New Labour government in Westminster. The Welsh Labour brand was launched as a distinct banner from Blairism or ‘British’ Labour. Welsh Labour in government was charting its own course distinct from New Labour. Proponents of the ...

By Dave Reid Hundreds will be rallying in Tredegar in South Wales on July 1st to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the NHS. The march assembles at the house of Aneurin Bevan, founder of the NHS, who based the principles of the NHS on the Tredegar Workmen’s Medical Aid Society. He used his experience in providing cheap ...