Friday 16 March 2012

Llongyfarchiadau! || Congrats!

Mae'n bleser gen i allu danfon neges o longyfarchiadau enfawr i Leanne Wood AC ar ei hetholiad fel Arweinydd newydd Plaid Cymru.

It's a pleasure for me to be able to send a message of congratulations to Leanne Wood AM on her election as the new Leader of Plaid Cymru.

Mae cael Leanne fel Arweinydd y Blaid yn rhoi gobaith imi fod gan y Blaid flynyddoedd disglair iawn o'i blaen a chyda digon o waith, nid wyf yn amau mai Leanne Wood fydd Prif Weinidog Cymru yn 2016.

Having Leanne as Plaid Cymru's Leader gives me hope that the party still has a sparkling future ahead of it and with plenty of work, I have no doubt that Leanne Wood will be the First Minister for Wales in 2016.

Ar lefel bersonol, rwyf i'n edrych ymlaen yn fawr iawn at weithio gyda Leanne tra fy mod i'n Gadeirydd ar y mudiad myfyrwyr ac ieuenctid, ac hoffwn ddiolch iddi am ei charedigrwydd tuag at ein mudiad ni ar hyd y blynyddoedd.

On a personal level, I am very much looking forward to working with Leanne while I am Chair of the student and youth movement, and I would like to thank her for her unwavering support of our movement.

Yn ogystal, hoffwn dalu teyrnged i'r dau ymgeisydd arall - Elin Jones AC a'r Arglwydd Dafydd Elis-Thomas AC. Fe frwydron nhw ymgyrchoedd da iawn wir a does dim amheuaeth yn fy meddwl i y bydd y ddau ohonynt yn aelodau annatod o dîm Leanne yn y Cynulliad.

I would also like to pay tribute to the other two candidates - Elin Jones AM and the Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas AM. They both fought good campaigns and there is no doubt in my mind that they will both form important parts of Leanne's team in the Assembly.

Pob lwc - ymlaen! Good luck!

Cerith Rhys Jones
Cadeirydd Cenedlaethol || National Chair

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Daw'r diwedd

Yfory, cyfrir y pleidleisiau yn etholiad arweinyddol Plaid Cymru a dyma ddiwedd ar gyfnod Ieuan Wyn Jones fel Arweinydd y Blaid, swydd y mae ef wedi'i dal ers 12 mlynedd.

Bydd y sawl ohonoch sy'n dilyn y blog hwn yn gwybod mai polisi swyddogol CymruX yw cefnogi ymgyrch Leanne Wood i'w olynu. Os nad ydych chi wedi pleidleisio eto, fe'ch hanogaf i ddewis Leanne fel eich dewis cyntaf i fod yn Arweinydd ac i ddanfon eich papur pleidleisio at Dŷ Gwynfor yn syth fel ei fod yn cyrraedd cyn yfory.

Ond wrth i'r ymgyrch Arweinyddol ddirwyn i ben, hoffwn gymryd moment i dalu teyrnged i Ieuan am ei arweinyddiaeth am dros ddegawd. Y mae wedi arwain ein Plaid gyda sgil ers blynyddoedd, ac wedi bod yn wyneb arbennig o dda i'n mudiad cenedlaethol yn ystod y cyfnod hwnnw. Mae'r teyrngedau a dalwyd iddo o ar draws llawr y Siambr yn ystod ei sesiwn FMQs olaf fel Arweinydd y Blaid ddydd Mawrth yn adlewyrchu'i boblogrwydd.

Ef wnaeth arwain y Blaid i mewn i Lywodraeth am y tro cyntaf ac fe wasnaethodd ein gwlad fel ei Dirprwy Brif Weinidog. Fel Arweinydd Plaid Cymru, fe arweiniodd ni at ddelifro senedd go iawn i'n Cenedl. Ac yn y dyddiau cynnar, roedd yn un o'r bobl wnaeth droi'r prosiect datganoli i mewn i'r llwyddiant y mae heddiw.

Edrychaf ymlaen at ei weld ar ôl-feinciau'r Blaid, yn brwydro dros bobl Ynys Môn ac ys dywedodd Kirsty Williams, gobeithiaf y bydd yn cymaint o drwbl o'r ôl-feinciau ag y mae cyn-arweinwyr eraill wedi bod.

Ar ran mudiad myfyrwyr ac ieuenctid Plaid Cymru, hoffwn ymestyn fy niolchiadau calonog i Ieuan am ei wasanaeth ar hyd y degawdau, a dymuno'n dda iddo wrth iddo ymadael wrth yr Arweinyddiaeth.

Cerith Rhys Jones
Cadeirydd Cenedlaethol

The End is Near

Tomorrow, votes will be counted in Plaid Cymru's leadership election and Ieuan Wyn Jones will cease to be Leader of Plaid Cymru, a post he has held for 12 years.

Those of you who follow this blog will now that official CymruX policy is to support Leanne Wood's campaign to succeed him. If you haven't already voted, I would urge you to select Leanne as your number once choice for Leader and get your ballot paper in the post to Tŷ Gwynfor so that it gets there before the deadline tomorrow.

But as the Leadership campaign draws to a close, I want to take a moment to pay tribute to Ieuan for his leadership for more than a decade. He has led our party with skill for years, and has been a fantastic figurehead for our national movement during that period. I think that the tributes paid to him from all across the Siambr floor during FMQs on Tuesday - his last as Leader - reflect how popular he is.

He led Plaid Cymru into Government for the first time and served our country as its Deputy First Minister. As Leader of Plaid Cymru, he led us to delivering a proper law-making parliament for our Nation. And in the early days, he was one of those people who helped turn the devolution project into the success that it is today.

I look forward to seeing him on the backbenches, fighting for the people of Ynys Môn and as Kirsty Williams put it, I hope he's as troublesome from the backbenches as other former leaders have been.

On behalf of Plaid Cymru's student and youth movement, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Ieuan for his service over the decades, and wish him all the very best as he takes his leave of the Leadership.

Cerith Rhys Jones
National Chair

Thursday 8 March 2012

Unity

By Emyr Gruffydd, Vice Chair of Cymru X - Plaid Cymru Youth

As Vice-Chair of Plaid Cymru Youth, I also have responsibility over European affairs. In two weeks, I will be going to Friesland to the European Free Alliance Youth's Annual Assembly, where I will get the chance to speak to our European comrades about the situation in their countries and learn from their experiences as young campaigners for their political parties. I am hugely interested in European affairs after living for a year in France and in Galicia, and in this post, I'd really like to take a quick look over the situation of our sister parties in Catalonia and Galica. I passionately believe that it is important to look further than Scotland, or the 'British' perspective, as some nations, such as Galicia, are in a very similar situation to us.

The Scottish situation is known to most of this blog's followers by now; a referendum will be held in 2014 by the SNP administration in Edinburgh, and I know of many a Plaid Youth activist that'll be making the trip up to Scotland to canvass for the Yes campaign. Opinion polls vary significantly on the support for Scottish Independence - anything from 38% to 51% of the population say that they are in favour. This scenario to me seems similar to another stateless nation in Europe - Catalonia - where around 44% of the population, according to a recent poll, would vote Yes in a referendum on Catalan independence if it were held tomorrow.

Why, therefore, is there no referendum planned in Catalonia? Well, think back two years to the various referenda held in the country - however, these were organsied by Catalan Nationalists and not deemed official by the Spanish Constitutional Court. Turnout was also low in some parts - many mountain villages registered turnouts of near 90%, whereas turnout in the city of Barcelona itself was only about 26%.

Nationalist parties historically do well in Catalonia, and at the moment, a 'Catalanist' center-right party, Convergencia i Unió, is in goverment. However, this party, which historically garners support from the Catalan speaking bourgoisie, does not include constitutional independence as one of its priorities - indeed, on its website, there is no mention of independence at all. Its youth wing is considered pro-independence, and many politicians within CiU have expressed support for the idea, but the party remains very ambiguous over the idea.

But many other home-grown parties, wit no links to Madrid, exist in Catalonia. Our sister party in EFA, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, is a republican, left wing party that supports independence for the country. It garners support from about 8-10% of the electorate, mainly in small towns in the center of Catalonia but also has strong support amongst the Catalan youth. JERC, their youth wing, is a highly successful organisation, which holds a yearly political and music festival, the Acampada Jove, attended by hundreds of young people. Another Catalan political party is Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència - a party dedicaded solely to fighting for independence. Solidaritat accuses ERC of being sluggish over the issue of independence, and was formed by a group of disillusioned ERC, CiU and Regrupament members (another Catalanist political party) along Joan Laporta, ex-manager of Barcelona Football Club, of which I am a lifelong, massive fan! ;) Many well known Catalan intelectuals have also joined the formation. And I'm not going to start mentioning another independence seeking, radical left wing party which contests local elections, the Candidatura d'Unitat Popular...

Galician Nationalism is even more confusing - but bear with me while I try my utmost to explain the details. The Galician National Bloc, the BNG, is the only Nationalist Formation that has any substantial representation within Galician politics. A fragmented party, it includes groups that are communist, liberal, centrist, social-democratic and some that are definitiely not convinced about the idea of Galician Independence. Recently, a group lead by the ex-leader of the BNG, Xosé Manuel Beiras, has been considering leaving the BNG to set up their own party, Máis Galiza - and the only people laughing are the Partido Popular, or the Conservative and Unionist Party, which is in government both in Santiago de Compostela and in Madrid.

So, why have I chosen to look at these examples? What I believe that we can learn from these nations, especially Scotland, is that unity is key to ensuring a strong Nationalist movement. The SNP is the only progressive choice for supporters of independence in Scotland, as it stands out as a strong, united movement, but there seems to be a lot more choice for nationalists in Catalonia. 44% of the Catalan people want independence - but those parties that support it still seem to be bickering amongst each other. With Plaid Cymru going through a leadership election at the moment, we need to take a long hard look at ourselves and think how we are going to get 44% of the Welsh population , interested in the national cause, let alone interested in independence. The only answer I seem to be able to find to this is that we ensure that we remain wholly united in our call for a free Wales under our new leader, whoever she may be.

Fersiwn Gymraeg i ddilyn.

Thursday 1 March 2012

Peint i'r Blaid | Pint for Plaid

Gyfeillion oll,

Heddiw, ry'n ni'n lansio ymgyrch i gynyddu incwm misol mudiad ieuenctid a myfyrwyr Plaid Cymru, er mwyn inni allu cyflogi trefnydd a fydd yn hwyluso'n gwaith a'n hymgyrchu ledled Cymru.

Yr hyn ry'n ni'n ei ofyn yw gwerth peint rhad o gwrw bob mis - rhyw £2. Os ellwch chi fforddio rhoi mwy, felly gwych! Mi fydd pob un ohonom yn gwerthfawrogi unrhyw faint bynnag y gellwch chi fforddio rhoi.

Os y'ch chi'n fodlon buddsoddi yn nyfodol eich cenedl, yna cysylltwch gyda Cadeirydd y mudiad ar cerithrjones@live.co.uk am ffurflen ddebyd uniongyrchol.

Diolch enfawr ichi.

Friends,

Today we're launching a campaign to increase Plaid Cymru's student and youth movement's monthly income, so that we can employ an organiser who will facilitate our work and campaigning across Wales.

What we're asking is that you give us the value of a pint a month - some £2. If you can afford more, then great! We will all appreciate however much you can give very much.

If you want to invest in the future of your nation, then contact the movement's Chair at cerithrjones@live.co.uk for a direct debit mandate.

Thank you so much.


Cerith Rhys Jones
Cadeirydd | Chair