Cymru Goch (, ''

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

'') was a

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

Welsh nationalist Welsh nationalism ( cy, Cenedlaetholdeb Cymreig) emphasises and celebrates the distinctiveness of Welsh culture and Wales as a nation or country. Welsh nationalism may also include calls for further autonomy or self determination which includes ...

political party, founded in 1986 and fought for what it described as a ''Free

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

Wales''.

Background

Following the collapse of the

Welsh Socialist Republican Movement The Welsh Socialist Republican Movement (''Mudiad Sosialaidd Gweriniaethol Cymru'') was a short-lived nationalist political movement which was born out of frustration with Plaid Cymru's failure to oppose the first referendum on Welsh Devolutio ...

, a number of former members, along with some who had previously been active in other parties including

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...

formed Cymru Goch. By the mid 1990s the party had over 300 members and 13 branches throughout Wales. It produced a journal, ''Y Faner Goch'' ('The Red Flag'), which had previously been published by the Welsh Socialist Republican Movement, a newsletter Y Fflam''' (The Flame) and various booklets and pamphlets explaining its aims and discussing the relationship between Marxism and Welsh nationalism.It was one of the founders of the

Welsh Socialist Alliance {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 The Welsh Socialist Alliance (WSA) was a socialist political organisation in Wales. It was closely related to, but separate from the Socialist Alliance. It was founded by the Socialist Party and Cymru Goch and some ...

but left in 2002. In late 2003, it subsumed itself into the new

Forward Wales Forward Wales ( cy, Cymru Ymlaen) was a socialist political party operating in Wales. It evolved from the John Marek Independent Party (JMIP), formed by the ex-Labour member of the Welsh Assembly, John Marek who was the party's national convenor. ...

party formed around

John Marek John Marek (born 24 December 1940) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wrexham from 1983 to 2001, and the Member of the Welsh Assembly (AM) for Wrexham from 1999 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party until ...

AM in

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

Campaigns and elections

In the Welsh local government elections in 1995, 3 Cymru Goch candidates were elected as councillors and the part stood a candidate in the elections to the European Parliament in 1994 in the South Wales East constituency against

Glenys Kinnock Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (''née'' Parry; born 7 July 1944), is a British politician and former teacher who served as Minister of State for Europe from June to October 2009 and Minister of State for Africa and the ...

. The party stood on an abstentionist platform and would have refused to take the seat if elected, seeing the European Parliament and the UK Parliament as foreign parliaments. It decided not to contest the 1997 general election. Following the election of the Blair government in 1997, Cymru Goch joined with other organisations to campaign for the devolution proposals under the banner 'Socialists Say Yes". During the 1980s and 1990s Cymru Goch was also heavily involved in campaigns against the

Community Charge The Community Charge, commonly known as the poll tax, was a system of taxation introduced by Margaret Thatcher's government in replacement of domestic rates in Scotland from 1989, prior to its introduction in England and Wales from 1990. It pr ...

(the 'Poll Tax') and

Welsh Water Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

PLC.

References

{{Reflist Defunct political parties in Wales Left-wing nationalist parties Political parties established in 1987 Political parties disestablished in 2003 Socialist parties in Wales Welsh nationalist parties Pro-independence parties