35 YEARS

On January 13th ( 2026 ) Lithuania will mark thirty five years since a dark tragic night that changed history forever. 

Back in 1991, unarmed civilians stood face to face with Soviet tanks to defend their freedom and their right to determine their own future.

Fourteen innocent lives were at the Vilnius TV Tower, and hundreds were wounded. 

Yet, the spirit of the people was not broken. 

Ordinary Lithuanian citizens formed human shields, protected their Parliament, and proved that unity and courage are stronger than violence.

Vytautas Landsbergis, who as Chairman of the Supreme Council became the face of Lithuania’s independence movement and remained in the Parliament building throughout the siege, emphasisesed that the resistance of January 13th was, first and foremost, a decision made by the people — not by politicians.

Now January 13th stands as a powerful reminder to the Lithuanians of who they are, what they stand for, and why freedom must never be taken for granted.

AUGUST ANNIVERSARIES

The dog end of August is a time of often overlooked historic anniversaries, ignored or perhaps selectively unobserved anniversaries and missed opportunities to remember. The last few days of August will see the third anniversary of the fall of Kabul to the Taliban (in August 2021), the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia (in August 1968) and the collapse of the Soviet Union (in August 1991) which pass largely unremembered and unobserved. 

Wednesday 21st August 2024 was the 56th anniversary of the Soviet led invasion of Czechoslovakia, it’s an anniversary that passes largely unnoticed save perhaps by some people in Prague. While the Soviet Union is history, the Russian Federation is not and is aggressively on the rise in the east, so people have lots of other things to be worried about.  It’s been 56 years since Soviet troops and most but not all of their Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia on August 21st 1968. 

The Soviet-led invasion effectively established the Brezhnev Doctrine, which Moscow said allowed the U.S.S.R. to intervene in any country where a Communist government was under threat. The Soviet backed occupation of Czechoslovakia lasted until the velvet revolution brought an end to the Communist dictatorship in November 1991 as the Cold War ended. It was always contested - the reformist communists were finally defeated in the mid 1970's ironically just as detente created the Helsinki accords which then inspired Charter 77. 

Russia’s attitude to the invasion still touches raw emotions, evens in the Czech and Slovak republics. While the  thirty third anniversary of the collapse of the USSR will largely pass unremembered, in both the West and more understandably in Russia, the reasons for Russia’s desire to forget the past are understandable. 

It is worth noting that the Brits lost their Empire over a period of thirty years, over fifty years ago, and some of them have still not got over the losing of it hence the periodic exposure of Brit exceptionalism. The Russians by way of contrast lost the core of their Empire in about fortnight, which must still sting a bit, even thirty three years down the line. 

The West tends to remain silent when it came to remembering the anniversary of the collapse of the USSR. Perhaps considering the hubris displayed at the time, the wilful glee the came with the botched dismemberment of the old Soviet state industries and assets, the rise of the oligarchs (some of whom were very close and comfortable with New Labour and quire comfortable with the Conservatives and the rise of President Putins new Russia, the silence is perhaps understandable. 

When it comes to anniversaries August may be the month that keeps on giving on the Friday  23rd August 2024 is the 85th anniversary of the 1939 signing of Nazi Germany’s and the Soviet Union’s pact which effectively guaranteed the start of the second world war. This event is well remembered the Baltic republic and Poland but very rarely anywhere else, especially in the Russian Federation, where history is both important and selectively remembered. 

On Friday ( 23rd August ) morning, Edgars Rinkēvičs and Alar Karis, the presidents of Latvia and Estonia, met at the Unguriņi-Lilli border crossing point to remember that 35 years ago, on 23 August 1989, some two million people from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania stood hand in hand - literally. 

While the event itself lasted for 15 minutes, from Toompea in Tallinn, through Riga, to the Gediminas Tower in Vilnius, the consequences have lasted much longer. This over 600km long human chain, known as the Baltic Way, became a powerful symbol of unity and resistance, as it drew the world's attention to the illegal Soviet annexation of the Baltic States following the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.

The non-aggression pact was signed exactly 50 years earlier, on 23rd August 1939, by Soviet and German foreign ministers Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop. It contained secret protocols, in which the two powers illegally divided the territories of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania between them. 

This was one of the key factors that led to the start of World War II in September 1939, with Nazi Germany's attack on Poland, and to the Soviet invasion of the Baltics in June 1940. The Baltic Way put immense pressure on the Soviet power to acknowledge the existence of the secret protocols and to declare them null and void - and reminded the West that the Baltic republics had been annexed to the Soviet Union since 1944/45. 

A few years ago, when the Poles held a commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the start of the Second World War, a few years ago, some Western and World leaders gathered, but the Brits did not go, obviously other important things to do and remember - wonder who the Foreign Secretary was at the time?

Human history is complex, and remembrance is important, forgetting is also very human and is part of life, but, remembrance should be balanced rather than selective. Selectively forgetting the past and erasing our collective history is a more dubious practice ( especially in these islands, Hungary, Russia and the Peoples Republic of China, etc ) but also within these islands, especially when it comes to ‘Brit washing’ the perceptions of and the grim realities of Empire, etc. 

Even in the West, the elite can be decidedly selective about the anniversaries and the history they wish us to remember. Creating a rose tinted view of the past, is neither history nor remembrance, nor is it honest, its manufactured / peddled nostalgia - and that is dubious, dishonest and potentially dangerous.  

Simply to reimagine these islands past simply to distract people from the mess the Westminster elite have got us into from the carnage of India’s partition, the shambles of Suez, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the financial collapse of 2008, etc is unacceptable but not quite as unacceptable as blatantly lying through ones teeth and manipulating evidence to justify a war. 

Other more awkward embarrassing anniversaries are ignored or effectively selectively airbrushed from history e.g. the Sykes-Picot-Sazanov agreement, the anniversary of  Amritsar, various bloody Sundays, etc.  Anniversaries are important to remember as not only can they provide timely reminders of important historical events, they can also remind us how we ended up in this mess and who made those decisions, and what can actually be accomplished when people want change.

GROW THE CASE FOR INDEPENDENCE

Plaid Cymru and Wales Green Party create Future Cymru Forum to grow case for independence

Leaders of the two leading pro-independence parties in Wales have announced the formation of a new Forum to grow the case for independence. The Forum will consult, research and develop a ground-breaking body of work to build a "bridge of ideas to the future". Plaid Cymru and The Wales Green Party will engage widely, working together to help build the economic, social and environmental case for an independent Wales.

Announcing the creation of ‘Future Cymru Forum’ at the party’s Annual Conference, Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price said it was further evidence of a “genuine agenda of reaching out to others, across the party divide, to join hands to find a shared route to independence that will produce tangible benefits for all our people.”

The aim is produce outputs that will be inspirational but grounded in robust evidence and argument that complements and supports the work of other groups. The Future Cymru Forum project will focus on topics such as:

1. Setting a framework for debate and research on economy in an independent Wales, taking note of new economy thinking, environmental value and wellbeing goals; 
2. Creating an economic plan for an independent Wales in different social and political scenarios, risks and opportunities.
3. Modelling the macro-economic impact of an independent Wales for a range of different scenarios, including forecasting of social and environmental value and GDP growth over first fifteen years.
4. Modelling the public expenditure, contributions to the foundation economy, deficit and debt over the first fifteen years, under different tax and expenditure scenarios.
5. Considering how an independent Wales could encourage a richer mix of viable business models to create environmental and public value
6. Creating ambitious new financial instruments to fund investment in a new energy future for Wales and to tackle climate change.

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price said:

"The Future Cymru Forum will ensure that the case for Welsh independence continues to grow, both economically and environmentally.

"Both parties recognise the need to explore the key questions surrounding independence more deeply, including the central question of how a new Welsh economy would work. In tough times, working together can turn things around. Our aim is to build confidence in a flourishing independent future for Wales.

"If we are to win independence for Wales we need as broad an alliance of possible who share the vision of a nation that is fair, inclusive, diverse and green. The Future Wales Forum is another step towards realising that vision and ensuring that Cymru's Future is in Cymru's hands."

"I strongly believe in a genuine agenda of reaching out to others, across the party divide, to join hands to find a shared route to independence that will produce tangible benefits for all our people.”

Anthony Slaughter, Wales Green Party leader said:

“I hope that the aims of Future Cymru Forum - to develop economic and environmental plans for an independent Wales - will convince, inspire and enthuse many people across our nation that vision can become reality.

“Working together, we can show positive and hopeful alternatives to the destructive agenda pursued by the Tories in Westminster that is damaging people and planet alike.

“As more and more people are persuaded by the idea of independence as a means of securing a fairer and greener future, The Wales Green Party looks forward to working with Plaid Cymru to undertake the important research required to ensure that the case for our nation to stand on its own two feet is more compelling than ever before.

STANDING WITH UKRAINE

Today is the 31st anniversary of the Ukraine’s independence from the former Soviet Union, an empire by any other name. The independence of Ukraine followed the collapse of the Soviet Union following the hardliners failed coup attempt on 24th August 1991. 

The Ukrainian’s with their land split between Imperial Russia and Austria-Hungry in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, stood little chance, of achieving statehood or independence. The chaotic end of the First World War saw at one point at least two Ukrainian governments in existence, during the existence of the Soviet Union the possibilities of Ukrainian becoming independent were minimal. 

The horrors of the famine, collectivisation, and the Second World War inflicted horrendous casualties on Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. The emergence of the Soviet Union, under Stalin, emerging as one of the worlds two new post war superpowers and the start of the Cold War confrontation effectively locked the Ukraine into the USSR. 

For all the fiction that surrounded the myth that that the Soviet Union was a socialist republican paradise it was and behaved liked an Empire, with the Russians on top and the Ukrainians somewhat lower in the pecking order, not at the bottom of the heap, but, not quite at the top. 

The collapse of the coup attempt by communist hardliners 24th August 1991 was the final straw that broke the camels back, partially free elections in 1990 had seriously weakened Communist control in the Baltic Republics, Georgia and Armenia. The Russian Federation under its newly elected President Boris Yeltsin reached out to take power. 

At the same time, on the 24th August 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukraine passed a resolution calling for a national referendum on the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet Union. Russia effectively became independent and the USSR began to collapse.

The Ukrainian independence vote took place on December 1st 1991, worth 28,804,071 ( 93.3 p% ) voting for independence, and 2,427,554 ( 7.7% ) voting against independence ( with 670,117 invalid of blank votes. 31,891,742 electors ( 84% of the electorate voted ) out of an electorate of 37,885,555. 

Interestingly enough when you drill down through the votes by region in Lughansk on a 68% turnout 83.86% of the people voted for independence, in Donetsk on a 64% turnout 83.90% voted for independence. On December 2nd 1991 much of the rest of the world recognised the independence of the Ukraine. 

Achieving actual independence was only half of the struggle. The transition towards a non Soviet economy was economically and socially grim, eight years of recession followed independence. And just as the Ukraine emerged into more prosperous times in ended up being enveloped, along with everyone else in the banking crash of 2008 and its consequences. 

Aside from economic turmoil there has been a long struggle to create a stable representative non corrupt democratic state. The Euromaidan Revolution of February 2013 saw the overthrow of pro Russian oligarchs, within days Russian stoked unrest began in the Crimea and in Donetsk and Luhansk - and the rest as they say is history. 

Today is also the sixth monthly anniversary of the unprovoked Russian attack on the Ukraine. For years before the Russian attack the Ukrainian government had been asking for assistance and defensive weapons to protect their state people and their state from Russian attack, although to no avail. 

The Wests support moral and material to the Ukraine during the current war is vital and our support in every possible way is important. This is going to be a long war, and simply forcing the Ukraine to compromise its sovereignty and independence is completely unacceptable.

LOOK FORWARD NOT BACKWARD

First Minister Mark Drakeford has been accused of “looking backward not forward” on the future of Wales when it comes to independence, Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price MS has said.

 

Challenging Mr Drakeford during today’s FMQs, the Plaid Cymru Leader said that it was independence – not home rule – that would solve Wales’s “democratic deficit”.

 

Last Friday, Mark Drakeford called for “home rule” for Wales within the United Kingdom.

 

Mr Price said that Wales had never voted Conservative but has had a Conservative Government in Westminster ‘for two thirds of the time’ - and that was unlikely to change “anytime soon”.

 

Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price MS said that independence was the “only way” to ensure that all decisions affecting Wales were “made in Wales” and to ensure Wales became a “better, fairer and more equal” country.

 

Recent polling has shown support for Welsh independence to be on the rise. Support for Welsh independence is also growing within the Labour party with polling suggesting half of Labour voters in Wales are supportive of an independent Wales.

 

The head of Labour for Indy Wales Bob Lloyd, said yesterday in the Daily Express that “For the last 100 years Wales has voted for a socialist party in domestic elections yet hasn't got what it's asked for.” Sam Pritchard, Chair of the Wales Co-operative Party, said that independence was the “best way to achieve a more equal society and not be bound by the voting patterns of people in the south of England”.

 

The First Minister has previously suggested supporters of Welsh independence are inward-looking and inherently right-wing.  Yesterday, Labour MP Chris Bryant dismissed independence supporters as ‘childish’. 

 

Mr Price called the comments “deeply disappointing” and said Welsh independence was about looking “outward […] forging alliances, and developing relationships on these islands and beyond”.

 

Plaid Cymru Leader Adam Price MS said,

 

“Wales has never voted Tory yet we’ve had Tory Governments for two thirds of the time. There’s no reason to believe that will change anytime soon.

 

“The First Minister describes independence as a nineteenth century response to a 21^st century problem, going on to propose home rule instead, itself an idea from the 1880s. The problem is that Home rule will never solve the Welsh democratic deficit – only independence can do that.

 

“Westminster has never seen itself as Wales' partner in constitutional terms. Independence will ensure all decisions affecting Wales are made in Wales and to enable Wales to become a better, fairer and more equal nation.

 

“It is deeply disappointing to hear the First Minister and his Labour colleague tarnish one third of the population by suggesting they are ‘inward-looking’ and ‘childish’. Welsh independence is about looking outward – not inward, taking off Westminster’s blinkers and replace them with our Welsh internationalist lens - making friends, forging alliances, and developing relationships on these islands and beyond.

 

“With recent polls showing that more than half of Labour voters are now in favour of independence, that support is highest among our young people, on the national question is it not the independence movement but the First Minister that is looking backward not forward to the future of our country."

 

ENDS

CHOOSING INDEPENDENCE

Yesterday (on Saturday) at a  Special Conference on independence, Plaid Cymru members overwhelmingly backed a pledge that means that Plaid Cymru will offer a Welsh independence referendum within the first term of Government should it be able to command a majority following this year’s Senedd elections.

Now this is not simply a case of a bunch of constitutional nerds seeking to win independence for independence’s sake, but rather for the sake of the thousands of families whose futures depend on Wales becoming a fairer, more equal nation. 

This literally makes Plaid Cymru the only political party contesting the 2021 Senedd elections that will have a manifesto commitment to hold a referendum on Welsh Independence within a clear timetable. 

This is a weighty endorsement of Plaid’s unwavering belief that sovereignty lies with the people of Wales and not with Westminster. 

This means that the people of Wales can decide their constitutional future - by the middle of this decade – we all now have a clear roadmap for a free and fair nation.

The existing devolution settlement and the powers that Cymru / Wales has could be used to make things better - the problem is that they are simply being used for administrative purposes by a Labour in Wales government that lacks the will, the imagination and the vision to change Cymru / Wales for the better. 

As has been said before, we are living in very uncertain times, the only real certainty is that we can do far better than this, better than tolerating the status quo. 

More of the same is simply not an option. 

The covid crisis has shown that Cymru / Wales couldn’t have its own furlough scheme, nor could we have maximum flexibility in terms of the support we could offer various sectors throughout the crisis. 

With economic independence, we can have the freedom to tailor our response to Cymru / Wales’s specific needs, rather than the ‘square peg in a round hole’ approach forced upon us by in indifferent Westminster. 

The current Conservative Westminster government is aiming to undermine, weaken and destroy even the flawed devolutionary settlement that we have, there will  be no federalist option, and no new powers devolved to anywhere, let alone Cymru / Wales. 

The centralists are back with a vengeance - the only option as going for independence. For the first time independence and its timetable will be on the ballot paper in a Welsh General Election, reflecting the growing confidence in our ability to run our own affairs. 

To those who tired of the waffle and short-term thinking and the cronyism from Westminster, for those who want to break free from the decaying union, we have a clear offer. 

A Plaid Cymru led government which secures a Senedd majority vote will deliver an independence referendum in its first term – giving the people of Cymru / Wales the right to decide on their own future. 

With an independent Scotland and a united Ireland ever more likely by the end of the decade, the people of Wales deserve an opportunity to decide whether we too want that independent future, we deserve the opportunity to choose our future, rather than life in the past.