The Communist Party of Great Britain and the National Question in Wales, 1920-1991

Abstract

The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) is largely absent from the narrative of Welsh devolution, in particular from the left’s engagement with the national question, as it is from much of the discussion of Welsh politics in general, a surprising omission considering its significant role within the labour movement in Wales and its commitment from the 1930s to legislative devolution for Wales. This study offers, for the first time, an in-depth analysis of the party’s engagement with the national question in Wales, from its formation in 1920 to its dissolution in 1991. The party’s engagement with the national question is approached through a study of its policy on Welsh self-government, its attitude to the Welsh language and Welsh culture, its relationship with the nationalist movement, and its broader policy programme for Wales. Despite its early neglect of the issue, the CPGB developed, from the mid-1930s onwards, a policy on the national question in Wales based on support for a legislative Welsh parliament within a federal governmental system, alongside support for the equal status for the Welsh language. While the level of the CPGB’s engagement with the national question was linked to the fortunes of the Welsh nationalist movement, its policy on the issue was guided by its need to accommodate both the right of national self-determination and its commitment to the unity of the British working class movement, its federalism derived from its commitment to this left-wing form of British unionism. Policy on these issues was developed primarily in Wales, the party’s prolonged, if at times intermittent, engagement with the issue, marking the Welsh party out as having, alongside its internationalism and its commitment to the British working class movement, a distinct Welsh identity.

Date of Award	14 Jan 2010
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Aberystwyth University
Supervisor	Richard Llywelyn Wyn Jones (Supervisor) & Elin Royles (Supervisor)