How Fascist Were Plaid Cymru?

[frogwoman]

it said that this thread had a new post to it! But it didn't

 

[Pickman's model]

If you can get an English translation read http://www.uwp.co.uk/editions/9780708326503?language=en by Professor Richard Wyn Jones which debunks this myth entirely!

if you look on amazon you'll find this little gem http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fascist-Par...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401037622&sr=1-1

 

[Hocus Eye.]

So can we conclude whether PC the party is PC or not?

 

[ddraig]

Helo Hedd
croeso!
plis peidiwch a gwrando arno Dwyer a unrhywbeth ma fe yn gweud!
mae fe yn siarad mas pen nol a hoffi gweud celwydd!

 

[ddraig]

translation
Hello Hedd
welcome
please don't listen to Dwyer or anything he says
he talks out of his back side and likes to tell lies

 

[phildwyer]

Poor old Ddraig.

 

[Greebo]

Poor old Ddraig.

Poor indeed, when pitied by you.

 

[editor]

The description of the book does seem to answer phildwyer's question in full:

An impressive volume that buries forever one of the most destructive political lies in Welsh political discourse --Adam Price, former Plaid Cymru MP, adviser to Leanne Wood

This is a deft, incisive and admirably terse dissection of Welsh political culture in the twentieth century, important not only for exploding the persistent myth that the young Welsh Nationalist party sympathised with Fascism in the interwar period, but for explaining how such a baseless accusation could ever have been made and sustained for so long --Professor Robert Evans, Regius Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Oxford

 

[phildwyer]

The description of the book does seem to answer phildwyer's question in full:

But it would be a foolish person who judged a book by the publisher's blurb.

Obviously this book argues one side of the case. Equally obviously, it's very existence proves there is another case to be made:

"Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru's appeal may have been further complicated by the apparent "fascist-style corporatism shown by [Lewis] and other Roman Catholic leaders of the party", according to historian Lord Morgan.[27] Author G. A. Williams characterised the party of the 1930s as a "right wing force", and "Its journal refused to resist Hitler or Mussolini, ignored or tolerated anti-Semitism and, in effect, came out in support of Franco".[27][28][29][30]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Plaid_Cymru

In 1923 Ambrose Bebb wrote in the Plaid journal, Y Ddraig Goch: "It is a Mussolini that Wales needs."

In 1935 he wrote, in the same journal: "[Mussolini's] was a popular revolution, a people's revolution, and the welfare of every class is the welfare constantly before his eyes.... He influences the nationalist party in Wales."

J.E. Daniel, President of Plaid 1939-43 wrote: "Whatever is the enmity between Fascism and Democracy, it becomes friendship in the face of the great enemy, Communism."

In 1936, Saunders Lewis dismissed reports of Hilter's atrocities as "propaganda."

And here even Wyn Jones concedes Lewis's anti-semitism, and his calls for a negotiated peace with Hitler in 1941-42.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/plaid-cymru-fascist-links-claims-5676038

So while this certainly looks like an interesting read, it is very far from being the last word on the question.

 

[phildwyer]

Poor indeed, when pitied by you.

I don't pity Ddraig, and neither should you. He brought all his misfortune on himself.