Welsh Republican Movement
In-game article clicks load inline without leaving the challenge.
The Welsh Republican Movement (WRM; Welsh: Mudiad Gweriniaethol Cymru) was a Welsh nationalist and republican socialist political party.
History
The movement originated in a motion put forward by the Cardiff branch of Plaid Cymru at the 1949 party conference in Dyffryn Ardudwy. The motion proposed changing the party's objective from a "Dominion Status within the British Commonwealth" to "an Independent Republic", but it was defeated by a margin of 9 to 1.
The group held its own conference in Neath on 24-25 September 1949, where it was decided to establish the Welsh Republican Movement and to adopt a tricolour flag of red, white and green as its symbol. The movement aimed to build a base in industrial South East Wales by focusing on socialism and republicanism, in contrast to Plaid Cymru's emphasis on rural affairs, pacifism and the Welsh language.
One of the first actions undertaken by the WRM occurred on 24 November 1949, when members disrupted a speech in the House of Commons by James Griffiths, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Llanelli and then Minister of National Insurance. Joyce Ann Williams, a member of the WRM, heckled Griffiths from the Visitors' Gallery, labelling him a "Quisling" while displaying the Welsh tricolour. Williams was forcibly removed from the premises during her protest, which prompted a second WRM member, Haydn Jones, to stand up and begin heckling Griffiths, reportedly shouting: "Away with you, Jim Griffiths. Get back to Wales. We want a Welsh Socialist Republic." Jones dispersed WRM leaflets from the gallery into the chamber below before also being ejected, most of which allegedly fell among Conservative Party MPs.
Ithel Davies stood as the WRM candidate in Ogmore at the 1950 general election, where he received 613 votes, 1.3% of the vote. During the election campaign, Plaid Cymru attempted to argue that the WRM should not use the word gweriniaeth ('republic'). An issue of the Welsh-language publication Y Cymro dated 24 March 1950 reported that some prominent members of Plaid Cymru, including a party spokesman, suggested that Ithel Davies and the WRM had no right to the term gweriniaeth, instead insisting on calling them Ripyblicanod (lit.'Republicans').
At the beginning of July 1950, the WRM announced the forthcoming publication of its newspaper, Y Gweriniaethwr ('The Republican'), with Huw Davies as editor and Harri Webb as managing editor. In the first three years of its publication, the paper achieved a circulation approaching 2,000 copies.
Some members of the party were arrested for burning the Union Jack on multiple occasions, Lord Mayor of Cardiff Alderman George Williams condemned these flag burnings during his speech on 9 August to welcome overseas visitors at the 1950 Caerphilly National Eisteddfod. On 11 August, two WRM members snuck into Caerphilly Castle, where a Union Jack measuring 16ft by 8ft was flying over the Eisteddfod field. They lowered the flag, set it alight, and then raised it back to the top of the mast.
On 19 October 1952, the organisation became the first Welsh nationalist movement to use explosives as a form of protest. Days before the newly constructed Claerwen Reservoir in Radnorshire was due to be opened by Elizabeth II, the WRM bombed a water pipeline connecting the Elan Valley Reservoirs to Birmingham. The opening ceremony took place on 23 October and was one of Elizabeth II's first public engagements as monarch. It was reported that the bomb, which was composed of gelignite, was used to target the Fron Aqueduct, which carries water across the River Ithon approximately fifteen miles from Claerwen. Over a decade later, in February 1967, the same aqueduct was targeted in a Free Wales Army (FWA) bombing, although the bomb failed to detonate.
By the mid-1950s, most members of the Movement had either returned to Plaid Cymru or joined the Labour Party, and its newspaper ceased publication in 1957. However, F. W. S. Craig believed that it remained active as late as 1966.
- Peter Barberis, John McHugh and Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations