Twm Draper
Twm Draper is a Cardiff activist.
2024 Congress
Dic Penderyn reports on the Communist Party of Britain’s Wales congress, where delegates debated plans for a radical manifesto and broad alliance to challenge Reform UK at the polls and make a clear break with Starmer and Westminster
Laura Picand, in her chairwoman’s address to the Communist Party’s Wales congress, acknowledged the hardships suffered in Pontypridd after the town flooded during Storm Bert a week ago.
There were 12 amendments to the resolution debated at congress, some of which will be incorporated into it by the incoming Welsh executive committee.
An all-Wales Morning Star conference is to be held in Cardiff on February 15 2025 to enable progressives from across parties, the anti-racist and peace movement, and trade unions to discuss a radical manifesto for the Welsh Senedd elections in 2026 to give hope to the people of Wales.
The Welsh congress heard from Communist Party of Britain chairwoman Liz Payne, who brought comradely greetings from the British party.
A panel of guest speakers included former MP Beth Winter, Welsh language campaign Cymdeithas yr laith Gymraeg’s Owain Meiron, Cymru Cuba’s Twm Draper and Friends of Socialist China’s Keith Bennett.
“I am a very proud socialist and very pleased to be here with you today,” Winter said.
“Our country and wealth have been extracted and exploited with billions of pounds taken.
“We have unprecedented levels of poverty and hardship with the highest level of child poverty in the United Kingdom.
“The rise of the far right goes along with the sense of abandonment by many of our communities in Wales.
“Reform offers something that the Establishment parties do not, and estimates suggest they could take 20 seats in the Senedd at the 2026 election,” Winter warned.
Owain Meiron said housing was a key campaign for Cymdeithas and explained it was impossible for many young people to afford to live within their local community.
Both Twm Draper and Keith Bennett spoke about the need for solidarity with Cuba and China and for the existing links between the party and the two countries to continue.
Historian Douglas Jones gave the traditional Gwyn Alf Williams lecture on the eve of the Welsh Communist Party’s congress.
Jones is an official with the Civil Service union PCS and author of the book The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the National Question in Wales 1936-1991..
He gave the background to the formation of the Communist Party in Wales, formed from the South Wales district committee established in 1922, followed by a north Wales district in 1937, with the two committees unified in 1944 to form a Welsh committee.
The party in Wales developed its Welsh language policy during the inter-war and immediate post-war period. Publishing a series of Welsh language pamphlets, including two bilingual Eisteddfod pamphlets and culminating with the publication of a Welsh translation of the Communist Manifesto — Y Maniffesto.
“The party supported the establishment of a Welsh Parliament from the second half of the 1930s onwards, and it took part in the Parliament for Wales Campaign in the 1950s and the campaign for a Yes vote in the 1979 referendum,” Jones said.
A closing collection also raised £263 for the Morning Star.[1]
May Day Brigade 2022
Thirty-one young trade unionists from Britain and Ireland joined 140 activists from around the world in Cuba spring 2022 on the first May Day Brigade for three years The young members representing unions Unite, UNISON, CWU, ASLEF, RMT, TSSA and USDAW were part of CSC’s 15th annual Young Trade Unionists’ May Day Brigade. Several of them had waited two years to make the trip after the original 2020 brigade had been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After an early start from Gatwick, the group arrived at their base, the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp (CIJAM) in Artemisa province just outside Havana, on the evening of 24 April. There they met Cuban Friendship Institute (ICAP) representatives and joined up with the other volunteers from 15 countries including Chile, South Africa, Canada and the United States.
Activities were split between agricultural work, political and historical talks, visits and cultural events.
Delegates were particularly inspired to hear from two of the Miami Five heroes who visited the camp in their official capacities as leaders of two important Cuban organisations. Fernando Gonzalez, President of ICAP, and Gerardo Hernandez, National Coordinator for the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution, had both spent many years unjustly imprisoned in US jails for trying to stop terrorist attacks against their countries. During his speech, Fernando presented the group with an award for CSC and its members and affiliates for 40 years of solidarity and activism against the US blockade.
As part of the political talks about Cuban society, Gerardo was joined on a panel with other representatives of Cuba’s mass organisations, in this case the first secretary of the provincial CTC (Federation of Cuban Workers) and Diana Castillo, National organiser for the Union de Jovenes Comunistas (young communists). Following the panel discussion the groups had the opportunity to split into smaller groups and have more detailed discussions.
The highlight of the trip for most of the delegation was joining a thousand international guests from 60 countries on the tribune in front of the José Martí memorial in Revolution Square to watch the first May Day march for three years.
They shared the viewing platform with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, former president Raul Castro, Ulises Guilarte General Secretary of the CTC, and the Miami Five heroes who signed several of the brigadistas’ flags and t-shirts. Havana residents marched in defiance against the blockade, for Cuban independence and in celebration of Cuban workers under the banner ‘Unity, commitment and victory’ (Unidad, compromiso y victoria).
Delegates included Johnnie Hunter, Michelle Byrne, Unite, Ireland, Charlotte Chapman, Unite the Union, East Midlands, Maisie D, TSSA, Ben Davis, Unite the Union, Twm Draper, CWU Great Western, Rob Kitley, ASLEF, South West, Laura Marshall, CWU, Alejandra Navarro-Woods, UNISON North West, Dan Pearce, Unite the Union, South East, Lauren Strain, Unite the Union, Scotland, Micaela Tracey-Ramos, UNISON North West, Nick West, Unite London and Eastern.
The delegation returned to Britain and Ireland energised and inspired by the brigade and pledged to continue to build solidarity with the Cuba people from within their trade unions and communities.[2]