CP Manifesto for Wales: Power to the People

Grym Go Iawn i Bobl a Chymunedau Cymru Real Power for the People and Communities of Wales

Maniffesto’r Blaid Gomiwnyddol Gymreig Manifesto of the Welsh Communist Party

Etholiadau Llywodraeth Leol 2012 2012 Local Government Elections

Grym Go Iawn i Bobl a Chymunedau Cymru Real Power for the People and Communities of Wales Etholiadau Llywodraeth Leol 2012 2012 Local Government Elections

Welsh Communist Party PO BOX 69 Pontypridd CF37 9AB http://www.welshcommunists.org/ office@welshcommunists.org

Real Power for the People and Communities of Wales 1

Communists against cuts in services and jobs The spending cuts planned by the Tory-LibDem and previous New Labour governments in London are already beginning to hit Wales particularly hard.

This is, firstly, because Wales has a bigger public services sector, proportionately, than Britain as a whole. Secondly, as the legacy of a larger industrial base and the historical mismanagement of the Welsh economy, we have a higher proportion of our population dependant on unemployment, poverty and incapacity-related benefits. Thirdly, the New Labour and Tory-LibDem plans have been to cut the National Assembly block grant by around in 11 per cent in real terms over the period 2011-16, higher than for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Of the £213 billion spending cuts due to take place between 2011 and 2016, around £16 billion will be made in Wales to local government, National Assembly and central government programmes. At the same time, Wales has a much smaller financial services sector than the Bitish average – yet this is where successive governments have pledged or given £1,400 billion in public assistance in order to bail out the banks and financial markets.

In terms of the productive economy, on the other hand, it should be noted that Wales has a higher proportion of its workforce engaged in industrial production and construction than Britain as a whole.

Deep cuts in public services and the welfare state adversely affect almost all workers and their families. But they disproportionately disadvantage women, disabled people, the young and minority ethnic communities, thereby deepening social inequality and division. The struggle against social injustice, on the other hand, benefits all workers and the Communist Party will continue to point out to workers that an injury to one is an injury to all.

Ultimately, the capitalist system is the basis on which the exploitation and oppression of people rests; discrimination and victimisation are tools of this corrupt system. Broad support for policies of equality and social justice form part of the platform of class struggle, solidarity and unity on which Communists stand.

In these local elections, therefore, the Communist Party candidates in Wales are taking a clear position that distinguishes us from Labour, the Tories, the LibDems and Plaid Cymru.

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We say: H No to cuts in public services and jobs.

H Councils should cut other costs and expenses instead, including consultancy fees, and draw from their financial reserves.

H Tax the income and property of the rich and big business to maintain public services H The National Assembly and local councils should have powers to raise much more of their own revenue from taxation and borrowing.

This is only the beginning of the second year of at least five years of cuts planned by successive governments, with 90 per cent of them still to come. Already, unemployment in Wales has reached 134,000 – more than 9 per cent of the workforce.

It is not too late for the Wales TUC and its affiliated unions to fulfill their pledge to coordinate a broad-based campaigning movement to save vital services and jobs in our local communities.

The potential for such a campaign was shown on March 5 last year, when thousands of protestors marched through Cardiff, and on April 28, June 30 and November 30 when many thousands of workers took strike action, mounted picket lines and marches and rallied across Wales.

Communist councillors would work tirelessly in their communities to turn these protests into a concerted movement to resist the cuts and fight for a positive alternative, utilising the council chamber and the mass media as a platform for such a perspective.

In particular, we urge the trade unions, the Labour Party, Plaid Cymru and other bodies to commit themselves to winning economic and financial powers for the National Assembly.

Going further, our view is that the people of Wales urgently need a Welsh Parliament with the legislative and financial means to intervene in the economy, protect public services, promote industry and defend and create jobs. Such a body could become a rallying point in the struggle for a civilised society against the power of big business.

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New political conditions in Wales Since the 1970s, successive British governments have engaged in a sustained attack on workers and their families by cutting the welfare state, attacking trade union rights and increasing the inequality of wealth and power between a tiny wealthy elite and the mass of ordinary people. Despite introducing some significant gains for the working class and people generally, such as the national minimum wage and the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales and the Scottish Parliament, the 1997-2010 New Labour governments were largely big business-orientated in character. New Labour was responsible for handing further powers to the monopoly capitalists, especially the bankers, which facilitated the ‘credit-crunch' and the continuing economic crisis.

Since the arrival of the National Assembly and, still more, since the successful referendum to extend its powers in 2011, new political conditions have opened up in Wales which provide the opportunity for opposing the neo-liberal policies of Westminster and developing a platform for working class advance in Wales and throughout Britain.

Following the British General Election of 2010, the Tory-LibDem coalition government has been in office and representing the most reactionary and dangerous elements of monopoly capital, namely the banking finance capitalists. It is promoting the biggest attack on the public sector and working class living standards in history. In Wales, a minority Labour administration has relied on Liberal Democrat support for a budget and programme which defends some of the National Assembly's historic gains, but presents insufficient challenge to the Westminster government's programme of cuts.

The resurgence of support for the Conservative Party in Wales saw them take votes from the Liberal Democrats, but its most significant impact was on Plaid Cymru and consequently the prospect of a second Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition government in Cardiff. The experience of the 'One Wales' period of Labour-Plaid Cymru administration in Wales, between 2007 and 2011, has demonstrated the greater capacity for left advance which exists when the two parties work together. The current situation places Plaid Cymru in opposition to the Welsh government, while also allowing Labour's right-wing to negotiate backroom deals with the Liberal Democrats which undermine the Welsh government's capacity to act in opposition to the Tory-LibDem regime in London. The people of Wales urgently need a Welsh government that can act as a united opposition to the anti-working 4 Grym Go Iawn i Bobl a Chymunedau Cymru

class, pro-big business programme of the unelected regime at Westminster and develop genuinely progressive policies for Wales.

At present, the Wales Labour Party fails to take advantage of these new political conditions to develop bold policies and to campaign for the further devolved powers with which to carry them out.

Plaid Cymru, on the other hand, pursues the myth of an 'independent Wales' within the European Union. Yet the EU is travelling along the road to being a centralised, military, imperialist United States of Europe, dominated by the transnational corporations (TNCs), an unaccountable European Commission and an unaccountable European Central Bank.

The Communist Party's electoral performance continues to produce only a small number of votes but significant engagement with politically conscious elements of the working class. Such engagement is a basis for future campaigning and as such will continue to be built upon.

Yet all socialists – including those within the Labour Party and Plaid Cymru – want to see a Wales in which there is social justice and greater equality. For the Communist Party, this can only be achieved as the result of direct, planned state intervention in the economy which forms the basis of our society.

Ultimately, strong government is needed in Wales which promotes maximum unity around the central question of opposition to monopoly capitalism. To achieve this, Communists work for unity on the left, across parties which gain working class support, as well as for an increase in popular support for the Communist Party itself.

This requires us to recognise that the left – including the Communists – start from a low base in terms of most people's political consciousness. Socialist aims have been driven down if not off the political agenda by the mass media, the right-wing parties and New Labour. We have to renew our Marxist perspective and promote it at all levels of political struggle and debate, including popular protest, workplace and trade union activity, electoral work and debate in the mass media.

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The Communist Party therefore proposes to revitalise its campaign for 'RealPower for the People of Wales' focusing on five priority areas: H Real power through a Peoples' Parliament for Wales – increasing the power of the Welsh people, assembly and government at the expense of the European Union and British imperialist state.

H Real power over the economy – increasing the power of elected government over the forces of monopoly capitalism.

H Real power at work – increasing the power of workers and their representatives in relation to management in both the private and public sectors.

H Real power over public services – making them more directly accountable to the people and their elected representatives at every level.

H Real power to access culture, education and information – promoting free education, bilingualism and more diverse and democratic media.

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Real power through a Peoples’ Parliament for Wales – increasing the power of the Welsh people, assembly and government at the expense of the European Union and British imperialist state Today, the single biggest obstacle to tackling our country's problems is the powerlessness of the people of Wales. Almost all the vital decisions about the Welsh economy are taken in far-away company boardrooms, or in offices in Whitehall and Brussels.

Welsh Communists welcomed the 2011 referendum to extend the powers of the National Assembly but recognise that this is not enough. The Communist Party has been at the forefront of the fight for a Parliament for Wales since the launch of the 1950-56 campaign. But we have also called for a 'parliament of a new type', one which actively involves people through consultation, petitioning rights, an extended franchise and a more 6 Grym Go Iawn i Bobl a Chymunedau Cymru

representative voting system.

We also believe that the National Assembly should be given the powers and resources to control and develop the economy, to create the best framework for the provision of vital services, to protect the environment and to strengthen people's cultural identity.

Amending the Barnett block grant formula to fully recognise the needs of deprived working class communities would produce a fairer distribution of British central government funds. But it is not the fundamental solution. We need to replace council tax with a local income tax, and allow the National Assembly to raise investment funds in capital markets and introduce its own range of financial powers. These could include the power to retain a share of PAYE revenues in Wales, to raise income tax rates (especially for higher bands) and introduce specifically Welsh taxes and levies, for example on wealth, development land, empty properties and 'prestige' projects.

The National Assembly should also have the power to enforce its own living wage policy and industry-specific minimum wage levels in Wales. However, where Britain-wide collective bargaining is in place and working well, this should be maintained. Welsh bargaining could be used to set minimum standards and – where Britain-wide bargaining fails or is ended – to prevent a descent into fragmented local bargaining Such measures could be used to combat chronic low pay and the continuing poor comparison with levels of income in other parts of Britain.

Today we are in an untenable position where by a key pledge in the Welsh government's programme is to ‘mitigate the impact of changes to the benefits system proposed by the UK Government'. The National Assembly need to be given the power to determine how the benefits system operates in Wales. With fair funding derived from its retained PAYE funds, amended block grant and other sources, it would then be able to implement a positive alternative approach which could act as an example for other nations and regions, strengthening the battle for a fair benefits system throughout Britain.

The people of Wales need a Peoples’ Parliament with powers to: H Raise revenue and control taxation H Support decent wages for all H Ensure fair benefits and social security

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2

Real power over the economy – increasing the power of elected government over the forces of monopoly capitalism Working people as a whole will only prosper when we have a modern economy which utilises the most advanced and environmentally-sustainable technology, providing full employment for a high-skilled, high-waged workforce.

Private enterprise has no such overall objective, and there is no reason to believe that today's TNCs are more likely to produce such an outcome than were the iron and coal monopolies of the past. All the great initiatives to diversify and modernise the Welsh economy and to overcome mass unemployment have come about as the result of public sector planning, intervention and investment.

However, the economic policy of the current Welsh government places far too much emphasis on the private sector and on indirect means to try to stimulate growth and protect jobs. In particular, the idea that investment in education and skills training leads to a corresponding economic advantage is dangerously simplistic. As long as the TNCs are free to switch capital and work to wherever cheap or unemployed labour is available, even the most trained and 'flexible' labour in developed countries will find it difficult to retain jobs together with decent terms and conditions.

The current approach needs to be replaced by more direct means based on an extension of public and social ownership into far more sectors of the economy, alongside the development of a system of planning agreements. The people and local communities of Wales need more public investment – not less – in small, cooperative and municipal enterprise, not bribes for foreign multinational corporations to come and exploit relatively cheap and flexible labour here.

The Welsh government must be won to a policy of re-balancing the Welsh economy with the aim of achieving full employment. Future economic growth must be based on an extensive expansion model which brings more people into productive industry rather than relying on the financial and marketing services sector. Demand needs to be driven by an increase in wage earners and a growth in wages, not the expansion of credit and debt. To bring about this re-balancing of the economy the public sector needs to expand into the 8 Grym Go Iawn i Bobl a Chymunedau Cymru

energy, manufacturing and distribution. New public and social enterprises in these sectors can provide sustainable jobs in key deprived areas, and provide local competitors to the TNCs that currently supply our small businesses, local authorities, the health service and schools with equipment, goods and materials.

The Welsh government must also directly influence decision-making in private enterprises within the manufacturing sector. The Welsh government already concludes ‘Outcome Agreements' with local authorities, other public organisations and voluntary sector bodies.

These agreements provide finance and support from government in exchange for the delivery of government priorities. This approach needs to be extended into the private sector in the form of planning agreements between government, trade unions and manufacturing companies. These could include agreed levels of job creation, wages and the appropriate mix of products and services to meet local demand.

A key opportunity for Wales to demonstrate this new approach is for the Welsh government to bring Arriva Trains Wales into public ownership when the franchise comes up fo renewal in 2014. This should, in turn, be part of a wider programme to construct an integrated public transport strategy (including a north-south rail link through mid-Wales and electrification of the main line west of Cardiff) as part of an infrastructure for growth. Such a programme would need to take back into public ownership the energy (including coal, water and electricity), transport (including the railways, buses and Cardiff-Wales Airport) and steel industries.

The energy industries, in particular, can play a leading role in supporting the expansion of manufacturing, employment and economic growth while protecting the environment and our natural resources.

The redevelopment of a deep-mined coal industry which is environmentally sustainable should be part of an integrated energy policy, a condition of which needs to be investment in 'clean coal' technology to deal with the CO2 emissions that contribute to global warming.

This must proceed, alongside the development of offshore wind turbines and the widespread application of solar power technology.

The extraordinary tidal power of the Severn estuary needs to be harnessed, with full public investigation of the possibilities presented by coastal lagoon and underwater turbine technology. As well as putting the maximum environmental and ecological safeguards in place, the rights and status of the National Assembly and Welsh government must be fully Real Power for the People and Communities of Wales 9

reflected in any joint English-Welsh administrative arrangements. These conditions can only be guaranteed by a Severn tidal power facility that is wholly in public ownership.

Such a perspective for boosting energy generation should not be confused with current plans to expand opencast coal operations by private mining companies. These seek to maximise profits at the expense of local communities and the environment. Opencast methods of extraction inflict great physical damage to the topography as well as noise and dust pollution from blasting. Many potential sites are not linked to the railway network and so any expansion of opencast methods is likely to generate increased road traffic with adverse affects on safety and the environment. Nor should any new nuclear power stations be built in Wales unless and until the enormous costs and dangers associated with nuclear fission – including safe waste disposal and plant decommissioning – have been resolved.

The Welsh Communist Party welcomes the Covanta corporation's decision to withdraw its application for a giant waste incinerator plant at Brig y Cwm, near Merthyr Tydfil. We congratulate those local community campaigners who highlighted the dangers posed to public health by incineration, which is an old and inefficient technology that undermines the drive to more recycling.

But we oppose the plans of the Prosiect Gwyrdd consortium of local authorities in southeast Wales to award a household waste disposal contract to a new incinerator in Cardiff or Newport, backed by public subsidy from the National Assembly. In particular, we deplore the way in which Cardiff city and county council, the Environment Agency and the Welsh government have ignored widespread public health, safety and traffic concerns in order to accommodate Viridor's proposed incinerator in Trident Park, south Cardiff.

Communist Party councillors will support broad-based lobbies, demonstrations and other mass campaigning activities – including civil disobedience where necessary – in order to oppose and stop the erection and operation of any new waste incinerators anywhere in Wales.

Cleaner, safer and more efficient technologies exist to deal with household and industrial waste, including more refined recycling processes, anaerobic digestion, auto-claving and mechanical and biological treatment (MBT). The Welsh government and local authoirities should withdraw support from any plans for new waste incinerators, while inviting bids for public contracts based on alternative processes and technologies.

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The labour movement, notably the Wales TUC, must take the lead in campaigning for an Economic Plan for Wales based on the principles of public intervention, democratic control and the extension of public, municipal and cooperative ownership of industry and development land. Clearly, the National Assembly must have the powers and resources required for such a plan to be implemented. Winning support for this perspective within the Labour Party and Plaid Cymru will be particularly important.

This is the only approach that can supply the secure economic base for an environmentally sustainable and socially-just society in Wales.

The people of Wales need an Economic Plan for Wales which: H Extends the public sector and planning agreements H Re-balances the economy for full employment H Introduces a fair wages policy H Builds an infrastructure for growth H Develops our natural resources while protecting the environment

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Real power at work – increasing the power of workers and their representatives in relation to management in both the private and public sectors True democracy extends beyond the ballot box and concerns the power working people have over their everyday lives. A key element of this is the participation of workforces, through trade unions, in decision-making at work.

Ultimately, support needs to be won for mechanisms which allow for trade union representation in all aspects of decision-making in private and public sector industries.

Democracy should be extended into the workplace to empower ordinary people to have a say in the decisions that affect their day to day lives. Such workplace democracy must allow for collective bargaining on: H Wages and pensions H Terms and conditions of employment H Restructuring of work, management and the employing organisation H Major investment decisions Real Power for the People and Communities of Wales 11

The immediate task is to ensure that current employment protection and trade union rights are not further eroded, including facilities for public sector workplace representatives.

For unions to become more effective in the workplace and the wider community, the anti-trade union laws have to be abolished. The National Assembly should take the necessary powers to prevent and penalise gross abuses of working people's rights, and so make the Assembly more relevant to the real needs of working people and their families.

The right to strike needs to be guaranteed, including measures to ensure: H Better protection for striking workers H Simpler and fairer industrial action balloting H Reform of the use of injunctions by employers H The right to take solidarity action H Prevention of the use of replacement labour during strikes H Trade union rights for prison and police officers The National Assembly and Welsh government should use whatever powers it has or can achieve to increase the rights and facilities for workplace trade union representatives, notably those promoting health and safety and lifelong learning. The evidence from other countries is that well-organised and properly resourced trade unionism in the workplace produces not only better terms and conditions for workers, but more harmonious industrial relations when employers are prepared to act fairly and responsibly.

The Equality Act 2010 was introduced to eliminate discrimination and harassment, foster good relation and provide for equal opportunities across a range of groups in our society.

Unsurprisingly, though, in a capitalist society, we see huge inequality in workplaces throughout Wales.

To gain equality at work, it is essential to campaign vigorously against law-breaking employers and to go beyond the scope of the current laws to implement the policies and demands of workers who bare the brunt of discrimination. An example is the Charter for Women, developed by Communists and others in the labour movement and now endorsed by most of the major trade unions.

The people of Wales need a new approach to workers' rights which includes: H The right to strike H Workplace democracy H Equality at work 12 Grym Go Iawn i Bobl a Chymunedau Cymru

4

Real power over public services – making them more directly accountable to the people and their elected representatives at every level Wales should aim to be a beacon for the provision of democratically accountable public services provided by well-trained, motivated and directlyemployed public servants; services that are well resourced, through progressive taxation, and continually improving to better serve the needs of our communities; services free at the point of delivery; and services that are exemplary employers, setting the benchmark for local economies with model employment policies and procedures, good wages, pensions and terms and conditions.

Welsh Communists support the vision of a unified 'Public Service Wales' (PSW) encompassing health, education and local government. Bringing services together provides a holistic approach which ensures close liaison or integration as appropriate, and avoids service users being passed from pillar to post. The new PSW would also simplify employment terms and entitlements. Public sector workers would have expanded career pathways and opportunities, being able to move more freely between services without detriment, facilitated by the equalisation of pay rates, pension provisions and terms and conditions based on best practice. Such a PSW would encourage and reward the public service ethos which places the needs of people and their communities first, thereby ensuring that talent is nurtured and retained in the delivery of our vital services.

This vision would necessitate the reorganisation of local government in Wales, with its top-heavy 22 replicated bureaucracies, realigning its services with those of the rest of the public sector in Wales. The boundaries of the current health boards could form the basis of larger local councils alongside the extension of democracy at a neighbourhood level.

We propose the establishment of community parliaments which cover a locality equivalent to that of the population necessary to elect one local authority councillor. So in a ward with three councillors there would be three community parliaments. Councillors for local authorities would be elected for the specific community parliament area and be subject to recall (to account for their actions) and dismissal if a two-thirds majority of the parliament are so minded. The parliament can then call a local election for that excouncillor's seat. Such local parliaments would be funded through the Welsh government.

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There should be a proper housing programme which encourages social house-building by local authorities, with various types of accommodation being provided to cater for people at all stages of their lives. As well as providing jobs in the construction sector and boosting economic growth, this will bring down waiting lists and tackle the homelessness problem.

Local councils should have greater powers and resources to take over empty commercial property in order to meet local needs.

The policy of privatisation through the wholesale transfer of local authority housing to newly-created housing associations and agencies, together with the sale of existing council houses, should stop. The laws on private renting should be overhauled, the six-month short-hold assured tenancy scrapped and a cap placed on private sector rent levels.

The Social Services (Wales) Bill 2012 presents some significant challenges for progressive campaigners in Wales. On the one hand, the Bill demonstrates the extent to which the Welsh government is prepared to listen to strong lobbying from the voluntary sector. The Bill reflects many of the demands made by Disability Wales in at the last election. On the other hand, there are dangers in some of the legislative proposals.

The key threats are that self-directed care, and in particular 'direct payments', will simply lead to the complete privatisation of the social care sector and usher in the privatisation of aspects of the NHS in Wales through the backdoor.

The Communist Party campaigns for people to have control over their own lives. We recognise that the private sector providers of care exist for the single purpose of making money by exploiting people with care needs. Under the Bill's proposals, public money will increasingly be handed over to profiteers, with care management companies that operate as 'middlemen' taking a cut from already-squeezed health and social services budgets.

Children's social services also need to be protected from the increasing and inefficient use of agency workers and private agency child placements.

The alternative is clear, cheaper and more efficient. The public sector should recover lost ground and re-establish itself as the direct provider of a new type of responsive care services which can meet the diverse needs of people in Wales. This should include responsive services for adults and older people, together with a major shift in funding children's services away from expensive short-term use of private agencies and towards more efficient and long-term investment in direct public sector provision of staffing and child placements. We need dignity, power and independence for users of social care services – 14 Grym Go Iawn i Bobl a Chymunedau Cymru

but without losing valuable taxpayers' money into the coffers of big business care companies.

Communists have long argued, too, that a network of refuges and support services is needed throughout Wales for victims of domestic violence. Such a policy could be administered through a partnership between local authorities and the voluntary sector, with at least some financial and regulatory support from the Welsh government.

These and other services raise the need for local authorities to have more freedom to raise more of their own financial resources. This should include the right to issue a range of bonds in the capital markets, to introduce new bands and rates of council tax (especially for wealthy property owners) and to vary and apply higher rates of business tax on large, profitable enterprises.

An immediate priority is for Welsh workers and their communities to unite to resist the Westminster Tory-LibDem regime's open warfare on the Welfare State. We must win the fight against the brutal attacks on public sector pensions and workers' pay, terms and conditions. The assault on pensions is a central part of the strategy to achieve three key objectives: very large-scale privatisation of public services, including across education and in the NHS; the transfer of large public sector funds into the private insurance and finance industry; and the destruction of the high levels of trade union membership in the public sector.

Welsh Communists call on the Wales TUC to lead such a movement which would also campaign for the policies of the People's Charter and the Alternative Economic Strategy, to be applied as appropriate by Welsh and Westminster governments, including those for a wealth tax on the super-rich and public ownership of the financial sector, the energy utilities and public transport.

The people of Wales need a new approach to public services, including: H The introduction of 'Public Service Wales' H Democratic, responsive and accountable public services H Opposition to profiteering in the public sector, including the reversal of privatisation in the health and prison services H Decent and affordable housing for all H Free and life-long health and social care H Democracy and equality in the workplace Real Power for the People and Communities of Wales 15

5

Real power to access culture, education and information – promoting free education, bilingualism and more diverse and democratic media Access to culture, education and information are not only essential for any modern society; crucially, they are also significant in the ideological battle which faces any movement towards progressive change.

We aim to reduce the control of monopoly capital and imperialist tendencies over the infrastructure of culture, education and information (namely: television, the news media, film, the performance and physical arts and literature (including literary translation); primary, secondary, further, higher and community education; and libraries and access to the internet.

The Communist Party is committed to working towards a position where all Welsh education is freely available to Welsh people.

Education provision (including nursery, primary and secondary schools; Further and Higher Education; libraries; youth, community and specialist education; and Adult Education) needs to be integrated fully into local authority and Welsh government planning to ensure that it is democratically accountable. All statutory education should be secular and entirely in the public sector. Education providers must be accountable to the communities they serve, with additional democratic structures at the community level. In particular, the Higher Education institutions in Wales must become much more orientated towards meeting the economic, social, cultural needs and aspirations of the people of Wales. In addition, the educative process needs to move away from the culture of control based on the interests of big business, which disempowers learners, educators and local democratic accountability.

We acknowledge the recent developments in Welsh language policy encapsulated in The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011. Concurrently, we recognise the need for further lobbying to ensure that, through the Welsh language Commissioner, the right of an individual to use the Welsh language is accepted and respected. We support the lobbying and campaigning of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (the Welsh Language Society) in this field.

We recognise the critical role of the education sector in support of the Welsh language, ensuring that a bilingual education and a genuine language choice is available, by right, to the coming generations of Welsh people. This can only be achieved through developing the language in early years provision and greatly increasing the use of Welsh in the curriculum.

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An independent Welsh media is also a prerequisite for progressive change and yet even our current inadequate media provision is under threat . The Communist Party opposes the decline in the news service provided by the media in Wales at a time when the population needs more information if devolution is to be democratically led. Newspaper owners should not be allowed to kill off titles where alternative ownership could preserve services.

We urge the National Assembly and Welsh government to consider how they might support the development of more extensive, diverse and independent mass media in Wales.

The Welsh-language S4C television channel is set to lose 24 per cent of its budget in real terms over four years. Yet the growth of Welsh-medium education, which is driving up both the number and proportion of Welsh speakers, underlines the need for a well-funded Welsh Broadcasting Authority to provide a full home-made service in both main languages.

To meet people's aspirations further for the Welsh language to flourish, while not discriminating against non-Welsh speakers, local councils and the Welsh government should ensure the availability of free facilities for all adults and children who wish to learn Welsh. A more vigorous approach is also needed to compel large private as well as public sector bodies to feature the Welsh language in their public materials, especially in Welsh-speaking areas.

The people of Wales need a new approach to culture, education and information, including: H A Welsh Language Act that acknowledges that the right of an individual to use the Welsh language as a human right H Public support for the arts and culture H Free education from the cradle to the grave H More diverse, independent and democratic Welsh-based mass media

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The Communist Party and labour movement in Wales The organised labour movement has played a major role in Welsh industrial, social, cultural and political life for more than a century. But its greatest challenges and opportunities still lie ahead.

The National Assembly offers the potential for an alliance between the Labour Party, the Wales TUC and other progressive parties and forces to change the lives of the Welsh people at work and in their communities fundamentally for the better. Within its very limited powers, the Assembly has already implemented progressive policies in education, health, transport, the Welsh language, culture and other fields. Successive Wales TUC congresses have adopted many advanced policies across a wide range of issues, not least on the issue of defending and integrating migrant workers into the trade unions and local communities of Wales.

What is required now is a synthesis. The Assembly needs to be transformed into a powerful parliament which involves and mobilises – and not only represents – the people of Wales. The Wales TUC, Labour Party and other progressive movements need to develop and integrate their policies into an alternative economic and political strategy for Wales – and to fight for such a strategy to be taken up by the Welsh parliament.

Strengthening the Wales TUC will be a vital part of this process. As a first step, it must have more power to decide strategy and policy devolved to it from the British TUC, along with sufficient finances to conduct its democratic, strategic and campaigning business. In pursuit of this approach, the Communist Party will fight to retain and develop the annual congress of the Wales TUC as the annual parliament of working people in Wales.

Public and social services are often best defended by alliances between trades unions, progressive councillors and local people in their communities. Here, local trades union councils can make an invaluable contribution. These are the bodies which can unite trades unionists, organise solidarity and take campaigning initiatives where workers live and work.

They can forge mutually benefical links between local communities and labour movement and progressive bodies. But their effectiveness is conditional upon trade unions ensuring that their branches play an active part in strengthening and, where necessary, rebuilding trades union councils.

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H

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Across the political left in Wales, Morning Star Readers and Supporters Groups can act as a forum for political discussion, as a force for left unity and as vehicles for promoting Morning Star sales and fund-raising initiatives such as collections at trade union meetings. A reinvigorated Wales Morning Star Campaign Committee, based on the labour movement, could play a valuable role in developing broad-based conferences on key issues, including the annual all-Wales event launched in 2009.

The Communist Party and its members will also continue to make a distinctive contribution on many fronts to political, trade union and cultural life in Wales. As the Marxist party of the labour movement, it formulates and projects a strategy for progress in Wales and for socialist revolution. This strategy is based on the following principles: H The people of Wales should fight to maximise the powers and resources devolved to the National Assembly and transform it into a genuine people's parliament.

H The Welsh labour movement must seek and win the leading role in this process, with a stronger Wales TUC at its core and acting as a force for unity across labour, left and progressive parties and movements.

H The left and the labour movement must formulate and project an integrated economic and political strategy for Wales which challenges exploitation and all forms of oppression, rebuilds our industrial base, enhances public services, enriches our culture and expands democracy.

The Communist Party will continue to act as a force for unity and mobilisation across a wide range of popular and democratic movements in Wales. A key priority is winning support throughout Wales for the Peoples' Charter, with its progressive policies that challenge the domination of monopoly capital throughout Britain.

At the same time we will utilise the opportunity provided by elections to project our distinctive principles and strategy among the mass of the people. Wherever possible, elections will be fought in areas where we have engaged in local work and campaigning Real Power for the People and Communities of Wales 19

beforehand, which means planning in advance our non-electoral and electoral activities in an integrated way. The Communist Party's involvement in Welsh, General and European elections will include the possibility of forming alliances with left and progressive forces which broadly share our strategic outlook. We also work to elect progressive Labour and, under certain specific conditions, progressive Plaid Cymru candidates.

The Communist Party recognises the need to win a new generation to the labour movement and to provide leadership in the everyday campaigns of young people eg. against tuition fees, against low pay, for trade union rights. The Communist Party will, therefore, continue to support the building of the Young Communist League in Wales and the establishment of Communist Student Societies.

As Communists, we remain steadfast in our view that communism is the hope of Wales and the world.

That's why we say: Unite the people of Wales for power, social justice and peace

20 Grym Go Iawn i Bobl a Chymunedau Cymru

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