Author: Gareth Leaman

The British-nationalist Right’s use of digital platforms is already well documented, but perhaps relatively under-examined is the extent to which that other transgressive tendency in Welsh politics – the liberal-left independence movement – is beholden to the structures of online organising.

Solidarity to all those currently receiving targeted abuse and harassment from far-right ghouls, simply for attempting to forward the idea that a Welsh independence movement should necessarily be grounded in egalitarian principles.

Following years of overeager pundits predicting that this Senedd election would signal an epochal political rupture, perhaps the most notable aspect of last week’s trip to the polls is that ultimately, hardly anything changed.

As expected, rather than producing conditions conducive to an immediate political rupture, the coronavirus crisis has instead presented the Tory Westminster government with an opportunity to convert their unwarranted triumphalism and jingoistic hubris into a brutal reconsolidation of power.

Any worthwhile political project today must contend with the irreversible destruction that the inexorable expansion of capital has wrought on our planet. Unwittingly or not, this is the discursive milieu into which #futuregen inserts itself, with Jane Davidson’s memoir-cum-manifesto passionately positing itself as testament to Wales’ contribution to the mitigation of global ecological collapse. In…

After suffering helplessly under a Tory austerity that the people of Wales have never consented to, a true popular front is emerging in which most liberal-left activists, organisations and campaign groups appear willing to countenance the efficacy of ‘IndyWales’ as a vehicle for progressive political change.

As the Tories try to push ahead with Brexit in the midst of a pandemic with their Internal Market Bill, they have launched an assault on devolution as a means of getting what they want from a future trade deal.

Despite protestations to the contrary, the structural imbalance of the Welsh public sphere can easily lead to situations where even a simple misunderstanding can reinforce some of the worst tropes latent in our collective culture.

Given that the climate catastrophe will soon necessarily envelope all political movements, such is its scale, it is worth us considering how adept our ‘national movement’ will be at answering the questions that this crisis will ask of us.

Despite an apparent need for profound change to the way we live in order to overcome this extreme threat to society, any sense of proto-revolutionary fervour at the onset of the covid crisis soon dissipated.