Communist University of Wales 2025

With the 2026 Senedd elections on the horizon, we are witnessing truly seismic changes in the Welsh political landscape. For the last 100 years Wales has effectively been a single party state under Labour, and now this same Labour is seemingly on the brink of electoral collapse. This is accompanied by the rapid rise of the far-right in Reform UK, neck and neck with Plaid Cymru in the polls. This coincides with a crisis of legitimacy for the Senedd with some voices openly discussing the possibility of abolishing it wholesale.

These three parties are each in a (very broad) sense representative of a possible answer to the National Question in Wales

1. A Wales with devolved powers within a federal Britain 
2. An independent Wales 
3. A Wales stripped of all decision making powers ruled directly from Westminster 

While the third is entirely undesirable by any progressive forces in Wales, the current political climate demands a serious consideration of first two.

The official position of the Communist Party has always been for the unity of the nations of Britain against a united British bourgeoisie. This position is encapsulated in the policy of Progressive Federalism. Despite initial success in persuading elements of the labour movement in Wales to adopt this position it has never achieved widespread adoption. Combined with the triangulation of Labour policy to the right and Plaid to the left, support for independence is climbing among the left.

For these reasons the Welsh Communist Party feels that the time has come to reanalyse the national question in Wales, to ask what future there is for progressive federalism, and what would independence truly mean for the working people of Wales.

A slogan often heard within pro independence circles is “an independent Wales within the EU”, and we can take Ireland as an example of what it means to be a smaller state alongside the power of Britain and inside the EU. While Plaid Cymru does not officially advocate for NATO membership, again Ireland stands as an example of a small nation that is officially neutral but surrounded by NATO powers and is an integral component of the NATO war machine due to its strategic location.

Finally we return to the rise of the far right in Wales. Without a rigorous and scientific class based analysis of the national question we risk allowing it to be hijacked by the far right; it is not a stretch to imagine an independent Wales argument degenerating into something like “Wales for the Welsh”. This is typified by the recent flag flying exercise taking place across England and bleeding into Wales. There are indeed already some fringe right wing pro independence groups making precisely this argument. It is vital to keep the menace of right wing racism in the front of our minds when tackling this question in the current climate.

For all of these reasons the Welsh Communist Party is invited progressive forces from across Wales to Pontypridd to discuss this issue and ask:

“What future for Wales?”