The Fascist Party in Wales?

Richard Wyn Jones

Description

For decades, otherwise highly respected figures in Welsh life have repeatedly claimed that Welsh nationalists sympathised with Fascism during the dark days of the 1930s and the Second World War. In this path-breaking book, Wales's leading political commentator assesses the truth of these charges. In addition to shedding new light on the attitudes of Plaid Cymru and its leadership during the period in question, this book offers an insightful and challenging interpretation of the nature Welsh political culture.
Introduction The Accusations Recognising Fascists and Fascism Defining Fascism The state The glorification of violence The glorification of leaders and leadership Anti-semitism Wales during a decade of war Welsh Political Culture Conclusion: Redemption and Exclusion Bibliography Index

Sujets

• Political Parties
• Political Process
• Political Science
• 20th century
• Wales

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 15 mai 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783160570
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

T HE F ASCIST P ARTYIN W ALES ?

The Fascist Party in Wales?

Plaid Cymru, Welsh Nationalism and the Accusation of Fascism

Richard Wyn Jones

Translation by Richard Wyn Jones and Dafydd Jones

University of Wales Press Cardiff 2014

© Richard Wyn Jones, 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material

form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic

means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of

this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner

except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN e-ISBN

978-1-7831-6056-3

978-1-7831-6057-0

The right of Richard Wyn Jones to be identified as author of this work has

been asserted in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright,

Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This book was first published in Welsh in 2013 by the University of Wales

Press as ‘Y Blaid Ffasgaidd yng Nghymru’: Plaid Cymru a’r Cyhuddiad o

Ffasgaeth(ISBN 978-0-7083-2650-3; e-ISBN 978-0-7083-2656-5), in the

series Safbwyntiau: Gwleidyddiaeth Diwylliant Cymdeithas.

The University of Wales Press acknowledges the financial support of the

Welsh Books Council.

Typeset in Wales by Eira Fenn Gaunt, Cardiff.

Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire

i Eli Stamnes, un a wyddai o’r cychwyn cyntaf mai pobl ryfedd ar y naw ydym ni’r Cymry. . .

4 Wales During a Decade of War

Notes Bibliography Index

ix xiii

2 Recognising Fascists and Fascism

C ONTENTS

3

2

3

1

6

4

6 Conclusion: Redemption and Exclusion

1

9

77 99 107

1

7

5 Welsh Political Culture

3 Defining Fascism  The state  The glorification of violence  The glorification of leaders and leadership  Anti-Semitism

1 The Accusations

Preface Introduction

1

Preface

To celebrate the signing of the now infamous Munich Agreement on 30 September 1938, the then Lord Mayor of Cardiff, Alderman O. Cuthbert Purnell, ordered that the flags of the four states repre- sented at the negotiations in the Bavarian capital be flown above City Hall. So it was that the flags of the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany were raised over the city. A Czechoslovak flag could not be located or it, too, would apparently have been flown alongside them to celebrate that country’s forced dismemberment in the cause of ‘peace in our time’. The provocation of seeing the swastika – since September 1935, also the German national flag – fly above the city proved too much for two outraged Labour members of the council, Alderman C. H. McCale and Councillor John Hegin- bottom, who duly hauled it down. At a subsequent, heated meeting of the council, their actions were vigorously defended by a number of their party colleagues. One of these, A. J. Williams, protested that it would ‘surely have been better to raise the Russian flag, because 1 they were the only people who had done the honourable thing’. That sentiment would doubtless have been seconded by Communist miners’ leader Arthur Horner, who had seen the swastika on his return to Wales from the besieged Republican citadel of Barcelona, then under heavy air bombardment from Franco’s forces, with Condor Legion aircraft in the van. Horner told theWestern Mailthat ‘To see the Nazi flag flying above the City-hall [sic] of the so-called 2 capital of Wales is, I feel, a disgrace to the whole Welsh community’. Others took a very different view of the actions of Messrs McCale and Heginbottom. Speaking at a dinner engagement, the Lord