Welsh Blogs.com

Some time ago we discussed the importance of co-operation as the basis for a fair society. We used the example of a local village shop because the first Welsh co-operative store was established near Aberdare by working people. Today we experienced something of an epiphanic moment reading the views of Paul A. Baran in his essay entitled “Better Smaller But Better”. It was published in Monthly Review in July 1950, originally under the pen-name Historicus. Baran discusses ‘Co-Operation on the Left’ in a post-war American society where capitalism seemed unassailable and omnipotent. He discusses the methods used to preserve and strengthen capitalism in America as it was then, 1950. Here’s how Baran puts it, any emphasis in the text is ours … “The...

Ann Clwyd - Aberdare’s MP - drew attention to the plight of starving people in Zimbabwe yesterday in a debate in the House of Commons. She contributed a persuasive anecdote concerning her recent trip to South Africa… While I was in South Africa a few weeks ago, Zimbabwean refugees handed me a note for 10 million Zimbabwean dollars. That buys a bag of tomatoes in Zimbabwe. Now Mugabe is prepared to starve his people to death for their votes. What kind of human being is President Mugabe ? - Source Hansard, via TheyWorkForYou. Click the link to read Mrs Clwyd’s full contribution to the Parliamentary debate. * For regular updates on Ann Clwyd MP’s debate contributions, sign-up to the free Hear From your MP......

Jack Frost visited the Valleys recently and left some grand displays of frosty art on the Cwmdare hillsides! The following photos were snapped in Cwmdare. In the first photo, the Tonglwydfawr Inn. The latter two landscape photos were taken from the northern end of Dare Valley Country Park. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version… Postscript : How do you put a price tag on a landscape or a Welsh hillside ? In the eyes of bourgeois industrial capitalism, this Welsh hillside in Cwmdare represents a resource to be exploited. The coal was mined from this area over a period of around one hundred years, exploiting thousands of workers during that period. Now that the coal has gone, the capitalist class see the potential of exploiting the landscape to harness...

This week George Bush and other Western war-mongers celebrate the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq. War is good news for the corporations which the war-mongers represent. War is profitable and militarism plays a key role in the capitalist system. Wars are fought for class interests. The Iraq was is no exception. Writing fifty-two years ago in their book Monopoly Capital, American economists Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy characterize the impact militarism has on society and the function of militarism in capitalist society :......

Aberdare Blog started as an experiment in communicating views of Aberdare and views from Aberdare. It remains an experiment in communication open to participation. Jane from Mountain Ash blogged the lead story on the Mountain Ash Opencast plans this week. Why not blog your own story from Aberdare today ? Here is a list of the Top 100 tags used to describe posts on Aberdare Blog… if we haven’t blogged on a subject close to your heart, you can fix that yourself. If you prefer to blog a story with photos or video, that’ll do nicely thank you, send them today. abercynon aberdare Aberdare Town aberdare_park Ann Clwyd Baptists bbc bbc_wales Books Caerphilly capitalism cardiff Ceredigion Chapels charity christine_chapman christmas christmas_2005 Church coal comedy...

Now that Tower Colliery has finally closed, the new language that has been incubating there during the past thirteen or so years finally emerges. Tyrone O’Sullivan and Tower Colliery shareholders now speak the language of business development and exploitation, the language of managers of men and land, of balance sheets, profit and bottom lines. Over the past year or so, stories have been drip-fed via the corporate press about possible developments at the Tower site after its closure, including entrepreneurial-sounding visions for a waste processing plant, a housing and retail development, a museum and a range of other schemes. There has been much talk about creating “sustainable jobs” at the former Colliery site, but one is skeptical of this type of lofty talk. The...

Glynhafod School lies at the foot of a mountain. It was closed last year. The Local Authority, Rhondda Cynon Taff Council, claimed there were too many spare places. They gave the usual marketing mumbo-jumbo excuses about “rationalising”. It was reported in the Cynon Valley Leader that the property was sold in an auction in London. The buyer was one Ian Roberts, a local man who is manager of Cwmaman Institute. There is a brief ‘walk-around’ video clip on Glynhafod School on Youtube. The development at Glynhafod is reminiscent of what happened to the site of the old Aberdare Boys’ School : an old school site was sold off in a questionable manner by Rhondda Cynon Taff Council only to be developed for...

Rhondda’s dynamic duo Chris Bryant MP and Leighton Andrews AM attempt to bully Burberry at a press conference held at the Welsh Assembly this week. They are photographed looking steely faced and determined whilst holding a Burberry poster alongside their own “Made in China” poster. They aim below the belt, jabbing Burberry hardest where it hurts : the Burberry brand name. Leighton Andrews is a skilled campaign manager. His indelible signature is visible on Burberry news stories that have reverberated around Wales and beyond for months. The campaign drum-beat grows louder. His former employer the BBC fawn and wag their tail at his every move in the Burberry campaign. It is a modern wonder of Wales to see this one-man political campaign feeding journalists from the palm of...

Work continues this week around the clock tower at the site of the old Aberdare Boys’ School. According to Colin Rees, the clock tower dates back to 1901, it was built five years after the school was built. The efforts to preserve parts of the school site by former pupils was laudable, but it seemed almost inevitable that they would fail as it would be going against the grain of how things work. Nothing is sacred or too special in a capitalist society. Marx puts it eloquently in Communist Manifesto thus : Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social relations, everlasting uncertainty and agitation, distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier times. All fixed, fast-frozen relationships, with their train of venerable ideas and opinions are...

Nearly fifty years ago John Kenneth Galbraith published his book The Affluent Society (1958) about the haves and have-nots of modern capitalist society. The postcard on the left with images from Cwmbach is a reminder of the differences between the haves and have-nots. Affluent Society was a book about contrasts in the economy. In Aberdare, the gulf between rich and poor has been transformed into a grotesque chasm in the past three decades of hyper-capitalism under Thatcher, and then her ideological heir, Tony Blair. . Galbraith wrote his most famous book using the title “Why the Poor are Poor” but later changed it at his wife’s suggestion. He was an economist from the American University of Harvard and his book gives a solid critique on the tendency of modern...

I was reading ‘Little Chicken’s’ post on Find a place in the party. And not for the first time, she has inspired me to post. I post on here and I post a fair bit. But I do, however, hold back on the more political postings. Mainly due to the fact that I know that people who are, lets say, much more politically mature than I am. I’m not calling anyone old but mature, been involved a lot longer than me. Sometimes, I fear to post because I don’t know what I’m talking about. Sometimes I will read up and then post, hoping for a comment. I understand that as soon as I open my mouth with an opinion there is always someone who disagrees with you. But, there is having a different opinion and not having all the facts. This was the main reason I join, Labour, Amicus...