A Public Meeting will be held in Aberdare on Thursday 9th October 2008, at the Sobells Sports Centre.
At the Meeting Rhondda Cynon Taf Councillors will decide on the new Gloucesters & Ironworks site planning application.
All Welcome.
A Planning Application has been re-submitted to the local Council. The plans are for 130 houses to be built on the Hirwaun Gloucesters and old Ironworks site. This area is much valued and used by the community as an area for recreation and leisure and home to an abundance of wildlife and flora.
Councillors voted to refuse planning permission in July 2008.
Local Council Planning Officers are trying to persuade Councillors to change their minds and approve this application, despite overwhelming objections from residents over the last 3 years.
The...
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It is with considerable sadness we announce that Huw Lewis AM has joined the Mumbo Jumbo Cult.
On 3rd July 2008, he announced on his blog that he has “joined the revolution”. This is a common phrase chanted by new Cult Members as they ritually affirm that they belong to their new ‘family’.
The Mumbo Jumbo Cult has swept through the Welsh political landscape claiming many other Assembly Member casualties.
Symptoms of Cult Membership include excessive references to brand names and imagery in a not-very-subtle attempt to recruit more people to the Mumbo Jumbo ’cause’.
Huw Lewis History
On July 18th 2007, Huw Lewis was sacked as Deputy Minister for Transport and the Economy. Two months later he published his Winning for Wales pamphlet on the future...
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Adam Price, Plaid Cymru’s election campaign co-ordinator, sent a mailshot to Plaid Cymru supporters two months ago asking “Are you on Facebook?”. Fortunately, we are not. Here’s why …
Facebook is an American corporation. It exists to make a pile of money. That is the purpose of a corporation. It makes money by providing what is dubbed a ’social networking service’ and saturating users of such a service with advertising.
Nowadays, Welsh politicians of all parties bandy corporate brand names as if they held talismanic political properties. It is an absurd and exploitative relationship.
Why would we surrender our privacy to a commercial proxy to become “involved” with Plaid (or any other Party) ? That is not a means to engage in...
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Despite a clear message from the public that advertising junk food to children is not acceptable, last month the Food Products (Marketing to Children) Bill had its progress through Parliament blocked by opposing MPs.
It’s rare for a Private Members Bill to succeed, and despite an overwhelming response from campaign supporters, the Bill was talked out by MPs who oppose regulations on advertising, and ran out of time on 25th April. MP Philip Davis, who worked for Asda before entering Parliament, was still speaking when the session came to an end.
Nigel Griffiths, the MP who introduced the Bill, said “I’m absolutely furious a former supermarket executive from Asda, who doesn’t believe in advertising controls, has done this.”
The lobbying from campaign supporters...
Join the demonstration against the proposed military academy in South Wales.
Saturday 26 April, Assemble 1.30 pm, Cathays Park (opp. City Hall & National Museum)
The Military Academy is funded by defence multi-nationals like Raytheon, the manufacturer of cluster-bombs, £14 billion is being spent on this huge complex when we need hospitals & schools.
Needless to say the multinationals will be making a large profit on the scheme. It is also the biggest PFI (Private Finance Initiative) in history, and probably the biggest ever award of taxpayers money to Wales:
Why is there always a blank cheque for war, but no blank cheque for vital public services?
Called by the Stop the St Athan’s Military Academy Campaign and supported by UK Stop the War Coalition, CND Cymru, Cynefinywerin...
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In the brand-satured world we live in, corporations do their utmost to protect their brand name and logo. Shell - the Royal-Dutch Shell Group - are experiencing some difficulties protecting their logo at Trenant, near Hirwaun.
The Shell fuel station closed in January 2006, and the site has remained a rusting industrial eye-sore ever since. Soon after the business closed, they covered their signage and large logo with a white plastic sheeting to hide the ownership of the site.
Eventually this blew away. It was replaced by bright blue plastic material in February 2008. This looked like a cheap blue plastic bag one might use at nearby Rheola Market! This too blew away within a few weeks.
The fuel station is situated at the junction of Trenant and the ever-busy A4059 Aberdare to Hirwaun...
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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 :......
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Trinity Mirror - the media Corporation which owns the Cynon Valley Leader - has announced Financial Results for the year ending 30 December 2007 painting a bleak picture for the group’s advertising revenue in 2008. The news portends massive changes in the operations of local newspapers such as Cynon Valley Leader, based in Commercial Street, Aberdare.
Chief Executive Sly Bailey was keen to emphasise the progress the group is making in ‘going digital’.
In 2003, when Sly Bailey became Chief Executive of Trinity Mirror, digital revenues represented less than half a per cent of the group’s total revenue. Today, digital revenues account for 3.7 per cent of the group’s total revenues.
Trinity Mirror said in its financial results statement that “going...
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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...
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WORLD AGAINST WAR
Cardiff Peace Conference
Monday 3 March at 7.30 pm
Law Building
Cardiff University
Park Place
Hosted by CARDIFF STOP THE WAR COALITION
WITH SPEAKERS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE INCLUDING:
HASSAN JUMAA, Leader of the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (Iraq)
ROSE GENTLE, Military Families against the War (Scotland)
IBRAHIM MOUSAWI, Editor of Al-Intiqad, Hezbollah Newspaper (Lebanon)
ANNE GREAGSBY, Co-ordinator, No2MilitaryAcademy Campaign (Wales)
PROFESSOR JUSTIN LEWIS, Head of Cardiff School of Journalism (Wales)
Chaired by LEANNE WOOD AM
FREE ENTRY! ALL WELCOME!
Artwork by Carlos Latuff...
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Wandering around Abercynon a year ago we were struck by a small post office in Glancynon Terrace. The street scene we stumbled upon seemed like a typical scene from the post-modern South Wales Valleys. The terraced houses knitted together tightly with so very few shops… a newsagents on the corner, a chinese take-away, and - thank the heavens! - a friendly post office.
Now fast forward a year to the news announcing the list of Post Offices that the powers-that-be would like to close in Glamorgan and the Valleys. On that list is poor old Glancynon Post Office, in the village of Abercynon, Rhondda Cynon Taf. It’s almost like putting the heart of the village on Death Row for the Post Office is at the heart of the village.
There are a few weeks of “public...
Come and hear the powerful stories of the Iraqi oil workers and trade unions resisting the military and economic occupation of their homeland . . .
Tuesday 2 October at 7 pm
WALLACE LECTURE THEATRE
Main Building
Cardiff University
Park Place (opp. Student Union Building)
Speakers-
EWA JASIEWICZ
UK rep for the Basra Oil Workers Union & founder member of NAFTANA, an organisation that builds solidarity with Iraqi workers.
+ Speaker from the Stop the War Coalition
About the Ewa Jasiewicz:
In 2004, Ewa Jasiewicz visited Iraq to build links between the anti-war movement and Iraqi trade unions resisting both occupation and the corporate take-over of their counrty. She became the UK rep for the Basra Oil Workers Union, a militant...
It’s a shame to see a small town bookshop close.
The Neath Bookshop in Neath town centre is currently holding a closing down sale.
50% off everything.
Amongst all the usual suspects, there were a couple of Rachel Tresize’s books for sale.
We opted for Cyril Treharne’s ‘Around God’s Acre (in South Western Wales)’ (Llanrwst, Gwasg Carreg Gwalch 2006 - ISBN 1-84527-087-8) : “This book takes us on a journey around some of the most interesting churches and churchyards in Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Gower.”
Priceless.
Well worth three pounds fifty.
Nowadays the small independent bookseller faces being crushed between the mighty monopolistic supermarkets and their heavy discounting and fending off global giants like Amazon who...
It has been another lawless weekend in ‘Wild West’ Aberdare Town.
Monday is the day that traders pick up the pieces after the weekend’s orgy of violence and vandalism.
This weekend, the windows of the Burtons menswear shop on Canon Street were kicked-in.
The windows of the Carousel Amusements on Commercial Street were kicked-in.
And the Barnado’s Charity Shop selling books on Commercial Street did not escape having windows kicked-in.
Both streets are covered by CCTV cameras which - allegedly! - provide more effective policing.
All the vacant shops in Aberdare are a reminder of just how difficult a battle traders face today.
It’s such a pity to see the broken windows in Aberdare week after week.
Who cares ?
Perhaps one day they will close all the shops,...
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The BBC demonstrates how to milk a news story to death by running the Hindu cow story again today.
The bullock in question has tested positive for TB.
Perhaps BBC Wales will bring their brassy reporters and cameras in a few months time and televise bullocks coughing-up blood should TB take hold in the area.
Photo : Screenshot of the BBC Wales online news website today. The BBC has devoted endless hours of coverage to this story during the past few weeks… all very generously funded by you, the TV license-paying public!
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Support your Local Shops in Hirwaun… or they will disappear.
corporations, friends of the earth, hirwaun, local, shops, supermarkets,...
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Caught in the act of tearing up the Welsh countryside! Here is a photo of National Grid’s gas pipeline near Llanigon, north of Brecon.
The photograph was taken in mid June 2007. It is an ugly site to behold. The gas pipeline is a giant industrial phallus imposed on Wales by planners in London. A few corporations will benefit from this project. It will do little good to resolve the peak oil crisis we face in the next few years.
But do we not accept all the noise and the pollution ? Do we not rejoice at the smell and smoke that remind us of our industrial might ?
Ralph Borsodi’s book This Ugly Civilization (1929) reminds us of how man accepts the ugliness of his own creation :
THIS is an ugly civilization. It is a civilization of noise, smoke, smells, and...
A montage of photos taken today in Commercial Street and Canon Street.
It is a depressing vision.
In parts it looks like a wasteland.
These streets are in the choicest retail district of Cynon Valley.
All the shops in the postcard have closed.
How can small shops compete against giant-sized corporations that encircle Aberdare like jungle beasts, pawing away at the easy prey in the centre ?
How long before some megalomaniac supermarket opens a ‘convenience store’ within Aberdare Town itself, to kill off even more of the retail landscape ?
Giant corporations - principally supermarkets - destroy choice and diversity in Aberdare. And in villages across the Valley, they destroy all forms of retail life. It is a ’scorched earth’ policy.
If you can buy a loaf of bread...
Iraq For Sale Film
Thursday 15 February at 8 pm.
Chapter Arts Centre, Market Rd., Canton
Tickets available from Chapter box office.
Organised in association with Oyster Clothing.
The film will be introduced by poet, Robert Minhinnick, who will also show a short film about his recent visit to Iraq.
*
Corporate Watch UK research and report on the corporate carve-up of Iraq.
Ann Clwyd, cardiff city hall, Chapter Arts Centre, corporations, iraq,...
The BBC continues to subsidise the Labour Party’s Welsh Assembly Election campaign by flogging the Rhondda AM Leighton Andrews’ Burberry story.
Last weekend, the BBC Online website’s section for Wales ran the Burberry ‘news story’ as leading story from Friday 26th January until Sunday 28th January 2007.
This weekend, they’re back on the ball and Leighton Andrews’ Burberry story re-emerges into the limelight at the Wales section of the BBC Online news website. This weekend it is a “discussion”.
Dear Old Aunty wants to know “Is fashion chain Burberry right to close its Rhondda factory?”
We want to know, “Is the BBC right to subsidise the Labour Party’s re-election campaign?”
Discuss.
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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...
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Like a bitch on heat the BBC in Wales wants a fling… with independence.
BBC Wales political editor Betsan Powys is not alone singing the praise of the indy thing.
In Wrexham there are BBC personnel working on a project to establish an independent media centre for Wales. The independent media centre aims to be a part of the world-wide Indymedia network.
Local Assembly Member John Marek’s party – Forward Wales – is also involved in the project, along with the Wrexham Peace and Justice group, anarchists, socialists, pacifists, and many other “ists” … including our very own endangered species the Welsh journalist.
On the eve of the Welsh Assembly election the people of Wales have no independent media network to articulate their political aspirations. The old...
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When Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio told lies his nose would grow longer and redder.
“How do you know I am lying?”
“Lies, my boy, are known in a moment. There are two kinds of lies, lies with short legs and lies with long noses. Yours, just now, happen to have long noses.”
Pinocchio, not knowing where to hide his shame, tried to escape from the room, but his nose had become so long that he could not get it out of the door.
When employees at the Cynon Valley Leader tell lies something grows for them too. Their pay checks.
Reading the Cynon Valley Liar one would be forgiven for thinking that the Welsh Assembly Government or indeed the Westminster Government had no responsibility whatsoever for the downturn in the economy and increasing costs faced by small...
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Heed the whispered warnings of ghosts, listen to their advice and co-operate with them. They tell us about the past and foretell our future.
In the photograph there is a misty view across the Cynon Valley, from Cwmbach looking down the hill near St Margaret’s Church, towards Aberaman and Aberdare. The photographer has failed to capture a ghost, so instead offers to sketch some notes.
In Cwmbach the first Co-Operative Society in Wales was formed in 1860. On this little Welsh hill there was a magnificent Co-Operative store that lay at the heart of a vibrant Welsh community ‘growing-up’ in the era of industrialisation.
Borrow a Welsh Mam today
Find a Welsh Mam and ask her about the local Co-Op from fifty years. Beg or borrow a Welsh Mam if necessary. Cwmbach Co-Op...
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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...
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Newspapers love to play games with a pliant readership.
The most common game played is Hide the News Story.
Take a recent example …
Did you catch the news story there ?
Page 26 of the Cynon Valley Leader, November 16 2006.
Had it been pushed just a little further back it would have ended up in the darts or football results section of the newspaper. But that might have drawn attention to the story.
About the size of two or three postage stamps.
No ? Then try this …
Titled “Tesco expansion plan”.
Is this a continuation of the Tesco application proposed last year ?
Or is this a new planning application ?
If the latter, why no mention of the previous application ?
Why no context ?
Context such as the controversy that surrounded the initial land sale to Tesco in the...
Firefighters attended a fire at Aberdare Tesco in Depot Road, Gadlys on Saturday 18th November at 19.28. The fire involved a large amount of toilet rolls on an artic trailer.
These were severely damaged by fire, and fire fighters from Aberdare fire station used two jets and two hose reel jets to extinguish the blaze.
Local people claim two people were arrested on suspicion of arson though South Wales Police have not confirmed these details....
Imagine Cynon Valley as an orange being squeezed …
The latest pips to squeak are from Abernant
Residents in Abernant are infuriated by a proposal to build on the local village green.
People from across Cynon Valley can sympathise with their plight because building overdevelopment is a key feature of the Cynon Valley economy today. It is spurred on by a planning system which favours the developer-capitalists and the mammoth planning bureaucracy of the local County Borough Council who have a vested interest in continued overdevelopment.
Individuals and communities who dare to argue “no, enough is enough… where is this development leading?” are simply trodden on like unwelcome cockroaches in their own communities.
Yesteryear we might have argued the case...
Another child maimed at ASDA Aberdare… how long before some one is killed there ?
The South Wales Fire Service reported : “Fire crews were called to Asda to extricate a three year old male child from an escalator rail. Firefighters used small cutting gear and the child was treated on the scene by paramedics for a wrist injury before being taken to hospital by ambulance. Firefighters from Merthyr and Aberdare Fire Stations attended this incident.”
This is the SECOND INCIDENT involving a CHILD at ASDA Aberdare in the last few months.
Both incidents involved the escalator installed to reach the new ‘mezzanine’ floor at ASDA Aberdare.
When ASDA originally built the Aberdare store (near Cwmbach) they built it so that internal floor expansion was possible. By...
