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The following is a transcript of a talk I gave at The Laugharne Weekend:I’ve managed to steer clear of politics for more than 30 years. A year spent as the president of the student’s union at Hornsey College of Art in the mid-seventies was enough to put me off participation in politics for the rest of my life. The conflicting ideologies of the Trotskyist Revolutionary Socialist League - later known as the Militant Tendency, and the Broad Left - an anti-Trotskyist alliance of just about everybody else of a red-hued persuasion including a group calling itself ‘Operation Icepick’, destroyed my independent socialist ideals as completely as the Spanish Civil War did for those of George Orwell.My personal war of conscience was also fought in a far off country, on the streets of East...

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’s MP Ann Clwyd ponders being “the only woman from Wales here for 14 years” at the House of Commons this week. Her contributions came in a debate on International Women’s Day at the House of Commons on Thursday, 6 March 2008. Speaking in the House, Ann Clwyd MP says : “I am pleased to see all the women in the House, because I know from personal experience how difficult it has been for women to be elected. I was the only woman from Wales here for 14 years, so like my right hon. and learned Friend the Minister, I am pleased to see more women in the House. It was a long fight; there had been only three women MPs from Wales before I was elected in 1984, two of whom were daughters of famous men. One was Lloyd George’s daughter, and the other was the...

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...

For the benefit of the Welsh Diaspora who may not know it, elections to the Welsh Assembly take place tomorrow. All the indicators suggest that the vast majority of the Welsh electorate will deliver an unequivocal vote of no confidence in the Assembly by not voting.Whoever claims victory tomorrow night will be a liar. This will not be a victory; it will be a disaster for democracy. The politicians will choose to represent it as mere voter apathy; under Labour, their argument goes, the economy is booming, obviously. People who have never had it so good feel little compulsion to vote because they’re content.I maintain that the reality is rather different. Some people may indeed have more money in their Gucci handbags but even they know that something is very wrong with our society and its...

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...

The Walk Against the Wind Farm was the front page story in Aberdare’s local newspaper last week. Several hundred people met at Dare Valley Country Park for a ‘ramble in the rain’. They braved the wettest and windiest weekends of the New Year for their walk. The message was a clear “NO” to the Welsh Assembly Government plans to see wind turbines erected in their community. There is a very edgy Head Saleswoman for Cynon Valley’s first Wind Farm. That saleswoman is the local Labour Assembly Member Christine Chapman. In an unusually verbose letter printed in the Cynon Valley Leader, January 4 2007, the Labour AM attempts to belittle those who oppose the wind farm : “some people’s views are strong and emotive” and “I am very...