Although it’s a little bit late – by around three or four months – 2021 marks the fifth anniversary of the official launch of the current incarnation of YesCymru.
This piece was going to be written anyway, but it’s come at a time of public disagreements over the direction of the pro-independence group. That may be inflamed by a mix of people pursuing their own agendas, disappointment that the promised push for independence at the 2021 Senedd election didn’t materialise, a lack of transparency on YesCymru’s part and some pretty aggressive to-and-fro on social media by everyone.
The pandemic has made things more difficult than they otherwise would have been and put everyone on edge, so I’m reluctant to say the organisation is at a turning point even if some of the more recent developments have been concerning.
There are things they’ve done right and things they’ve done wrong – like any body its size. It’s just a case of maintaining and building upon progress where it’s been made and learning from mistakes.
(Update: 10/07/2021) Since posting this, Siôn Jobbins has announced his resignation as Chair of YesCymru.
While he quite clearly states this wasn’t for any political reasons, purely personal, it raises yet more concerns about how the organisation is being run. The sensible move would be to call an EGM and hold the necessary elections as soon as possible. This is beginning to spin out of control given that yet another senior founding member of YesCymru has left.
As for Siôn, I don’t think we could’ve asked for a better person to get the movement this far. It takes the sort of character a lot of people lack to admit the job has gotten too big to handle, but YesCymru would never have gotten to where it is now without him.
I hope this is temporary and he can remain active in the independence movement, but myself and every single independence supporter are in his debt. Diolch o galon, Siôn.
(Update: 13/08/2021) Only a month after the last update, today it’s reported the entire Central Committee has stood down after a series of resignations and suspensions over the last few weeks. An interim team has been put in place ahead of an EGM in the autumn.
While I don’t believe they’ve managed the situation to this point particularly well (and made that clear in the piece itself), I have a lot of sympathy with the (now former) Central Committee members for the abuse they’ve received which got very nasty very quickly. It was clear that (the former Chair) Sarah Rees and others were trying to get a hold on things and get the right processes in place but that wasn’t enough for some people. I said we had to be patient and give them a chance, but that didn’t happen.
Hopefully, this finally draws a line under the months-long infighting, but mass resignations like this are hardly a good look.
Staying out of party politics
Any campaign for independence is going to be inherently political, but not tying themselves to the fortunes of one political party (namely Plaid Cymru) is probably the best decision YesCymru has ever made. If they had, the independence movement would’ve died in May.
Support for Welsh independence does seem to be genuinely cross-party, even if it’s mainly restricted to Plaid Cymru and Labour supporters. If YesCymru ever becomes a Plaid Cymru ginger group, it alienates anyone who has an issue with Plaid. If it leans too close to Labour, it alienates the nationalist grassroots who got YesCymru to where they are now.
The first major hurdle in a democratic independence campaign – which Scotland has overcome – is having a pro-independence government in place. That government could realistically only be led by Plaid, but they’re nowhere near where they need to be to deliver that for a whole host of reasons and need the time and space to figure out solutions for themselves (and they will eventually).
That doesn’t mean YesCymru is incompatible with party politics or that YesCymru members shouldn’t run for office or help out in party or issue-based campaigns as individuals. They just have to maintain that balance and it’s perhaps becoming a bit trickier the larger they get and the more fractious its internal politics becomes – less of an umbrella; more like two, three or more factions struggling for influence.
The local groups and guerrilla marketing
While there’s a need for some form of coordination from the centre, YesCymru’s biggest organisational strength is the local groups. They’ve been an experiment in anarchism to an extent having been granted a great deal of autonomy – which has probably had more positive outcomes than negatives.
They’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting in getting the message out to people beyond the internet (both before the pandemic and more recently) – the most visible examples of that being the stickers and banners on bridges. It’s evolved more recently to include billboards – which is a bit more professional.
It’s great how something so basic and simple annoys all the right people. For every sticker taken down or defaced, three more go up. It makes YesCymru look like a peaceful rebellion of sorts – a little bit underground or counter-cultural – that’s being silenced by an Anglo-Welsh establishment as well as the far-right. The more you say people can’t do something, the more likely they are to try and do it or find out more.
Membership growth (2020 to early 2021)
There’s a debate to be had as to whether the (fairly extraordinary) growth during 2020 has come about because of external events, not necessarily anything YesCymru had done themselves – but I don’t think they’ll care.
The UK Government has certainly been the gift that keeps on giving, but YesCymru’s social media game towards the end of 2020 and early 2021 was largely on the money with only one big slip up (that “YEEEES” video). Ifan Morgan Jones examined this in more detail.
The grassroots members – and the grassroots members alone – give the organisation serious clout in terms of strength of numbers and finances. This has resulted in some positive initiatives like some of the vox-pop style videos and the nationally distributed newspaper. While the actual case for independence still needs to be developed and rounded a bit more, YesCymru has at least gone some way to ensure it’s accessible and the local groups accommodate the Welsh inclination towards putting their “milltir sgwar” first (critics would say parochialism).
The AUOB Cymru marches
It’s easy to underestimate just how important the AUOB marches were (and will be in the future). At the first march in Cardiff, I doubt I was the only person worried nobody would turn up and thought a few hundred would be a good turnout. It was great to be wrong. Those numbers which exceeded all expectations were beaten again in Caernarfon (where you might expect it to happen anyway) and Merthyr and I’m sure there would have been a big turnout in Wrexham and Swansea too.
The marches were entirely peaceful, uplifting and relentlessly positive. Everyone was heading in the same direction and after decades in which supporting Welsh independence would have often felt like a very lonely place to be, you were made aware in the best possible way that you’re not alone at all.
We really were all under one banner and the only thing that’s threatened that sense of unity is a virus, standard Welsh committee shenanigans and social media.
