MerthyrRising

The Reformist Road to Twyn y Waun 30 May 1831.
The Radical Road to Hirwaun Common 31st May 1831.
 
There are two traditional views of the Merthyr Rising of 1831. They are not necessarily totally separate views re the history and conditions that caused this workers' revolt to break out into an armed uprising.

Suffice to say for a very simple overview just read the account headed Merthyr Rising p396 of the Oxford Companion to the Literature of Wales, Ed Meic Stephens. Oxford University Press. You will of course not leave it at that but go on to books that will deal with the subject in greater depth, some of which I will mention below. What I wish to focus on is those two separate views, which point out the two separate paths that converged on Merthyr 1831 and at the end of May beginning of June causing this most major of Welsh insurrections since the time of Owain Glyndwr.
 
It's generally accepted that the Merthyr Rising of 1831 was in many ways part of the general British struggle for political reform, which would be the basis of a later much stronger Chartist Movement and also part of the struggle to establish Trade Unionism. There is another aspect of the Revolt that may be seen to have more national Welsh connotations’ and that is in the more radical nature the Merthyr Rising took as a particularly Welsh insurrection.

This is the view presented by Welsh Republicans such as historian Ivor Wilks and more romantically by Harri Webb. This is presented in the ‘natural justice’ protest on Hirwaun common, such radicalism prior and since is seen as representing a long history of Welsh radicalism. (also see writings on this by professor Gwyn Alf Williams).
 
Merthyr Tudful had been in discontent for a long time, particularly since the depression of 1829 with subsequent reform agitation following, not least in the early months of 1831.  Merthyr Tudful was in a ferment of discontent and disturbance culminating in a great Reform Rally at Twyn y Waun on 30 May 1831.

This reform rally was a political affair led by dissident radicals such as Cyfartha coal miner Thomas Llywelyn and issues raised at this rally were reformist and relating to trade union rights under banners which declared ‘Reform in Parliament' but also ‘God Save William IV’.

It seems the following day 31 May 1831, Thomas Llywelyn attempted to hold another reform rally at Hirwaun Common. Here however ‘Reformism’ met with the more militant men of Hirwaun who seemed more hell bent on radical measures. Their purpose was to put right more immediate wrongs and had more to do with a long tradition of struggle for ‘natural justice’.

Thus Thomas Llywelyn led his trade unionists off on a march to Aberdare to seek workers' justice in term of labour rights; improved conditions and wages. Back on Hirwaun Common other more militant matters were being considered, which would come to an head.
         
I do not want to dwell much more on repeating the history of the Merthyr Rising as there are a number of books you should read on the subject which will more than inform you of the history but also the differing views as to its nature, form & purpose.

Suffice for me to conclude that after the Reformists had left Hirwaun Common, the radicals killed a calf and dipped in its blood the white cloth of a reform flag, which they raised on a pole as possibly the first ever Red Flag of Popular Rebellion along with another banner that stated ‘Bara neu Waed’ (Bread or Blood).

There can be no doubt that the following seven days in June changed Welsh history immensely and of course in these terms the commemoration of 1831–2006 should be not only an entertaining experience but also be most informative & educational purpose to remind us who we are and where we come from.

The Merthyr Rising 1831   Time line of key events             

1st June - Workers march on Merthyr
 
2nd June - The town is seized by workers, the Riot Act is read and troops sent for
 
3rd June - “The Battle of Castle Inn” (see Dic Penderyn below). 26 “rioters” killed
 
4th June - Troops arrive from Brecon but one column is ambushed and disarmed by workers
 
5th June - Gwent workers rise and march to support Merthyr workers
 
6th June - Great workers' gathering at Twyn y Waun, troops arrive and level guns
 
7th June - Troops regain control of Merthyr, mass arrests and imprisonment follow
 
 
Epilogue: During the days that followed the troops searched particularly for those seen as leaders of the revolt, many were arrested and imprisoned amongst them Dic Penderyn and shortly after Lewis Lewis was captured.

All were put on trial, found guilty and sentence to death or transportation to Australia. Some question the mysterious way Lewis Lewis was reprieved but not Dic Penderyn. Dic Penderyn was executed on 13 August 1831, thus was created a “Welsh Working Class Martyr” long remembered as a popular  "Hero of Welsh History", whilst Lewsyn yr Heliwr - no doubt instigator and leader of the revolt - has been largely forgotten.

Whilst it remained politically or culturally correct to remember Dic Penderyn as a martyr, later "respectable" Victorian Wales chose to forget the Merthyr Rising 1831. So too Welsh Labour – Unionist Tradition, which came to remember more about the Tolpuddle martyrs & English Labour history rather than their own Welsh labour history. Ironically the resurrection and restoration of this radical History was left to be more popularised by a Welsh Republican Movement 1946 – 56 via the writings of socialist republican historian Ivor Wilks and socialist republican bard Harri Webb. (2006 also marks the 60th anniversary of founding the Welsh Republican Movement).
 
Historical Note: Twyn y waun had been the location of the Waun fair since the Middle Ages and possibly further back it may have been a traditional ancient gathering point for people. During the 16th Century Waun Fair was recorded in official records as being associated with outlaws & thieves particularly horse stealers & cattle rustlers who brought their four-legged stolen goods to dispose of at Waun fair. So well known was this that even suppliers of the English army came to Waun fair to buy cattle on the cheap and of course make huge profits.
 
Reading Matter for you yourselves to determine much.
         
Introduction: Read up on following subjects matter  (Full details & literature via web search)
                                                                                                          
·        Any material on the making of modern Wales post-Act of Union 1536.
·        18th Century Welsh Cultural Renaissance, Religious Revival & Political dissent.
·        18th Century popular protest, disturbances & discontent, focus 1798 – 1831.
·        The Merthyr Rising 1831
·        Post-1831 Scotch Cattle & the Newport Insurrection 1839.
·        The 1839 Rebecca Rebellion of the western counties.
·        1848 - the Year of European Revolutions and in Wales the Blue Books.
·        1848-1880s Rise of Liberal Wales to Cymru Rydd & beyond.
·        Rise of Labour Party & trade unionism in Wales.
·        Welsh Nationalism inc anything on republicanism.
 
For the chief reading material regards much of above & Merthyr 1831 plus it’s aftermath to 1831 & beyond you may focus on three particular historians:
 
· D. J. V. Jones: Before Rebecca Popular Protest in Wales 1793 – 1835.
 
· David Smith: For traditional “Unionist British Labour history’’.
 
· Gwyn A. Williams: For a communist and republican viewpoint.
 
· Ivor Wilks: Protagonist of a “Welsh Republican” view.
 
Further to above there are a great number of other books & essays in a number of journals, as ‘Llafur’ all of which may be searched out via the web & bibliographies. Further, two essays that touch on the above, are available on request via email only; they are:
 
· Aftermath. A radical interpretation of Welsh History from conclusion of Glyndwr war to the Merthyr Rising of 1831.
 
· Dic Penderyn. An interpretation of the Welsh Martyr Complex & why”.
 
Obtainable from gethingruffydd@ntlworld.com
 
Merthyr Rising 1831 Commemoration - Cardiff
 
Dic Penderyn was executed 13 Awst 1831: Outside the market on St Mary Street, Cardiff near the spot where he was executed, you will find a plaque in commemoration of his execution. To the last he protested his innocence, and his final words in Welsh were an anguished cry at injustice. "O Arglwydd, dyma gamwedd" "O Lord what an iniquity" he shouted, as the hangman's noose was tightened. Dic Penderyn’s coffin was then carried by cart to Port Talbot, where he was buried in cemetery of St Mary’s Church.
 
                                          

Some notes towards a Welsh red history...

Trech Gwlad Nag Arglwydd

Popular Protest in Cymru begins with the 16th century land wars in Wales, a much hidden & secret history in which the descendants of Glyndwr's great general Rhys Gethin with their thuggish retainers burnt the Tai unnos (one-night houses - shanty towns like the barrios of today's Third World) of the peasantry occupying the common land in Dolbadarn.
The irony being of course that it was quite possible that those peasants were the descendents of Owain Glyndwr's "Barefoot Welsh Doggis" who had provided the largely "peasant army" led by Rhys Gethin. Class came before nationality for the ruling class. However, when the Anglo-Welsh Gentry tried to drive the peasants from their land in Cwmwd Caio  they were to rise up and call out "Trech Gwlad Nag Arglwydd" a cry for justice that as echoed down the ages as also a rallying call raised again at Merthyr 1831 & Newport 1839 for action against oppression & exploitation.
 
The Rural Revolt That Failed (ISBN 0-7083-1024-9 )
Farm Workers' Trade Unions in Wales, 1889 - 1950
David A. Pretty
Like their counterparts in the south Wales coalfield and slate quarries of Gwynedd, the farm workers were also ready to stand up for their rights when the occasion demanded. They too have a history of labour disputes and strikes. History books have concentrated on the more familiar topics, particularly the Rebecca Riots and the Tithe War. Until now little attention has been paid to the grievances and struggles of the agricultural working class. This book traces the roots of their discontent, and for the first time concentrates on the efforts made by local labour leaders to organise the men into farm workers' unions. This scholarly and serious study, based on meticulous and scrupulous research will make an enormous impact on the study of Welsh social history. It rejects utterly the conventional view and offers a radically new interpretation of Welsh rural life.
`...as an anthem to the neglected pioneers of the rural labour movement his book deserves a warm welcome.' (Times Higher Education Supplement)
`...this is a book which should alter prevailing perceptions of the pattern of rural discontent and trade unionism over the last hundred years.' (Albion)  
Price:   £35.00 
 
              EDUCATE TO BE FREE,
    Agitate & Organise For Struggle.
 

Some background reading for the Merthyr Rising:

· D. J. V. Jones: Before Rebecca Popular Protest in Wales 1793 – 1835.
· David Smith: For traditional “Unionist British Labour history’’.
· Gwyn A. Williams: Protagonist of a Welsh marxist tradition.
· Ivor Wilkes: Protagonist of a Welsh socialist republican view.

Further to above there are a great number of other books & essays in a number of journals, as ‘Llafur’ all of which may be searched out via the web & bibliographies.

Also last but not least all the books by Alexander Cordell regards these epic years in the history of Wales, they are fictional works but not with out much ground breaking research that gives them a clear ring of authenticity with a terrifically readable creative flow that grips the reader in the authors inspired imagination. These works are:

Further reading material from Blorenge Books (01873 856114)

'The Fire People' by Alexander Cordell can be obtained @ £6.99 plus £2p&p.

Priority Reading: Alexander Cordell's Story of the Merthyr Rising.

Also available are:
'Rape of the Fair Country' (£5.99).
'Hosts of Rebecca' (£5.99).
'Song of the Earth' (£5.99).
'This Proud and Savage Land' (£6.99).

CORDELL COUNTRY: In 2006 will be musically interpreted by folk-blues band Dawson Smith and the Exiles

Dawson Smith, inspired by the characters and stories in the books Of Alexander Cordell. The books (and the songs) are written in English. The language of the Valleys is English due to oppression and circumstance. History touches us all. I first discovered the ‘Welsh’ novels of Alexander Cordell by reading ‘Rape Of The Fair Country’ in the early 1990s. I have since read all of his books set in South Wales and visited many of the important sites that are so vividly described in his novels. I was born and grew up near these important sites, no one ever bothered to teach us or even inform us of our heritage. My school (Nantyglo Comp) was built on the site of the Crawshaw Ironworks, which is featured in Rape Of The Fair Country. On my first album ‘Valley Boy’, there are two songs inspired by stories from Rape Of The Fair Country and Hosts Of Rebecca. These songs were highlighted in several folk magazines.
This led to me being contacted by ‘The Cordell Country’ tourism project (as I had credited the books and Cordell on the album sleeve). The Cordell Country Project is a series of heritage trails around the towns and historical sites that are featured in the books. I thought this was a wonderful idea and got to meet the Local Authorities and people involved, this led to the idea of me writing a collection of folk songs based on the books.
‘The Cordell Collection’ I have spent the last year or so writing these songs and I am pleased to say the writing is now completed. The plan is to record these songs with musicians and singers from around the South Wales Valleys in early 2006. In the meantime I will be doing acoustic performances of the songs with ‘The Exiles’ at the following places.

Required - a Riotous Rabble.

2006 will mark the 175th anniversary of the Merthyr Rising 1831 and will be marked by a number of commemorative events & activities particularly during May & June 2006 at Hirwaun & Merthyr and later during August in Caerdydd & Port Talbot. We are seeking people who might be interested in attending these events & participating in some ‘Living History Initiative Interpretations’.

Further details: Sian Ifan. 01792 416828 or 07952 523508.


For more details of the Merthyr Rising festival contact:

Merthyr Rising, 26 Andrews Close, Heolgerrig, Merthyr Tudful.
Email: va1935@yahoo.co.uk for more information

A weekend of events to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the 1831 Merthyr Rising next June is being organised by socialists, republicans and others to celebrate the raising of the red flag as a symbol of Welsh workers' revolt for the first time.

The Merthyr Rising 06 festival will take place from Friday, 2 June, to Sunday, 4 June at venues to be confirmed in the Merthyr area.

If you're in a band or a stand-up comic, we want to hear from you for one of the many socials we're arranging.

If you're a poet, we're organising a Red Poets gig - get in touch.

If you want tickets for the 1st Gwyn Alf Williams memorial lecture, get in touch.

There will be more details to come about the weekend of events, which will include talks, music, poetry, films, debate, visual art, theatre and a historical tour of the area. To join our mailing list, contact the address below.

If you'd like to sponsor or support the event, get in touch.

Contact va1935@yahoo.co.uk for more information

Martyrs and Militants (Dic Penderyn in his proper context)


An exploration of Welsh history
by GG

I am writing this with regards to the recent report in the Western Mail about a film being made about Welsh working-class “Braveheart” Dic Penderyn. The film's producer/director Peter Edwards caused some controversy in stating that in his view Dic Penderyn should not be portrayed as a martyr and victim but more the “revolutionary militant”. Such a film is long overdue.

I agree with statement made by Peter Edwards as the Welsh having this “victim culture” mindset with all its “martyrdom pretensions”, a good example of how this mindset further works is in the way that contemporary Welsh Historiography, this largely “underdog” and “tame Taff” view, is portrayed. As an example from our contemporary times, I would draw attention to the following as comparison.

We are, these days, encouraged to ‘Cofio Dic Penderyn’ and the Merthyr Rising of 1831, but what of Lewis Lewis who planned and led the Rising at Merthyr. Then there is Edward Morgan and the Scotch Cattle Insurrection - particularly of the 1830s period? Why are we educated to ignore Lewis Lewis and forget Edward Morgan and his execution? Was it perhaps because Edward Morgan was known to be an actual leader of the Scotch Cattle and because the ‘Scotch Cattle’ was one of the oldest guerilla movements in existence and quite successful in its workers' revolutionary organisation. The ‘Scotch Cattle’ of course, had their roots in the “Pobl Ceffyl Pren” protests of the 18th century - coming to head in the “Food Riots” of the French Revolutionary war period - as the 18th century closed and opened on the 19th century and a century of insurrection.

It is thought that the ‘Scotch Cattle’ came into existence in the strikes of 1822 but they are chiefly known for their activities in Gwent of 1835. To my mind there is some greater connection between 1831 – 1835 – 1839 than altogether appreciated. It is then thought the ‘Scotch Cattle’ came to a violent conclusion in the strike around Aberdare in 1850. Of course, the fact that Edward Morgan was a revolutionary workers' leader and that the Scotch Cattle were an armed workers' movement - who engaged in a form of popular guerrilla war against the English crown - is the reason that we have had forced upon us an ‘Welsh Establishment Amnesia’ on this subject and interesting little-known chapter in Welsh History.

In other words, Lewis Lewis and Edward Morgan are too dangerous examples as compared to the “meek and mild” Dic Penderyn we’ve inherited.

As someone who can proudly state that I with a few others were laying wreaths on Dic’s grave long before he had become fashionable and rediscovered by the “British Left” of Wales, I find it somewhat irksome now to read the recent condemnations of comments on Dic as a hero rather than a victim. We should not surrender a more radical appraisal! I think you will find that the consolidation of this “martyrdom” view of Dic is further advanced by the memorial recently proposed to be set up at Port Talbot, that depicts a “safe and sanitised” Dic holding a dove and not a pike or gun!

This “martyrdom view” of Welsh history is by no means an accident but rather a long history in itself that stems back to the time of the Scots Stuarts replacing the Tudor Welsh, this gave rise to what I can only call WASPism = “Welsh Anglo Saxon Protestantism” - which began to really tie the knots of the rising Welsh Bourgeoisie to the English Crown and British Imperialism. However, a much worse disaster was to follow which produced, in the Welsh, a most hideous anti-Catholicism against the Irish for much of the 19th century - also making us hostile to the democratic nation-creating concepts of France and Italy.

This “martyrdom view” of Welsh history also serves a greater purpose, it became the tool and device whereby the rising Welsh Bourgeoisie, particularly of the Victorian period politically strove to show not only their loyalty to Crown and Empire - but also attempted to prove Welsh racial and religious superiority over the poor Irish and, at least, level peg with the Scots and in equal partnership with the English in empire building. In our own times it is very interesting to note the martyr machine still at work. Many recent published books on contemporary Welsh history are totally censoring and sanitising – indeed “Stalinizing” the 60s and the unique “insurrection” of MAC and FWA but thrust to fore in importance is the martyrdom of CYIG and language activists with all its pacifist connections.

2006 marks the 50th anniversary of founding of the first Welsh Republican Movement, whose members were linked to first bomb attack by political activists since the “bombing incidents" at Aberdare in 1850. A number of Welsh Republicans were arrested and at least one imprisoned where he came to meet contemporary Irish and other anti colonial rebels and revolutionaries. I mention this because I speculate a tradition of Welsh Insurrection with in mind, the latter years link between these 1950s Welsh Republicans and the rise of a militant alternative Radical Welsh Nationalism in the 1960s and the earlier links between the workers' risings of 1831 and 1839 and even the great Southern workers insurrection of 1910 –1911. Of course these years are best remembered for the 1910 “Tonypandy Riots” and the 1911 Investiture.

Perhaps the Welsh tradition of insurrection is not so visible, or tangible, in form but more so, in handed down traditions of a “hidden history” of maybe a “revolutionary folk tradition”, I find it very interesting that Rebeccites could remember “the knight of the long knives” and that Chartists remembered Glyndwr whilst their respectable Victorian Middle Classes still adhered to the Tudor scheme of things in which Glyndwr was still the “Papist Madman”.

Many of the 60s militants came from the Valleys. Some had family members involved in the great strikes of 1926 and 1935 - and having spoken to these people appreciate that they would not want to have their militant radical traditions be seen as one of a “victim culture” of self-imposed Welsh martyrdom - possibly best iconised by the death of Prince Llywelyn at Cilmeri in 1282, certainly an image and identity preferred by Bourgeoisie Welsh Cultural Nationalism from Victorian times to our own times.

I strongly suggest all read the book on the Newport Rising 1839 by 1950s Welsh Republican Ivor Wilks with whom I agree that this period was greatly critical to later Welsh history and which bedevils Welsh politics and society down to the present in matters of Devolution and Language issues etc. For let us firmly keep in mind that it was following the Merthyr Rising that the English state, in collaboration with the respectable Welsh-speaking Victorian Welsh middle classes, came to view Cymraeg as both dangerous and inhibiting to their industrious progress.

Further, as the opportunity of 1797 was lost by the Welsh to produce a ‘United Welshman movement’ so too was the case with Merthyr 1831 and Newport 1839. The events of that decade sees the largely Welsh-speaking middle classes taking sides with English Imperialist capitalism against a largely Welsh-speaking working class, best seen in the fact that Thomas Phillips the lord mayor of Newport, who ordered the troops to fire on the workers, was himself a big supporter of Lady Llanover’s Cultural Nationalism. This road eventually leads to ‘Tonypandy of 1910’ where respectable Welsh-speaking bosses, chapel and shopocracy jail the workers - many of them still Welsh speaking.

When the smoke from the guns had cleared, Wales had changed utterly forever.