TERRY BREVERTON'S INTRODUCTION AT LAUNCH OF JOHN HUMPHRIES BOOK: FREEDOM FIGHTERS - Wales's Forgotten 'War' 1963 - 1993. A BASIS FOR MANIFESTO OF MAC III - POLITICAL (See Previous Post).

WalesOnline - News - Wales News - John Humphries' account of ...

www.walesonline.co.uk/.../john-humphries-account-of-violent-welsh-nationalism-in-the-20th-century-91466-22542306/

26 Dec 2008 ... Freedom Fighters: Wales's Forgotten 'War' 1963-1993 is published by the University of Wales Press, £19.99. John Humphries is a former editor ...

The Idea for a MAC III was first raised in this book though I prefer to change the name to the Movement Against Colonialism, just to make matters very clear as to there being major differences between MAC I, II and the MAC III I am discussing now as a Radical Nationalist Political - Extra Parliamentary Protest Campaigning Movement. Although, I am not so cowardly as to divorce myself from the fighting past of MAC I and II as some moderate and Cultural Nationalists are. Thus read on and consider and hopefully make it a subject of Discussion and Debate at the Coffad Glyndwr Memorial at Y Plas, Machynlleth SOAP BOX - WELSH NATION rolling event througght afternoon on Saturday 18 Mehefin 2011. Or privately if wished in a room booked at Y Plas maybe, talk a vote on it at Coffad Glyndwr about 12: noon following the Embassy Glyndwr Coron Procession from War Memorial to Y Plas which goes on to Canolfan Glyndwr.

SOAP BOX - WELSH NATION

 - 27 May

walesspeaks.blogspot.com/

10 Jun 2011 ... ANYWAY MORE FOR PATRIOTS TO CHEW FOR A FULL SOAP BOX WELSH NATION D&D AROUND THE COFFAD GLYNDWR MEMORIAL STONE IN MACHYNLLETH NEXT WEEKEND? ...

The Introduction by Terry Breverton.

Many thanks for coming, and taking part in the competition of ‘spot the mole’. You identify the special branch operative present and you get a free book. Only one clue – it’s not me or either John (or Owain).

I’m proud to be asked to introduce John because we go back some way. And the interesting thing is that he is black and amber – Newport – and I am blue and black – Cardiff. And the really interesting thing is that not only do we get on, but Blues and Dragons supporters get on these days – we prefer each other to the Jacks and the Turks. So get worried, Special Branch – the Silures are reforming.

And that brings me on to history – it’s written by the wrong people – the conquerors write history which is then passed down as pure fact - and accepted by academics who regurgitate what they have been taught – no one in England or indeed Italy knows that the Silures defeated a Roman Legion. And hardly anyone in Wales knows because their history has never been properly written – going on real facts.

From school, I believed like everyone else that history in Britain started with the Romans and then the Anglo-Saxons and Normans – the British were ignored – the Age of the Saints in Wales when it was the Dark Ages across Europe, the fact that the Romans came to Britain for Welsh silver, lead and especially gold and copper – the biggest sources in Europe. That’s why 2 or 3 legions stationed in Britain were on our border, the other looking after Scotland and England and based in York. My hypothesis – no - it’s a fact overlooked by academic historians…

Most discoveries in all fields come from people untrained in that field – Einstein and Bertrand Russell were useless at maths. John and I are untrained in history, so we see it through an untaught perspective – we look at facts. Now, whereas my background is management consultancy – I find things out and move on, John has a background in reporting, spectacularly suited for rewriting history – for that is what John does. His reporting training not only makes him a great detective, but he has to get his facts absolutely nailed before he goes to press. He finds a story and worries it to death, never relying on hearsay or anything written down. For his previous two books he’s travelled through deserts in Australia and America and Mexico to research them.

To quickly refresh you – The Man from the Alamo’ has changed the perception of the greatest democratic movement Britain has seen. He has changed Chartist history through new and fastidious research. There are professors who have spent all their working lives fiddling with Chartist history and producing nothing new. John’s book was a revelation about the leaders, especially John Rees, Jack the Fifer – who fought at the Alamo and was almost definitely the man who led the march down Stow Hill and fired the first shot. Why did he find this out? Because of the leaders sentenced to hanging, drawing and quartering (the sentence was commuted to transportation to Australia), one escaped and vanished from history. John chose this man, along with the barely known Zephaniah Williams, to concentrate on. Both had been ignored by historians – so they were fertile territory for investigation.

And for his next book, he discovered a man, Carel ap Rhys Pryce, again almost unknown, who was one of Hollywood’s first stars and fought for his country all over the world for decades – South Africa, Palestine, Europe. Where there was a war – there was Carel ap Rhys Pryce – called Gringo Revolutionary because he was involved as a leader in the Mexican Wars of Independence.

Wonderful stuff. His 3^rd book deals with another area unknown to historians and ignored by everyone, especially politicians. I don’t intend to talk about the book – as John and John will do that – but my feelings should be shared on this.

The Romans were the first to strip our minerals, and all our coal, slate and iron have been ripped out over the centuries – it has been a curse being blessed with minerals. And even now the granite is being quarried out of mountains - and the sands taken from the Severn despoiling our beaches – forever – it cannot be replaced within 50,000 years.

Valleys all over Wales have been drowned via compulsory purchase before the Trywerin and Clywedog affairs - so now we pay more for our water than out English neighbours. The firing ranges in Pembroke, Epynt and elsewhere were also taken by the military. Forestry Commission has taken our mountains and covered another 5% of Wales with Sitka spruce, blowing up Celtic stones on their way. So we’ve had the land, valleys, hills, and beaches despoiled –overground, underground, underwater – the only thing we have left is the air – and now Wales has proportionally 10 times more wind turbines than England. More are on the way – in our most beautiful areas –

They would not – could not - put them in the Lake District, the Cotswolds or in the Chilterns. But tourism is the only viable industry we have left in Wales. We have no jobs. We are not only a tiny, tiny country – but the poorest part of Britain - we cannot take any more despoliation to wreck our only surviving industry. Now what the people John writes about in his book were doing – was not trying to hold back progress – but to hold onto Wales as an independent nation. A nation with rights to choose the state of its rivers, valleys, beaches and hills, not be treated as a cash cow - and then a waste receptacle. Since the time of John Jenkins and Owain Williams the position has got far worse – never mind about Grand Slams and feelgood factors – Wales is dying economically and culturally – one third of the population was not born here – we have the highest density of incomers probably in the world, even worse that the forced plantations of Chinese Han in Tibet. The language is not thriving despite what the quangos say.

Wales is struggling and failing to survive – people like John Jenkins, Owain Williams and the other men in this book saw it long before the rest of us. Hopefully they are the fore-runners of more generations who will care passionately for Wales – and this book will make Welsh people reflect upon how the nation has been and is being treated. We need to be stronger – firmer – and they are qualities that you cannot ascribe to our elected representatives. We need as a people to think more about the future of the nation if we keep on drifting and letting ourselves be … hurt.

There’s a Monty Python line – What have the Romans ever done for us – and I’d like to ask similarly ‘What have the English ever done for us?’ The answer is not nothing. But it’s not positive either. It is negative – it is not just about destroying our history, it is about traducing our character and constantly treating us as their great historian AJP Taylor called ‘one of the lesser breeds’. John Humphries shares these feelings – which is why he has been able to gain the confidence of the men involved in this untold story of resistance to an overpowering force.

So a book like this has never been written. And it needed to be written. And it could not have been written by any other author than John Humphries. John does not regurgitate what he was taught – his is a far more interesting vocation - he writes historical facts and makes history real, and all true Welsh people owe him a great debt for doing so.

Terry Breverton.

                                               Gethin's Concluding Comment:

Now say I, lets establish MAC III - MOVEMENT AGAINST COLONIALISM and hence lets advance to defend our country and liberate our land from Oppression and Tyrrany, Explotiation and Expropriation. It is time we had another Welsh Up Rising as Adfywiad Gwladgarol Cymru 1963 - 69, so whilst Plant Crachach are still stuck in their 'Telly Tubby' S4C La La Land and Plaid Cymru dithers in more hoped for Devolution Dilettancy with the Labour Party, time for all  dedicated and sincere Patriots to become radical 'Alternative Nationalists' and begin the struggle asap. Possibly in Machynlleth on the 18 Mehefin 2011 as we celebrate also that day:

Welsh Remembrancer.: GWYL FAWR OWAIN IV MACHYNLLETH 18 - 06 - 2011 ...

welshremembrancer.blogspot.com/.../gwyl-fawr-owain-iv-machynlleth-2011.html

13 Jun 2011 ... Below are previous OGC posts which informs on the Gwyl Coroni OwainGlyndwr, Machynlleth Commemoration Developents in recent years. ...

Then Action Speaks Louder Than Words:

CAMPAIGNS CYMRU: 21 MEHEFIN 1404 DYDD y SENEDD: GWYL CORONIOWAIN ...

ymgyrch.blogspot.com/.../21-mehefin-1404-dydd-y-senedd-gwyl.html

11 Jun 2011 ... Owain Glyndwr Communicates.: GŴYL CORONI OWAIN GLYNDŴR MACHYNLLETH ... owain-glyndwr-embassyllysgenhadaeth.blogspot.com/. ...

To conclude with some Iconic Inspiration.

Gethin Ap Gruffydd

wn.com/Gethin_ap_Gruffydd

Clews, Roy To Dream of Freedom. The Story of MAC and the Free Wales Army, Y Lolfa, 1980.Humphries, John Freedom Fighters. Wales's Forgotten 'War' ...

GWERIN OWAIN - OWAIN'S FOLK.

gwerinowain.blogspot.com/

1 Jun 2011 ... Following they the 'Barefoot Welsh Doggis'- Glyndwr's Peasant Army who the Wars end with their families became 'Y Gwerin Owain'. ...

PITCHFORK and PIKE

 - 2 Jun

hanescymrugoch.blogspot.com/

6 Jun 2011 ... PITCHFORK and PIKE. An Alternative To Cofiwn's Focus on Medieval Welsh History, this blog is in area of an HANES CYMRU GOCH - A RED WALES .


The First Step Toward Struggle is learning how to create and use Adfywiad Art as Agit - Prop Action, so learn and learn fast as Satuday is less than three days away. Dozens, for now of Posters and Placards required: 

ADFYWIAD AGIT - PROP ART by Gethin ap Gruffydd: June 2011

adfywiadart.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html

6 Jun 2011 ... ADFYWIAD AGIT - PROP ART by Gethin ap Gruffydd. Adfywiad Agit - PropArt - Political Patriotic illustrations For Blog Work and Campaign ...