Mr Wigley goes to Riga

Dafydd Wigley, who was recently in Latvia, has produced an article extolling the virtues of EU membership for this small Baltic nation, you can read it here.

Around 35%* of the population of Latvia, Mr Wigley tells us, are ethnic Russians, the consequence of  "attempts by Stalin to erode their national identity by flooding Latvia with Russian immigrants."  I'm not sure if this is completely true. Certainly only around 9% of the pre-war Latvian population were ethnic Russian, rising to 27% by the end of the 1950s; but then 21% of the Welsh population in the 2011 census were born in England and this population movement can't be laid at the door of a Stalin.  The Latvian in-migration was the result of the opening of factories in places such as Daugavpils and the higher standard of living found in the Baltic states.  No doubt Latvian nationalists would,argue that these factories should not have been sited in the republic.  It's also claimed that in the 1980s many released criminals from elsewhere in the Soviet Union found their way to the republic, something which could never happen here in Wales, of course.

Around 12% of the Latvian population, mainly those of Russian descent find themselves in the position of being non-citizens and thus deprived of various rights, including the right to vote.  This non-citizenship can apply not only to those born in the old Soviet Union but also to their children born in Latvia itself.  Citizenship can be obtained by passing examinations in Latvian language and state-approved history. In the days before the BBC went full Russophobe they even highlighted examples of these second class Latvian citizens.

I wonder if anyone in Wales would welcome following the Latvian example - Welsh as the sole official language and voting rights denied to migrants and their offspring unless they learnt Welsh and passed a government approved history test?

While highlighting the benefits of EU membership the subsequent decline in Latvian population is only hinted at by Mr Wigley - a 10% drop in population since joining in 2004.

Mr Wigley was also in the news this week calling for an end to the character assassination of Saunders Lewis. I certainly agree with Mr Wigley on this.  Lewis seemingly foresaw a clash between a Fascist British state and the Welsh working class.  In that event, as the Western Mail reported, he was clearly on the side of the Left: "It is possible that there would be bloodshed in South Wales if there was a Fascist Government. In such a case the Nationalist Party must take sides with the popular masses of Wales against Fascist dictatorship."

In Latvia of course this stand point was obviously put to the test, with hundreds of Latvian nationalists participating in the murder of Jews and others.  Instead of confronting this past the Latvian government seeks to dilute these killings by claiming that Soviet repressions also constituted a genocide, indeed Latvia has passed a law imposing sentences of five years imprisonment for denial of the Communist's "genocide".

Instead of acting as a crossroads between Russia and Europe, Latvia has chosen to be at the frontline of a new Cold War.  Nato mouthpieces continually warn of (wish for?) Russian military intervention in the Baltic states and any unhappiness amongst the Russian speaking minority is blamed on Moscow meddling rather than Riga's own discriminatory policies.

* The 2014 census says 26% are ethnic Russians

Remembrance Day

Every now and then I look at this page. It contains details of the YPJ fighters killed during the last year or so combating the British elite's favourite cult. Sadly, the list grows longer week by week.  Every year our own  remembrance day seems to get more pervasive and even bigoted.   Meanwhile the women of the YPJ really are fighting for liberty and freedom - something that wasn't true for most of Britain's wars.

I do hope that the Syrian Kurds resist American pressure to launch an attack on the ISIS capital of Raqqa.  The sensible move would be to link up the cantons of Rojava and Afrin which would cut off the Islamist supply lines from their Turkish allies.  Raqqa is overwhelmingly Sunni and Arab, so Kurdish involvement wouldn't be welcomed - it's not as if the Americans have even seen fit to supply the Syrian Kurds with decent weaponry over the last year.  There is a largely non-Islamist Sunni Arab force which could eventually take Raqqa, Assad's Syrian Army - of course that wouldn't fit in with Western plans at all.

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Ever heard of Kate Evans?  In 1921 she was imprisoned for seven years for her part in smuggling explosives from the South Wales coalfield to Ireland.  A member of the Dowlais Irish community her Breconshire born husband David Humphrey Evans received a similar sentence.  I believe they were quietly released after the signing of the Anglo-Irish treaty, what became of them in later years?

This also led me to looking into the names of members of Cumann na mBan killed during the Easter rising of 1916.  According to Wikipedia "A number of Cumann na mBan members died in the Rising" and this gets repeated word for word elsewhere on the net.  In fact there is a properly researched list of all those killed in the Rising which can be found here.  Although a good number of civilian women were killed during the crossfire, there appear to be no women listed amongst the republican dead.  If anyone knows any different please comment below.