Other Documents

This is Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s sixth manifesto, the document we have published every decade to outline our vision as a movement. It was developed over a period of months in discussion with our members, and it became clear that it would need to respond to the climate crisis and its relationship to the Welsh language.

This document therefore outlines Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s analysis of the current situation for the Welsh language and our communities, as well as our political philosophy of cymdeithasiaeth and how it applies to Wales today. Then, it proposes ideas to ensure a Wales that is sustainable in every sense of the word, and how empowering our communities — one of the main principles of cymdeithasiaeth — means strengthening our language and protecting our environment too.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this manifesto’s development, and to all our work over the years. Cymdeithas yr Iaith is a community of people, and we are completely reliant on the skills, ideas and dedication of our members to achieve everything we do.

We were inspired by reading Cymdeithas yr Iaith’s previous manifestos which formed the basis for a radical vision over the decades, and so much action which has achieved great steps forward for our cause. Our wish is that the reader will discover in these pages too ideas that will inspire discussion, action, and possibly, hope.

There are great challenges ahead of us, but we have responded to great challenges before. So let us respond once more, with the imagination and co-operation that has always characterised our movement and our little country; to create, implement and realise a vision of another Wales, a better Wales.

A free Wales, a green Wales, a Welsh-speaking Wales.

Download A free Wales, a green Wales, a Welsh-speaking Wales

Five years have now passed since Cymdeithas yr Iaith published its vision statement ‘One Million Welsh Speakers’ and three years have gone by since the government announced its strategy for meeting that target.

Cymdeithas’s vision of a million speakers published in 2015 contained three objectives, asking the political parties to commit to the following:
1. Increase the number of Welsh speakers to one million
2. Stem out-migration and sustain communities while ensuring pathways to bring Welsh speakers back to their communities
3. Use the Welsh language in all walks of life to ensure it is the natural language from cradle to grave.

Since devolution, a number of language strategies have been adopted by successive governments, each of them laudable enough, only to be subsequently forgotten. On the whole, the story of these policies and strategies has been one of failure. This can be attributed to a combination of factors, including the rampant neo-liberalism that is almost unquestioningly accepted in our public discourse. Another factor has been the treatment of the Welsh language as an exception to the mainstream of administration and public life in Wales; as a peripheral, merely symbolic language to be treated tokenistically. One need look no further than the deliberations in our own Senedd to see, and clearly hear, that our public life is conducted almost entirely in English. This is a Senedd where some can be heard claiming that Welsh is not an inclusive language, and indeed that it excludes people. Without a doubt, now is the time to challenge this dangerous
misapprehension, and we must do so urgently.

Over the past few months, Cymdeithas yr Iaith has consulted with people from all parts of Wales to gather their opinions on the state of the language, and the language strategies of the government and public authorities. Many of those we consulted over the past few months
expressed a desire for the next government to focus on achieving one million Welsh speakers: an aim that has gained consensus across political parties and civic society.

After three years of pursuing this target as a nation, the consensus is that the actions of the current national government and other authorities are insufficient to make it a reality. There is therefore a danger that we repeat the story of previous language strategies: promising much, but failing to deliver, despite strong public support.

This document is an attempt to analyse and build on the consensus, highlighting opportunities to proceed further and faster by deepening and expanding the original vision.

Looking ahead, Cymdeithas is fully confident, if the next government is willing to follow the right steps, that the target of one million speakers will be achieved, by 2050 at the latest. 

As we are confident that the next government can take the appropriate steps to achieve a million speakers, we believe the government should introduce a vision of ‘more than a million speakers’ in order to normalise the Welsh language as the language of our nation in all aspects of life.

‘More than a million’ as a vision does not refer primarily to increasing the target of the number of speakers (though there will be a need to focus on that as well) but rather to deepening the agenda by concentrating on everyday use of the language in our communities, workplaces and public services, and extending Welsh to all, and not just the lucky few. In our engagement process, many people have referred to the barriers that some groups face in gaining access to the language—including geographic, economic, informational or social class barriers. This is what leads us to further call for ‘Welsh language citizenship for all’ to ensure that everyone, without exception, can learn, experience and use the language in a meaningful way in their everyday life.

From the newly-arrived refugee, to long-established Eastern European communities, to the cleaner at a Welsh-medium school, neither the structures nor the policies are in place to ensure that everyone has meaningful access to learn, enjoy and use our national language. This pattern is a social injustice that must be tackled—Welsh language citizenship needs to be extended to everyone who sees Wales as their home, not just a select few. In the post-Covid age, with the breakdown of the current economic system and the rise of the far right, it is more important than ever to include people of all backgrounds in the language—the Welsh language will be a weapon
for unity against an increasingly reactionary politics. 

The other side of this coin is the failure to maintain, support and create Welsh language spaces; it is far too often said that Welsh is not an inclusive language. This results in a perception amongst Welsh speakers and non-Welsh speakers alike that maintaining spaces—from geographical communities, to workplaces, to events—that are entirely Welsh in language is unacceptable. Therefore, ensuring real access to the language for all is an essential part of the task of increasing the number of spaces where Welsh is the usual language medium.

The government is not only failing to support efforts to create and maintain Welsh language spaces; in many areas, it is intentionally and unintentionally undermining them—from denyingthe right for ancillary staff in Welsh-medium schools to have time and resources to learn the
language, to the attempt to pressure the National Library not to make Welsh an essential skill for the post of National Librarian, in one of the far too rare institutions where Welsh is the language of internal administration. There is no real recognition by politicians or public institutions of the enormous qualitative difference that spaces which operate through the Welsh language make to
increasing the use of the language, normalising it and creating confident speakers.

This attitude extends to the apathy we see towards the precarious situation of some of our communities where a large proportion speak Welsh and use it as an everyday language. No meaningful recognition exists of the value of Welsh as the main language of daily life, and neither are there socio-economic measures in place to deal with the structural problems driving the outward migration of young people, the decline of the local economy and the loss of community resources.

By focusing on the vision of ‘more than a million—Welsh language citizenship for all’ outlined in this document, we can ensure that Welsh becomes a language of everyday life for everyone in our country, and for people from all backgrounds.

With the next election coming after twenty years of devolution, it is high time to grasp the opportunity to show how self-government can make a real difference. Embracing and embedding Welsh language citizenship for all will go a long way towards building the kind of
Wales we want: a country where every one of us, and every community, is on solid foundations towards a sustainable and just future, with the Welsh language at its heart.

Download More than a Million: Welsh Language Citizenship for All