At 2.30pm Saturday December 8th, members of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg held a demonstration outside the Morrison Chainstore in Bangor. This was the last in a seris of three demonstrations Cymdeithas yr iaith Gymraeg have held against the company over the last few weeks. Earlier demonstrations were held in Carmarthen and Aberystwyth. The demonstration in Bangor follows a successful meeting which was held last Wednesday between Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg and the Heritage Minister, Rhodri Glyn Thomas. The discussions in that meeting centred around what principles should be the basis of new Welsh language legislation and the time- table for introducing a New Welsh language Act.

Hywel Griffiths, Chair of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg said:” This was a very useful meeting and we had the opportunity to point out that any new Welsh language legislation should ensure equal status for the Welsh language in Wales, safeguard the basic linguistic rights of Welsh-speakers, so that they are able to make full use of the Welsh language in every day life and receive services in Welsh. The post of Welsh language Commissioner should also be established. Today's demonstration also emphssises that no legislation will be complette unless it has powers extending to the private sector. Morrisons and Tesco are classical examples of companies that should be answerable to a Welsh Language Act.“Cymdeithas representatives met with Chris Blundell a member of the Executive Board of Morrisons dyddidadd to discuss and press for equal status for the Welsh language.“There was a second meeting where a promise was made by Morrisons that they would be in a position by October 2007 to:Have re-branded a trial store in Wales with full use of Welsh in all those ways which could be done simply -* Permanent signage inside and outside store to be bilingual* Tannoy announcements bilingual* Staff training available in Welsh for use in retailing* Developing Products from Wales* Relevant Section of the Website to be bilingual.They also promised to check with Cymdeithas and various other bodies and the public the reaction to this flagship bilingual store and then roll out the policy across all their stores in Wales as part of re-branding.By the Autumn it was promised that Cymdeithas would get a response to the following demands:* That all Morrisons weekly promotional leaflets and posters should involve use of Welsh, and* That labels on Morrisons products should be bilingual (following the multi-lingual norm of mainland Europe) starting with their own-brand products (7000 of them, perhaps commencing with those made in Wales for which specific labels have to be produced).Cymdeithas emphasised that it was these two matters which would ensure a serious use of Welsh in their business whereas the first group of recommendations - although important - are more symbolic and even token in using Welsh. Hywel Griffiths went on to say:"Since Morrisons are still dragging their feet we must come to the conclusion that they have broken their promises. Cymdeithas members will be undertaking an inspection of the Morrison store on Saturday as a basis for our future campaign. We will then contact them with the results of our inspection and ask for a response within a week. If no satisfactory response is received we shall continue with our campaigning.”