The Plaid International

Contrary to what one might suspect from the title of this post Plaid have not developed an election manifesto and policy document comparable to the genius of Guy Debord. Nothing as wild as that is at foot yet. However there is anti-war humanitarianism in the ether.

Elfyn Llwyd has been speaking about Afghanistan. A great time for him to re-emphasise his own and Plaid's deep suspicion to this conflict. For those of you that still care to remember the facts of the UK's incessant warfare over the last decade, the Afghan campaign was initially justified, sneakily, by an understandable emotional response to Sept 11th. Afghanistan was, they said, the coalface of the war on terror. This seems to be forgotten now, and most people would struggle to to tell you the aim of this conflict. The war has however been criticized by those on the left from the outset as being a de-facto means to impose Western control on fossil fuel resources.

An ongoing conflict like this is in some way unavoidable given the material condition of the UKs economy of course. Here in Britain we have a war economy, dependent on the defence industry, so it is only logically fair to assume that we will be either directly engaged or supporting conflict somewhere in the world for the foreseeable future. If we weren't the wheels would fall off BAE, Senergy and countless others

As the Party of Wales Plaid always maintains an international outlook, and has a proud tradition of peace, in stark and consistent opposition to all the other principle parties in Wales. Adam Price's campaign for Blair's impeachment for war crimes back in 2004 being a great example.

For those in Wales with conscience (and we are very several!) the militarism inherent in British history is an anathema (WW2 withstanding). And the practical denouncements and actions of Plaid's elected representatives indicate a wider aspiration that gets to our very core. The vast majority of people desire peace, and abhor war. Yet the challenge is how to bring about a society that fulfills this uncomplicated yet deeply problematic aspiration. While not the answer to this age old dilemma itself, the advancement of devolution in the united Kingdom is one way to bring the pacifistic ideal from the realms of the hypothetical to possible fruition. The devolution of defence powers to properly democratic national parliaments would encourage a dialogue and co-operation across these islands. It would encourage more interaction with our european neighbours, and in short the kind of self interested campaign based on US neo-liberal aims that we have the misfortune to witness now would be close to impossible. Crucially devolution could stimulate the kind of economic development and accountability that could sever the UK's dependency on the arms sales- by variously nationalising the defence industry at first, then transforming its infrastucture from within.

These are big dreams of course. Huge dreams. They look pretty damn difficult to attain even to me. They undoubtedly look impossible to attain by many, and undesirable aims in the first place by others. They are dangerous dreams. But unless you can dream huge dreams like this, and make some efforts towards their satisfaction, then there is no point engaging with the politics of our age for any reason expect personal self aggrandisement.

The question remains however- of how to bring these aims to be. It starts with small gestures. The phased withdrawal from Afghanistan would be a start. A vote for Plaid in Wales come election day would be another.