National Protest Campaign Launched in Wales - Demands For Government Action To Protect the Welsh Tongue

Submitted by Niall McCarsten on February 2, 2014 - 12:45pm

Wales on Line are reporting that the Welsh Language  Society (Cymdeithas Yr Laith) have followed through on their declaration, made the latter part of last year, to take non-violent action against the Welsh government unless policies are put into place to protect the Welsh Language (See 8 October 2013 Transceltic Blog – “Welsh Language Society Throws Down Gauntlet). Under the headline “Welsh Language Activists Kick off Protest over Welsh Government Policies – Campaigners Will Unveil Banners on Bridges across Wales over Weekend, Starting with the Trefechan Bridge in Aberystwyth”, the article describes the “start of a period of protest” by the group.

Robin Farrar, Chairman of the Welsh Language Society made the following statement in connection with the start of the campaign: “Over a year since the census results, changes in Government policy which will enable everyone to live their lives in Welsh are long overdue.  We’re launching this period of protest, and calling on the Government to act in six specific areas, in order to change the fate of our language.  With political will things can change for the better, but to date the Government’s response has been laughable…there needs to be an ambitious response in education, planning and funding.  Hopefully our protests will spur them to act.”

The Welsh Language Society define themselves as follows on their web page: “Cymdeithas is a group of people who seek equality of access to the Welsh language and campaign positively in a non-violent way for rights of people in Wales to use the language in every aspect of everyday life.”

Welsh Language Society demands

  • Welsh medium education for all
  • 'Fair' funding towards the language from the Welsh government
  • That the Welsh government encourages public bodies to use Welsh internally
  • Language standards that set out rights clearly
  • A new planning system
  • That the language is a key part of the sustainability and planning bills

 

http://www.transceltic.com/blog/welsh-language-society-throws-down-gauntlet

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-language-activists-kick-protest-6654441

http://cymdeithas.org/

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