The Scottish Land Reform Act of 2003
The Scottish Land Reform Act of 2003 was a
milestone Act in allowing crofting communities to force a sale on reluctant
owners and allowing other local Scottish Communities of under 10,000 people to
exercise a right to buy when land or buildings come on the market.
The process whereby the Scottish Land Act came
into existence goes back a decade when Highland Communities like those of
Assynt and Isle of Eigg succeeded in raising money to buy back their own land
back from feudal owners on the open market.
Cymrwch y Tir yn ol demands a Wales Land Act
with a provision for a right to buy by communities in urban and rural areas.
Cymrwch y Tir yn ol also calls for a Wales
Land Act for the return of asentee crown and aristocratic estates in Wales to
be returned to the people of Wales.
In Support of the the Campaign of Cymrwch y Tir yn ol for a
Welsh Land Act Now !
Wales
- Depopulation, Emigration and Immigration
Statement
from Great Unrest Group 2012
The right wing
has a obsession with inward migration to Wales which it sees as the source of
all problems, while always missing the main problem in Wales that of the neo
liberal capitalist economy which drives many of the most able and resourceful
young people into outward migration from Wales.
Wales is the
second poorest country in Western Europe after Portugal with a GNP per capita
that is unfavorable to that of Greece.
The focus on the
immigration into Wales takes the focus away from the more fundamental question
of Welsh Depopulation. It is comparable to focusing on symptoms rather than of
the main cause of illness of the patient.
In Wales the
problem is the terminally ill neo liberal capitalist economy and immigration is
just one of its many symptoms.
The Welsh
population is ageing and the productive working population is shrinking,
therefore there is an urgency to fighting depopulation in Wales which none of
those parties that participate in representative democracy in Wales have so far
seriously addressed.
The
representative parties in Wales represent themselves. This shoud be no surpise
and was clearly seen by the early Greek Democrats thousands of years ago, which
was why they favored direct democracy over representative democracy.
It is time for a
new real democracy in Wales - Direct Democracy.
The question of
an ageing population and a shrinking productive population has been tackled by
some capitalist economies like the Japanese by promoting inward migration and
that can only contribute to a solution to the problem on a temporary basis.
We at the Great
Unrest Group 2012 propose to tackle this problem by a series of economic
measures to stop Welsh depopulation - a more permanent solution to the problem.
Welsh
Depopulation and measures to overcome it, are at the centre of the politics of
the Great Unrest Group 2012 for a Welsh Socialist
Republican Party.
Amongst the
measures we recommend in the fight against depopulation is the passing of Welsh Land Act which will transform Wales from
being a country with very low percentage of Welsh people owning their own land
into a country like the Irish Republic where a much higher percentage of Welsh
people owning their own land.
Land ownership
in Wales was identified by Kevin Cahill as early as 2003 in Who Owns Britain as
being one of the underlying causes of rural and urban poverty in Wales.
The Welsh Land Commission established by a Welsh Land Act
would give priority to provide land for Township and Village Enterprises along
the successful model of Chinese economic development.
Apart from the
development of a Welsh Land Act - Welsh Economic development would require the
development of a Welsh Banking system with a Welsh Central Bank at the core of
the system. It would be supported by Welsh Banks for Rural and Urban Development.
Therefore we at
the Great Unrest 2012 also call for Wales
Bank Act to implement this
development. These banks
would have public service mandates and be owned by the people of Wales and
would not be allowed to speculate - we can learn the lessons from the
Icelandic Banking collapse here to ensure a Welsh Banking system would be both
transparent and accountable.
For those who
think that Wales could not support its own Banking system - Iceland has its own
banking system and currency with a population lower than Cardiff.
With Land and
Capital in the hands of the Welsh people we have the real possiblity of
regeneration of the Welsh Economy in the 21st Century.
Land and Capital
should be made available to resource processing industries in rural areas
rather than just seasonal tourism as a way of combating depopulation. Norway or
example has high energy processing projects in the countryside which we could
study.
There have been
various successful schemes against depopulation in Europe but they have relied
heavily on tax concessions and seasonal promotion of tourism, we want to put
the emphasis on processing raw materials from Wales to lessen the historic
colonial relationship with England which has seen Wales a source of raw
materials to be processed in England.
We want to
establish relations of equality with the English Nation and this calls for a
restructuring of the economic relationship between Wales and England. We want a
relationship based on mutual benefit with the working people of England not one
based on an unequal colonial or imperial relationship.
With the tools
of a Wales Land Act and a Wales Bank Act - Land and Capital combined with the
Labour of the Welsh people would arrest Welsh national decline and start the
Renaissance of a new democratic Wales - A Welsh Socialist Republic.
Rhodri Jones.
