Partisans CPD Wrecsam

“Written for 0161 by someone at Partisans CPD Wrecsam”

About six years ago i was at an evening game at Cae ras (The Racecourse) sat up in the Mold Road Stand with my old man when i happened to glance across at the Tech end and notice a Palestine Flag. This was at a moment in time when the atrocities being committed against the Palestinian people was all to briefly making headlines worldwide. My own personal views were becoming crystallised and just seeing that flag hanging from the stand inspired me and gave me hope.

There has been demonstrations at Cae ras when the Welsh Womens Football team played Israel and marches/rallies of solidarity have taken place in Wrecsam Town in recent years and of course Wrecsam fans have been involved, we just didn’t have a specific political identity or any unity as left sided CPD Wrecsam fans or to be specific Socialist Republican Wrecsam fans.

The older you get the conservative you can become in your interaction with the world if your not careful, i was going to the match with my Dad again having not been regularly for a good while and wanted to reach out to other Socialists and progressive fans to try and organise ourselves. Through fellow supporters,Social media and Plaid Cymru friends i could see how the evolution of my political views might coalesce with established groups and different factions. I wanted to bring people together, to create a voice for Socialist Wrecsam fans and with the Facebook/Twitter profile a place for learning and sharing.

Wrecsam is very much a post industrial area like many in the North of England and like the South Wales Valleys, we have lost our heavy industry and with that a strong tradition of organising and the lifeblood of communities has of course been eradicated and replaced with very little apart from poverty and crime. Proud working class communities have been slowly pulled apart by consecutive Governments, firstly removing employment, then selling off council housing, chipping away at institutions and the final nail in the coffin….austerity.

Of course here in the North East of Wales the narrative has another complex level that underpins our ethos,Cymru…Wales. We are dealing with the legacy of having been the first English Colony. The big conversation and dividing line among Partisans is always whether you are Plaid or Labour.

In the same way that working class people with regional accents have been ridiculed by the mainstream media historically, so have Welsh people and all the Celtic countries. The establishment has firmly set folk against each other for a long time, so we only see the differences and therefore the danger of the ‘other’, the current climate epitomises this. Keep people in fear and they will not want to rock the boat, if the people only see and hear what the government wants them to they will remain uneducated and bovine.

What do we learn of working class history in schools? What do we learn of Welsh history in schools? The few Welsh nationalists among us who view England as the enemy are woefully misguided and only propagate the hatred subliminally espoused to separate us. Westminster and the ruling classes have done the same thing to working people in Liverpool, Glasgow and anywhere you care to mention to retain power, to increase Empire and to defend entrenched privilege.

Partisans CPD Wrecsam have organised a few gigs since our inception , hosting Los Fastidios at Saith Seren in Wrecsam for the last two years, thanks to a comrade here at CPD Wrecsam we have established historic links with Virtus Verona, Enrico and Elisa , they have Wrecsam flags that they take to games, i take our Wrecsam/Virtus/Che flag to every home game. We have also forged links with comrades at Dulwich Hamlet FC, Scarborough Athletic and Whitehawk not to mention our friend Attila the Stockbroker from Brighton who supported us in our darkest hour. Diolch brother.

This month my fellow Partisans have organised a festival in Wrecsam to celebrate the life and work of Twm Sbaen, a local trade union man who fought Francos fascists in Spain. We hope to do more and are quietly growing links with other comrades and educating our own fans.

For many years we have had lads who have got involved with Red Action,formed a bond with Celtic fans,organised and agitated, it’s part of our DNA and up to us to enlighten those who in these difficult times might be susceptible to the hate mongering and finger pointing of the right. Post austerity Britain and the ongoing Brexit debacle has left working class communities even more marginalised and even more vulnerable to being manipulated.

We need to educate our communities so they understand working class history and so they see that the establishment for what it is.

Raise your banners. Inspire your communities and challenge fascism however you can.

Tell people about the Diggers, Tolpuddle, Peterloo, the Chartists, Tonypandy, the Spanish Civil War, Orgreave, Hillsborough and Grenfell…the same struggle.

This is why Partisans CPD Wrecsam exists, as a tool to educate and enlighten our community. We Hold all Things in Common.

Our Aims:

To work as a co operative movement of progressive left sided Partisans for CPD Wrecsam and the local community.

To promote a free and independent Socialist Republic of Wales.

To be inclusive/positive and pro active in supporting local causes and educating our communities.

Finally for the sustainability of a fan owned CPD Wrecsam.

We are proudly Antifascist. Are you a comrade? Up the Town! No Pasaran