Welsh Socialist Republican Movement

The Welsh Socialist Republican Movement (Mudiad Sosialaidd Gweriniaethol Cymru) was a short-lived nationalist political movement[1][2] which was born out of frustration with Plaid Cymru's failure to oppose the first referendum on Welsh Devolution in 1979 in order to map out a specific policy of arguing for Independence. It was also an attempt to develop a Welsh Socialist alternative to Plaid Cymru and it produced pamphlets and a newspaper called Y Faner Goch (The Red Flag).

The WSRM was socialist and republican but there was a fundamental contradiction between those positions which was never resolved and was the basic reason it fell apart the moment that the police, following an infiltration/undercover operation predominantly in student circles in Aberystwyth and Bangor in 1980-81,[3] arrested and prosecuted WSRM members for conspiracy to cause explosions.

After its collapse around half a dozen members joined the Communist Party of Great Britain,[4] some returned to Plaid Cymru, and others became active in issue-orientated movements.[5]

The socialist remnants published a couple more copies of Y Faner Goch ("The Red Flag")[6] and then reformed in the late 1980s to create Cymru Goch (Red Wales), a small socialist political party that lasted another 20 years, publishing Y Faner Goch until 2003 and establishing The Red Poets' Society, an annual poetry magazine that is active today.