The Welsh Socialist Alliance (WSA) was a socialist political organisation in Wales. It was closely related to, but separate from the Socialist Alliance.
It was founded by the Socialist Party and Cymru Goch and some independents. From the start this seemed to many an unlikely alliance given that the two principal groups involved have major disagreements over many issues, mainly over the national question. Cymru Goch called for an independent socialist republic whereas Socialist Party Wales at the time supported a Welsh parliament with law making powers short of independence. However they agreed to discuss the issue while the WSA called for the Welsh Assembly to have the same powers as the Scottish parliament. The WSA ensured that no one party could "control" it through the self-denying 40% ordinance which limited members of any organisation to no more than 40% of the Alliance committees.
The Welsh Socialist Alliance stood on a joint United Socialist ticket with the Socialist Workers Party at the Welsh Assembly election, 1999.[1]
The Socialist Workers Party has originally declined to accept the invitation to join the WSA because the SWP was opposed in principle to standing in elections. In 2000 it changed its position and entered the WSA. The attempts by the SWP to dominate the WSA destabilised the organisation and by the end of 2002 both Cymru Goch and Socialist Party Wales had left.
The SWP ignored the 40% rule and packed meetings with members to ensure that its position prevailed and its supporters were selected as candidates. Cymru Goch left when any opportunity to argue for its pro-independence position was closed off and the Socialist Party left when the SWP packed a selection meeting in Swansea to ensure that no Socialist Party candidates would be selected for Swansea seats in the General Election. The Socialist Party's open letter of resignation blamed the SWP: "To lose one founding organisation could be unfortunate; to lose both can only mark the decline of the WSA as a genuine alliance".[2]
^Colm O'Brien, "Left Candidates for the Scottish and Welsh Assemblies", Red Action Vol 4 Issue 1, June/July 1999
^Open letter from Socialist Party Wales to the Welsh Socialist Alliance National Council
and 21 Related for: Welsh Socialist Alliance information
Unionist and Socialist Coalition. The Socialist Party, which had previously participated in the SocialistAlliance and WelshSocialistAlliance and backed...
most notable candidate was George Galloway WelshSocialistAlliance (1999–2016) an alliance between the Socialist Party and Cymru Goch and some independents...
Scottish National Liberation Army Wales: Cymru Fydd, Cymru Goch, WelshSocialistAlliance, Welsh Republican Movement Isle of Man: Fo Halloo, Manx National...
JMIP held a conference and re-launched itself as Forward Wales. WelshSocialistAlliance "AM launches new party". BBC News. 31 March 2003. Retrieved 7 June...
the relationship between Marxism and Welsh nationalism. It was one of the founders of the WelshSocialistAlliance but left in 2002. In late 2003, it subsumed...
Before Profit Alliance by members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), a Trotskyist organisation affiliated to the International Socialist Tendency (IST)...
Free Alliance. In September 2008, a senior Plaid assembly member spelled out her party's continuing support for an independent Wales. The then Welsh Minister...
The Red-Green Alliance was formed as an electoral alliance between the Communist Party (DKP), the Left Socialists (VS), and the Socialist Workers Party...
known as the Progressive Alliance, citing the perceived undemocratic and outmoded nature of the SI, as well as the Socialist International's admittance...
convening regularly[citation needed] The Scottish Socialist Party emerged from the Scottish SocialistAlliance (SSA), a broad-based group of left-wing organisations...
the Communist Party of Britain, Christian Peoples Alliance, Respect Party, Socialist Labour Party, Welsh Christian Party in addition to two independents...
Welsh Labour (Welsh: Llafur Cymru), formerly known as the Labour Party in Wales (Welsh: Y Blaid Lafur yng Nghymru), is an autonomous section of the United...
Parliament elections the party supported the No2EU alliance led by the RMT union. The party also ran in the Welsh Assembly elections in 2007 and 2011. In the...
The Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) is a socialist political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1904 as a split from the Social Democratic...
Welsh nationalism (Welsh: Cenedlaetholdeb Cymreig) emphasises and celebrates the distinctiveness of Welsh culture and Wales as a nation or country. Welsh...
Wales (Welsh: Cymru [ˈkəm.rɨ] ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the...
Plaid Cymru declared itself to be a socialist party. Following the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Parliament (established as the National...
The Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) is a minor Christian right political party in the United Kingdom. The party was founded in its present form in 1999...
Global Information