Cymru Goch - the Welsh Socialists send fraternal greetings to our Irish friends and comrades in the republican socialist movement.

The past year has seen the Northern Ireland and Welsh Assemblies get to work. Both our organisations have been rightly critical of these powerless institutions, which have bought off nationalist critics of the British State very cheaply.

We remain critical of devolution. As that fascist bigot Enoch Powell accurately said: ³Power devolved is power retained.²

Our alternative to these top-down structures must be grassroots and community-based. That does not mean becoming parochial, as a recent display of international solidarity showed. Cymru Goch members recently organised picket lines outside Aldi stores in protest at the sacking of young workers in Dublin for wanting to join a union.

From these little acorns we can build a genuine internationalism that does not involve maintaining the British State (which is the limit of some left-wingers' internationalism).

That state has had its day, not just in Ireland but here in Wales and in Scotland as well. We can look forward to the day when we can cooperate and co-exist with our neighbours on an equal footing - you in a 32-county socialist republic and us in a Welsh Socialist Republic. Just as long as we can still beat you at the rugby!

Mike Davies
Cymru Goch - Welsh Socialists