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A tribute to Gareth Miles: Welshman, patriot and Marxist
The prominent novelist, playwright and communist died on September 6, aged 85. His final interview was with longtime comrade Robert Griffiths for the Star’s Welsh language supplement in August, translated here
Gareth Miles

I FIRST met Gareth Miles during a Plaid Cymru conference in the mid-1970s, in Tenby or Aberystwyth if I remember correctly.

He had just contributed to a debate about what the foreign and defence policy of a Plaid Cymru government should be, in an independent Wales. Rod Barrar’s suggestion was that a truly sovereign Wales should join the Warsaw Pact!

In Gareth’s opinion, he told me at the time, this standpoint was too extreme, even though the majority of Plaid Cymru members — as today in all likelihood — supported the principle of neutrality, outside Nato.

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