WELSH communists launched their Senedd manifesto today in Cardiff Bay, demanding real power for the people of Wales.

The Welsh Communist Party is standing two candidates in May’s Senedd election, with Rob Griffiths standing in Caerdydd Penarth and Jaime Fitter in the Bangor Conwy Mon constituency.

Mr Griffiths said the Communist Party has always taken the electoral struggle very seriously.
“I’ve stood for elections as a party candidate, at local Welsh, Westminster, and even European levels over the years,” Mr Griffiths said.

“One of the things I learned very early on was that whatever people’s public perception might be of the Communist Party, once people get to hear of our policies, it’s always a pleasant surprise to find the degree to which people actually agreed with them.”

The manifesto calls for a fair, green, socialist future, and Mr Griffiths said the party was fighting for and defending the interests of working-class people.

“By that, we mean, not pretend power or the illusion of power, but we demand real power, and a drive to put real power into the hands of ordinary people, working-class people, and their communities,” Mr Griffiths said.

“Over the last 25 years in Wales, we’ve had what has appeared at times to be almost the illusion of devolution, but that power has been very much limited, and we’ve even seen some of the powers devolved to Wales withdrawn.

“Since devolution, we have seen a scandalous denial of proper capital investment in infrastructure.”

He said on the railways, hundreds of billions of pounds have been wasted on the HS2 railway project, with Scotland getting 10 per cent of that project, and Northern Ireland receiving about 4 per cent, but Wales did not receive a penny.

Mr Griffiths also contrasted the huge investment in the nuclear power station at Hinckley Point on the Bristol Channel with the complete failure to invest in tidal energy.

The party was asked why it was not standing in every constituency as it did at the last election (on the regional lists), and Mr Griffiths explained the new electoral system discriminated against smaller parties.

“The cost of standing in every constituency is prohibitive, and so we targeted a constituency in north Wales and one in south Wales,” he said.

“Unlike Reform UK, we’re not funded by foreign money.”