By the way, the Maes is what the festival site is called in Welsh.

The National Eisteddfod attracts up to 170,000 visitors every year and is a week-long, moveable feast of Welsh culture that travels the mountains and valleys of Wales and is the largest cultural festival in Europe.

The Eisteddfod Maes will be located in Ynysangharad Park in the centre of Pontypridd which will provide a focus for most activities and pavilions.

The festival will have 250 trade stands and stalls, including the Morning Star. Editor Ben Chacko says: “Not content with being the only newspaper produced outside of Wales to employ a reporter in the country, we have produced a Welsh-language supplement that has been given out to Eisteddfod goers for the last three years.

“Your paper is the only English-language newspaper that provides this service in Welsh to Eisteddfod-goers and we hope that visitors reading our newspaper for the first time become regular readers.”

Welsh-speaking Wales Communist Party member Catrin Ashton has worked hard to make Seren y Bore a crowd favourite on the Maes.

“The Welsh wrap has now become a staple at the National Eisteddfod,” Ashton tells me.

“We have an article from novelist William Owen Roberts commemorating Gareth Miles’s literary works and contribution — a giant in Welsh language culture and politics especially important at this year’s Eisteddfod as he made Pontypridd his home.

“Jane Harries writes about Wales's complicity in global warfare — despite the Eisteddfod’s famous cry of  ‘Peace!’ from the pavilion each year. 

“There is also an update from Clive Haswell about the new peace groups formed in Wales this year opposing the genocide in Gaza. 

“This year’s TUC Cymru president Sian Gale writes about the Welsh language in the workplace and Emily Trehair, former editor of Planet magazine, discusses its end and the culture funding crisis in Wales,” Ashton says. 

As the independence movement gains momentum in Wales and a new government is formed in Westminster, Welsh historian and Communist Party of Britain (CPB) general secretary Rob Griffiths reflects on the opportunities that federalism could bring.

But as ever for the Morning Star, our paper always plays a pivotal role in bringing progressives together to discuss key campaigns.

“The Welsh wrap is an opportunity to bring together the left in Wales and it is always well received,” Ashton says.

Morning Star supporters in Wales have also organised political fringe meetings to take place alongside all the cultural offerings of the week and these are detailed alongside this article.

Griffiths is a Welsh speaker and pays this tribute: “Gareth Miles was one of the most original, expansive Marxist thinkers to be produced in Wales, combining his communism with leadership of the Welsh-language movement and a prolific, prize-winning output of plays and novels.

“Two of his most influential political tracts will be republished in Pontypridd, his adopted home town, during Eisteddfod week,” Griffiths says.

He also welcomes the Welsh radicalism that is a part of the Eisteddfod.

“With honourable exceptions, the mission of the Labour Establishment in Wales appears to be to kill off political activity and struggle in working-class communities.

“Yet a new generation is interested in the ideas of socialism and their relevance to class and national identity, and many young people will be there in Pontypridd to prove it,” Griffiths points out.

The Wales TUC, or TUC Cymru as it now prefers to be called, is also on the Maes and has organised three meetings to discuss key workplace issues in Welsh.

TUC Cymru policy officer Ceri Williams says: “TUC Cymru is delighted to be taking part in the National Eisteddfod in Pontypridd in the heart of the south Wales Valleys. The area is rich in industrial history and cultural heritage.

“Our exciting events will reflect this with an event on the Welsh language and unions. We'll be tackling big issues like sexual harassment. What’s more, we'll look to the future of industry as artificial intelligence beckons. 

“We’re proud to be supporting the Morning Star’s event to commemorate the late Gareth Miles, a former board member of the ‘people’s paper.’ I will be speaking and will appraise his contribution to the union movement, alongside his many political achievements for socialism and the Welsh language,” Williams says.

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TUC Cymru events on the Maes:

• August 6, 3.30pm in Societies Tent 2 — Artificial Intelligence: a dream or a nightmare for workers and the Welsh language? Panelists include Manon Eames (Writers Guild) and Cate Correia Hopkins (Cardiff Uni’s Data Justice Lab);
• August 8, 2.30pm in Societies Tent 2  — Sexual harassment and the workplace: how we can make safe, fair and enjoyable workplaces for all? Panelists include Nerys Evans (Deryn) and Fflur Jones (Darwin Gray);
• August 9, 12 noon in Maes D — Trade unions, Fair Work and the Welsh language. How can trade unions promote and protect workers’ rights to use Welsh at work? Panelists include Efa Gruffydd Jones (Welsh Language Commissioner) and historian and NUJ member Meic Birtwhistle.

Morning Star events:

August 7, 4-6pm Stop the War Cymru/Morning Star meeting for peace in Gaza. Club y Bont, 85A Taff Street, Pontypridd CF37 4SL.

August 8, 6.30-8.30pm Gareth Miles appreciation. Storyville Books, 8 Mill Street, Pontypridd, CF37 2SN.

August 9, 4-6pm Cymru Cuba event with the Cuban ambassador. Club y Bont, 85A Taff Street, Pontypridd CF37 4SL.