neprimerimye said:
How confused you are as to both law and political economy Lewislewis.
1/ There is no reason in a globalised economy to assume that companies operating in Wales can be controled by laws made in this country. Not simply because few major companies are based here but also by virtue of the international legal agreements to which an independent Wales would remain party to if Plaids model of 'independence within Europe' were fulfilled.
2/ The rate of exploitation tends over time to even out due to the operation of the market. Which is what convergence is largely about in the context of the European market with the rate of exploitation and therefoe wages slowly evening out from Aberdeen to Athens. A slow process for sure and one that has many variables including regional variations and super-exploitation of oppressed groups. But a tendency that does not have any provable national dimension except in respect of economically oppressed nations of which Wales is not an example. Indeed no example of that phenomenon can now be found in Western Europe if one puts aside the historical dimension and its lingering effects.
3/ Frankly I suspect you muddle exploitation, which is properly speaking a relation between the productive and parasitic classes, and oppression of which exploitation is but one form. National oppression is another such form but only an idiot could imagine that Wales is an oppressed nation.
4/ Even if water were sold at a higher rate only those shareholders of the water companies living in Wales would benefit. One may fairly assume that such people are not working class and do not need the extra income.
1. True to a point but tax revenue from those companies would be collected by the Welsh government, as in Ireland.
2. An 'evening out' of conditions across the European Union is not a foregone conclusion, indeed if i'm allowed to use Ireland again, their government has just firmly rejected a central European plan that would see tax harmonisation across national boundaries within the Union. Such a plan cannot go ahead without the full consent of each member state. The European Union may well be viewed as a transnational project making national sovereignty a less relevant concept, but the truth is that national sovereignty is in fact preserved within the EU and wide-scale EU arrangements like the Consitution require ratification by every single member state, and cannot be imposed in a less democratic fashion. So in economic terms, in fact exploitation is still very much conditioned by national boundaries, until such a time the EU introduces direct central taxation mechanisms (in which case it would not be feasible for Plaid Cymru to advocate decentralism from London, but then centralism to Brussells).
3. Wales is historically an oppressed nation, as can be evidenced in the economic, social and cultural fields. All of these fields have examples of national oppression by the British Empire. Economically, Welsh industry generated huge amounts of money for English masters who left those exploited areas in ruins and invested none of those profits back into the land. Socially, the workers of Wales were subjugated by foreign governments, including the Thatcher regime, that did not have a democratic mandate in Wales. Culturally, Wales' indigenous culture and language was attacked by the forces of the English educational establishment, as the Blue Books demonstrate, with the introduction of succesful measures designed to deliberately prevent the people of Wales from speaking their original language.
Outside of Wales in England, the attitudes towards Wales displayed by the media establishment and by official politics are breathtaking. Wales is often regarded as a backwater, insignificant and there to be used when necessary. Wales is not considered a valuable or vital part of the United Kingdom and is in fact resented by the large part of the English consciousness.
A more co-operative relationship between Wales and England could be easily achieved by the democratically elected governments of those two countries working together on equal terms. At present, the relationship is neither fair nor equal, and thus generates an unhealthy level of hostility, tension and unease.
The Welsh national community is not artificial and is in fact organic in the sense that it exists readily in the consciousness of the huge and undeniable majority of people in Wales. Co-operation within this national community, rather than class conflict, will create a more beneficial atmosphere for the workers. In other social democratic countries, a bridging of the class divide in the national consciousness and cross-class co-operation has resulted in benefits for the working classes which far outstrip and exceed the conditions currently (un)enjoyed in Britain.
Let's face it, historically Wales has never been given the chance to run itself. It is about time we stood up for ourselves and took hold of our own destiny. We need a government based in Wales run by the people of Wales with full and appropriate powers. Anything less is unacceptable and will not be effective.
