Introduction by Dr Jerry Hunter

In this brief introduction Dr Jerry Hunter provides an overview of the Welsh-language civil rights movement Cymuned. Jerry is a lecturer in Cymraeg at the University of Wales, and was educated at Harvard. He is married to actress Judith Humphreys and has two small children. He lives in Pen-y-groes, a Cymraeg-speaking community in Dyffryn Nantlle, Gwynedd.

Like many Cymuned members, Jerry is not Welsh. A native of Cincinnati in the USA, Jerry moved to Cymru to learn Cymraeg. Since then he has made a significant contribution to cultural life in Cymru. He has been a leading light in the Welsh funk group Arfer Anfad, an editor of Taliesin, Cymru’s foremost literary magazine, and has published on medieval Welsh history for the University of Wales Press.

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CYMUNED is a pressure group that campaigns for one of the most essential of human rights: the right of minorities to exist and to continue to exist. This is the basis of our campaigns for the Cymraeg-speaking minority of Cymru.

Despite centuries of discrimination and disenfranchisement, Cymraeg is in some ways doing well at the start of the 21st century. The last decades of the 20th century witnessed a combination of political campaigns, non-violent protest movements and cultural developments that have righted some of the wrongs in Cymru that stem from historical inequalities between Cymru and England.

As a result, the minority of Welsh people who speak Cymraeg (just under 20% of the population of Cymru; a little over 500,00 people) have a confidence in their language, identity and culture that many minority groups lack. Similarly, support for the language throughout Cymru has grown, with a great many Welsh people who do not speak the language embracing Cymraeg as a cultural resource.

However, it is a sad and ironic fact that the later part of the 20th century has also witnessed a combination of developments which have come together to threaten Cymraeg in the very communities where is has thrived for centuries. Rural Cymraeg-speaking communities are beset by economic hardship and this has led to migration from rural to urban areas.

In addition to this exodus, large numbers of non-Cymraeg speakers have been moving into traditionally Cymraeg-speaking communities, thus changing the cultural dynamic of rural Cymru in a very short period of time. Traditional Cymraeg-speaking communities face a real problem at the start of the 21st century. It is not that the language is dying of its own accord, and it is not that people do not wish to speak it, but rather that a very vibrant and rich minority culture is being threatened by a combination of socio-economic factors.

In campaigning on behalf of Cymraeg to continue to exist in the communities where it has always existed, Cymuned is part of the international struggle for minority rights. It is part of the worldwide struggle for the survival of indigenous minority communities.

Cymuned’s work should be seen in terms of linguistic ecology. Most people agree that protecting and preserving natural habitats and endangered species is a sensible thing to do. The protection of native languages and cultures should also be considered a priority in terms of preserving our diverse world heritage. This preservation is a moral imperative in terms of the fundamental rights of those for whom endangered languages and cultures constitute a way, or ways, of life.

Cymuned was formed in the summer of 2001. This was a particularly stormy year for the language. One of the things which amazed me (and I speak as somebody who is neither Welsh nor English) is the way in which people working on behalf of Cymraeg were viciously attacked. Whether bigots with an inherited hatred of minority cultures, or cynics attempting to score cheap political points, a number of individuals campaigned against the conditions that would secure the survival of Cymraeg-speaking communities.

Cymraeg is a threatened minority language within a multicultural society which needs to be protected; the fact that bigots and cynics have attempted to turn this simple truth on its head is astounding. And it is not Cymraeg-speakers alone that are under threat. Speaking as somebody who is neither Welsh nor English, I hope that I would react in a similar manner regarding the struggle for the rights of any minority group anywhere else in the world.

Cymuned recognizes that, in order to ensure the continued existence of traditional Cymraeg-speaking communities, local people must have the right to buy houses in their own communities. This right is currently being denied by a housing market that is not aimed at the needs of local people, but driven instead by market forces in other parts of Britain.

Cymuned also believes that the huge influx of individuals who refuse to learn Cymraeg into Cymraeg-speaking communities must in some way be addressed. We welcome the in-migration of individuals from non-Welsh backgrounds into Cymru who learn Cymraeg and contribute to cultural and social life: we believe that they add to the diversity of experiences that exist in Cymru. But we do not believe that an influx into our communities of individuals who refuse to respect the existence of a minority culture is conducive to social justice, multiculturalism or linguistic diversity.

Individuals who hold such views undermine the fundamental right of a minority community to exist. Only 5% of school children of primary school age speak Cymraeg at home, or 0.25% of children throughout the United Kingdom. Such a small minority cannot hope to exist and survive without the help of the State and at least some regulation of the free market economy that prices Cymraeg speakers out of their own communities.

It helps to view this issue in an international context: Denmark, Finland and other countries regulate the housing market in what might be termed culturally fragile areas. Regions in England such as the Lake District and Exmoor have taken steps or voiced concerned over similar issues. Yet campaigners seeking to protect Cymraeg-speaking communities are denied support that is deemed reasonable, normal and necessary in other parts of the world.

The problems facing Cymraeg-speaking communities are difficult problems requiring complex answers. Working towards these answers would be much easier if those people not interested in helping Cymraeg-speaking communities would step aside, stop throwing misleading labels around, stop trying to turn the struggle for a minority culture’s survival into a way of scoring cheap political points, and let people tackle the problems.

Cymuned also campaigns for the right of non-Welsh speakers to learn Cymraeg, and to be supported by the State as they do so. We campaign for those who wish to learn Cymraeg to receive language tuition free of charge and to receive compensation for any economic loss incurred as a result of time away from the workplace learning the language. Cymuned is also committed to the equality of all Cymraeg-speakers, and for learners of Cymraeg to be integrated successfully into Cymraeg-speaking society.

Cymuned seeks to ensure the survival of Cymraeg as a community language in those areas where it has always existed as a community language. In so doing, it is concerned with what might be termed a kind of cultural ecology. The issue, however, involves more than ecology; it involves the basic and fundamental right of a culture to exist and to continue to exist.

As a minority rights group, Cymuned actively encourages support from other minority groups. We also invite the support of English speakers who wish to support us, whether they are Welsh, English or of another nationality, and whether they live in Cymru, England or indeed in any part of the world.