Interview with Martyn Shrewsbury, Welsh Labour candidate in Ynyscewdyn, Swansea

 Interview with Martyn Shrewsbury, Welsh Labour candidate in Ynyscewdyn.

• Why a Labour candidate in Ynyscedwyn?

It’s very interesting, the Swansea Valley is an area of post-industrial experience. The Labour Party has been in power in Wales for a hundred years. I am from the left wing of the party and I consider myself to be an ecosocialist. There is a long Welsh tradition that comes from the nature of class, so I am a Corbynite (supporter of Jeremy Corbyn). I consider the Labour Party in Wales to be the better mechanism for change than Plaid Cymru or the Green Party, and I would also tell you that I am a believer in small-scale political authority, and I think that this level of councils is probably the most effective for grassroots campaigning. I am the vice-president of an organisation called Labour for an Independent Wales, we argue for an independent Wales that is both socialist and left wing.

• What are the main issues you want to prioritise in this campaign?

I’m largely campaigning on a town council that informs people. There are two main aspects: 

There is the climate change crisis that we are all facing and there are lots of things that the council can do, so for example it could designate certain key areas as wild, it could encourage the sharing of lifts, it could campaign for green energy, it could also argue that by becoming involved in climate activities it could illustrate climate change and the climate crisis in a way that many people might not see at a macro-scale. 

I am in the old tradition of decentralised power to the people. Perhaps in your own country I would have certain similarities with the old anarcho-syndicalists of the pre-Franco era.

• Why is Labour the best alternative to the other parties in your area?

First of all, we have a Welsh parliament, we have a Welsh First Minister, we have a Welsh Labour Party, and Wales is probably one of the few countries in Western Europe that has a a social-democratic government, therefore it’s a better mechanism. We entered into an agreement with Plaid Cymru to extend the size of the Senedd, we are experimenting with a Universal Basic Income and we are looking at alternatives. We are campaigning for a Welsh Labour Party that has its own destiny and direction, not separate from the UK Labour Party, but a sister party to it. Therefore, while I have many sympathies with aspects of Plaid Cymru my view is that despite they have an ecosocialist and left-wing element they also have within them a socially conservative somewhat reactionary element. The Conservatives have been dragged kicking and screaming into accepting devolution and the Welsh Parliament. They are fundamentally a party of the farmers, of the reactionary elements in Welsh society and therefore, what all progressives and radicals have to do is to decide which party is the best for a particular cause. Gramsci, the Italian philosopher would have said about campaigning to change discourse: “by winning soft power you transform society”.