Of Red Flags and Red Dragons: Welsh Labour History in Retrospect and Prospect

Abstract

Welsh labour historiography has been dominated by the history of the south Wales miners, with the north Wales quarrymen occupying second place, and other groups of workers having received less attention. This is partly due to the dominant assumptions of labour historians which are tied up with ideas of modernization and universalism, and which have privileged anglophone accounts of the past. The Welsh radical tradition, although well explored and documented within Wales, has not been sufficiently recognized within narratives of British labour history. Rather, the emergence and subsequent dominance of the Labour Party has tended to occlude an earlier, vibrant, and diverse Welsh radical history. Now, half a century after the professional organization of Welsh labour historians, thoroughgoing deindustrialization and political devolution have created a new context for a new generation of labour historians who have no direct memory of a Wales dominated by heavy industry. This provides both challenges and opportunities. Welsh and British labour historians have much to gain by developing a closer relationship, and this will involve striking a careful balance between universalist and particularist interpretations of labour’s Welsh history.